All good things must come to an end.....at least for now.

So….it’s time to get personal.

First off, let me provide you with some background of who I am.  I am a book lover.  I love to read – a lot.   I am also a book hoarder collector.  My love for reading started early in my life with the introduction to The Little House on the Prairie series.  This series opened up a whole new world to me where I could escape life for a bit, visualizing the story unfolding before my eyes.  After reading that series, I was hooked for life.  I also suffer from social anxiety, general anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem issues.  I won’t go to deep into this as I don’t want to bore you, but these issues come into play later on which will be discussed in a bit.

When I started this blog, I wanted share my thoughts on the books I read, and then discovered there was a way to help promote up and coming authors.  At first, this was so much fun and I had the opportunity to discover new books and new favorite authors.  I went into this with everything that I had and was having a great time doing it.  Sharing my thoughts on the books that I read was fun and exciting, but it also made my anxiety greater.  You see, sometimes, when my depression takes hold, I have a hard time focusing on the books I was reading, then when it came time to write up my reviews, I would forget everything that I read, which in turn ramped up my anxiety level.  Needless to say, this presents a problem when I am trying to write an amazing review that will draw readers in and want to read the book.

As my blog progressed, I found that the number of review requests became too much to keep up with.  I have a full-time job and a family, so I was finding that I had to decline requests and eventually not taking requests at all.  I have a mountain of books that I have purchased that I haven’t even read because  of time that is lost due to this blog.  After a while, this blogging and reviewing just wasn’t fun anymore.  I began to resent everything that I had originally started out to do, even dreading reading.

Which brings me to the point of this post…yes, there is a point.  I need to take a break from this blog.  I just need to step away and reconnect with my love of books and reading – not having to analyze writing skills and plot lines and post schedules.   I also need to focus on my family and my job.  I regret this decision as I feel that I am letting authors, publishers, and tour companies down, but at this point, I need to do what I feel is right for me.  I have a few obligations that I have committed to that  will still be posted, but from this point on until I can get to a better place personally and mentally, any new posts will be few and far between.  I realize that I am just a tiny fish in a huge ocean as far as the blogging world is concerned, and it is quite likely that I will not be missed, but I feel as though some sort of explanation of my hiatus needed to be provided.

I apologize in advance to anyone that I have let down, but appreciate your understanding.