“Before you turn her world upside down, you make sure you are prepared for what her world has to be. You have a choice. She doesn’t. Certain things have to be in place for her to cope.”

Water Bound was published in July 2010 by Berkley publishing. It is book 1 in the Sea Haven series which apparently is a spin off of a previous series by Christine Feehan. This is a paranormal suspense romance between our heroine Rikki and hero, Lev. Rikki is an autistic bad ass elemental who controls water and Lev is basically a trained assassin who falls in love with her after she saves him in the ocean.

This was my first five star read of the year and the only book I’ve rated above a four star up to this point. I loved it, so much. One of the “goals” I have for this year is to explore more of the romance subgenre’s I have neglected to read in previous years. Whoa, am I glad I did. I read and finished this book and immediately hauled the entire series. I am hooked.

The pacing of this book was done so well. Initially in the book, Rikki, who feels most comfortable out on the water, is tossed overboard by this huge wave. With Rikki’s ability to control water, so many of the analogies in this book are done with beautiful water descriptions.  Looking back it’s super obvious that Rikki and Lev would absolutely have to have their “meet cute” via water. Lev is not a good guy, especially in the beginning. He is rough around the edges and slightly unlikeable but it doesn’t last long. Somehow, Christina Feehan writes him in a way that you know there is more beyond the surface and you have to give it time to unravel. Rikki feels that being so she saved him, he is now her responsibility and she sees the real him. This is a huge part in what shatters his armor and kicks off the beginnings of him falling for her.

“he was drowning. He’d lost his footing and he’d sunk hard and fast. He desperately needed an anchor. She was turning him inside out and he wasn’t doing a thing to stop it.”

The plot gradually continues with these two spending a lot of time cramped up in Rikki’s home, which is new for her: she doesn’t allow anyone in her home, for their safety. The author takes two very damaged people, who are both loners in the world and puts them in Rikki’s home together. I won’t go into their back stories here because those are for them to tell you, but so much of the suspense element to this book deals with the heroines past and what I love about this book is the hero’s determination to prove to her she never did anything wrong.

The middle portion of this book is the hero coming to the realization that the heroine lives with autism and what sold me on him, is we never see him become frustrated with her. Rather, once he figures it out, we see this determination to always figure out the adjustments he needs to make to make her feel comfortable. You see the heroine struggle with trying to figure out how the hero will fit into her life: she has so many routines-but love always finds a way.

The end portion of the book had me on the edge of my seat and had a scene where Rikki uses her powers that brought tears to my eyes. I have quite a few friends who were rooting for me while reading this book-they love this series-and I can see why. It was so good.

xx.

Recently, I found myself completely worked up about something I had no control over. I’ll be honest and admit I was kind of hurt and it bothered me for an entire morning. Now that time has passed, I look back at the time I wasted being so worked up about something on the internet.

This year I want to do better at recognizing when I need to disconnect. I love the online bookish community, but there are times when it brings more stress than it does enjoyment. It’s so easy to fall into the traps of being too concerned about who is shouting out who, who is left out of those shoutouts-what advanced copies are being sent out and the fact that you’re not receiving them. Things that in the grand scheme of it all, do not matter whatsoever.

This year I want to do more reading and less scrolling. When I can’t sleep in the middle of the night, I want to immediately grab my kindle instead of my phone. I want to consciously choose to spend those moments reading, rather than immediately going to social media to see what is going on.

I think I tend to do a lot of aimless scrolling when I’m bored. Rather than getting on social media, or spending hours upon hours of youtube watching, listen to an audiobook instead. Or catch up on one of my favorite podcasts.

Look, I get it. As creators we have to utilize social media to boost our work, but like with anything else-I am beginning to take a good, hard look at how I feel once I’m done scrolling. Most of the time when I click out of my apps I have these ideas of I need to do better. When in actuality, I am doing okay and that’s enough. 

Plan of action: I am finally committing to setting a screen time limit each day which for my social media apps is set for an hour and for youtube is set for 2. I am so excited for the new ways I find to spend my time this year.

We have made it to another Sunday friends! Let’s wrap up this week.

This past week I participated in 2020’s first round of Smutathon which is hosted by Riley Marie and Ginger Reads Lainey over on Youtube. My ‘vlog’ went up this morning, which I’ll leave here for you all. I already have a 2020 Favorite from reading this week which I am excited about.

My listening this week mostly consisted of audiobooks for the books I was reading. I am back in school, so audiobooks are a lifesaver after a day full of reading and I can longer convince my brain to look at words and make sense of them! Podcast wise, I am going back and listening to older episodes of the Fated Mates podcast and I listened to Season 2, Episode 22 of the Currently Reading podcast. It isn’t a romance focused podcast, but I really enjoy the conversations between the two hosts.

I really want to find a good show to watch when I take a break from reading or am done with homework for the day. I love old school comedy so I am on the prowl for something good. I binged Everybody Loves Raymond a few years ago when it was on Netflix  and loved that, so I am thinking maybe Frasier or Cheers next. If you all have any recommendations let me know. I did watch a few episodes of the (classic) version of the Twilight Zone. I love that show so much and am currently on season 3.

Not much from me this week. I really focused on getting books read. I am on the hunt for great Romances this year, so I am trying to be a little low key and actually focus on getting reading done.

I’d love to know how your 2020 is going so far. Have you had a five star read yet? Let me know.

xx.

Let’s chat a bit about my goals for FallingForRomance this year.

This year I have a goal to stay on top of reviews here on the blog. In 2019 I read way more than I ever have in a year; 194 books. Reading as much as I was, as quickly as I was at times, it became easy to forget to or choose not to-post reviews.

FallingForRomance at its core is a romance reader blog site but I am also a new stay at home mom, college student, wife, sister, friend-all the things. I am also 30 something who has yet to figure it out. 99.9% of the time I am completely winging my way through life, and I want to post things that reflect that. I think sometimes as creators we feel like we’ve put ourselves in a box; you build an audience based off a niche and feel like you have to stick with that niche because Hello! That’s how you’ve built your audience. That gets frustrating and feels a tad bit limiting. I want to be as transparent as I can with you all-I truly believe in you Never know whose watching and who you may help through your honesty. So more, real talk, honest chats are to come.

I want to continue sharing romance conversations I’ve enjoyed. I love taking a break from reading and catching up on my favorite Podcasts and Youtube creators. It keeps me excited to read. There has really been a rise in romance focused podcasts and my fingers are crossed that we continue to see more this year!

Lastly, I really enjoy having three posts come out a week, which was a groove I found myself in during the summer and early fall. I’d like to get back to that but I’m taking baby steps. It may start out with two posts during the week and my weekly wrap up on Sunday, but the goal is to get back to three a week. Fingers crossed I can make it happen!

I would love to know what some of your blogging goals are. I am here rooting for you! We got this, let’s make 2020 amazing!

I haven’t chatted yet about my goals for this year and I figured it’s time. Before we know it, this year will be coming to a close at the rate time is moving, so better late than never.

Actually use my planner. Every year, I spend money on a planner that gets used the first few weeks (more like days) of the new year before spending the rest of it in my backpack, in the glove department in my car or in a drawer underneath paperwork. Being in online university, having appointments and reading advanced reader copies for reviews, I need all the organization I can get to stay on top of things. I hauled a nice planner from Amazon and my plan is to put it to use.

Drink more water for all of the obvious reasons. I’d like to keep myself hydrated and it’s really good for your skin. I personally have noticed a big difference in my skin when I drink more water. I am a huge coke drinker and really need to stop consuming it, so cheers to ridding myself of bad habits this year.

Spend less time on social media and more time reading and journaling. I have issues sleeping and find myself quite a bit, wide awake at 2 in the morning. Rather than grabbing my phone to scroll through the trash one facebook, I want to grab my phone and open my kindle app. Or not even grab my phone but instead, reach for my Kindle and read. Journaling is a very important hobby I want to get back into this year. I made an entire video about it over on Youtube.

Get back into running. Ever since retiring from the military I have completely neglected my body. I haven’t done anything physical whatsoever. I miss running. It was so therapeutic and so empowering. I miss hitting the road with nothing but the road ahead of me, endless paths I can take and my badass girl jams playing through my headphones.

My words for 2020 are nourish and intention. I chose these because in my mind, they go hand in hand. I want to do more things that nourish me this year which I think will for sure be possible if I am doing more things with intention. Being picky about what I’m doing. What fires I am spending my time putting out. Who I am allowing in my life. Who and what I am focusing my energy on. I want to intentionally spend more time making myself happy, doing the things I love.

My reading goal is set at 115 books. I am not comfortable yet with setting some outrageous number yet because I never know what will happen. I may get super busy one month and not have the time to read. I may get sick and not be able to read. I like to keep the number in a reachable range For myself and hey, if I surprise myself, then cool.

I don’t have very many specifics for my reading but I do want to:

• read more backlist titles
• read older/classic romances
• read more female/female romances
• discover more women of color writers

Lastly reading wise, is to keep it fun. Don’t be afraid to put a book down if it’s not working for me, and be okay with switching things up. Sometimes it’s fun to read a few memoirs and angsty poetry collections then make my way back to romance.

I am so excited to see what this year has in store for us. Let’s make it amazing.