FOMO Reared Its Head

I confess to having had a bit of blogger FOMO (fear of missing out) recently. I visited a post from one of the WordPress bloggers I follow and saw all the comments, similar to the number I used to receive when I paid for WP. Now, I don't miss the pointless smashing of the like button, but I do sometimes miss getting a half-dozen or so different comments after each post and the ensuing interaction. It was a brief twinge of FOMO, certainly not strong enough to make me want to return to WP, especially after I read the latest pile of complaints (missing notifications, etc.).

OK, I am already over it. A couple weeks ago I heard a song that created a pang of FOMO for my lack of a (romantic) love life. I am also over that. I'm "only" human however, and sometimes even after knowing it was for the best to move on from a thing, I briefly miss it. Or, rather, I miss the illusion of the thing; in reality, the thing sucked, which is why I abandoned it. Dating especially was such a disaster that it plunged me into depression for around a year and a half. 

Today I finished The Drop of the Dice by Victoria Holt (aka Philippa Carr) and gave it five stars. Such a great historical romance! Remember, Holt doesn't write traditional HEA romances, so you can't always expect the heroine to marry her soulmate. That's what makes them a cut above other romance novels, in my opinion. The stories are character driven and not always predictable. History and politics loom large in these Daughters of England series of books, as well they should ~ the whims of kings make a material difference in ordinary people's lives, then and now. This book fit the historical fiction category on my 2025 Reading Challenge.

Speaking of politics, here's a peeve regarding the Bachelor Nation shows: politics are never mentioned. Probably the contestants do discuss politics with the bachelor(ette), but those convos are cut because the producers don't want to potentially offend anyone in the audience. Can you imagine deciding to become engaged to someone without knowing who they voted for in the last election (or indeed if they are one of those folks who don't vote at all) or the issues they care about? I can't!

For the novella category on the reading challenge, I chose The One That Got Away by Mike Gayle. It was a trite and annoying romance; I gave it only one star. If it had been a novel, I would have DNF'd it, but luckily it was only 100 pages.

For the "setting in the title" category, I read The Road to Paradise Island by Victoria Holt. It was a good romance/mystery novel with plenty of drama and adventure, but I personally did not approve of the overly aggressive and super arrogant man who won the protagonist's heart, so I gave it four stars not five. 

I also read Nobody's Perfect by Sally Kilpatrick, and I gave it three stars. Not sure what genre to put it in... contemporary fiction, I guess. The anatomy of a divorce plotline was somewhat interesting yet annoying at the same time. I enjoyed the main character's relationship with her mother, but other times I was cringing at some of the stupid things the MC said or did. The MC's new romance seemed both unnecessary and unrealistic, but I did enjoy the part that social media played in the story's development. This novel fit the 2025 Reading Challenge category of the MC being a parent.

That's all for today. I'm still trying to find something decent to watch on one of the channels I pay for, but so far everything is dreck.