15 Day Book Blogger Challenge: Day 15 - Who are your book blogging mentors?

I stumbled across the 15 Day Book Blogger Challenge hosted by April from Good Books Good Wine and it looks like so much fun that I have to take part. You can find out all about the challenge and how to join in HERE. Obviously the idea of the challenge is to take part 15 days in a row but I don't have enough time for that and since April is so relaxed over the rules I've decided  dedicate one day a week to the challenge.

The Day 15 topic is: Who are your book blogging mentors?

I've been blogging for nearly four years now and have come across a lot of fantastic blogs and bloggers in that time. It would be impossible to list all of the bloggers who have been mentors to me. I've already listed my blogging BFFs HERE and they have also helped keep me blogging for all this time so I feel they deserve an honourable mention again here but I think I'd like to point out a few of my other blogging influences.

Becky from The Bookette

Becky hasn't been blogging that much recently which is a shame & I really hope she'll be back on the scene more soon but I have to mention her because The Bookette was one of the first blogs I ever started reading. When I started my blog it was a new years resolution to keep track of the books I'd been reading and my thoughts on them. I had no idea that the whole book blogging community existed and Becky was one of the first bloggers I came across. She was so welcoming and always took the time to answer my questions and help newbie bloggers and it was thanks to her and other bloggers like her that I started reviewing books for publishers. Becky has always been a huge supporter of British authors, she was the blogger who set up the British Books Challenge and she even managed to get Katherine Robert's book Song Quest back in print after campaigning to find it a new publisher. If you haven't come across Becky's blog before then you really should check it out!

Jo from Once Upon a Bookcase

Jo's blog is another one I found not long after I started blogging and she was also incredibly supportive to me as a newbie blogger. Jo was the blogger who arranged the first UK blogger meet up way back in 2010 which was how I ended up meeting quite a few of my blogging buddies who I'm still really good friends with. Jo puts a huge amount of effort into organising themed events on her blog so far she has organised months on sex in teen lit, body image and self perception, death and bereavement and most recently LGBQT YA. Each of her themed months have a fantastic selection of reviews, author interviews and guest posts that are very insightful and bring important issues to light. Jo is taking a mini break from blogging at the moment but I'm sure she'll be back very soon.

Michelle from Fluttering Butterflies

I didn't discover Michelle's blog until a couple of years ago, although she's been around since 2006 so she's an old hand, but it has become one of my favourite places to visit. Michelle is another strong supporter of British authors and puts a lot of effort into creating a list of UKYA published every month. She has various different features that cover everything from awesome women, to spotlighting British bloggers and she has also run themed weeks/months on love, mental health awareness, fairy tales & retellings, dystopian and paranormal books. What I love about Michelle is the fact that she comes up with so many interesting discussion posts and ideas for personal posts, that's something I don't tend to do a lot of here but she always inspires me to want to try new things. She is also one of the friendliest people you'll ever meet, she is so good at replying to comments and taking the time to comment on other people's blogs (something I really suck at recently!). I just love Michelle's blog and think Fluttering Butterflies should be on everyone's feed readers!

I could probably list a hundred more bloggers that have inspired me over the years but I promised myself I'd keep this list down to my top 3 so there you have it. I'm sure most of you are already following all of these blogs but if there are any you haven't come across before I'd definitely recommend checking them out!