What We Do.
Aurelia offers candid reviews, author interviews, bookish news and promotions. For more information on requesting a review or scheduling an interview or other promotion please visit our Review Policies page.
Who We Are.
Rebekah and Leslie met over ten years ago when they had adjoining cubicles working as “Internet Librarians”. Unfortunately, the job had nothing to do with reading books, but they quickly discovered they were actually long-lost twins (ok, not actually – but, they were born about 48 hours apart). They managed to waste spend most of their time talking about books and boys outside (and mostly during) working hours. Leslie started a fabulous book-club; which, though short-lived, was responsible for introducing them both to Harry Potter and Kurt Vonnegut, so it was a raging success.
Since then they’ve continued to gab about countless books and shared many spontaneous wine-fueled weekend book-reading marathons. They each started out doing reviews for other sites, which wasn’t nearly as much fun as working together, so they decided to join their awesome super-book forces into one mega geek-girl powered blog of awesomeness. Rebekah started up this site in April, 2009 and Leslie moved on over in January, 2011.
About Rebekah
Multi-tasker extraordinaire, Rebekah Montgomery (aka Bex) is passionate about learning all kinds of new stuff. The world kinda fascinates her most the time. Besides reading, she loves photography, writing, interior design, karaoke, and strong coffee. She dreams about traveling to India and is on a perpetual quest for the perfect apartment and the worlds best sushi. When she’s not hitting the books for school (psychology & creative writing), you can find her online writing, reviewing, and (well let’s be honest here… facebooking)!
She’s the creative force behind Aurel Media which currently runs both Aurelia and Writefly, a resource for writers. In the past she’s written for Blogcritics Magazine, and worked as an Editor for WritingNews.org. She’s had more than a few less-literary (and therefore less-interesting) vocations and hobbies, most of which involved staplers and spreadsheets and required the wearing of sensible heels.
Her biggest, scariest, and most exciting project by far is her current work towards completing her first YA novel.
Favorite Book: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Future Literary Husband: Gilbert Blythe (Anne of Green Gables)
Favorite Movie: Serenity
Future Hollywood Husband: Jake Gyllenhaal or Jerry O’Connell (they are free to arm wrestle for her)
Favorite Adult Beverage: Italian Margaritas or whatever she happens to make-up this month.
Facebook | Goodreads | Twitter | Bookishly Bex
About Leslie
Besides being an awesome AP English teacher, Leslie Jones (aka Jonesey) coaches Girls Tennis, and collects super-cool pencils. Obviously, she’s an avid reader and bibliophile. Currently Leslie is a touch obsessed with YA Lit. and thinks she might be a vampire, but that changes every year when school starts in the pseudo-Fall (which is really just a fancy name for August). Jonesey also loves to travel and get pedicures. Someday she wants to learn how to knit, to speak Italian, and how to make use of all the sweet video editing software that’s on her computer. She also loves to swim – probably because she’s a Pisces….and confesses to a being a total foodie!!
Favorite Book: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Future Literary Husband: Mr. Darcy (Pride and Prejudice)
Favorite Movie: Bridget Jones’s Diary
Future Hollywood Husband: Nathan Fillion (Bex soo has designs to woo him away as well)
Favorite Adult Beverage: “I love me a good Mojito”
Read an interview with Leslie here.
Facebook | Goodreads | Leslie’s Lexicology
So…Who or What is Aurelia?
Well first of all, it’s us! R and L. AUR EL and now you’ve found AURELIA.
But before that, it was all kinds of interesting, including: A saint, a jellyfish, the mother of Julius Caesar, a chrysalis, a car, a Romanian gymnast, a hypothetical planet, a hymn, a town in Iowa, the mother of Sylvia Plath, a fictional country, an asteroid, a first lady, a naval vessel, the title of two books (separated by 153 years), a color, and a character in a video game.
We stumbled upon it by a quite convoluted and separate route which included: A forgotten screenplay, a stolen name, a Christian author somewhere in the Midwest, a coveted internet address, procrastination, a mysterious nom-de-plume, a tattoo, and an overdeveloped sense of romanticism.
Coincidentally: One of us happens to be related to Julius Caesar. That forgotten screenplay relied heavily on the symbolism of a chrysalis. We actually won that second book and have had a few chats with the author. We are currently on a hunt for the first book, but since that author lived over a century ago, we kinda hope we don’t meet him anytime soon. We also have an affinity for Sylvia Plath and video games. Especially ones that include asteroids, hypothetical planets, fictional countries and jellyfish.
Speak.