Hi, my name is Michelle, but most people call me Chelley
*waves frantically at everyone reading this*
Here I am drawn by Jim Smith aka Barry Loser!
I am an avid reader – I love reading! I have always loved books and I took the step of starting a blog in November 2014 through this love that I have. It really felt like a natural progression for me. I went through a bit of a traumatic time a couple of years ago when I suddenly and without reason lost my sight in my right eye. It was a tough time, I couldn’t read for a while with my left eye and I guess my brain couldn’t concentrate on things properly and my sight has not returned in my right eye at all. Lucky for me my left eye decided to function and after a while I picked up a UKYA book (Hollow Pike by Juno Dawson) and started reading it and fell completely in love with reading again and the whole YA community.
I read lots of books and review them on my blog! I like to read anything whether it be Adult Fiction, YA, Children’s, Fantasy, Horror, Crime or Romance. I am really not fussy at all as I love reading. I do tend to read mainly YA and MG books as I like to share my love of books with my son.
I also love to feature guest posts and Q&As amongst others things on Tales, from authors as well as other bloggers and publishers. I always feature anything I enjoy or find fun or want to know the answers to. I love the fact that I can discuss books through my blog or on twitter with other people who have read the books. It’s lovely to hear different opinions and thoughts. I have made so many wonderful friends through blogging, other bloggers, authors, publicists etc and each and every single one has touched my heart! The book blogging community is THE BEST!
My favourite authors (there are too many to actually list) are Juno Dawson, Patricia Cornwell, Sophie Kinsella, James Patterson, Stephen King, JK Rowling, Keris Stainton, Jennifer Niven, Melina Marchetta, Agatha Christie, Abi Elphinstone, Robin Stevens, Helen Maslin and Taylor Jenkins Reid. A whole range of books and authors really. I am also a huge supporter of UKYA.
I am contracts controller for a drilling company by day and an avid book reader/book blogger/serial tweeter/twitter addict by night and on weekends!
I am often known to be a little bit clumsy and possibly a little loopy! I am always laughing at something and have a bit of a chuckle laugh (one of my managers calls me chuckles). I am often always embarrassing myself in some situation or another whether it be a little trip or fall or embarrassing myself with something that comes verbally out of my mouth.
I live with my long suffering husband Kev, who I have known since I was 4, and who used to have an office before I set about world book domination and overtook it with books (evil laugh). I also have an 17 year old son, Corey, and 3 cats, Skittles, Patch and Louis who enjoy causing mayhem, 4 rabbits, Velvet, Cookie, Cream and Fluffy and 4 guinea pigs called Ella, Tilly, Winifred and Mary who pinch all my salad!
I am a book-loving (obsessed), theatre-loving, slasher-horror film loving csi geek! I’m often (very often) seen on Twitter and Instagram embarrassing myself and tweeting about books using @chelleytoy or @talespointhorrorbookclub
I also have a thing for Homer Simpson……
As well as reading I love writing stories, going to the theatre (Miss Siagon and Wicked being my favourite ever!), watching films with a special passion for teenage slasher movies like Halloween, Scream, Friday the 13th (why don’t they make these anymore?!) and I am also a huge CSI fan which includes a huge crush on Gil Grissom!
In March 2015 I was nominated for three #awardukyabbloggers awards winning the Best Newcomer 2015.
I also won Champion Newcomer 2015 in the first ever #UKYABA (UKYA Book Blogger Awards) which is voted for by UK publishers and organised by the brilliant Andy Robb!
In May 2016 I was nominated for six #awardukyabblogger awards hosted by @lunaslibrary , Best Growing Blogger, Best On Social Media, Marvellous Blogger Award, Best Female Blogger, Blogger Spirit Award and Best Adult Blogger winning four out of the six and coming second place in the other two.
In October 2016 I was nominated for Champion Of Social Media and Blogger Of The Year at the #UKYABA2016 (UKYA Book Blogger Awards).
In 2017 I was nominated for Best Book Blog in the annual Bloggers Bash!
I was also longlisted and shortlisted for the following 2018 UKYABA categories….
And also mentioned as one of the top 100 book blogs in 2018….
I am beyond stunned and will be forever speechless about these achievements! Sometimes I even have to pinch myself to check I wasn’t dreaming!
Some of my reviews have been used inside of book covers, on press releases or on authors websites which you can find here and I am also honoured and completely thankful for every time I see my name in the back of a book in the acknowledgements.
I have had the honour of chairing some author events and workshops which you can find out more about here
I also host a nostalgic #PointHorrorBookClub every month where we read and discuss a Point Horror book which were all the rage and loved by myself in the 90’s – do you remember them?
As well as working with UK publishers and reviewing books on Tales I post them to Goodreads and Amazon and I am also a reviewer for the wonderful LoveReading4Kids and LoveReading!
You can contact me using [email protected] or on twitter using @chelleytoy !
Happy Reading!
