A Daring Pursuit by Kate Bateman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The next book in the “Ruthless Rivals” series follows enemies Carys Davies and Tristan Montgomery.
The two delight on picking on each other and from the very first few pages it is clear that there is a strong chemistry here.
Carys has a secret that she is hiding. When Tristan comes dangerously close to finding out the truth about Carys’ scandal, she tries to distract him.
The end result is a bargain between the two of them. They would spend a week together. Tristan would show Carys a good time (and get her out of his system) and once the week is over, they resume their lives.
This was a disastrous idea considering that they had family married and would probably see each other again. However I was fully in support of it in order for the main characters to get together.
I am a bit disappointed that this wasn’t as action-packed as the first book but I did feel like there was much more romance.
This was a delightful read that I recommend to anyone looking for a historical romance.
Fiction Friday: Book Review- Starry-Eyed Love by Helena Hunting
Starry-Eyed Love by Helena Hunting
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I received a review copy of this book via Netgalley.
London Sparks is one of the three owners of Spark House, a family-run events company. When she goes out to a bar to celebrate being newly single, her sisters are delighted to see the return of “fun London”. London tends to get too serious when she is in a relationship and her sisters are glad to have her let off some steam.
However while celebrating, London makes intense eye contact with a gorgeous guy who pays for their drinks and then gives London his number. London politely turns him down. Like all newly single people, London has decided to focus on her career.
A few months later, London is stressing about their business, which is rapidly growing, when she receives a call from a multi-million-dollar company who wants to discuss working with her.
London presents to the team but is interrupted by the CEO of the company, Jackson Holt. Who is also the guy from the bar.
London and Jackson eventually start to develop feelings after working together for a while. However Jackson has something in his past that might pose a threat to them being together.
This was a wonderful read that I enjoyed immensely. (Though to be fair, I have not seen a Helena Hunting novel that I did not love). If you are looking for a fun, contemporary romance, give this a go.
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How to Take a Mental Health Day when You Aren’t Allowed One
categories: Mental Health
About three or four weeks ago, I started feeling really burnt out and like I desperately needed time off from work. Mental health days were not something that we officially had at work and if I wanted time off, I would have needed to book time off from my PTO. (Fun fact- it wasn’t burn-out. I was experiencing the early stages of the Coronavirus). This got me thinking about how exactly one would go about taking a mental health day if that wasn’t something provided by your company.
Here are my tips on how to take a mental heath day:
1. Monitor Yourself for Signs of Exhaustion or Burn-Out: The idea here is for you to catch it before it becomes a problem. The second you realize you need a time-out, book your leave. Do not wait for it to worsen. Remember, you cannot pour from an empty cup. You need YOU to be performing at your best in life whether this is for family, friends or your place of work. Keep an eye on how you’re feeling so that you can refill your cup as soon as you need to.
2. Schedule Your Time Off in Advance: Note that I used the word “schedule”. That is because this is important. Request your PTO far enough in advance that you can ensure that 1) anything that is going to cause you stress can be taken care off BEFORE you take your mental health day and 2) you are able to plan a proper mental health day.
3. It’s a Mental Health Day…Act Like It: So no work emails (if it’s an emergency, they can call 911), no feeling guilt and no negativity. Do something for you and something that you would enjoy whether it’s watching a movie or shark-diving.
4. Maybe You Might Need More than A Day: You might need a mental health week as opposed to a day. That is perfectly okay. You do what is best for you.
A mental health day might not be something offered by every company but you can still (and should) take time off to destress and relax.
6 Benefits Besides Salary to Look for in a New Job
categories: Career, General Career Advice
Salary is great. You can buy pretty shoes. You can go to nice places. You can get through the month without dipping into your overdraft or swiping your credit card. But a decent salary isn’t the only thing that matters when you’re looking for a job. Here are 6 benefits besides salary to look for in a new job.
1. Medical Aid:
This is actually the first thing that I look for in a job and the reason for that is I am a person (in perfectly good health) who really uses her medical aid. I use it for blood tests, optometry, the dentist and visits to my GP where I explain to him that I have bad PMS and he just passes it off . Fun. Seriously though, medical aid is totally unnecessary until you actually need it. To me it’s just a really expensive way of ensuring that when I do get sick, I am able to get proper care.
2. Paid Time Off:
I didn’t think of this as a benefit until I joined my current job which offers 21 leave days. That is practically a whole month. Are there other companies doing this? I need to know. Paid time off is important to ensure that you take care of yourself and avoid burnout.
3. Work From Home:
Again, something that I didn’t think was a benefit until my current role. Work from home, especially if you are an introvert, means less commute time and more time to spend with your family. You might be willing to settle for a role with a lower salary if it is a WFH role (since you save costs on commuting, food and other in-office costs)
4. Training and Professional Development:
A business that believes in investing in their employees is definitely one you want to join. Training and professional development benefits both you and the business so if you come across a business that values this, it’s an automatic green flag.
5. Flexible Work Hours:
As an insomniac, flexible work hours are my favourite thing. You’re telling me when I can’t sleep at 3AM, I can work??? This might sound unhealthy to many but hear me out. If I am wide awake at 3AM and I know I can get work done, why shouldn’t I? It beats me sitting at my desk at 2PM, trying not to fall asleep because I have a deadline to hit.
6. Work Equipment:
Companies that provide their staff with work equipment bring me so much joy. This is another way of a company investing in you and showing that they want you to be able to do the best that you can do. Companies often provide computers or routers for their staff which helps ease costs. Bonus points if you throw in a back-up power supply. Eishkom for who?
What are some benefits that would make you consider a lower salary? I’d love to know below.
SEO Tips for Beginners
categories: Blogging Tips, SEO
Guys, I have tried repeatedly to write an article on SEO basics. But I am old and forgetful and I do not know anymore what SEO techniques I use because I learnt it VS what SEO techniques I use out of habit (the latter which is probably old and outdated and might not work anymore).
As a Digital Marketer, I obviously do not want to give you irrelevant and outdated information so instead I am compiling a few links that could help you learn SEO as a beginner.
1) Moz has a beginner guide to On-Page SEO which looks at all aspects of optimizing your webpages.
2) Wordstream has a beginner guide to SEO basics however be warned, this post is incredibly long. This is an article that would probably be best to bookmark and come back to later.
3) Semrush looks specifically at SEO tips for bloggers
4) Finally, Hubspot has their own guide which I am recommending simply because they’re Hubspot.
Fiction Friday: Book Review- Ghosted by Emily Barr
Ghosted by Emily Barr
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I received a review copy of this book on Netgalley. This book hurt me and I was so not ready.
When Ariel’s toxic, hot-tempered father turns his back on their family, Ariel retreats to an abandoned store-room in a corner of the mall. But then she encounters Joe and the two of them exchange numbers.
Joe is on his way to France and he knows he should be excited but he just feels dread.
Ariel tries to text Joe but it turns out that his number is disconnected. Hurt, Ariel goes back to where she met him. There he is, with no memory of her or their meeting. And he still claims that he is leaving to France that afternoon.
Soon Ariel and Joe realize that Joe is reliving the same day over and over. Ariel promises to solve the mystery of Joe but eventually starts to turn her back on her reality in order to fix Joe’s.
I actually have no words to adequately describe this book. It was engaging, it was gripping, it was emotional. IT WAS EVERYTHING!
This book was alot but in the best way possible.
Ariel and Joe are adorable and by the end of the book, I was ugly-crying. If you want a book that is thrilling and will not let you go, I recommend this one.
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categories: Books
“This addictive enemies-to-lovers romance…captures both characters’ intense emotions and undeniable chemistry. It’s sure to have readers hooked.” —Publishers Weekly
Ruthless Rival, an all-new addictive and emotional romance from Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author L.J. Shen is now live!
From Wall Street Journal bestselling author L.J. Shen comes an enemies-to-lovers romance about the fine line between seeking revenge and finding love.
When she was young, Arya Roth became best friends with her housekeeper’s son. Soon, friendship turned to young love, and when Arya dared him to kiss her, a chain reaction of disastrous events led to the boy being sent away and out of Arya’s life.
Now, two decades later, Arya is an on-the-rise publicist with her beloved father as one of her biggest clients. So when her father is sued by a former employee, Arya sets out to prove that her father is not the monster he is accused of being. The only problem is the attorney who is determined to destroy her father’s good name. Christian Miller is charming, ambitious, and devilishly good looking, and Arya has no idea he is that same boy who kissed her all those years ago.
Past and present collide as Arya falls hard for Christian. But when she finds out who he really is and about his obsession with getting revenge on her father, can she choose love over family?
Fall in love today!
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3N3FScV
Amazon Worldwide: http://mybook.to/RuthlessRivalLJ
Amazon Paperback: https://amzn.to/3tlAkmf
Audiobook: https://amzn.to/3N32B9b
Add Ruthless Rival to Goodreads: https://bit.ly/3IoIVJ6
About LJ Shen
L.J. Shen is a USA Today, Washington Post and Amazon #1 best-selling author of contemporary, New Adult and YA romance. Her books have been sold to nineteen different countries.
She lives in California with her husband, son, cat and eccentric fashion choices, and enjoys good wine, bad reality TV shows and catching sun rays with her lazy cat.
Connect with L.J. Shen
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Website: http://www.authorljshen.com/
7 Questions to Ask in An Interview and Why
categories: Career, Job Hunting Tips
I absolutely hate the part of job interviews where the interviewer asks “Do you have any questions?” However I recently learnt that one of the reasons that I got my current role was because I was apparently really eager when it came time for me to ask questions.
Of course I was eager. It was my dream job! But that was what made me realize how important this part of the interview was for a candidate. This is the time to show your interviewer that you are interested in the job as more than just a paycheck. This is also the time for YOU to evaluate whether or not this job is a good fit for you. Here are 7 questions that you should be asking and why.
1) What does a typical day look like?
If you get this job, you want to know beforehand what exactly a day will look like for you? This is especially great if you are speaking to someone who held the role before you. They would be able to advise what your duties are, who you work closely with and why. Their answer will also tell you how they felt about the job. Asking this question shows that you are serious about the role and want to know more.
2) Where is the last person who held this job moving on to?
This is something I picked up from the media buyer I interned under. Asking this question allows you to find out if the person who previously held this role was promoted (yay for internal growth) or if they left the company. If they left the company, you might want to dig deeper and investigate why. Was it just for a higher paycheck or was there more to the story? Is there an issue with staff constantly leaving?
3) What’s your favorite part about working here?
This question is an excellent way to evaluate what type of an environment you are going into. What is the interviewer’s favorite part, if any? It is important that they have something that you too can see as fun or a highlight. If you asked me this back when I was in a toxic workplace, my answer would have been “home-time”. For my Marketing interview, the interviewer seemed genuinely excited about her work and that made me excited about the job.
4) What are the next steps in the interview process?
This is a great question to help you know if you were successful, what would you be doing next. Is it a personality test? A skills test? A group interview? This is also a great way to find out when you will receive feedback on your interview.
5) If you were starting this job now, what advice would you give yourself?
This is another way to show that you are genuinely interested in the role and would like to know how to kick ass at it. People like to give advice to new starts (or atleast nice, helpful people do) so this is also a good way to build rapport with your interviewer. Again, be sure to evaluate the answers so that you know if this role is for you. I once had an interview where the interviewer told me that lunch breaks were often sacrificed for deadlines. What they didn’t mention was that the team NEVER took a lunch break (they ate at odd hours and they ate at their desks) and those who did take lunch away from their desks were looked down on. Thankfully, I never got this specific job.
6) What kinds of challenges can I expect in this role?
Again this is more of a “I want to know how to do my best at this job” as opposed to “I want this job because I need money”. Knowing what challenges await you in this role if you are successful allows you to know what to prepare for. Do you need to brush up on your Excel knowledge? Do you need to spend more time working on your presentation skills? Now is the time to find out.
7) What is the company culture like?
THIS! This is a really important question but also it is one that is rarely answered honestly. If you get the chance to walk around or speak to other people in the workplace, this is a good idea. Another idea is to get a glance at the staff if you can. You can clearly see the difference between happy and unhappy staff. Happy staff are bubbly and chatty. Unhappy staff are…not. Keep your eyes open. And if the interviewer comes up with the old “We are like a family” line- RUN!
The most important thing when it comes to asking questions in an interview is that you show a genuine interest for the role and the company as opposed to just being interested in money. Income is important but it’s the actual work that you’re going to be doing everyday and you want to make sure it isn’t something that will make you miserable.
5 Easy Tips to Increase Your Blog’s Traffic
categories: Blogging Tips
Rome was not built in a day…and neither is blog traffic. When it comes to blogging, you need to be putting time and effort into gaining traffic for your site. As a newbie it can be difficult to know what to do in order to increase your traffic but here are 5 easy tips to help you along.
1) Share on social: Once your blog post is written (and edited and proofread for errors), share it on all your social media sites in order to increase your visibility. You can also ask friends and family to share your content so that your work can be exposed to a larger group of people.
2) Learn how to improve on your SEO: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) refers to optimizing your blog for search engines so that they’re able to crawl and index your website. Why is this important? SEO helps to put your blog in front of the readers who will benefit the most from reading it (eg, showing my blog to bookworms). There are a number of things you can do to improve your SEO but this article explains it pretty well. I’ve been learning SEO for so long that I wouldn’t even know where to start explaining it but I will say this. It took me three attempts at three different stages or my blog before I got the hang of SEO so absolutely do not give up.
3) Guest Post: Guest posting on other blogs is another way for you to build visibility. It allows a wider group of people to view your work and if you post on a blog in a niche that is different from yours, you can also attract a different audience.
4) Pay to play if possible: For me this is one of the last options but paying to promote your work whether this is on Google Ads, social media to just getting someone to advertise your blog, is another way to help increase your traffic. Some people say that in the digital world you need to pay to play however this isn’t something that I have needed to do.
5) Create a mailing list: This takes more effort however it helps to build a community of loyal readers. There are lots of ways to build an email list and I will go into detail about this later however creating a mailing list ensures that you have people who are engaged with your content and want to be informed whenever you create a new post.
There are a ton of ways to gain traffic for your blog and this is just a few of them. Do you have any suggestions of your own? Let me know below.
Fiction Friday: Book Review- Sticky Fingers #2 (Sticky Fingers Collection) by J.T. Lawrence
Sticky Fingers 2 by J.T. Lawrence
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I desperately wanted to read a book but I know that my attention span has been horribly short lately. And then I found this on my Kindle app and knew it was a winner.
J.T Lawrence has a wonderfully entertaining writing style but the “Sticky Fingers” collection is one of my favorites because of how unexpected and unusual the stories are.
I figured this would be easier to read than a novel and I was right. I finished this book in one sitting and was left wanting more (a rather unfortunate side-effect of this collection).
I do not want to binge read because at some point I will then run of books to read but I cannot wait to start another “Sticky Fingers” book.
This series is well-written, gripping and entertaining. If you’re looking for a good book, need to fall back into the habit of reading or just want to escape reality, this is the series for you!
You could pick up any of these books and they will do a great job pulling you in.
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