This last week family Playground have been away and something great has happened which I have only just had the chance to really acknowledge.  This blog has been nominated in the 2018 Utopia.con awards…twice!!!  Thank you so so much to those who put this blog forward for consideration. The nominations are for best Blog and also for best Bookstagrammer. (you can find my pics here)  To say I am utterly humbled is an understatement.  There are some huge names nominated across the board and I’m happy to see that I’m nominated with friends too by way of Brenda a BBB Book Blog. When it comes to blogging I made a real effort at the beginning of this year to really focus on bringing you more consistent content in terms of general book chat and reviews.  I have to thank my amazing review team of Fleur, Katrina and Beverly for helping me to bring that to fruition.  Their thoughtful and considered reviews, in line with the blog ethos has clearly played a huge part in this nomination.  The best Bookstagrammer is a nomination that has totally bowled me over, I think it’s clear from my posts that IG is a platform that I struggle with the fickle nature of and often feel my photo’s don’t have the finesse to be there. But I persevere and have made some amazing friendships and support networks on there.  I have started having fun with it again which makes this nomination all the more special ❤  If you would like to vote for this blog then  I would be eternally grateful and you can find the link here

Whilst I was away, I also got to read Legendary by Stephanie Garber, this was one of my most anticipated reads of the year but I won’t be posting a review any time soon.  There is no fault with the book at all and it’s at least a 4* but with the youngest playground dwellers sleeping badly whilst we were away I was often too tired to really take in what was on the pages.  I know it was a great read but want to do it justice.  So, I am going to re-read Caraval and then Legendary after as it follows on exactly after the final page of Caraval. I just couldn’t remember the characters enough and I think it’s important to get my head in the right place first.  As a side note, I got my signed copy from Waterstones as I hoped and my hidden cover was the Shattered Crown which was the one I was wishing for!

Finally, whilst I was away my first Illumicrate box arrived!  I’ll get an unboxing up in a couple of days, it’s a box that I’m really happy with and can’t wait to share with you!

Have any of you read Legendary yet?  What did you think?  I know that Caraval divided people but I suppose if you’ve read Legendary you would have enjoyed Caraval to start lol

PS: I’m so sorry to all the people who couldn’t access these posts via facebook in the past week, I scheduled them all before I left but the link up just didn’t work.  Thank you for your patience.