About Us

Welcome to Joyfully Jay! My name is Jay and I started this blog because I love to read and wanted a place to share my thoughts with other readers and lovers of romance. As my family will tell you, I have an opinion on everything and I love to talk about books, so a blog seemed like a fun outlet!

Joyfully Jay kicked off back in September 2011 and we are growing bigger every day! We read and review a variety of LGBTQ romance and try to include all sexualities and gender identities under the rainbow. While we primarily review adult romance, we also do occasionally review LGBTQ fiction and non-fiction, as well as YA romance. We generally do not review books that are exclusively m/f romance without an LGBTQ component unless it is part of a larger series that also includes LGBTQ pairings. In addition to book reviews, we host daily author guest posts and regular giveaways. We also have special events, like our annual Reading Challenge Month. So lots of fun stuff and we keep quite busy here!

So, a bit about me. I have a husband and two daughters that I adore and two cats who seem to rule the house. I have been an avid reader since I was a child and have loved romance for years. I typically read 3-5 books a week and I have a towering TBR pile that I will never conquer. In my off-line life I work part-time from home teaching IT training, writing web content, and trying to make English out of the stuff my IT department writes. Of course, writing about romance is much more fun!

Let’s see… I love anything chocolate and peanut butter, and lately anything with caramel and sea salt. I am a big sweet and salty girl (I’ve been known to drink beer with m&ms, but don’t tell anyone). I love the beach, lazy days, and curling up with a good book.

I also am a regular visitor on the Big Gay Fiction Podcast and you can find links to all my appearances here.

I am thrilled that you stopped by and hope you like it here!  Feel free to get in touch if you ever want to chat!

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Associate Reviewers

Kris
Kris is an avid reader, an obsessive knitter/crocheter, and a prolific daydreamer. Dividing her time between those tasks is a constant juggling act, and the day job certainly gets in the way. Her three cats believe she is only worthy of handing out food and pets, but the tropical fish seem to love her as she is. She is incredibly lucky to have been graced with a wonderfully supportive family. They don’t seem to mind too much when she’d rather spend her time with the beautiful men on the page. She dreams of one day being independently wealthy so she can spend her days with words, yarn, and a mint-condition 1967 Corvette.

Michelle
Michelle spends her days working as an editor valiantly trying to preserve the English language. As a former event planner and recipe developer with a professional pastry certification, she can plan and execute the perfect party and never goes anywhere empty handed as someone is always requesting their favorite dessert. She carves out time for spinning and weight training and has mastered the art of reading while on the treadmill.

Veronica
Veronica is a full-time science teacher, full-time wife, and full-time mother to four sons. She reads to escape all that stress! It makes no sense why she reads a metric ton of M/M romance, but she thinks it’s the ambient testosterone saturating her brain. At least her dog is a girl.

Camille
Camille has worked as a children’s English teacher in Japan and as an interpreter/translator for Japanese-owned manufacturers in Japan. Their interest in m/m romance flared to life back in the late 1990s when they stumbled upon Japanese comics and anime that featured gay couples and grew into a active presence in the Gundam Wing slash fandom where they contributed fanfic and fanart. Now, Camille is pursuing a few opportunities in higher education while they ponder where to venture off to next. Despite the changes in careers and countries, the love and interest in m/m and other queer stories remains as strong as ever.

Elizabeth
Elizabeth can usually be found drowning in books. Raised in a book loving family, she was given a hearty diet of fantasy classic science fiction as a child, and even now has a hard time going anywhere without her kindle at hand. Fond of cats, horses and tea, she has dreams of one day turning the spare room into a three story library.

Jovan
Jovan is a book loving, science loving, all around nerd with an eclectic taste in books, film and music. After running across a review that seemed to speak specifically to her quirks, Jovan began writing reviews in the hopes that they might help someone find a good read or be that oddball/outlier review that spoke to someone else’s tastes, quirks and individual random irritants ;). Jovan loves learning about and experiencing new places and ideas, and wholeheartedly agrees with Stephen King that “books are a uniquely portable magic”, repositories of the human condition and safe havens with the power to enlighten, energize, encourage. . . essentially engage the gamut of human emotions and thought. In other words, Jovan totally digs books!

 

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