book blogging

Bookstagram highlights of 2015

~ SamanthaWho ~ 22 Comments

Happy New Year’s Day! Because its the beginning of 2016, I’ve decided to do a bit of reflecting on this past year. Along with starting this blog in July 2015, I started an Instagram account filled with bookish photos. While the blog has been a great platform to share my words with the world, Instagram has been a way to show my photos. These photos are mainly of what I’m currently reading, my cozy socks, creamy lattes and mugs of tea!

In the past few weeks I’ve made some big jumps in the Instagram community that I am VERY excited about! It’s the type of excitement that has me literally jumping up and down. Here are the highlights of 2015:

1.Random House (@randomhouse) reposted my photo on their account for over 35,000 followers!

To make it even sweeter, my photo of Sara Gruen’s At the Water’s Edge, made Random House’s top nine photos of 2015 based on the number of likes!

2. Hachette Book Group (@hachettebooks) reposted one of my photos of After The Crash on their account.

3. Books and Beans (@booksandbeans) is a popular account with 126,000 followers and one of my photos was reposted on their account.

With just over 2,000 Instagram followers, I still can’t believe that this many people want to see my posts! Please feel free to look me up at @dreambyday_bookreviews, I would love to connect with you all on Instagram!

At the Water’s Edge by Sara Gruen

~ SamanthaWho ~ 13 Comments

At the Water's EdgeThis is one of the books that helped build my love for Scotland, its green countryside, and the lively people. Sara Gruen, the author of Water for Elephants, has returned with another great book, At the Water’s Edge.

The story centers around Maddie, a young woman from high society Philadelphia. During World War II, she travels to Scotland with her husband and his best friend in an attempt to locate the Loch Ness monster, following a trail left by her father-in-law. After behaving poorly at a party, Maddie and her husband, Ellis, hope that finding the mystical monster will win back his favor.

Maddie has grown up in a very restrictive environment, bound by the rules of society and distant parents, but doesn’t realize how much so until she arrives in Scotland. The Scottish barmaids and inn owner open her eyes to an entirely different world and she finds herself drawn to it. In the Scottish countryside she also finds out that the man she married may not be who she thought he was. Her charming husband turns out to be a nasty brute while a new man in Scotland may win her heart instead.

At the Water’s Edge has a snowball effect, picking up speed as the story goes on. With an intense ending, I was gripping the book until the very last page. I really liked the story and found myself rooting for Maddie the whole time!

Dream by Day meets Facebook

~ SamanthaWho ~ 12 Comments

Dream by Day

After much consideration, and some nagging from friends, I’ve decided to create a Facebook account for Dream by Day book reviews. Originally, I wasn’t sure whether or not Facebook would be a relevant platform for my blog, but I’ve decided to give it a try! This way many of my friends (yes, the same friends who wouldn’t join a book club) can view my reviews easily, especially if they don’t have WordPress accounts.

Click here to check it out for yourself!  I would love to connect with you on Facebook as well as through the blog!

I also want to say thank you all for the support and interaction – this book blogging community is such a considerate and intelligent group of people and I have so enjoyed connecting with you all!