How do you choose a book to read?

I saw this article all over twitter http://jezebel.com/homme-de-plume-what-i-learned-sending-my-novel-out-und-1720637627

and aside from being upset for all the women writers I know
I thought
what the hell!
I do not look at the name of the author when looking for books to read

Here is what usually happens
someone on twitter recommends a book
I go to Amazon and look
if I like the summary I buy it

WHAT?? you mean all that money spent on advertising and street teams and I do not pay attention to any of it?
YUP
I like to see things by authors I trust ones I have enjoyed in the past
I also like to read things from new authors recced to me by friends

OR if I am over on Netgalley looking for books this is the order

Cover catches my eye
summary
then I request it

SO tell me people

How do you choose?

Leave me a comment here or on Facebook I would make a poll but Im lazy

How do you choose a book to read?

Gay Dinosaur Billionaire adventures with Bigfoot and Friends

   BUY Dino Smut

OK let me preface this by saying this has NEVER
been the kind of thing I would read
not even remotely consider spending a penny on this
I was given an ARC by my friend and asked for an honest review

I thought what the hell I have read Snamione porn with no plot before so why not gay dinosaurs?

I am glad I gave this book a chance
it is a series of short stories with some of the best graphics I have ever seen
It is silly funny romantic and everything you want in dino smut

and I mean EVERYTHING

SO give it a shot make this your "what the hell" purchase today

Gay Dinosaur Billionaire adventures with Bigfoot and Friends

Apples Should be Red by Penny Watson

Apples Should be Red

 Recipe for Thanksgiving Dinner:

Start with 62-year old politically incorrect, chain-smoking, hard-cussing curmudgeon.

Add 59-year old sexually-repressed know-it-all in pearls.

Throw in a beer can-turkey, a battle for horticultural supremacy, and nudist next-door neighbor.

Serve on paper plates, garnished with garden gnome.

Tastes like happily ever after.
You know I have been talking about this book all over twitter and I have YET to write a post about it !!
I find this
not super shocking
HOWEVER
I will make this short
why? because there is something amazing happening to this fabulous book but I will get to that part in a minute

WHAT can I tell you
this is an unusual romance book because the lead couple is over 50!
Why will you enjoy it ?

Meet Tom
he is a curmudgeon a lovable one
he likes to garden he is practical and smart and just darling (but that opinion of him would annoy him so SHHHH)

Meet Bev

She is a little tightly wound

Everything in its place everything is proper everything just so
right down to the type of apples
Oh Tom has so much fun with her

just go buy it and read it and TRUST ME !! and if you think Im wrong come talk to me about it because I love talking books even we disagree!

NOW for the news
THIS fabulous story made it to dabwaha
(thats a what??)
it is a contest similar to the March Madness brackets
you vote and vote till one book is left
That this little Indie book with no street team , and no promo efforts beyond readers that love it


dabwaha <<< go vote

I'm so proud of Penny !

Apples Should be Red by Penny Watson

The Last Good Knight by Tiffany Reisz

This is a series of five books or short stories or novellettes or novellas or whatever you want to call them. They take place in between the White years and The Red years and feature our favorite smart-ass, Nora I love Nora. She reminds me of movie heroines from the thirties and forties.

In this story, Nora meets Lance, a sexy male sub. Watch out, world! If you love knights in shining armor, you will LOVE LOVE LOVE Lance. I want a Lance. There aren't enough words to describe him. Every woman needs a Lance!

just because

For instance, check out his favorite position :

"Standing so I can protect you" He ran a hand through her long hair and shoved a fistful of it off the back of her neck. "From behind so I can shield you" She understood at once what he meant. If someone broke into the house while they were making love, Lance's body would stand between her and the intruder at the door. Even during sex he would keep her safe or die trying.

Isn't that the most beautiful thing??

Lance is a dive in front of a bullet kind of a guy. And he's a hottie dad!! Anyone who follows me on twitter knows I have this fascination with hot dads. To me, nothing is sexier than a man taking care of his children

Of course, this book is not just about a sexy male sub. It also has mystery and intrigue

Lance is not allowed to see his daughter, because his ex thinks he's a pervert for looking at kinky porn

NORA TO THE RESCUE

Some questions to ponder:

• How will she save him? After all, she's an erotica novelist and Domme
• Who is after the Dommes in Kingsley's employ?
• Why is King insisting that Lance keep his hands, and other parts, off Nora ?

Well, you'll just have to read to find out!

do you need to ask?

In summary, this series has

• mystery
• banter
• a sexy hottie dad
• a Knight in Shining Armor
• Nora

What more could you ask for?
I
It's a short series, so it's a nice, fast read  and loads of fun. Get it for the friend on your gift list who loves Tiffany or for the one who needs to meet her

As usual, I give her stuff five stars, because I cannot find anything that would make it better, except to send me my very own Lance,

The Last Good Knight by Tiffany Reisz

Dear angry author

This post is in response to this graphic

I know this has been said before by people much more eloquent than me but here is my take

I am a free reviewer
I pay for the books I get out of my pocket
Or
I get them from netgalley
I am not paid for this
Reading and reviewing books is my hobby
I do this for me and for my enjoyment
Same reason I blog here 

this is mine
It is my crafting time
My gardening
You would not walk up to someone who made a baby blanket and tell them the blanket is worthless because of errors
You would not walk passed a garden and say it sucks because of the inclusion of wildflowers
Well my grammar and lack of punctuation on my posts are because I am lazy and busy
Since I blog and review for me how it looks is up to me
If I want gifs there will be gifs
If I want nothing but Joe shirtless doing body rolls
It will happen as a matter of fact it is happening HERE in this post because nothing says happy Wednesday like Joe

Your book

 if it has errors I will call you on it
Because unlike me
You are expecting to get paid
If there are things in your book I do not like
I will downgrade you stars for that
Why?
Because I did not like it and people who follow me have similar tastes to me they will want to know if they should spend their money on it
This is word of mouth advertising
The same thing happens when I talk to people in real life
Now about reviewing with one star and flouncing
Or DNF
I tell people I did not like it
I tell them why
I give it a 1star
I let people know I did not finish and my personal reasons for not finishing

and yes sometimes the book is just not my taste

I do not expect everyone to write for my tastes nor do I expect to like everything that is written 

I will give just about anything a shot 

but if I am either not in the mood for that type of story 

or I find something offensive or annoying or not for ME in your book I will stop reading

I have a right to put my opinion out there

As do you 

however

this graphic is petty behavior 

if the reviews bother you ignore them

free reviewers are doing this for THEMSELVES

we do not get paid to write up a review on goodreads or amazon

the whole ranking books based on stars is really arbitrary 

some books I have read and gone back later and either added stars or taken them away 

some books I read a second time and wonder WHY did I give it ___ as a rating 

does this affect your sales 

possibly 

many people do not like to give a book that has all 5 star ratings a try because of that whole fiasco of bought reviews and friends ranking books just to inflate it

I know several reviewers who read book reviews looking for some 3 stars or even 2 stars looking for honesty 

Reviewers down rating for presence of drugs alcohol and sex

so what? if someone does not want to read about it and they PERSONALLY do not like it they do not have to 

My personal favorite was the reviewer thinking the female character was whiny 

I myself hate a poor female character in a book I like to see her grow I want to see the character change and mature through the course of the story same thing with the male character (remember I review mostly romance)

if the characters do not grow and change after you have put them through something I am going to get annoyed and yes I will lower a rating if I do not like the character.

I am disappointed in this happening it is something that should have stayed off the general internet and stayed with you and your friends it is petty and childish. In this world word of mouth advertising is how you will get your books sold 

all reviews count 

good bad and in between and even the ones with what you see as meaningless gifs

be gracious thank them for giving it a shot you never know who might read that review who might decide to give your book a try because of the gif or because someone mentioned something in their review even if THEY did not like it something that strikes someone else

I am always VERY thankful for the chance to read a book especially when I get it from a publisher from Netgalley or when an author says hey Sue read this for me

I guess what I'm trying to say don't be petty 

THIS was not edited on purpose 

 

Dear angry author

A little house cleaning

Or rather a bit of kindle app cleaning. If you are like me you also have a kindle app or a kindle full of random books. Mine range from the free books I have gotten when they were kindle freebies, or the promo books that are always free , to assorted books from netgalley I was approved for and just never got around to.

One of my New Years goals is to be more organized. So I spent an afternoon sorting. I went through my kindle (well over 200 books) I sorted the books using kindle collections. Books I know I read went into one section, books I know I have not read into another and books I was unsure of into another. Then I added the books to my good reads, of course I did this the hard way before a friend told me Good reads can sync with your kindle (face palm gif here)

My goal to get through and review each book on my kindle. As of the writing of this post I have read and reviewed
At least 10 books on good reads. I suck at keeping track there too. I will try to work out some posts for here of course.
If you are interested in my progress follow me over on Good reads or Twitter or the blogs Facebook.

A little house cleaning

All He Ever Dreamed by Shannon Stacy

All He Ever Dreamed

Shannon Stacey 

Josh Kowalski is tired of holding down the fort—better known as the Northern Star Lodge—while his siblings are off living their dreams. Now that his oldest brother has returned to Whitford, Maine for good, Josh is free to chase some dreams of his own.

As the daughter of the lodge’s longtime housekeeper, Katie Davis grew up alongside the Kowalski kids. Though she’s always been “one of the guys”, her feelings for Josh are anything but sisterly. And after a hot late-night encounter in the kitchen, it’s clear Josh finally sees her as the woman she is.

Katie’s been waiting years for Josh to notice her, but now that he has, she’s afraid it’s too late. Giving her heart to a man who can’t wait to leave town is one sure way to have it broken. But Josh keeps coming up with excuses not to leave—could it be that everything he’s ever wanted is closer than he could have imagined?

Yes, it is another Kowalski book. I requested this one from Netgalley an eon ago. See how long I let posts just sit half-finished here. I need a badge that says Worlds Worst Blogger.

When I got the book. I was so happy. I love those boys, and I enjoy Shannon's writing so much.

Now I'm going to tell you that if you don't want to be spoiled, you need to stop reading right now. I have a few choice words I want to say to the character Josh, and they might spoil some of the story for you

SO if you are leaving the post now I will give you the short version of my review

• If you like the Kowalski boys and their universe, you wanna read this
• If you like a good tear-jerker that makes you giggle in places, you wanna read this
• If you like some hot sexing, you wanna read this
• If you like a story where you get so angry at a character that you wish he was real, so you could storm over to his house and bitch him out for being an ass, READ IT

We shall take a short pause here while those who do not want to be spoiled leave, and I prepare for my bitch-out session with a pretend person ....

Take your time

For those sticking around, look at this.

Okay, are they gone? Good. Sit back, my dears. It's gonna get bumpy

Josh, what the hell is your problem? If you were real, I would be offering you a Midol, you old curmudgeon.

Yes, I called you a curmudgeon.

What the hell kind of man, and I use that term loosely, acts like this?

You have your lovely friend Katie, who not only likes sports but also likes you and puts up with your shit AND supports herself AND is hot and sweet. Granted, she cant cook as well as her mother, but you know that shit takes practice

I get the whole "I didn't see her as a female" thing, which is fine and all. I was great up until
Christmas Eve. Yes, the party you and Katie put together, because Rosie was not well enough to help out, which of course was all a plot by the brilliant Rosie to get you two knuckleheads to work together.

Anyway, there she was under the mistletoe that your bro put up, because he's a sneaky SOB, and
you're all hemming and hawing and making poor Katie feel like chopped liver, because you can't get over get over being fifteen-years-old !!!

I was so angry for Katie. There she stood in her pretty dress, all crushing on you, and you're being an asshole. If I was her I would have walked away and left you to kiss yourself. You did not deserve to kiss her

Poor Katie is so smitten with Josh, and he has his head up his ass for most of the book.
I know I know, he had to leave home and learn about how much she meant to him, but I swear I was so angry, I wanted to see him hurt more than Katie was hurting, which made Rosie hurt, and that made me cry

I just wish I was one of the aunties, because I would have hit him upside the head!

You know what I've said before. When I have a visceral response to characters, either good or bad, it means the character was crafted well.

I do not like Josh

I don't care if he was redeemed (it is a romance, so no shocker there).   I do not like him. He made me so angry

I liked Katie, even though I wanted to be one of her friends to tell her Josh wasn't worthy of her tears or devotion, and that if he came back, she should make him work for it

I knew Katie loved him, but HOLY COW there's only so much a girl should take. He;d better be the most amazingest hubby ever, because he's so so so lucky he isn't real.

Now, is it worth the read? Yes, I think it's worth the frustration, because I got to know Katie, and to me, she makes the journey worth it. I like her a lot.

Josh. not so much. He needs his brains rattled a few times

BUT he is very much a guy

I give this one 5 Stars just because it caused such a reaction within me.

All He Ever Dreamed by Shannon Stacy