A Timely Interview of ----- Me! :-)

I have been interviewed by Joyce DiPastena as part of her "Get to Know the Reviewer" series. Although my answers were done back in June, the posting is timely with my Blogoversary. So if you want to know a little more about me please check out the interview. Thank you Joyce.

Martha's Contest for September 11, 2009!

I’ve been interviewed as a reviewer by Carol J. North, Author of Eternally His and other good books.

To participate in the contest – make a comment regarding the post. There are different prizes for authors or readers, so please state in your comment whether you are an author or a reader. Make sure to leave your e-mail or a way for me to contact you. On Sunday PM, a winner will be drawn from those commenting and I will announce the winner Monday morning.

The Prizes:
Author Prize: A Review of any book you provide. I will pull the chosen book into my schedule and complete the review within two weeks. I will post it at my blog, Amazon, Goodreads, SaSR, WRDF (the review group not BTL) and other places that might be appropriate!

Reader Prize: Choose a book as a prize from the list of Prize books on the blog, any of the print books shown in my Mailbox Monday posts, or any of the print review books posted that were not giveaways. I may take two weeks to get the book to you as I may read it if I haven’t yet! If an international participant wins I will give an e-book of their choice up to a value of $7.00.

Books from which to Select a Prize:

(HB is hardback; A is autographed and PA is personally autographed)

Bennett, Sara - Led Astray by a Rake
Bennett, TJ - The Promise (A)
Cassidy, Dakota - The Accidental Human
Evanovich, Janet - Foul Play
Flielding, Liz - Wedded in a Whirlwind (PA)
Holby, Cindy - Fallen (PA)
Holly, Emma - Kissing Midnight
Jeffries, Sabrina - Don’t Bargain With the Devil
Johnson, Alissa - Tempting Fate
Kent, Alison - No Limits (A)
Knight, Deidre - Red Fire
Laurens, Stephanie + It Happened One Night (Anthology HB)
Long, Julie Anne - Like No Other Lover (A)
Maclaine, Jenna - Grave Sins
McCray, Cheyenne - Moving Target (A)
Moncrief, Skhye - He of the Sword (A)
Mallory, Margaret - Knight of Desire
Rodale, Maya - The Rogue and the Rival (PA)
Rogers, Donna - Marie Meant to Be
Ryan, Hank Phillippi - Prime Time (A)
Scott, Amanda - Tamed by a Laird
Snyder, Maria V. - Storm Glass (PA)
Stockham, Kay - Another Man’s Baby (PA)

An Interview of a Reviewer

Have you ever wondered how a reviewer decides which books get the coveted "5" rating and others receive a "3"? Recently, I was interviewed by author Carol J. North. She asked me that question and others.

Why do you write reviews?
I was keeping a list of books I read with comments on my computer. A year or so ago I started to put short summaries up at the Word of Mouth Contest at Bookreporter.com. Last year as I began to visit more sites and win more books I decided that I would like to “give back” a little by reviewing some of the books I won. I liked doing that and encouraging authors that way. I got my Kindle2 in March. A month or so later I decided I wanted to see if I could find a site I could review with. I found You Gotta Read Reviews and have been very encouraged by the great team there! I also began doing reviews at Between the Lines at Writers and Readers of Distinctive Fiction (WRDF) and have reviewed some wonderful books there. Last month I joined the team at CataNetwork Reviewers because I liked their site and it looked like there would be some different book offerings at that site. I started the blog in July to have a place to post the reviews I do for authors or myself and to share in the book blogging community.

My primary goal in reviewing and bloggin (besides reading good books!) is to encourage authors in their efforts and hopefully help draw readers to good books!

What genre books do you read?
I love to rotate my reading: I read Historical Romance, Suspense or Mystery, Western, Paranormal, Christian or Love Inspired or Sweet, Fantasy and even some Sci-Fi. I occasionally read nonfiction and erotic romance. I do not read erotica or nontraditional romances.

Do you read more than one book at a time?
As reflected in my “What are You Reading” Monday posts, I read print books, eBooks on Kindle2, Audibles on a Creative Zen MP3 and Audio CDs - usually in the car. So I am usually reading three to five books at a time. I try to avoid having two suspense or two historicals at a time as I have found that to be confusing.

Do you use any particular criteria or grading scale?
No I don’t use any type of checklist. But I do try to note aspects of the setting, plot, characters, voice and overall feel of the book. For more in depth detail of my rating process, you can check out this article: My Thoughts on Ratings.

Do errors in the books affect your reviews? Or do you bite your tongue?
I used to get really annoyed by obvious errors. In fact a couple of years ago I read a contemporary story by a very popular author and it had terrible errors. There was a whole page that had wrong character names! And the heroine didn’t have a cell phone which appeared like a blatant error to me. It took me over two years to try another book by that author!

While reviewing I do note errors, particularly on the Kindle2. When reviewing for the sites I do not necessarily note the errors but when reviewing for an author I do make note of errors so I can offer an errata list most of the time if the author wants it. If there are oodles of typos in a book I would probably mention that in my review. But the errors do not affect my rating unless they are totally negligent like the changed character names incident!


What is the number one thing you look for in a book?
Entertainment! I read for pleasure and relaxation. Now its okay if I get tense by a good suspense… that may not be relaxation but it is entertainment!


Do you look for emotional response when you review a book?
I’m not sure I am always looking for one but I like it when a scene twists at my gut or my heart! When I experience the joy or pain of a character then I think the author has done a good job pulling me into the book!


What do you do for fun?
Go on cruises or vacation so I can read more books!

A Big THANK YOU to Carol J. North for interviewing me!

A PS Addendum!
I was preparing to post the contest to several sites I visit when I realized I had forgotten to mention some items in the interview. There are some additional groups that were helpful to me becoming a reviewer and I wanted to thank them too!! I have enjoyed being a member of Romance Junkie Readers Group. During the early months of this year a group of us there were reading "new to me" authors together. We would agree upon a genre and then during the week read a book in that genre by an author we hadn't read before. We would post reviews and discuss them. This was great fun and helped me to start honing my review writing skills. And we got to know new authors which is a great thing! I guess life got busy for all of us and we dropped the weekly sharing. I miss sharing those discussion with you "guys"! So I owe a thanks to my "new to me author" clan over at RJR who helped push my progress into reviewing!

I also owe a thanks to Sweet and Sensual Romances Yahoo Groups. They let me post a review each Tuesday and we have a drawing for review and recipe comments for that event each week. Thanks my good friends!

Finally - I forgot to mention that I have been honored to be included as a contributing reviewer for The Sweetest Romance Authors Blog. If you want sweet romance this is a great place to look!