Method
Uh…what method? Nothing complex, just your basic review; intro paragraph, middle description of book, sometimes one to two paragraphs on personal commentary to wrap up. I may go off the yellow brick road sometimes, but not too often. I will usually give basic info about the book up top:
- Title:
- Author:
- Publisher/pg. count:
- Genre:
- Country/Time setting (if historical):
- ISBN #s:
- Date Published:
Rating System
- Five scoops = lick the bowl clean excellent and highly recommended
- Four scoops = pretty good, the spoon looks pretty shiny again
- Three scoops = Not bad, it’s OK – texture’s slightly off maybe
- Two Scoops = Meh, should have gone with instinct and picked a different flavor
- One Scoop = Left too long in the freezer, can’t even get the scooper in it – not recommended
Solicitations for Scrutiny
A.k.a review requests
At this time, I might be able to accept a few review requests. I do prefer printed ones and I don’t care if it’s as loose as that button on your favorite, washer-worn shirt, s’long as it’s printed. However, I have been known to accept PDFs but it depends on if I’ve got toner and a viable printer at the time. And trees to put in it.
Agreement to do a review depends on what your book is; genre (read the blog to get an idea of preferences), paranormal, historical, etc., my mood, my cat’s mood, my cat’s current prey of choice’s mood, and whatever the hell Mercury is doing in Venus while my house is under the sun…or whatever that nonsense was on my horror-scope. If I don’t accept it it’s because it’s just not my cuppa, and trust me, we want it to at least be my cuppa before committing. Otherwise you might get your manuscript back with drool on it where I briefly went comatose.
Agreement to do a review does not guarantee a favorable rating. Let’s face it, I’m pickier about my book choices than my daughter is about her treat of the day…and the child can take forever to decide between gummy bears and those little wafer-wrapped chocolate stick thingies. So it’s rare that I cross a book that I don’t like. But it’s happened.
Now, if I haven’t completely scared you off, I’d love to hear from you if you’ve got a request!
kendamont@yahoo.com
I do not have a request but I have a question. I am looking for some recommendations to read. I found you by searching for jr ward info. I found her books by searching for vampire stories after blazing through all of anne rice’s work, which I stumbled upon accidentally about 6 years ago. Although these authors are vastly different in what they write, I enjoy the loyal relationships, self-searching and sex (gotta admit that). Rather than pick an author and hope for the best, I was hoping you could point me in the direction of some authors I might like. I have read, or anyways started, a few of sherilyn kenyons and can’t stand them. I didn’t care that much for lauren hamilton and some other lady writer who writes vampire stories whose name I can’t recall. I recently read Nightkeepers, which was good enough (to me) but not great and Midnight Rising, which I left in a hotel room on purpose when I was done with it. A friend gave me a Lisa Kleypas book which of course was not paranormal but I enjoyed the writing well enough (too romancy and not life-lessony enough in the end though). I have also read Sebastian and the next book in the series, Beladona. Both ok, but not quite enough to make me love them. I love Diana Gabaldon, but way too much detail. So, does this give you any idea of authors I might like to look into?
Thanks for your time and insight.
marilyn (dog trainer, dog day care owner, 3 kitty owner, dark chocolate lover, starbucks groupie and, thank god, not toddler toting friend out there in cyber space)
Marilyn, sorry for the late response. I think the weekends come and some kind of strange temporal time sucking thing happens and before we know it it’s Monday again. :)
Lara Adrian’s books, not sure if you’ve read all of them or just the fourth book you mention here, but so far (of the ones I’ve read) Kiss of Crimson has been my favorite. IMO, it far surpassed the first book.
You may have seen it, but the last review I did was for Larissa Ione’s Pleasure Unbound, first in a new series. LOVED it. It’s more about demons than vampires, although you’ll see vampires mentioned and the hero of the 3rd book (out in April 2009), Wraith, is part vampire and part incubus demon.
If you’re looking specifically for vampire romances I have to be honest and say I just do not know personally of very many good ones. I’ve not had the time in the last two or so years to read as much as I’d like and Ward’s brotherhood books had been filling my wants for a vampire series, till Lover Enshrined. So I’m inthe market for a new vamp series myself *grin*.
You could try Kresley Cole’s Immortal After Dark series if you haven’t already. A Hunger Like No Other is the first and I absolutely loved it. I’ve had a bit of a rough time getting into the other books, but you may like them a lot and there’s something like five books out already. These again have a mix of demons, Valkyrie heroines, witches, vampires, werewolves, ghosts, etc.
I’ve heard very good things about Christine Warren’s “Others” series. Can’t remember the name of the first, but Amazon should be able to clue you into the first book, or you can look up her website.
I absolutely adore Kim Harrison’s Rachel Morgan/Hallows series. Her site is bookmarked under Heart the Authors on the left. It’s urban fantasy instead of romance, but not one of those books has disappointed me yet. Heroine is an earth witch.
Another wonderful and recent discovery for me was Ilona Andrews’ Kate Daniels series, Magic Bites and Magic Burns. Again, urban fantasy, but very different. I’ve got a double review for them, just plug the titles into the search above, or the author’s name.
I would also encourage you to check out other reviews for any of these titles you might be interested in. Too, I hope there’s IS something here you might like. Feel free to ask again if there’s anything more specific you can think of. Anything I didn’t specify otherwise is a romance or romance series.
I would also check out some of the links on the right in my Heart the Blog column, especially Love Vampires. That’s all they review.