Thoughts on Book Journaling

 

A page from my book journal made with sticker paper background, handmade paper, metallic watercolor, metallic marker, scrapbookpaper and stickers.

I am a lifelong bookworm. My art practice is inextricably intertwined with my art. After finishing my illustration degree, I am back to working full time in my career that was sidelined by illness.  I have not turned my back on my art, but instead, I am finding ways to integrate both into my present and future life.  I started an art/book journal in late 2020, and at that point it was just dabbling.  Casually working with scrapbooking supplies I have from my cardmaking and collage work.  

The past month, I have dived in hard and I am (in my typical obsessive way) building up/out my book journal.  I love it.  I love the freedom of working in that space.  I am thankful for the Illustrated Notebook class I took my last semester of school.  It very much opened my mind to the possiblities.  I also thank the You Tube journaling/art community for the videos that have instructed me and stimulated my imagination.  I plan to post some of my pages on my blog here and there.

William the Long Awaited

The Darkest King by Gena Showalter (Book 15 of The Lords of the Underworld)

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

My Review on Goodreads 

I have not been a big fan of William from the beginning. I found him amusing, and he was an interesting companion to the Lords. But he has many character traits that are a turn off for me. As Showalter started setting up his story to a deeper extent in the later books, I wasn't that intrigued. I realize I am definitely in the minority. Having said that, as a completist, of course I was going to read his book. I am happy to say that I liked the book a lot overall. While William is still not my favorite, I understand him a lot more and I feel like his backstory was given justice, and also, I loved the way that his story arc concluded. Sunny was a very good match for him. I like that Sunny is not timid or shy, knows how to stand up for herself, and to get her way, but also stands up for those she loves. Her heritage was really cool. If you know me, you can imagine how much I enjoyed that.

Although I enjoyed this book, I think some aspects were glossed over and were not well explained. I listened to the audiobook, and some of the scene transitions were too abrupt, and I was left wondering when something happened and what I missed. The story was really complex, with a lot of moving parts, but I feel like things were kind of rushed. I recently read The Evil Queen, which was 19 or 20 hours, and with good reason. I feel like this should have been longer as well, to give time to wrap up the varied plot elements. I do get that this story is clearly going to spill over into some other series that Showalter has going, which I am happy about. Perhaps she didn't want to reveal too much about those elements and that's why some things were left vague or unexplained. I am trying to keep this review spoiler-free as possible, so I can't say more than that I loved Axel's character and I want more. For the brief time that the other Lords (and their Ladies) showed up, that was great. I think that as Anya is William's bestie, I feel she should have been in this a little more than she was. Although I get that perhaps Showalter didn't want to take showtime away from Sunny.

There were a couple of things I really didn't like that were, shall we say, triggers for me. I won't go into too much details, but be warned if you're an animal lover. Also, I was really worried that Showalter was going to go into the kink stuff with this book. She teased at it, but definitely didn't cross that line, thankfully. Maybe she thought since William has slept with countless women it would be weird if she keep the sex scenes too vanilla.

I do like that while William was protective and affectionate with Gillian, it's clear that Sunny is really his other half and she owns a part of him he could never give away to anyone else. That felt convincing and authentic to me. I think the way that the evolution of his feelings for Sunny was very effective over the course of the book. While the love scenes were sexy and lusty, there was also a lot of tenderness as well. If readers like a rake hero getting tamed by love, this one is a good choice, for sure.

I started binging this series last year, and it really got me through a dark time with the COVID outbreak and a lot of personal stressors. While there is a whole lot of dark in these books, there's also plenty of humor and lighter moments, and these books fulfilled my need for an escapist read when I very much needed it. I had read the first four books and enjoyed it, and just hadn't had a chance to dive back in. I'm so glad that they were on Audible Escape, and then I got to the point that I bought a few of them in audiobook. I didn't have to buy this because my library had it. The moderator Max Bellmore made these a lot of fun. I got to the point where it just doesn't feel right not listening to the audiobook. I recommend the audiobooks if you get a chance.

I hope that William fans were satisfied with his long awaited story.

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Blog Update

 So I couldn't get into my old blog....

Good news is that I can start over again and see what life 2021 and on has in store for me. I fell into a huge reading slump and really didn't post much. Here's a chance to start on my reading journey again with a new leaf.

My goal is to post more regularly. Maybe if I don't have time to read as much, I can just blog about book-related stuff.

Here we go.