Harmony Returns!

Yes, you read that right - I am officially BACK!

I never meant to leave but as I'm sure you can see from my lack of posts from July to January, I ended taking a very long break.

There were a lot of reasons for this. My summer was crazy and hectic. When school started up, I was beyond overwhelmed. I'm doing two years at once to graduate early and the course-load is far from easy. I moved in October and that, on top of college application stress and my already huge school load, meant I had a very small amount of free time.

However, if I'm being totally honest, none of these excuses were the real reason that I haven't been blogging. Because I could have fit time in there, to read and to blog about the books.

The truth is that reviewing was killing my desire to read. I was in a huge reading slump and I can honestly say that a huge contributing factor was the big stack of books that I *had* to read and the feeling of no matter what book I read, I was going to end up letting someone down. So I just quit reading.

I've been thinking about making this post for a while and while this may only be interesting to other bloggers, I felt that it was important to get that out there. The girls at Bloggers [Heart] Books said it better than I ever could here. I highly recommend reading that post because it says everything that I was feeling.

Before I go any further, I want to make something clear. I am so grateful for every person, whether author, publisher, or publicist, who has ever sent me a book, who has ever taken the time to email me with a request. I would be nowhere without any of you. So thank you!

The fault does not lay with anyone but myself. I got too carried away by the desire to try books that I would not necessarily read. I said "yes" too much and "no" far too rarely. Saying yes to books I'm not positive I'll like doesn't work for me.

I was pretty miserable for a while, after I stopped reviewing. Because not only did I stop reviewing, I stopped reading. Me, the girl who can often read a 200pg book a day, reading no books at all. It was pretty bad but it seemed that every book I picked up couldn't hold my attention past page 30.

Luckily, my love of reading has returned. I don't know when or why. It may have been just because I let myself take a break from it for so long or it may have been that shiny new Kindle Fire that I received for Christmas. Either way, I have been INHALING books lately. Seriously. I've been practically reading a book a day lately.

Because, guys, did you realize how many AMAZING young adult books are out there? I've read so many wonderful books lately...DON'T BREATHE A WORD, STOLEN, and THE SUMMER I TURNED PRETTY, just to mention a few! It makes me so excited.

What makes me even more excited than all of these awesome books is that I want to talk about them and share them with everyone else. That's why I started this blog in the first place and it is why I will continue.

I have a stack of reviews written and a list of more to write. I have a bunch of books that I'm ready to dive in to. I have opinions and thoughts and excitement over these books. I AM HAPPY TO BE BACK.

I'll be doing things a little different this time. The biggest change is that I will be much more selective in what I accept for review. Please see my updated Review Policy for more information. It will mean saying "no" more often but it will also ensure that I am better able to promote and share my feelings on the books that I do review.

I'm also now reviewing self-published books, mostly ones that I purchase on my Kindle.

I may be adding a few more non-book-related posts here and there and I may not be blogging 5 days a week.

However, I'm here to stay and I hope that you'll stick around for all the fun things I have planned!

Remember to follow me on Twitter @harmonybreviews!

xoxo
Harmony