Down the Rabbit Hole

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

Good morning everyone! I can’t believe it’s Tuesday again already. I feel like last week held so many things all at once for me so it kind of went by fast and slow at the same time. I dyed my hair for the first time ever (ahh!!) and I’m loving it. And I got to go to the drive in theater with my dog and it was just the best time. So it’s been a good week overall for me.

But onto books! This week’s TTT was initially Memorable Things Characters Have Said but…I never remember quotes very well, let alone what people say, so I will have to go with simply “memorable” characters who have stuck out to me all these years amidst the many books I’ve read.

1. Nancy Drew

We all know (I think) this famous young sleuth, but I grew up reading those iconic yellow spine hardcovers as a child and I wanted to BE Nancy. She’s daring and has the most intriguing adventures with her friends, which never ends badly for them it seems. Why wouldn’t I want to be her growing up?

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3.5 star, YA

Review: The Bronzed Beasts by Roshani Chokshi

November 8, 2021 Fives @ Down The Rabbit Hole

The Gilded Wolves #3

In love they breathed. In destiny they believed. In the end, will divinity be their demise?

After Séverin’s seeming betrayal, the crew is fractured. Armed with only a handful of hints, Enrique, Laila, Hypnos and Zofia must find their way through the snarled, haunted waterways of Venice, Italy to locate Séverin.

Meanwhile, Séverin must balance the deranged whims of the Patriarch of the Fallen House and discover the location of a temple beneath a plague island where the Divine Lyre can be played and all that he desires will come to pass.

With only ten days until Laila expires, the crew will face plague pits and deadly masquerades, unearthly songs and the shining steps of a temple whose powers might offer divinity itself… but at a price they may not be willing to pay.

Returning to the dark and glamorous 19th century world of her New York Times instant bestseller, The Gilded Wolves, Roshani Chokshi dazzles us with the final riveting tale as full of mystery and danger as ever.

Another trilogy ends! This time, it’s The Gilded Wolves series. Although long anticipated, this ending was a bit of an unexpected one. Andge and I both agree that it was neither terrible nor bad, yet perhaps was something neither of us was expecting. Overall, I’d say that I enjoyed the many themes that were present and the way that the book played out and wrapped up the series was satisfying enough. Whether it was the ending I wanted, or whether I know what I would have preferred to see, I can’t say with certainty.

The Bronzed Beasts is the final book in The Gilded Wolves trilogy. For one last time, the story revolves around Séverin and his fractured team, taking place after his big display of betrayal in the Sleeping Palace. The journey is once again presented in multiple POVs, and as everything build up to a climactic finish with divinity hanging as a trophy, it is difficult to see what will happen and who will be left behind.

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discussion

Let’s Talk Bookish – When a Post Doesn’t Do Very Well

November 5, 2021 Fives @ Down The Rabbit Hole

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme, hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books & Dani @ Literary Lion, where they discuss certain topics, share their opinions, and spread the love by visiting each others’ posts.

NOVEMBER 5: WHEN A POST DOESN’T DO VERY WELL (SUGGESTED BY NICOLE @ THOUGHTS STAINED WITH INK)

Prompts: Imagine you’ve spent several hours, even days, perfecting a post that you’re so excited to publish. Finally, you hit publish and eagerly await the response. But the response is not as much as you’d expected, or worse, it’s nonexistent. Has that happened to you before? How do you handle poor post results? Do you think there’s usually a cause for poor post results?

Welcome to the first LTB of November everyone! I don’t know about where you all are, but where I am it has already begun to feel very cold and wintery. All the better to distract myself from that by writing a blog post. Today’s topic is something that we’ve recently discussed here at DTRH between Andge and I. I’ll try and expand on this a bit below.

I think in general we try not to post for the direct gratification of people liking and giving us a response, as this could likely lead to unhealthy addictions. Of course, that being said, we are trying to build up a following and push out content that we enjoy, and we definitely wish every post was super successful. I wouldn’t say we don’t care about the responses, but we certainly hope for the engagement, as that is the whole point of us posting content that we’d think you all would like!

For the most part I don’t think any of our posts really has us slaving for days, but of course there is a lot of pre-planning and idea brainstorming ahead of time that goes into it. Despite all this, some things just take more time but don’t get the proportionate responses – and that’s okay! I think it’s best not to put yourself too deep in a hole for things beyond your control; sometimes there are inexplicable factors involved.

Recently, Andge and I have discussed a period of time where engagement was very low, but there was no visible change in anything that we did. Sometimes this just happens! We have kept to our schedule for almost a year now, and yet sometimes a month will just be silent for whatever reason. I think we were both a bit confused at the idea, yet we just kept at it – sure enough, the next month was back to normal. I’m sure there’s plenty of reasons why it might have happened, but it’s not too important in the grand scheme of things.

I’m sure there was some sort of cause that is beyond my knowledge, but I try not to contemplate it too much. That kind of thinking probably won’t be productive. I try to stick to the fact that I (we) love posting for you all, and that I enjoy doing it no matter what the engagement is. In the end, this is supposed to be fun, after all!

What do you all think or do when a post doesn’t seem to reach? I’d love to hear what other strategies there are to try and improve engagement too. Let me know in the comments below! I already love all of you who reach out regularly, it really does make my day sometimes.