The month of April is pretty significant within the calendar year.
It hosts quite a few days of note: April Fools’ Day, Arbor Day, Autism Awareness Day, Earth Day, Easter and Palm Sunday, as well as Teacher Appreciation Week, Alcohol Awareness Month, Cancer Control Month, Jazz Appreciation Month, National Arab American Heritage Month, and National Poetry Month. And that is only a short few of many.
My mother’s birthday is in April (happy birthday, Mom!), my publisher, Less Than Three Press, celebrates their anniversary in April (happy 8th anniversary, LT3!), the Boston Marathon takes place in April, as does the start of the professional baseball season in the U.S. It is ruled by the zodiac signs of Aries and Taurus, rests under the Growing Moon, is decorated by the daisy and the sweet pea, and adorns itself with the diamond. It is the second month of spring, and used to be the second month of the original Roman calendar before January and February were added back in 700 B.C.
There are so many historical events that have taken place in the month of April that I would bore you all before I listed even half of them, as well as numerous famous birthdays.
It is even the namesake of one recently calved giraffe that I ended up getting more vested in than one would imagine I should, but that’s what happens when Facebook attempts to shove something down our throat—occasionally we swallow.
But with all those good things going on, there’s still one more happy event of note…
It’s also the anniversary of this very blog! And there’s only one thing to say about that:
What a great celebration it’s been, too. The work that Dani and the crew have put into correlating the questions, laying out interesting and in-depth answers, as well as advertising the event, are amazing.
That doesn’t surprise me, though. The amount of work that goes into the day-to-day preparation and production of the blog itself is stunning in its own right. When one stops to consider the time, the effort, and the occasional heartache that goes into managing this kind of platform—especially one where the reward is probably more the love of the genre than financial—it isn’t hard to see that it takes a special bunch of people with a whole lot of love and determination.
Quite often we don’t get the chance to share our appreciation or voice our thanks. So, I’d like to make that happen if I can now, by jumping on the celebration bandwagon and asking my own question and handing out gifts! So…
What is YOUR favourite part about Love Bytes Reviews?
Is it the reviews themselves? The connection with the people involved? The giveaways? The polls?
Tell me what you love best about this site in the comments below, and every comment received will be entered into a giveaway for a set of three e-books from my book list, excluding anthologies*.
Let’s spread the love!
Until next time,
AF Henley <3
About the Author
Henley was born with a full-blown passion for run-on sentences, a zealous indulgence in all words descriptive, and the endearing tendency to overuse punctuation. Since the early years Henley has been an enthusiastic writer, from the first few I-love-my-dog stories to the current leap into erotica.
A self-professed Google genius, Henley lives for the hours spent digging through the Internet for ‘research purposes’ which, more often than not, lead seven thousand miles away from first intentions but bring Henley to new discoveries and ideas that, once seeded, tend to flourish.
Henley has been proudly publishing with Less Than Three Press since 2012.
For more information and a list of Henley’s releases, please stop by for a visit at afhenley.com.
I love the reviews themselves, they are of a wide variety and always interesting, the pools, the guest posts and of course, the giveaways. It is one of my favourite blogs when searching for something new to read 😉
I love the variety of subjects Love Bytes offers: reviews, pools, guest blogs and of course the giveaways. In everything it shows the love and commitment to books and reading.
Honestly, it’s the giveaways. However, I really enjoy the guest posts as well.
I’ll be brutally honest. There are only 2 reasons I’m at any book review blog.
The second is being a (short lived) book reviewer and writing reviews. Due to my current health, I was only able to do that for a couple of short months before I had to call it quits.
The first is to follow you (stalker, anyone?), whether they’re blog tours or guest posts; and on that journey, I’ve also read many other guest posters and come to find myself enjoying that the most. This applies to Love Bytes Reviews.
You know as well as I do my opinion on giveaways… *shuffles that to the bottom of the world pile*
I know many people have been looking to the weather warming up, but I’m in NJ, and this March and April have been down right (STILL) cold and miserable. I think the pollen is even worse this year (and I type this with my eyes barely being able to open due to the pollen irritation… so please forgive any comical typing mistakes). I keep hoping for rain… =/
Thank you very much for sharing, and to Love Bytes Reviews for hosting these things. As always, may sweet things come to you and hope never fade.
With <3
It’s a little bit of everything…the giveaways are great, thorough reviews, intriguing guest posts. I also like the international perspective, which is pretty unique to Love Bytes!
Thanks for the post. TBH, what I like best are the giveaways (b/c I can’t afford much, but love to read), but the reviews really helped me get a sense of what to go for. Like “Breaker.” I just got that through Reading Alley, and am set to read and review it now. I’ve heard authors say they don’t read reviews, but my being in mgt. development, I’d hope that any kind of feedback is useful. What about you? Do you read reviews and what is it you like to see and maybe get out of a review about one of your books?
I love the reviews that help me find new authors to read. I also like hearing the insights and writing processes from authors. The interviews give me an insight of their writing process. The giveaways are also a great added benefit.
I am not the least bit familiar with this blog. So don’t enter me for any giveaways. 😀
Seriously, you’re my only connection to this place. It’s a thin thread at best.
However, I would like to say congrats on such a successful blog. It’s been what….3 years or so? It’s a momentous achievement and I sincerely hope it continues to go strong.
Definitely the reviews and giveaways! 🙂
I enjoy the giveaways, of course, but also the author guest posts and the reviews.
Ah, April the Giraffe. I don’t have facebook, but still I couldn’t avoid her^^;; The publicity is probably good for the zoo and maybe for other zoos, too.
Initially I came for the reviews, but over time (Haven’t been here for long – maybe half a year?) I’ve discovered my love for the authors’ posts. It’s really interesting to learn about writing struggles, writing progress, other issues concerning writing/publishing and things that don’t have anything to do with being an author at all.
I also like flashback posts. While I’ve been familiar with Yaoi/BL Manga for more than 15 years now, I’ve only started reading GLBT+ books at the end of 2015. So, discovering older books that sound interesting is always a plus.
Polls are also great. I’m not a big fan of the weekly polls. If I’m lucky I might have read one of the books by the time the poll comes out. But more often than not I haven’t. Thus, I’m more comfortable with the monthly and yearly polls.
Since Prism closed this is my ‘go-to’ blog for books. I love reading about new authors, new series and new perspectives. Since so many postings are international in nature, I get outside viewpoints about life, love and politics! Sometimes that’s all that keeps me from tearing out my hair!
Giveaways a great (I’ve even won.) Author interviews…so interesting. The weekly polls are exciting since I see what other readers value the most. They help me prioritize the books I’m going to read. I especially enjoy studying how the various reviewers look at the same book and then compare my opinion after I finish it.
Thank you everyone for commenting and sharing the love for Love Bytes Reviews! I’m so honoured to have you all be part of this experience with me, and I too am grateful for everything Dani and the staff do for their readers and followers. ❤️
Congratulations, Purple Reader! You were the random winner of the three ebooks! And to answer your question, I do read the reviews and the other author’s guest posts. There are a world of things to learn from them, and I truly enjoy making LB a part of my day.
Please make your selections here, and check your email to respond back: https://afhenley.wordpress.com/books-3/
Love you all! ❤️
Yay! Thanks, for providing the giveaway, and for your answer. I’m always glad to hear someone is up for learning more. I’m like that too, curious about what authors, and reviewers, have to say. So the guest posts and reviews are interesting to read not just for the book, for the different perspectives about important issues in the world.