Book reviewers are awesome. As a writer, I can't thank them enough for helping to promote my work. I highly value their time and opinions and so I thought it would be great to start having them come to YAlicious for a chat.
It gives me great pleasure to welcome the lovely, Book Chatter Cath, who always gives refreshingly honest reviews. Her enthusiasm for reading is contagious and I'm so excited to have her as my first guest reviewer :)
Welcome along, Cath. It's super cool to have you :)
What were your favourite types of books as
a kid?
Twist-a-plots
or pick-a-plots I think they were called…after each chapter you could choose
what should come next in a story and change the middle and ending. I liked
having the ability to pick alternative storylines.
What is your favourite genre now and why do
you like it?
I don’t have one distinctive favourite,
but I do read a lot of YA. There just wasn’t as great an array of YA books
available back in the eighties as there is now, so I’m making up for lost time!
What do you look for in a book description?
Tease me. I like a blurb to tell me just
enough to interest me, but not enough that I can guess as to how it ends. A
short teaser, rather than a blow-by-blow.
Is there a fatal flaw a writer can make
that will stop you from reading a book?
I hate sentences that go on and on and
have no punctuation and spell words wrong and use bad grammar and generally
read like they were written by a twelve year old like you know like you know!
*snort* seriously though, even if an author is going to self publish, I would
highly recommend they get a proof reader or an editor, or even just a family
friend to help out. There is nothing worse than reading a story that is full of
basic errors.
What do you like most about reviewing books
for authors?
Hmm, that’s a hard one because I don’t
always like everything about a book and sometimes conveying my feelings can be
difficult to do without hurting an author’s feelings. I do love the fact that
most authors just want you to get it,
whatever it may be.
Is it sometimes hard to write a fair,
honest review? What's the most challenging aspect?
Yes, it can be hard to write a fair and
unbiased review, especially if I have LOVED previous books in a series and then
book 4 or something comes around and I’m like “what were you thinking, that was
a complete and utter copout” Sometimes the most challenging thing can be
putting your hand up and saying “I did not like this because…” I sometimes feel
as nervous as hell hitting that publish button on a low rated review.
Are there any trends in the publishing
world that you do or do not like?
I’m so over the love triangle. The girl
who is in love with one boy but is unwilling to let go of a second boy
storyline is doing my head in!! And if she is kissing them both, and leading
them on – oh Lordy, that makes me mad - lol!!
What's the most recent book you've read
that you thought would make an awesome movie?
That’s
really funny because I just had this conversation with my Mum after I lent her
my copies of the Time Spirit trilogy!!!!
I kid you not, we both agree that Gemma and Harrison’s story would be awesome
as either a movie or TV show; however, I would hate for some director to come
along and loose the essence of the story by making changes.
A
REVEIWER'S RECOMMENDATIONS
A traditionally published author you love:
Nalini Singh
And indie author you love:
Mireille Chester is a fantastic indie
author, but I’m in embarrassing fangirl love with T.G. Ayer and Melissa Pearl
*snort*!!
One of your favourite YA books:
Dead Radiance by T.G. Ayer because it’s
one of the few stories based around a myth/legend that I felt did justice to
the original inspiration.
One of your favourite Adult books:
Too hard!! Angels' Blood by Nalini Singh
blew me away. It was the first book of hers that I read and she hooked me
immediately!
A book you've read more than once and the
reason why:
Man, really?! The only book that comes
to mind is The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe by CS Lewis. I read it as a
kid, a teenager, and as an adult; I’ve even read it to my girls. It’s a
classic. I love the magic of it, and I’d love to meet a real talking lion like
Aslan!!
I'm currently reading that book to my son. He's loving it. Great choice :)
If you'd like to connect with Cath online, you can follow the links below:
