Wednesday, January 01, 2014

Happy New Year! 2013 Highlights + Giveaway!

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HappyNewYearBannerXpresso
Happy New Year everyone! My hiatus was a nice break but I’m happy to be back blogging and refreshed for the new year. I’ve got some great posts planned for 2014, awesome events especially for my 3 year blogoversary in the fall, and I also may be getting a co-blogger which you all know and love already 😉 We’ll see if/when that happens! So today let’s check out Xpresso Reads’ 2013 highlights, exciting happenings you may have missed, and an awesome giveaway to kick off the new year in style!

2013 Highlights

  • BGDCBanner637We introduced our new feature that me, Jenni (Alluring Reads), and Amy (Book Loving Mom) do together: Book Girls Don’t Cry… They Vent which we’ve had a lot of fun with bookish discussions and vents. It began as a weekly meme but now it’s more of a “whenever we feel like it”. We’re also always looking for topic ideas for this meme so if you have anything you’d like to see us discuss, vent on, or talk about you can leave your idea here!

  • CoverMadnessHopButtonShare2Along with Jenni (Alluring Reads), we organized our first giveaway hop for Cover Madness. We’ve done about 4 or 5 cover madness giveaways so far which are always a hit and get the most entries out of any giveaway I do, so we decided to do one as a hop. We’ll likely do another one in 2014 as well seeing as how much participation there was so you can look forward to that!

  • TBI’ve had a few books I had to put down this year and DNF – which is always unfortunate. I don’t review DNF books fully but I do like to do round-up posts to explain why I DNFed them. This could help like-minded people decide if it’s a book they should skip or not. Missed them? Find my DNF round-up Part 1 here, and Part 2 here!

  • wordpress_logo1My move to WordPress happened in July (which seemed like only a few weeks ago!) and it was the best decision I made this year! If you’re considering it it’s completely worth it and I recommend you contact the WP wiz, Ashley, to help you out. I posted about my move and how it all went down here if you want more info on that!




Major 2013 Highlights

BEA 2013
I attended BEA for the first time this year – and will be going again in 2014 as well. I had a blast and it’s really an experience I will never forget! My recap post is here with all the fun and a few pictures. I hope to see a lot of you there in 2014! 🙂
bea1


Boston Blogger Meetup
Even though only a couple bloggers showed up I met my blogger soulmate (Book Loving Mom) so it was the shiz! I also go to visit Boston (a city that I will never ever drive into again O_O) which was awesome.
Screen Shot 2013-12-30 at 9.37.16 AM


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Giveaway

To kick off the New Year in style, I’m giving you all a chance to win one of my Top reads of 2013 which was listed yesterday in my Top Ten Tuesday post. If you missed it here’s the list:

TT9 5W FINAL COVER.indd TT5 TT4 TT3

tt2 TT10 tt8 TT6 tt1


  • Open internationally (as long as The Book Depository ships to you)
  • Giveaway ends January 15th, 2014
  • Full contest terms and conditions found on Rafflecopter

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Happy New Year everyone!


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Giselle

Canadian blogger, wife, mother, coffee lover, and sarcastic at heart! She has had a love for all things bookish since before Amazon and eReaders existed *le gasp*. You can also find her organizing tours and other fun things at Xpresso Book Tours.

Latest posts by Giselle (see all)

32 Responses to “Happy New Year! 2013 Highlights + Giveaway!”

  1. Aimee

    I really want to attend BEA, but sadly I’m not from the US. I also adore your Book Girls Don’t Cry posts. I may not comment much on them but I do lurk around and stalk a little lol.

    Happy new year, Giselle!

  2. Kate- Midnight Book Girl

    Happy New Year! This was also my first year on WordPress, although my move was in June. Your blog really does look awesome, it might be time for me to utilize the whole being on WordPress thing… I’m going back to BEA again this year too, hope to see you there! Happy reading in the new year!

  3. Sophia Rose

    I missed your cover giveaways, but I love good bookcovers and they always grab my attention so I can imagine why its a hit.

    BEA sounds so fun.

    I haven’t read half of the books on your Best list.

    Have a great New Year and thanks for the giveaway opportunity.

  5. Ashley

    Happy New Years, Giselle! I’m so excited to see what you have this year. I may not do book blogging anymore, but I still love reading about fabulous books.

    Oh my gosh, all of you Top 2013 books looks AMAZING!

  6. Angie F.

    Happy New Year, Giselle!

    Ooh, I can’t wait for the next Cover Madness! There’s always just amazing books up for grabs!

    P.S. You were my first comment of 2014! Thanks! 🙂

  7. Amy @ Book Loving Mom

    2013 was awesome!! One of my highlights was definitely getting to meet you for real!! I really was hoping to attend BEA this year, but I don’t think it will happen. I would have to actually take 3 days off of work and it’s a new job so I don’t want to push it. Also hubs wants me to save days off for a family vacation, which I totally understand. I am loving doing Book Girls. I hope that we get some really fun topics to discuss for 2014!! I am thinking about switching to WordPress this year. I really want to! Glad that you enjoyed your blogging break!!

  10. Siiri

    I really enjoy reading all your BGDC posts and it’s a bit of a shame that it’s not a weekly meme anymore, but there probably aren’t enough topics to discuss as thoroughly every week as you girls do it so I’m happy with what I get. I DNF-d quite a bit this year and even though I’m sorry that I did, I don’t really want to waste my time and miss up on reading something amazing instead. PS. Your BEA post was one of my highlights of 2013 🙂 Can’t wait to see this year’s post.

  14. Eileen @ Singing and Reading in the Rain

    Happy New Year, Giselle! You’ve had such an amazing year, and I always love those cover madness giveaways you host with Jenni because they’re genius. It was so awesome meeting you at BEA, and it’s great that you’re going again next year! It’s so much bookishness compressed into one building and it’s amazing lol. Also, I’m glad that you got to meet Amy I remember reading you and her tweets on Twitter and I loved the pics. 🙂 Also I’m totally digging Jenni on your banner; I hope you have as eventful a year as you did in 2013! <33

  15. Blythe Harris

    First, I just want to squee because I SEE JENNI IN THE HEADER AND SIDEBAR AND YOU GUYS WILL BE THE BEST CO-BLOGGERS EVERRR. *ahem* And happy new year, Giselle! I loved your Book Girls Don’t Cry posts, and as for your DNF reviews…*hisses at Tumble & Fall* *and, more recently, No One Else Can Have You* *because seriously what the fuck was that*

  24. Angie

    What a great year for you!! I still haven’t made the move to wordpress. Not sure if I will or not??? BEA I want to gooooo sooo bad. Maybe one year. Happy New Year!!

  25. Pili

    Happy New Year, Giselle! I’m quite envious of your book events attendances! Being as I am on the other side of the Atlantic I find myself daydreaming that I could go, but knowing I won’t be able to!

  28. Neyra

    Happy New Year Ladies and hello to Jenni! 🙂 I wish I could attend BEA but I always seem to have something getting in the way >.< Sounds like a lot of fun, hopefully I'll be able to attend someday.

  30. fishgirl182

    Happy new year! I have considered switching to WordPress too but I am a little scared and am not unhappy where I am now. We’ll see what the new year brings though. Cheers to a new year!