Three Years of Reviews, Discussions, Community and Friendships

Image credit: April 

Romance Around the Corner turned three last week! It’s been three years of hard work, love and fun, so I’m going to celebrate it by giving away this unicorn to one lucky commenter so the winner can drink his blood and live forever. Forever!

I drew that. Can you tell?

On a serious note, the reason I started the blog, as you all know by now, was to stop lurking and finally become an active member of the Romance community. I didn’t expect to find such a warm welcome or to become a member so fast, but that’s what happened. And after three years, the community and the friends I’ve made has become a regular part of my life, for which I’m grateful every day.

Things haven’t changed much in terms of basic content; reviews are still my main focus, with the occasional opinion post, but even if things look similar, the journey and evolution is still present. Becoming comfortable with what I’m doing, as well as realizing that blogging has had an impact on the way I read, also made me feel like I had something to contribute to the critical discourse that it’s so important for the health of the community. And all of these elements just come down to me finding my voice as a reader. So it’s been a worthy, rich experience that has made me appreciate and enjoy books in a different way and ultimately become a better reader.

In terms of highlights, my all-time favorite review, which isn't really that much of a review, is this one. I'm also fond of the opinion posts, mostly because they take longer to write so I better mention them, and I really like the more in-depth reviews (or as I call them, the ones with titles) then there's everything I wrote for Heroes & Heartbreakers. And of course, last year I organized Heroine Week, which is one of the best things that the blog has offered, and although all I did was schedule the posts, I feel proud for hosting it and grateful to all the people who contributed. I hope to repeat it this year, but I'll make an official announcement when I'm sure.

I need to be more consistent and better organized. I don’t feel pressured to post every day, but I do want to be able to create and maintain expectations, and I certainly don’t want to lose the readership that took so long to establish. Right now I’m aiming to one weekly post, and I’ll start rebuilding it from there. But in the meantime, I’m putting even more thought on the few posts I’m actually writing. I’m not quitting the blog, but I want to make some changes to keep things fresh and shake off the blogger burnout.

That’s it. I lured you in with promises of unicorn blood and eternal life, but all you got was the most self-centered post ever. You do get all my love and appreciation, though. Thanks so much for reading and for being so awesome.

Now, where is my cake?!?!