Category: Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Favorite Animal Characters in Books

Posted May 26, 2025 by Jana in Top Ten Tuesday / 12 Comments

Welcome to another TTT! Today’s topic is Animal Companions (These animals can be real or fantasy!) and was submitted by P.S. I Love Books! I don’t read a lot of books with animal companions because my maaaaajor trigger is anytime something bad happens to an animal in a book, so I usually avoid books when an animal is mentioned just in case. LOL. But if it’s a book I really want to read I will do deep dives and research the animals before I read to make sure they’re ok. Anyone else do this? I’ve even written to authors and begged for spoilers. Most of these books have surprise pets or animals in them that I didn’t even know about, but not all. Some required deep dives and one required an email to the author. Also, I’m bad with names so I don’t remember all the names of these furry friends. Anyway, here we go!

1. The cat in Good Spirits by B.K. Borison
So there’s a cat in this book and the reason I love it is a little spoilery so I won’t say why, but I love this cat.

2. Tairn and Andarna from the Empyrean series by Rebecca Yarros
Legit my favorite dragons in the world.

3. The dog in Holiday Hideaway by Mary Kay Andrews
This is a very good boy.

4. Hennessey the dog in Starry Night by Debbie Macomber
This dog is huge, he keeps the heroine warm at night on the couch.

5. Sienna’s dog in The Christmas You Found Me by Sarah Morgenthaler
He is sooooooo sweet and like a little grandpa.

6. Ulysses the moose in the Moose Springs, Alaska books by Sarah Morgenthaler
This moose loves baked goods and licking windows. He’s amazing.

7. Winter the cat in The Christmas Dress by Courtney Cole
Oh my goodness, this cat is the cutest.

8. Bo from Uncharted by Adriana Anders
I love this dog. He’s the best friend anyone could ever have. And I wrote to the author to make sure he made it out of the book ok. She was so sweet and wrote me back to let me know that he does!

9. The marmot from Enjoy the View by Sarah Morgenthaler
This cute little rodent has a crush on the hero and follows him up a mountain! This little guy had so much personality. I got such a kick out of him!

10. The husky puppy from Christmas at Frozen Falls by Kiley Dunbar
The resort has husky puppies who are in training to become sled dogs, and the heroine falls in love with one of them and goes to visit him when she needs a breather and to think. He’s adorable.

Who is your favorite animal character or companion?

Top Ten Books Featuring Travel

Posted May 19, 2025 by Jana in Top Ten Tuesday / 26 Comments

Welcome to another TTT! This week’s topic is books featuring travel. I LOVE traveling, and these ten books will take you away on some of the best vacations I could ever dream of!

1. The Tourist Attraction by Sarah Morgenthaler takes you to small town Alaska, where everybody knows your name.
I know I talk about this book a lot. Sorry, not sorry.

2. Christmas At Frozen Falls by Kiley Dunbar takes you to a stunning resort in the even more stunning Lapland for Northern Lights peeping and sled rides.
I also talk about this book a lot. I’m trying to find more favorite books, I swear.

3. The Gem Thief by Sian Ann Bessey takes you on board a luxury cruise liner that’s touring the Mediterranean.

4. Operation White Christmas by Nikki Edwards takes you to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls!
Also, there’s a baby llama. You’re welcome.

5. Love, Lucy by April Lindner takes you to Florence, Italy!

6. Starry Night by Debbie Macomber takes you to the Alaskan wilderness, where you’ll probably fall in love.

7. Sleigh Bells in the Snow by Sarah Morgan takes you to the cozy Snow Crystal Ski Resort, where you’ll also probably fall in love.

8. Gentlemen Prefer Nerds by Joan Kilby takes you on a hunt for a jewel thief in Australia!

9. Wanderlove by Kirsten Hubbard takes you backpacking in Belize!

10. Just One Day by Gayle Forman whisks you off to Paris for the best sightseeing trip ever.

Do you have any recommendations for books that take place in amazing locations?
Those kinds of books are my favorite, and I can’t ever find enough of them.

 

Five Ways in Which My Blogging Habits Have Changed Over Time

Posted May 12, 2025 by Jana in About Me, Top Ten Tuesday / 14 Comments

Welcome to another TTT! This week’s topic is Ways in Which My Blogging/Review Style Has Changed Over Time, and was submitted by submitted by Susan @ Bloggin’ ’bout Books. I decided to tweak this a little because there’s no way I can find 10 ways my style has changed. But even this tweaked topic is still a bit of a tricky one for me, as I’m not sure I’ve changed much since I started reviewing books waaaaaay back in 2011. But I’ll see what I can do!

*30 minutes later* Ok, I’m changing this to five ways my blogging habits have changed because this is too hard. LOL

1. I am pickier about the books I accept for review. I used to accept almost anything I thought I might like because I wanted to get some experience, show that I’m trustworthy, and build a name for myself in the blogging world. I’m pickier now, which helps me keep my reading schedule under control and allows me more freedom to be a mood reader.

2. I am more willing to DNF books, which means I write way fewer negative reviews than I used to. I used to make myself finish every book in the beginning, even if I wasn’t enjoying it, so I ended up writing more negative reviews. Now that I DNF (and sometimes quickly), I get to spend more time gushing about the books I love and promoting authors rather than talking about why a book didn’t work for me. I love this, and it’s what kept me reviewing all these years later.

3. I’ve switched up the kinds of books I review! I used to read YA almost exclusively. My reading habits changed, and so did my review habits. I now focus primarily on adult romance, with the occasional mystery and historical fiction novel thrown in here and there.

4. I quit summarizing the book in my reviews. I actually quit this very soon after I started reviewing. It takes forever and why not just use the summary the publisher paid someone to write in the first place? It helps avoid spoilers, it saves time, it avoids redundancy, and it’s allowed my readers to find my thoughts easily without having to slog through a synopsis they most likely don’t need since they already read the official one (or one written by another reviewer). I really don’t love it when I go to read someone’s review and 95% of the review is their own summary of the book (which is often too detailed and gives away the entire book), followed by a couple generic sentences saying that they either liked it or didn’t. I’d much rather know what you liked and what you didn’t like and why you felt that way than read another summary.

5. I’ve allowed myself to write shorter reviews. I used to think that long, detailed reviews were preferred but then I realized I didn’t like reading long, detailed reviews from other people! And I don’t like writing them myself! Now that I’ve shortened my reviews it doesn’t feel like such a chore to write them… and I’m writing more. Imagine that!

How have your blogging/reviewing habits or style changed since you started reviewing books?

Top Ten Utah Authors Whose Books I’ve Read

Posted May 5, 2025 by Jana in Top Ten Tuesday / 19 Comments

Welcome to another TTT! This week’s topic is Authors (or books by authors) Who Live In My State/Country and was submitted by Jennifer @ Funk-N-Fiction! I chose to feature ten Utah authors whose books I’ve read and enjoyed! We have a LOT of authors here. I chose the ones like best, but I’ve read books by many more! The one single asterisk below indicates which author I’ve met!

1. Christina Hobbs, half of Christina Lauren
2. Shannon Hale
3. Ally Condie
4. Kasey Stockton
5. Louise Plummer
6. Brandon Sanderson*
7. Lisa Mangum
8. Joanna Barker
9. Martha Keyes
10. Becca Wilhite

Which authors live where you live? Have you met any of them?

Top Ten Books with the Word “Good” in the Title

Posted April 28, 2025 by Jana in Top Ten Tuesday / 18 Comments

Welcome to another TTT! This week’s topic is: Books with the Word “[Insert Word Here]” in the Title. All you do is choose a word and find ten books with that word in the title. I had a hard time picking a word, so I just went with a word from my most recent read: Good. It ended up working really well for me! I’ve got some stupendous books on today’s list, most of which I haven’t read yet and am very excited to get to soon!

Good Spirits by B.K. Borison (Just finished this one and loved it!)
The Scandalous, Dissolute, No-Good Mr. Wright by Tessa Dare
The Good Girl’s Guide to Getting Lost by Rachel Friedman
A Good Debutante’s Guide to Ruin by Sophie Jordan
Good Time by Jana Aston
The Good, the Bad, and the Duke by Janna MacGregor
A Good Duke Is Hard to Find by Christina Britton
Too Good to Be Real by Melonie Johnson
Good Duke Gone Wild by Bethany Bennett
Too Good to Be True by Lauren Blakely

I am super surprised at how heavy this list is on historical romance! I wasn’t expecting that at all, but I’m not complaining!

What word did you pick this week?