Saturday Spotlight - Confessions of a Bookaholic

Today I have another adult, although young like me, it's great to see that we still love reading even with starting families and working on our careers! Learn more about Jessica and her fantastic blog below!

Name: Jessica
Nickname and/or blog name: Confessions of a Bookaholic
Blog URL: http://totalbookaholic.blogspot.com/

Tell me a bit about yourself.
I'm a 26 year old stay at home mom to a wonderful little girl. I'm also a full-time graduate student in psychology. We live in Tennessee and our neighbors are a bunch of cows..literally! Reading, and now blogging, are my only hobbies. It's hard to do much with a 2 year old running around but blogging about my favorite books and authors is my form of relaxation :)

When and why did you start your blog?
When I was younger I loved reading. I would read books all summer. I stopped once I entered college but always missed it. At the end of July 2008 I picked up Twilight. I knew nothing about the book but I loved the cover. I was hooked! I read all 4 books within a week because luckily for me, Breaking Dawn was released that same week. Since then I have read around 150 books. I started going to blogs to get book ideas and see reviews. I wanted to blog but didn't feel like mine would be near as good as the ones I read. A few months ago I decided to try it. I've been really lucky early on to get support from some amazing bloggers, like The Book Pixie who was my first official follower, and authors like Rachel Vincent who let me host a great contest for her.

What is your blog all about? Any cool features you want to share?
I want to always have some new things going on. I love contests and I plan to host a lot of those! I do reviews of what I read, link to other contests, participate in In My Mailbox and the Book Blogger Hop, and try to post about the latest book releases in YA novels. I host release parties for the books I am the most excited for. It is a week long event where I post something related to the book or author every day until its release day. I did this with Rachel Vincent and it was a lot of fun! I have another one planned for the release of Forget You by Jennifer Echols. I'm having some great contests coming up. I'm doing an "Eclipse Giveaway" where the prizes will be Twilight books and swag. My "Summer Reads Giveaway" will start in late June and will have some great summer books!

What are some of your favorite genres and/or books currently?
I read a lot of different books now. I've tried out books that I probably wouldn't have picked up without the influence of other bloggers. That's one of the best parts of blogging! I read mostly YA books, romance, fantasy, and paranormal. I have a few adult series that I read but not many. This year my favorite books have been Going too Far by Jennifer Echols, Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready, and Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead. They were all amazing books!

How do you find out about the books you read?
Mainly I go to other blogs. I will see a book that looks interesting and look it up to find out more about it and the author. If it looks good I add it to my long list of books to read.

Any tips or advice for those starting or thinking about starting a blog?
Don't be afraid that you can't do it. Don't look at other blogs, their cool widgets, tons of followers and comments and get intimidated. I'm still really new at this but it is insane how much I have learned over the past few months. Also, don't be afraid to contact authors. They are super nice and willing to work with you on putting information on your blog. Contact other bloggers for tips! Other bloggers have been so helpful in getting the word out about my blog and showing me some great tricks.

Contest(s) Alert!
Jessica has a big summer giveaway starting next week - 5 winners will be picked to get books and swag. Also, Jessica is also hosting a release party for Jennifer Echols from July 13th-20th for Forget You. 4 winners will receive prizes from that party.

Thank you Jessica for stopping by and sharing more about your blog! I can't believe you only started your blog months ago, cause it really looks stunning! Stay tuned for a guest review written by Jessica!

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