Conversations with Kav – Bookish Ramblings + Giveaway

There have been a few topics on my mind over the last few weeks so I thought I’d make this first Conversational Sunday of the New Year a bit of a bibliophile randomness ramble. 🙂

Closed Door Romance

Harkening back to that lively conversation we had a couple of months ago, I wanted to share a really neat website and instagram account that features Closed Door Romances — most of them are indie published as well which is an extra bonus. Rachel has created a an incredible resource that’s too good not to share. Here’s the website: https://closeddoorromance.com

A few not-to-be-missed pages to checkout: Go to FAQ and click on the third question: What are the Physical Intimacy Levels? You’ll find an informative graphic that lays out in great detail, what kind of intimacy to expect in a Level One, Level Two or Level Three book. As the website creator, Rachel, says, there are different comfort levels even within the closed door community so she’s created this super helpful guide. Not only that, but then she went and created a database of authors where you can search not only by physical intimacy level preference but by language (as in swearing levels) as well.

Now go over to the Authors Database page. You can refine your search in all kinds of neat ways. First up; Swearing – from none up to moderate. Next Intimacy Level. And voila, you end up with a list of authors tailored to your reading tastes. But that’s not all! You can also modify your search by Availability (KU, audio etc.) as well as genre! And the list of authors includes Christian Fiction authors as well! How cool is that?!

She also has a wonderful instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/closeddoorromance/

She posts a lot of fantastic content – tons of book suggestions, sometimes by theme like fairy tale retellings. (eeeppp!) I always have my TBR notebook on hand when I’m browsing her instagram feed.

Christian Faith and Fiction

I started following this Christian Fiction blogger and Book Tuber last year and love her insightful reviews. She has also started rating books by their faith content which is really helpful. It’s a simple 1-3 system where 1 is low, perhaps mentions of going to church or that a character prayed and 3 is a fully fleshed out faith thread that is an intricate part of the story.

Lou is from Devon, England so it’s fun to see perspectives from someone not living in North America. Her reviews are concise and articulate, so if you are new to Book Tube and don’t fancy long, run-on videos, Christian Faith and Fiction is a great place to start.

Booktube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChristianFaithAndFiction

blog: https://louallenwriter.wordpress.com/about-me/

instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christianfaithandfiction/

Oops – we forgot to talk about our Reading Goals for the New Year!

I shared how I did on my 2024 Reading Goals but neglected to share my 2025 ones! All the hoopla around Reader’s Choice Week addled my brain, I guess. 🙂

This year I divided my goals into three categories and I’m trying to be more intentional about fulfilling them (as opposed to strictly reading on a whim and then seeing if a book fits into one of my goals.) I’m still leaving room for mood reading though, cause that’s just me.

Category One : Author Goals

  • Indie
  • Debut
  • New-to-Me
  • Read to Zero
  • Diverse

I’m hoping for 5 debut reads each quarter and I’d love to have half my books be indie published, though that might be a stretch. I’m targeting 5 authors to Read to Zero in different genres (Christian Fiction, Closed Door, Cozy Mystery etc.)

Category Two: Book Goals

  • Diverse settings
  • Diverse characters
  • Re-reads
  • Non-Fiction
  • Series

I’m not a huge non-fiction reader, but my goal is to read 5 NF books which should be doable since I belong to a non-fiction book club at church now and in a pinch I could include a devotional, right?!

For series I’m going to pick 5 in each genre and once I finish them, I’ll add another 5. I’m still in the process of choosing the series, but for this first quarter I’m looking at ones I’m close to finishing or new series that only have three or four books.

Social Media Goals:

  • Instagram
  • Social Media influenced reads
  • Blog Reading friends recommends
  • Blog upgrade
  • Good Reads (460)

I’m going to start tracking my sources for reading recommendations. So, when I’m on instagram and I see an enticing review, I’ll add the title to my wishlist with a notation about who recommended it etc. Ditto for this blog. I think it will be fun to see where my reading inspiration comes from!

GIVEAWAY OPPORTUNITY:

Join in the conversation. Leave a comment and I’ll enter you in.a draw for a $10 gift card for Baker Book House. Draw will be held and winner announced on Saturday January 25 2025.

82 thoughts on “Conversations with Kav – Bookish Ramblings + Giveaway”

    1. Yay — she’s such a great resource for Christian Fiction. Sigh, non-fiction and me have not clicked. Well, I love gardening books and cookbooks and home decorating books but I don’t read them word for word so I’m thinking they won’t count. Ohhh, I just had a brilliant idea. Technically fairy tales are non-fiction ’cause they’re shelved in 398.2s in the library soooooo………..Good luck, Stephanie!

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      2. I don’t get into NF either. It’s a struggle for me even when it’s interesting. I do find most of it unappealing but there is the odd one that speaks to me.

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  2. I’m going over now to check out closed door romance… Thank you for keeping us informed. I have been following Christian Faith and Fiction for quite so.e time now, and I enjoy her reviews.
    This will be my first year keeping more detailed records of what I’m reading and where my books are coming from.

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  5. Wow! You are one organized lady! I’ve set a 2O25 reading goal on Goodreads but I haven’t set any goals concerning genres. I often get a chance to review non-fiction books so I usually read several of them during the year. My biggest wish is to trim my TBR list but we know that’s probably not gonna happen ☺️

    Thanks for featuring Closed Door Romance. I plan to check it later.

    Blessings,!

    Connie

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  7. Blessed Sun to you, Kav! Thank you for links. Am planning on visiting after I fix hubby breakfast. I think I told you once before that IG wouldn’t let me open an acc’t bc my email was being used by someone else. But it was MY email!

    The faith content is really important to me & I do like it interspersed throughout. I read a book Sat that was intriguing & heard this new-to-me author had a faith thread throughout. The heroine’s dad is a pastor but in the last 1/4 of the book he starts using quite a few curse words! After I already invested my day in that book & wanted to know how it ended. Ugh! No swearing in my CF. You can turn on the TV & hear that.

    Julie Lessman is as spicy as I want & some of hers are borderline. lol Especially her indies. I love her to pieces, tho! I know some books feature infidelity, affairs, & such & I’m ok as long as the author doesn’t give graphic details.

    My goals are the same as last year: to include more diversity, new authors, indies, include authors I used to enjoy & have tossed them aside for newer ones. I do a couple of nonfiction devotionals, but not really into most NF. Love your goal organization! Mine are harem scarem! 🤣

    dianalflowers at aol dot com

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      1. Gasp! Tossing aside authors?! There must be a gentler way to say that…like, um, authors who were pushed out of the way by clamouring new books with a demand to be heard! So, not your fault at all — you didn’t do any tossing, those riotous newbies did the tromping. You were just an innocent bystander. 🙂

        One of the reason I’m so excited about the Closed Door Romance website is that I can tailor make a search to suit me as far as content goes, because, as you have experienced sometimes there are unsettling surprised in our reads. Good luck, Diane!

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      2. It’s my guilt-ridden inner self that chose the wrong phrase. Whew! Thanks for helping me realize it’s not my fault. It’s those newbies clamoring for my attention & I can’t resist. Shame on them! 😉 I just finished a review on the unsettling surprise book. Hurt my heart & almost wonder if I should’ve just rated it & not written a review. But I guess it’s up to reviewers to let potential readers know & let them make that call . . . to read or not to read?

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  8. I am so impressed with your ability to follow all the bookstagrammers, instagramers and youtubers, all while reading 475 books last year, that’s just amazing! If I followed any of them, I feel like it would cut into my reading time. I feel like social media gets enough of my time and I have to really work to balance that with housework, laundry, meals and all that “real life” stuff.

    I find by sticking with Christian fiction I have plenty to read. I like my books to have a faith element, whether subtle or strong, without it the book usually feels flat to me. But even within the CF category I have to let the Lord lead me. Case in point, I had to stop reading one author I had enjoyed in the past when her books started taking on a higher level of sensuality that made me feel convicted about reading…so I moved on and haven’t had any problem finding books to read that stayed within my own comfort level. A book can be romantic without half of it being spent on descriptions of what is going on!

    I get most of my early information about books coming out on Netgalley or just tracking my favorite authors/publishers. I already have 33 must read books on my 2025. I do occasionally do KU membership to catch up on books that have released and have been added there, a lot of them are indie published. That’s really about all I can keep up with for tracking books although I do hear about a few new to me on Avid CF readers on FB too.

    I keep my goals simple, more time to read 😉

    1- I set my Goodreads goal at 200 for the year, highest I’ve ever set it

      2- Read 3 new to me or debut authors per month

      3- Keep up with favorite authors new releases

      4- Work on my backlist of books I already own when in between new releases

      We all have our own way of doing things and I find it all so interesting reading about them, but here you have my measly 2 cents worth.

      Thanks for the giveaway, tracey14567 at gmail dot com

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      1. Nothing measly about your 2 cents worth, Tracey. In Canada it’s nearly doubled the value anyway. lol Love your goals…I like the idea of simple equals more time to read. I’m all for that!

        I never thought about checking Net Galley for new release information. I guess because I only request audiobooks from them and those are few and far between, especially for Christian Fiction. Though, I was stunned to be approved for ten audio books this month already so who knows what the rest of the year will bring!

        As to my social media following — I don’t keep up with them all by any means but I tend to multi task to maximize my time. Like I look at bookstagram when I’m waiting at a bus stop or listen to a book tube video while I’m washing dishes. That kind of thing. Plus, I live alone so it’s not like I’m having riveting conversations across the dinner table. Bwahahaha!

        Good luck, Tracey!

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      2. Tracey, I get a lot of new book info on NetGalley as well, but as we talked about before . . . some of the Christian content has really been toned down in these major publishing companies, especially Thomas Nelson. At least you know there won’t be cursing or graphic sexual detail, but you don’t know about the faith thread till you read it for yourself. I also follow & friend authors on FB. I learn of Indie authors in Avid Readers of Christian fiction, but some of those books are over the top in sexuality & darkness. But it’s not like we can’t stop reading and go on to the next one. 😆

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        2. Hey Diane, yes sometimes trying a new author leads down a reading road we don’t want to travel. I saw a suspense recommended on fb group so I decided to try it on KU. The first chapter was all about a man being murdered. Some suspenses start like that. Then by the 4th chapter the heroine is in a creepy parking garage and reminiscing about a sexual assault. That was the end of that. I could not go further. Not knowing the author, I didn’t know if that was the extent of it or if it would play a bigger part in the suspense. No thanks. KU is good for trying new indie authors, I’ve found some I like but the suspense-y ones are risky for me. I do like that amazon lets a reader read a sample to get a feel for the story, can’t always tell right away but sometimes you can see it doesn’t fit your reading style. Life’s too short to read iffy books, lol.

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        1. Thanks Stephanie, I have found when my conscience is pricked to listen. I had told a reading friend a few books back her books were starting to get more “involved” and I was getting uncomfortable with it. The last one I read I felt the Lord saying it was time to move on from that author. I’ve had so much to read since then I can honestly say I don’t miss her books. There’s no shortage of good Christian books just waiting to be discovered.

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        3. STEPHANIE, this last surprise was a little more difficult to move on to the next book. The swear words came near the end and I wanted to know how it ended. Ugh 😬 But it’s really not worth it. Like TRACEY said, “Life’s too short to read iffy books.” There’s so many great ones left to enjoy! And they just keep right on coming!

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        5. Actually it wasn’t scary or uncomfortable. We are both Christian readers who had both been reading this Christian author and felt the same way about it. It was more affirming than anything that I wasn’t the only one that could see the change in her writing. Yay for book buds to talk this stuff through with!

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        7. Stephanie, I’m not always good at it. I can turn off a TV movie that has cuss words in a heartbeat & I will do it w/ books as well, but I just read a horrible book in Dec that I read till the very end. I got it from NetGalley & didn’t want to mess up my feedback ratio with them. It was disgusting. No cursing, but bad enough in so many other ways. I wrote a review with a warning & vowed to myself not to read this author again unless it was a LIS & that’s questionable. Had it not been from NetGalley I would’ve put it down & not finished it.

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        8. Did you know you can decline to read a book on NetGalley and it won’t make a difference in your score? There is a box to check that you won’t be giving feedback. I did that for several books that had swearing in the first few pages. It asks you why and I told them it was because of swearing. It didn’t make my % go down at all. I think they were Harper Muse. That way the publisher knows that you don’t like swearing ( or whatever) so maybe they will tell their authors that.

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    1. I am so impressed with your ability to follow all the bookstagrammers, instagramers and youtubers, all while reading 475 books last year, that’s just amazing! If I followed any of them, I feel like it would cut into my reading time. I feel like social media gets enough of my time and I have to really work to balance that with housework, laundry, meals and all that “real life” stuff.

      I find by sticking with Christian fiction I have plenty to read. I like my books to have a faith element, whether subtle or strong, without it the book usually feels flat to me. But even within the CF category I have to let the Lord lead me. Case in point, I had to stop reading one author I had enjoyed in the past when her books started taking on a higher level of sensuality that made me feel convicted about reading…so I moved on and haven’t had any problem finding books to read that stayed within my own comfort level. A book can be romantic without half of it being spent on descriptions of what is going on!

      I get most of my early information about books coming out on Netgalley or just tracking my favorite authors/publishers. I already have 33 must read books on my 2025. I do occasionally do KU membership to catch up on books that have released and have been added there, a lot of them are indie published. That’s really about all I can keep up with for tracking books although I do hear about a few new to me on Avid CF readers on FB too.

      I keep my goals simple, more time to read 😉

      1- I set my Goodreads goal at 200 for the year, highest I’ve ever set it

        2- Read 3 new to me or debut authors per month

        3- Keep up with favorite authors new releases

        4- Work on my backlist of books I already own when in between new releases

        We all have our own way of doing things and I find it all so interesting reading about them, but here you have my measly 2 cents worth.

        Thanks for the giveaway, tracey14567 at gmail dot com

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        1. PAULA, I didn’t know that. I knew you could decline but I thought it would bring your feedback ratio down. Thanks for the info! Sure is good to know!

          TRACEY, if this reply comes to your email I apologize. I didn’t know where else to respond to Paula.

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        1. WordPress likes to choose someone special from time to time and emphasis their posts. Be thankful you’re not the one it decides to censor a comment by throwing it in my spam folder for approval. WP has an odd sense of humour.

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          1. Kav, we just carried on without you. lol I’m glad you were cozy & reading! I was afraid we were bothering you with all the emails from our convo. EEK! I mean who else’s blog can we feel free to book talk with one another? Only one that I can think of! ❤️

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      2. Love the idea of having information about things like intimacy level or the use of swear words in a story.  Naturally, these things are never included in the write up of the book and very often left out of reviews as well.  Hate it when I’ve given my time to reading a book only to find out that it’s just not for me.  I’ve liked Closed Door Romance both on Facebook and Instagram.  I’ve also like Lou’s Instagram page. 

        While I have goals in my head and often smile when a book I’m reading clicks one of them, as a general rule I don’t have them written down or stick to the idea of what kind of book I need to read.  My brain doesn’t seem to be that organized.  When written down, I would feel stressed when I felt I was behind.  Although I’d also feel elated when I achieved something.  My type of reading is often out of my hands in one respect.  I might be on a launch team, offered to review a book or a book suggested by a reviewer and/or friend as example.  While on the other hand, they had to be books I would love to read or I won’t have agreed. 😊 Think I’m more of a read what I enjoy or want to read at the time (depending on the whim at the time) whether it fits a certain agenda.  I think it’s awesome that you and others can have a list as a guideline.  Wish I could be that disciplined.  I can and have made lists of what I’d like to read or achieve through the year, but it’s not something I keep to mark off books I’ve read.

        Whichever way you do it, there’s a fabulous joy in reading!  For one that went years without do much of it thinking life was just too busy or hectic for it, I can tell those in the same place in life – you just don’t know what you are missing until you try it.  Then you wonderful why someone didn’t smack you on the head to get those thought out of there. 😊Now reading is like eating to me.  As a dieter you might be able to go without it for a while, but before long the desire and need will overtake everything else. 

        2clowns at arkansas dot net

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        1. Totally understand your point of view about goal setting, Kay. That used to be me up until a few years ago. Then I saw other people (social media influences, I guess) making book goals and I was intrigued. Mind you, I keep my goals relatively open ended except for the number of books to be read. And I don’t fuss about it if I miss the mark. You’ll notice I totally scrapped the read out of my comfort zone goal this year after dismally (and happily) failing at it the last two years. 🙂 And yes, however we go about it, reading is an absolute joy. Good luck, Kay!

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      3. Thanks for the info about the closed door romance site, definitely will check it out. I’ve been pretty happy with almost all the CF books that I read and very rarely have found anything objectionable to me.

        Your goals are impressive! I am continuing to have very simple goals like trying new authors if their book sounds interesting, keeping up with authors that I enjoy, and trying to read more of some older books that I’ve missed.

        Thanks, Sandy. Sandyavery at comcast dot net

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        1. I just checked out the author database on the Closed Door Romance website and you can select Christian fiction has an option as well. Super excited about that! Love your easy going goals. Good luck, Sandy!

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      4. The closed door romance site sounds great! I mostly stick to christian publishers, so it’s usually not a big issue, but with so many new indie authors it might be helpful.

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      5. Kav, loved seeing your 2025 reading goals. One question – what does the Read to Zero one mean? I may be showing my ignorance here 🙂

        I have a Christmas devotional coming out this October from B&H Publishing so save a spot for one of your nonfiction reads for that one please! 🙂 Watch for Christmas From The Heart: 25 Devotions Reclaiming The Beauty And Wonder Of The Season. It’s not showing online anywhere yet, but I’ve seen the cover and I think it’s gorgeous! Am so beyond grateful that God opened the door for this book of my heart to be published. Can’t wait for everyone to read it and hopefully be super blessed by it. Fingers crossed and prayers going up! 🙂

        ckbarker at gmail dot com

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        1. I just discovered the term very recently and felt like such a cool kid using it in my goals. 🙂 It refers to reading a fave author to zero, or, as I used to say, playing catch up with an author’s backlist…though Read to Zero sounds much more…..intriguing?! lol

          Ohhhh — so exciting that you have a Christmas devotional coming out, Cheryl. I will definitely keep my eye out for it. And the release date leaves plenty of time for delivery in time for a December countdown! Thanks for sharing that. Good luck!

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          1. Kav, I thought that’s what it might mean but good to know for sure. Now I can be a cool kid too 🙂 And yes, super exciting about my Christmas devo. Thanks for being excited with me! 🙂

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      6. I love the bookish goals, Kav. I am curious which 5 authors you are considering reading to zero. Someone else had this goal this week, I think it’s great, but haven’t decided which author/authors I want to catch up on (there are SO many, LOL). I have read Jaime Jo Wright to zero 😉 I do LOVE reading Christian nonfiction and have finished two great ones already this year. Just like in everything else, not all are created equal 🙂 One of my goals for this year (and every year it seems like) is to read more of what I own. I am off to a good start, and have read library books as well, so they are still getting my love, LOL! Have a great weekend!

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        1. I’m still trying to figure out which authors I’ll be working on. For cozy mystery definitely Eryn Scott and Paula Charles. For Christian Fiction I have Hannah Linder and Irene Hannon for sure. For Closed Door and Indie…I’m still dithering. Stay tuned. 🙂

          I got brave and checked a few non-fiction books out from my church library today. Kinda cheating, cause they are all short and one is a book of poetry by Helen Steiner Rice, but baby steps, right? Good luck, Cindy!

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      7. OH I love Lou! She is so good! My goals are this year to read more of what I have and to read more indie. I can’t wait to see what indie you read and your thoughts! So far I’m doing fairly good on my goals of reading more of what I already own. 4 so far this year. THnx Kav! sarahdar0801ATgmailDOTcom

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        1. Yay! Another Lou fan. She is wonderful, isn’t she? I’m excited about indie books as well — it’s pretty much unchartered territory for me so I’ll be looking for recommends along the way. Good luck, Sarah!

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      8. My goal count this year is 175 book again. I mostly read Christian Fiction and ARC books from publishers and authors. I always want to trim down my TBR abookshelves. But those new books are yelling: GET ME! Especially NetGalley!

        I do have at least 40 books that I am donating to our Spring Rally at Church. I want to add to that from my collection of books that I don’t want to keep but do want to read before I give them away. A lot of them are orphans ( one or two books by an author) that I got for a dollar at the library.
        And then there are a few Challenges I want to find books for this year.
        Happy to say that although I was behind at the end of 2024, I did catch up and I am ahead this year by 11 books!

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        1. Hoorah for being ahead with your GR goal. I am woefully behind but since I read ahead for this blog and don’t post reviews on GR until I do here it’s not as bad as it looks. Maybe 2 books behind? Ah, well, I have the whole year to catch up. 🙂 Love the sound of your Spring Rally. Wish I could go and check out the book section. Good luck, Paula!

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      10. I wondered what you meant by “Read to Zero” but I see you answered the question posed by someone else. I guessed correctly! Sometimes it seems that there are so many authors (even just limiting to Christian fiction) releasing good books that it can get a bit overwhelming trying to keep up. It’s a fun problem to have though. Thanks for listing the resources. I’ll have to check out some of them.

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        1. There are a few authors that I am up to date with and I prioritize their new releases to keep it that way. But then there are authors that are so prolific that I have no hope of ever catching up. Like Christy Barritt! Good luck, Pam!

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      11. By the way I listened to one of Lou’s Booktubes & found it very interesting. In that particular video I noticed we don’t read the same authors except for Julie Klassen, but she mentioned a few I might like to give a try! I really like how she rates the Christian content in each book.

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          2. It’s hard to get a feel for what books someone prefers by watching just 1 video. But I will say I have heard of just about all of them excluding a couple. I signed up to get her blog posts so am looking forward to it. Thank you again for the links!

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      12. I try to keep my reading goals pretty simple. I set myself in Goodreads at 50 books and usually accomplish that unless it’s been a rough year. I did pick the Eating our Words challenge and have successfully read one for January. I failed miseravly at that one last year!

        I am NOT a non-fiction lover, but I did manage two non-fiction titles last year. One was an out of print book by someone who had attended the church where my book club is and was about being a prisoner of war in the Vietnam War. Rough, but it was a true story and I got thru it. The other was Lisa Marie Presley’s Memoir. I read it but language was terrible and I wouldn’t recommend it at all. I may try J.D. Vance’s this year as I have not a clue as to what he’s all about.

        As for appropriate book material, I just stick to Christian Fiction because there’s plenty of really good ones out there. Jody Hedlund is about as spicy as I get, and hers seemed to have gotten a bit warmer, LOL. My wish TBR list is over 100 books! I NEVER read that many in a year…..so Christian fiction it is. I’m just glad that we have wholesome novels with real world characters and problems available without the smut of secular ones.

        Can we mention topics we would like to see addressed in more Conversations with Kav? I’d like to learn more about Goodreads and if I’m using it optimally. Also, I would love to have more Christian fiction friends on the feed, as it seems to have more secular novels than I’d like. I have no idea if I can control that either, and I also realize that not everyone reads strictly CF…..just a thought.

        As always, I appreciate Kav and her dedication to CF. I love her detail and goals, but I’ll never be that organized!

        perrianne (DOT) askew (AT) me (DOT) com

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        1. Ohhhh, I’ll have to check out the Eating Our Words challenge. Haven’t heard of that one. I’m participating in a number of year long challenges, but I don’t read to the prompts. I read so much that I can usually fit a book to a prompt and if I can’t, oh well. It’s fun though. More nerdy reader stats for me.

          I love input about our conversations and yes, Good Reads is a great topic because I am equally (maybe more so) clueless. Thanks for the suggestion! Good luck, Perrianne!

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          1. Eating Our Words is a fun Facebook Private Group run by authors Kimberley Woodhouse, Jaime Jo Wright, Tracie Peterson, Becca Whitham, Jocelyn Green, Jayna Breigh (Jana Riediger), and Darcie Grudger. It’s fun and I think you just have to make a request to join & answer a question or two. You would have a easy time completing the reading challenge with as much as you read/listen!

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      14. You are so dedicated, Kav and your reviews are always fun to read!

        I have read a LOT of NTM authors in the last couple of years (73 in 2023 and 50 in 2024). However, I felt like I neglected some books/authors that I really wanted to read due to that and challenge prompts. So this year I am still in a few challenges but I’m reading what I want and then seeing where they fit. If they don’t fit a prompt, oh well! This year I made a list of specific authors and books that I want to read this year.

        I only read 1 male author in 2024. So I have a goal to read 12 male-authored reads. It doesn’t have to be 12 different ones. I may read an author twice if I feel like it. I’m also doing the Avid Readers challenge, the Eating Our Words Challenge, Christian Faction Girl’s challenge, and Faith-Filled Fiction. I have another 50 prompt challenge that I may put extras into. We shall see!

        I also have Net Galley ARCs to read. I read one in January but still have 8 to go. So far anyway!

        I’ve also decided that I will not purchase the next book by an author if I have two or more of theirs unread. I need to gain some better control over my purchasing. I will be looking to Everand and Libby more since the price of books in Canada has become far too high. I saw one by a new author in 2025 for $27.99 (paperback) and the Kindle e-Book is $26.99!

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        1. Yes — the book prices in Canada are wonky. I was looking up a few recommendations this morning and the print copy was literally doubled for two of the titles. I know there’s a difference in US versus Cdn currency but not that much!!!!! And I find Covenant Communications books can be crazy expensive here — close to $30 or more which makes no sense. I wonder if it’s an Amazon thing? That’s why listening to audio books serves me so well –they will all be $13 if I use a credit. Crazy that they’d be charging $26.99 for an ebook — a whole $1 discount from the print. I wonder what it costs in the US?

          Like your easy going approach to challenges. That’s what I do too and it’s lots of fun. No pressure and the only time I read to a challenge is if it’s a specific genre — like middle grade which I don’t read a lot of and even then I don’t go too crazy.

          Good luck, Tammy!

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      15. The closed door romance website sounds like an excellent resource! Thanks for talking about it and the giveaway opportunity!

        Jolene – iwant2save34 at gmail dot com

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      16. I don’t make yearly reading goals (mostly because I can’t keep one for an entire year…) but I do make monthly reading goals. 🙂 How many books I want to read this month and what kind of books to read. (series, stand-alone, historical, modern day, suspense, regency, etc. You get the gist!) I do enjoy looking at all my reading accomplishments at the end of each year though! 

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      17. I don’t think I have ever (purposefully) made reading goals before. The thought just never crossed my mind! The closest I’ve gotten is going through my books and making a pile of ones I want to read that year, then I usually find other ones to read instead! However, I have tried to participate in reading challenges the last few years, which can be fun! It does help me to read some books I’ve been putting off or have forgotten about.

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      18. Thanks for the links to these great resources, Kav. You blow me away with your reading goals! You go, Girl! I love to read, but am not a fast reader. I also get busy doing other things, and then kick myself that I didn’t take the time to read. I’m with you as to not being much of a non-fiction reader. When I do read, I love being whisked away and entertained with fiction books. My goal this year is to be intentional to read more.

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          1. I agree, there’s nothing like be whisked away to a fictional world for awhile. And great that you do other things besides read (gasp, did I really say that?!) 🙂 Good luck, Alison!

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