My first post with this blog. This will probably be an infodump of massive proportion so you get to know me and why I even made this blog in the first place. Well, here's the summary. I just signed up with NetGalley and needed a blog for the reviews. I already review on both Goodreads and Amazon but if I don't have a blog I'm not really eligible for a ton of titles that interest me on NetGalley and once they reject your request you can't re-request. So here I am. Not like it's a hardship because I generally like raving or complaining about what I read so that's mainly what's going to be on this blog. Well, book reviews and the occasional rant one-sided discussion about manga, anime, movies, or shows.
So I like books. A lot. Right now I like it better than just about any other media that could take up any and all of my free time. On a slow year I read upwards of 400 books even with chasing after my two active girls and doing the other stuff that I do at home. Using Goodreads I keep track of what I read, what I'd like to read, and how much I enjoyed what I read. Well, honestly, that's the purpose of the site, right? Because I read so much it would be unwise to think I could afford to feed that habit on the regular so I make use of my library and any other library my friends and family have access to. Oh, and there's also a ton of free books on Amazon, but that's pretty much just a way to fill my kindle app with books I might never get to reading because there's so many and most, pretty close to all of them, are by authors I didn't know to look for at my library.
And then I happened across Instafreebie. I could always be guaranteed to have an inbox that I could empty of unread emails in a few minutes but after I found a way to get free books that went out the window. Honestly it was because I didn't really understand that I was signing up for free books with the caveat that I'd also be signing up for each of those author's newsletters. I mistakenly thought that if I didn't select the little box dude that said I'd agree to the sending of stuff that I'd get only the book. Well, who knows how many sign-ups later, I've got hundreds of emails to go through all the time.
Now unsubscribing is a bit of an issue. I have this guilty conscience that says I should give each author a chance since I decided to get their book but I got so many that I couldn't remember which books went with which authors and which ones I should read sooner rather than later. And how do I know I don't want their newsletter anymore if I haven't even read their books yet? And then there's the deadlines on my library books that take priority over that. And then we went on a vacation for a couple months. See where this is going? No? Yeah, I'm not sure either, but I'm relatively sure I'll get somewhere that makes sense eventually.
Okay, where was I? Oh yeah, mounting issues with emails and books and general priorities. Okay, so, I've got a bajillion emails that are relatively time sensitive because they might have free books in them and those have time limits and I'm ridiculous enough to think that's actually something I have to have to get to. But how to sift through them all when I've got hundreds that need time and attention and I have two girls and a dog and a house and dinner and all the other things that are actually important? Well, when I got access to an actual computer to use instead of my iPad and phone Gmail app thingies I just deleted things in giant chunks, everything except the ones with some reference to a free book in the subject. Then after I got rid of everything I started unsubscribing. By this time I kind of didn't care about the unknown enjoyment or disappointment because I realized that I could always sign up for their newsletter after I read something of theirs that I actually enjoyed. Bet you saw that as a solution way before this point, yeah? What can I say, hindsight is always 20/20.
So with that hindsight I started reading and found authors I genuinely enjoyed, re-signed up for their newsletters, and then found books I totally dug. I contacted those authors and asked if I could read and review future books of theirs and so got started in reviewing. After a while I got started with Hidden Gems and found that I really liked the variety of books that I was being offered. There are books I regretted signing up for once I got the notice that I was selected as a reviewer because I wasn't interested or, after reading, didn't really like the book, but on the whole I've enjoyed my experience.
As a reviewer I'm fairly thorough in my reviews and I think I'm also kind of stingy with the stars. I most commonly give 3 stars and rarely give 5 or 1 stars. My rating system is as follows:
Hated it. What a friggin' waste of time. The characters were either horrible or the plot was or there was something so offending that I despised the whole book and nothing can redeem it.
Didn't really enjoy it, the book was just okay. Really, I just didn't hate it enough to warrant a one-star review. Books that warrant a "meh" or a "well, ok?" feeling also get the two-star.
Liked it. This kind of becomes the catch-all rating when I didn't feel blah, weirded out, or ecstatic about it. It also gets the most rounded reviews, meaning it catches the 2.5/3.5 set. This rating also means that I genuinely liked the book, yes, a basic like but still a like.
Really liked it! The characters are usually strong, the steam is hot, the feels are present, and I really enjoyed reading the story overall. This is the mark of a book I'd totally recommend to others or have no problem re-reading multiple times.
LOVED IT! I'll re-read this a hundred times and still like it, talk about this book to anyone that asks, email the author to tell them I loved the book and thank them for being generally awesome and ask to be a reviewer for them.
There are lots of times I'll find an author I like or sign up for an ARC even if I don't know the author's style very well and when I get the review link they ask for only 4 or 5 star reviews to be posted and to e-mail them with anything lower. Can I say how annoying that is? That's totally padding their reviews and making the whole thing way biased. If I legitimately don't enjoy something or feel that they deserve less than 4 stars for valid reasons the world should know. I'm not going to be a party to essentially tricking people into purchasing a story that they're convinced they'll love when they don't get the full picture. So I follow their wishes and then unsubscribe. And then I post my lower-than-4-star review a week or more after the release date. That's my version of integrity.
So here's me. I read, I review, I rinse, I repeat. Oh, and I have, like, more than 700 emails to sift through because I've done gone and signed up for who knows what while on vacation. The next post will be my first review since signing up with NetGalley: Andrew Grey's The Photographer's Assistant.
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