Blogtober Spotlight – Morelli’s Reads

I’m Sam, most people call me Sammy, and I’m a thirty-something year old mother, wife, child care worker and avid reader. My hobbies (besides reading) include baking (a recent hobby thanks to lock-down), gardening, pretending I can run, being walked by the dog and getting bossed around by my sassy-pants toddler.

I’ve always loved reading, even as a child, and I’m rarely found without a book within arms reach. While I am no longer one of these people who has multiple books on the go at once (I blame motherhood for this loss of skill!) I am one of these people who has stacks of books that have been read once, more than once and also have yet to be read. I’m also one of those Kindle owners (I can hear people groaning already!) I do like my Kindle and has allowed me to read with a sleeping baby on my chest and snoring husband next to me plenty of times, I still love a good old fashioned book; the weight, the feel of the pages, the smell and font. I get a real thrill from going in to a bookshop (new or second hand, I’m not fussed as long as there are books involved!) and from ordering online and opening boxes of books (I can never buy just the one! It’s a real bug-bear of my husbands!).

So why start a book blog? Well in short; why not? 100 days in to a pandemic and I’m finding myself bored of baking, the garden literally has been mowed, preened and tidied to within an inch of its life, my dog is no longer willing to walk me and my knees can’t take anymore of me pretending I’m still capable of running miles on end. I have an Instagram account that now sees more book posts than anything else and has joined the ranks of “bookstagram” and I’ve been reading so much and chatting to authors that I’ve been extremely lucky to receive three early copies of books in exchange for honest reviews (I was asked to Beta read and literally squealed in excitement which alarmed the dog who then got so excited he chased one of the cats out of the room), so it seemed like maybe this was a right time to do something new and start a proper book blog. I like to read and talk about it, I also like to drink copious amounts of tea and gin (not together) and reading and writing seem to go hand in hand with that. I also like to avoid football season and F1 (my husband loves those but I really can’t get in to it) and this is a great reason to not sit in the living room!

I hope that you join me on my reading journey and enjoy my reviews; I promise I will always be honest with you and tell you why I like/dislike a book and what I feel it has done well/not so well and to also share with you what made me laugh, cry, mourn and lose sleep over. Reading is journey we take to other places, periods in time and universes without having to leave the comfort of our own homes, reading also provides us with the sanctuary we need and adventures we crave. I have found previously that reading has helped me to find some of the answers I have been looking for, and revelations I didn’t want to accept upfront and has also given me respite from my own pains and stresses and boredems.

I have Beta Read for Sibel Hodge recently and have read advanced copies of her work as well as Samantha Rendel’s debut novel The Furious Four.

Be sure to check out her blog