Guest Post: Ann Aguirre – Five Favorite Blogs

As you may have known, I celebrated my 6th year Blogoversary in December. I asked my favorite authors to join me throughout the month with posts about their five favorite things.

The holidays kind of took over and I didn’t want this awesome post (& author) to slip through unread so I carried it over to the new year.

Ann Aguirre is a total rock star in my book. I’ve always loved her books whether she’s taking me to the far reaches of space in her romantic science fiction Sirantha Jax series and it’s spinoff Dred Chronicles (which TOTALLY bad ass!) or to the harsh, post apocalyptic, zombie infested world - and my absolute favorite YA dystopian trilogy ever – Razorland (Enclave, Outpost, Horde).

She can write anything! NA, steampunk, paranormal romance, contemporary romance and one of the biggest thrills of my blogging *career* has been beta reading for Ann. It’s seriously like Christmas in my Inbox whenever I get a new chapter to read!

I want to send a BIG thank you to Amy Jo Cousins, Laura Florand, Jeri Smith-Ready, Alexandra Diaz, Tammara Webber and Ann Aguirre for sharing this milestone with me.

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Five Favorite Blogs:

There's a lot of talk about how readers and authors are separate and never the twain shall meet, but I love certain blogs and trust them as a reader. So when I see my favorite bloggers squeeing over a book, I immediately add it to my TBR. This impacts my writing in the sense that I often need to refill the well and nothing does that better than reading an amazing book. 

Sometimes when I finish an incredible story, I'm inspired and I desperately want to try to match the greatness I've just experienced. Other times, I finish a book and stare at it with this incredible sense of melancholy because I know I will never create anything so beautiful. Those books do put me off writing for a day or two, but eventually I come crawling back like a junkie because no matter how much I work, I never seem to get tired of creating worlds and trying to entertain others. The most meaningful emails I've received are from readers who tell me that my stories have taken them out of a painful part of their life and given them a much-needed break. I don't need awards; those emails are enough and they make me tear up, knowing that my imagination made someone else's life a little better for a short while. 

So without further ado, here are the five blogs (in no particular order) I read regularly looking for reading recs:

The Nocturnal Library

Any book that Maja loves needs to end up my list, period. While she tends to be a little more literary in her tastes than I am, I've never disliked a book she loves. I discovered Casandra Rose Clarke and Cat Winters through her. And I adore their work. Lately she is super busy with her Phd & I miss her!


The Book Swarm

Mary always has fantastic book recs, plus I get TV news here too. I'm considering Jessica Jones because of her review. I love her mix of genres and authors; I can usually find something good here to read based on her squees. Sidenote: I love the pages where reviews are listed by author name and book title.


Too Fond of Books

Stacee and I are usually on the same page with regarding to taste. I've never seen her rave over a book I hated or vice versa. So it's really important for tastes to sync up when you're reading a blog for personal reading recs. I also love Stacee's sense of humor, which illuminates her posts.


Maf's Crazy Book Life

Marifer has great, eclectic reading taste. I love the mix of books she checks out on her blog, though she's busy with college now. It's also nice to get an international perspective, and she's hilarious too. I can count on a fresh opinion in her posts, and I think her fangirl ways are <3.

FWIW

Karen's blog might be listed last but it is certainly not least. I respect her opinions and like Maja, anything Karen loves, I know I need to check out. We often get angry about the same books, which means lots of outraged DMs flying back and forth. I always get lots of yummy recs from FWIW too.

As an aside, I've been lucky enough to meet four of five of these bloggers in person, which is really cool. So far, Maja hasn't invited me to Croatia, though. I don't know why. *stares until everyone is uncomfortable*

Bloggers are an incredibly important to writers and here's a big thank you to my five favorites.


via GIPHY

Happy New Year, everyone!

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About Ann:
Ann Aguirre is a New York Times & USA Today bestselling author with a degree in English Literature; before she began writing full time, she was a clown, a clerk, a voice actress, and a savior of stray kittens, not necessarily in that order. She grew up in a yellow house across from a cornfield, but now she lives in sunny Mexico with her husband, children, and various pets. She likes books, emo music, and action movies. She writes all kinds of genre fiction for adults and teens.

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