One Year Anniversary + 1200 Followers

…so I accidentally missed my one year anniversary, and I think that is the most fitting thing ever for this blog. A lot of the things that happen on this blog is fly by the end of my book seat, but it somehow works?

I can’t even begin to describe the whirlwind experience that has been Book Princess Reviews. Did I think that I would be sitting here a year ago, looking back at all that has happened with 1200 followers who, for the most part, deal with my ramblings with such grace and awesomeness? Or having read so much more than the previous year? Or finding stunning books or authors I had refused to try or being part of a community with such lovely bloggers and book friends?

Um, no. Not at all. The only thing I knew is that I would have an outlet for some book reviews and I could go on a few book rants in a cool setting. I thought it would be some good experience for some of my career moves, and maybe there would be some cool people that would get it? I never imagined that I would be here. Seriously, I have the texts to prove it. XD

A Brief History of Book Princess Reviews

(lol, says just about everyone because you know me + brief = actually wickedly long aka just look at my “mini” review of A Court of Thorns and Roses)

The First Post

If you’re reading this and this is around the time that this is originally posted, I’m still just setting up. Therefore, I’m embarrassed. Ignore all the stock images, white space, and awkward musings. I promise I’m usually not this lame.

 

However, if you reading this in the future and my blog is awesome, clearly there was no lameness here. I just had to pretend I was once starting up to make myself seem normal and not at all like the princess I am.

Oh gosh. Cringeeeeeeeeeeeee. Me + forced humor = a total thing in those first few months. I tried so hard. I was like, HEY I’M FUNNY AND YOU SHOULD LOVE ME AND READ ALL MY REVIEWS AND BRB NOW I’M LAUGHING AT MYSELF. This? This was just a little excerpt of the cringe thing that was going on for the rest of the post. I was trying so hard because I thought someone would magically find my blog and be like, OH, WHAT FRESH HELL IS THIS. I SHALL NEVER COME BACK AND YOU WILL BE FOREVER BLACKBALLED FROM MY SIGHT. So, forced humor me struck. Let’s pretend this doesn’t exist other than to tell fun stories?

First Review

I’ve been dying for a good, gothic ghostie story for a while now, and man, did this deliver. It gave me Rebecca feels – probably because it was mentioned quite often, but still, it brought the feels overall. And that ending was so a reminder of it, I loved it.

The atmosphere was lush and dark, and I loved how Victoria Griffith had me questioning to the end. Was the ghost real? Was there a ghost? Is this all a DREAM?? Well, no, it didn’t have me thinking that, but the general feeling of the book was very dream-like, and I couldn’t figure out just where the story was going to end up – in the lake, the gutter, who knew?

My first review is for a ridiculously obscure book that I’m not sure if anyone has ever head of? It’s Those We Fear by Victoria Griffith, and I mean, it was quite odd, but also really rather good. It’s full on gothic ghostie goodness in Scotland, so I was so done. Oh, wait, maybe we should look at that the actual review? My first reviews didn’t include the princess rating system, so I did go with the star system (yes, no crowns again – I was so unprincessy for being a book princess). I think that the review is actually quite good, but man, there was some forced humor in there again. SO CHEESY. WHY WAS I SO CHEESY. Not as much cringe so I mean, we’re making progress.

My First Follower That Is Still Around Today

Looking at you, Rendz @ Reading With Rendz. I don’t know how we found each other, but you were really the first fellow book blogger that followed me and wasn’t a random writer or other random person that was looking for the follow back system. Um, check her out because she’s the bestest. ❤

Posting Schedule

Okay, ladies and gentlemen, I thought that I needed to post 3 reviews a day. Like, I was convinced it was thing. I WAS JUST SO EXCITED. I was like, okay, I’ll write down my thoughts like every book I’ve read in the past year and also some random ones AND THIS IS SO MUCH GOLD. I literally whipped out 2 -3 reviews per day, and gosh, I think I’m going to cry. How did I do this??? What level was I on and how can I do that again? I also took all of my book photos with my camera because I was too worried about copyright issues and I, like, was a hipster without knowing it and didn’t realize Instagram was a thing.

I also only exclusively did book reviews for a while. I didn’t start tags until the very end of November (thanks so much for the wonderful Twin Tales Book Reviews for giving me my first even though I literally had no clue what I was doing). I started making a lot of lists for random things with countdowns like my favorite worlds, favorite concepts, my Christmas list, etc. Man, they were good content.

A Moment of Silence for the Lost Sassy Blog Blurb

Okay, I had a thing for creating little blurbs for all of my posts until I realized like, no one read them and it had no point. But omigosh, I did them for the longest time, and I miss them so much because they were the best. November has some fantastic ones:

*lol dying – do you ever just realize you used to be really funny and now you’re just far too chill and suck? Or perhaps not as egotistical that you used to find yourself funny? oh gosh, this is going downhill fast.*

The Princess Rating System

November 8th was the fateful day that the Princess Rating System was instituted! Okay, so, that was actually far earlier than I thought I originally instituted, so thank gosh, I knew I had a good thing when I first created it and got it up as soon as possible. I was reading posts about how to get your blog to survive and thrive, and one of the suggestions was to find a way to make your blog creative and stand out from the rest. I knew I wanted to do something with the princesses, and I’m like huh. Rating system?? It ended up working out perfectly.

Features: The Princesses Read and How YA Contemporaries Lie to Me

**seriously, why do I not have a graphic made for this yet????*

April was the beginning of The Princesses Read, which somehow was one of those brilliant ideas you come up with in the shower. I don’t know how it’s managed to become this big thing, but it’s just insanity. Thank you, thank you, thank you for the crazy support and love of it. And same for How YA Contemporaries Lied to Me (and lol, my disastrous love life stories). I’ve also created a few tag, but they’re long as hell so sorry D: D: D:

And finally a thank youuuuuuuuuuuu!

You, ladies and gents, are seriously the best! I can’t believe we’re at that spot, but I will forever be so, so thankful. This community is amazing, and it’s one of the brightest spots in my life. You get the struggle, and I get so excited to come on here and talk with you about the amazing things in the book world. You are some of the kindest people out there, and I thank you, thank you, thank you for reading even a sentence of my ramblings! ❤ Here’s to many years more?

I did just have a 1000 follower giveaway, so I’ll probably do something in appreciation further along in November or such. I have to come up with something epic, and my creativity is kind of dead after doing this long post (sorry again. Gosh, XD XD XD)

Can we all just talk about the cringe from the beginning parts? Do you have any horror stories from your blog past? How different is your blog today? Let’s discuss in the comments below!