However, my post is not about that. My question today is have you ever faked a review or toned down your opinion of a book because you wanted to be nice and not hurt anyone’s feelings?

I’m asking because I recently reviewed a novel by an author who follows me on Twitter. My review was lukewarm (and by the way, I was not the only one who had a lukewarm review to this book). On Twitter I get messages when people unfollow me. Shortly after my review, this author unfollowed me. I’d be a fool if I assumed that this was just a coincidence. LOL. I wasn’t hurt by the author unfollowing me. I was actually amused. Of course, I couldn’t help but wonder if I said something not so nice (besides that I didn’t understand the characters and their motivations of course). I try not to be mean, after all, authors spend months on their work and here I am saying, I didn’t like it. Who do I think I am saying I didn’t like what took them months to create.

Well . . .. I am a book blogger/reviewer.

Also, I have this little problem with bluntness and speaking my mind, especially on a blog entitled, Lynette’s Two Cents. I don’t think I’m ever mean. I hope I am not. You can state your honest opinion without being mean. I will admit that when I review for other sights, I sometimes tone down my awesomeness and extra comments (e.g., I won’t say that the characters drove me crazy, but I will say I didn’t understand the motivation behind their actions because yada, yada, yada), but they are still my honest opinions and I always try to back up why I felt the way I did.

I know a lot of bloggers tend to do plot reviews and then just give a rating. Personally, those type of reviews don’t help me with my book buying decisions. I’m on a book budget. When I decide to spend money on a book, I want to know what you liked and didn’t like about it. And even if you didn’t like something that doesn’t mean that I won’t. I’ve bought books with bad reviews and loved them, I bought books with great reviews and hated them. It’s all perspective. Perspective to me is important and my perspective could be totally different than yours, but I’m never going to fake or tone my opinion to please anyone else. And if I don’t like something, I’m not going to avoid reviewing a book. The only time I really avoid reviewing a book is if I’m blah about it. It wasn’t bad, but I didn’t like it and I couldn’t pinpoint what I didn’t like it.

I’m curious. Have you ever faked it? Why? If you haven’t, why not?

I stopped working right after Valentine’s Day. I foolishly thought that not working would give me more time with reading, exercising, my blog, writing, and other stuff. What a delusional fool I was. Although, not working was a big change for me, it’s giving me time to help Queen more with her schoolwork and the things she’s been struggling with. I’ve also been able to bond more with Chunk and help him with his socialization and learning (she says as he is right in front of her having a tantrum for some minor slight on my behalf – e.g., not jumping to cater to his every whim).

However, having hours and hours of time to work on my blog, or be at the computer hasn’t occurred. I can barely get on the computer for a couple minutes before Chunk commands my attention and by the time I get him down for a nap, I’m wore out and end up falling asleep myself. I’m thinking I should’ve had kids when I was younger ‘cause they’re wearing me out.

Anyhoo, I seriously apologize for slacking with the blog and promise to do better. I have been reading, but I have been slacking writing reviews of the books I’ve been reading. I’ve promised to fix that. I’ve already written a couple reviews that will be posted next week, so make sure that you keep an eye out on that. I’m also going to start stalking Authors again, so I can get my Inside the Author’s Studio posts going again. By the way, if you are an author and are interested in doing an Inside the Author Studio post, send me an e-mail. I’m also behind on my e-mails and my review requests, so if you sent me something, I haven’t been purposely ignoring you, just trying to get adjusted to the new changes in my personal life.

So, I know I suck but I hope you can forgive. Know that I have a bunch of posts scheduled for next week. Anything interesting happening for you? Read any good books that you can recommend for me? I need some awesome reads, so talk it up in the comments section!

Before I go immediately into why I didn't finish SHADOWFEVER, let me give you a little background.

I have been a fan of Karen Marie Moning since she published her first book back in 1999. I had just left the military and had moved to the Atlanta area. Karen Marie Moning's Agent Deidre Knight lived in the Atlanta area and at the time there was a lot of buzz about Karen and her work. Out of curiosity, I brought her first release and loved it. You must remember this was pre-Twilight and even pre-Harry Potter. I think at the time only the first Harry Potter book had been published. Of course, there were other authors who wrote paranormal, but what Ms. Moning had done at the time (a historical, paranormal romance) was unique and I loved her books. You also must remember that during this time publishers were culling their authors from publication rolls, so a lot of mid list historical romance authors were being cut by their publishers, leaving the rumor in romanceland that historical romance was dead. At the time romanceland was freaking out about that and I remember a lot of authors had to adjust their thinking to stay afloat in the business. A lot of authors switched genres to keep their careers afloat. And around all this drama, Karen released her first novel and it was a success.

I also think that it's important for some of her newer readers to understand that Ms. Moning was a New York Times Bestselling Author with a very extensive fan base long before the FaeFever series was released, and I was one of those readers who had read her stuff from her first book, and went to the bookstore on release day to buy her books. Even when she first went to hard cover, I still ran to the store to buy her latest release.

Since Karen Marie Moning was one of my favorite romance authors, I was a frequent visitor to her web-site. Prior to the release of Darkfever she had warned her readers that this series was going to be totally different from what she had been writing in the past. Yet, when Darkfever was released, I remember seeing how many people were disappointed that it wasn't a traditional romance. I myself, even though I didn't have a blog and didn't review at the time, went on Amazon where people were giving Darkfever bad reviews and blasted those people for being annoyed that Darkfever wasn't what they had been expecting. I mean come on, didn't they pay attention to her endless warning telling them that this was different? While I was disappointed in that first book didn't have a resolution and a complete lack of romance (I thought Barrons was an ass from the moment he appeared on the page, and I still don't get you guys fascination with him), I was such a fan of Karen's that I was willing to trust her to take me on the journey.

I must admit that I got bored with that journey after the second book and nothing looked like it was going to be resolved any time soon. Karen Marie Moning went from becoming a must buy author to me, to an author whose books I picked up at my local library. While I liked where she was going with the world building, I am a romance reader at heart and I read romance for the . . . romance. So at that time I decided to read her books because I was curious about Mac's journey and because in the back of my mind I was hoping that the Kelter's would make a prominent appearance.

Of course, during this timeframe, Harry Potter saved Hogwarts and Bella gave birth to the exorcist baby so a lot of those adult readers transitioned over to the romance genre, (This is me waving . . . welcome!) and began devouring paranormal and urban fantasy romance. However, you come with a lot of baggage. You are so used to seeing your heroes behave like abusive pricks (cough, cough Edward Cullen) that you don't seem to mind that Barron's is a complete and total bonehead (but he's sexy . . . I can hear you guys screaming in my ear). This is me rolling my eyes.




Umm, sorry about that, I totally couldn't resist throwing that in there. My bad. Back to my post.

So now, SHADOWFEVER has released. I'm on twitter seeing all the tweets, people have called off from work to read the book. They are all gaga and excited. It's the best thing ever. And I'm thinking, well I'm glad their happy. Meanwhile, I see that my library actually has SHADOWFEVER and since I was the first to put a hold on it, it's actually waiting for me at the library on release day. So I go to the library, pick it up, and sit it on my dining room table and think, 'am I really in the mood to read this right now?' Not really.

SHADOWFEVER sits on that table for a couple days. I pick it up Friday after work and start reading through it. And I'm like, really. I keep reading. I'm not interested. I keep reading. I see my kids playing around. Hmm. I'm so not interested in this book. Before when Barrons always got on my nerves, I still liked Mac, but now, Mac is getting on my nerves and does Karen have to waste so many pages with Mac's never ending whiny, boring, internal dialogue? Umm, I'm thinking when I'm reading when is something going to happen. This is boring, I think. I just don't want to be inside Mac's head anymore. I get on Twitter, and say really guys, you've been saying this is the best book ever? You didn't mind the endless internal monologue? The response I get is, well, I kinda skimmed through those parts. But, I say, you gave this book the highest reviews? How can you give a book such a high review when you skimmed the pages? To me a high review is that you were riveted by each word on the page, that you were transported, that you wanted to ignore your kids running around the house playing because you couldn't take your eyes away from the book? So, how can you give a book a high review that you skimmed over? Really? The response I get is, Lynette, you're so funny! Okay, I guess, I'm funny like that. So, I get off Twitter, I put down the book, and play with my kids. And I haven't picked the book back up and I have absolutely no interest in doing so. So, SHADOWFEVER is going back to the library unfinished.

And that's my SHADOWFEVER story.

Another year gone, huh? I hope everyone has had a terrific holiday! I have so much to talk about that I don't know where to start. LOL.

I guess everyone would like to know what have been my favorite reads, what sucked, how many books I've read this year, etc. Hmm, sorry but this isn't going to be one of those posts. I have no idea how many books I read this year. I started out keeping track but that went bye-bye by the time the summer came around. Hopefully, I'll be able to keep better track next year since I'm on Goodreads now, but I don't always mark every single book I read. I'll try to do better for 2011. As far as my favorite reads, you can check out my tab, which I have kept updated.

Well yes, I'm lazy . . . wait until you see my goals.



I started my blog the end of February and it's hard to believe how far I've come. I appreciate each one of you who have gone on this journey with me more than I can say. As far as what's next for me . . . .

One of the favorite things I've done is my Inside the Author Studio posts. It's something I want to continue. But when I saw THIS, I decided that even though I had mine first, I should change the name of my Inside the Author Studio posts to Author's Two Cents? What do you think?

I don't know if most of you know that I'm an aspiring romance writer. I've been slacking on my writing since I began my blog. Part of that is because as I've been reading more, I've been realizing how sucky my own writing is. How can I write about what I don't like about the books I read when I see some of the mistakes in my own writing and am unsure of how to fix it? LOL. I really need to work on that. So I don't know if I'm going to be reading as much in 2011 as I have in 2010, because I need to focus on my own writing more. Since I read so much anyway and I don't write reviews for every book I read, I don't think you'll see much of a difference on the blog. I've always wanted my blog to be mostly about the books I read and the opinions of those books. I have strong opinions about the books I read, because after all, I am always right. LOL!


In line with cutting down on my reading, I'm also cutting down on the requests that I make from another review site that I review books for. I'm so behind with them and I feel bad about that. But I have a hard time saying no when I see an interesting read. My motto for 2011 was to look at what's on my plate and if it's too much JUST SAY NO. Like I said, don't worry, because although I haven't kept count, when I stopped keeping count back in like May I was over 100 books for the year already, so I know by now, I've read over 200 books this year. So by me saying I'm cutting down, than means that I'm only going to read 100 books in 2011. LOL!

And I'm going to have a new blog design fixed soon, so keep looking out for that. LOL!

I actually think 2011 is going to be a great year for me and I can't wait to share it with you.

So tell me what do you think about what I've been saying? And what are your reading and writing goals for 2011. I can't wait to hear from you.

I've decided to do a challenge. For the last couple weeks, I've been talking about some of my favorite romances from back in the day and I'm surprised that more people haven't heard about them or read them. So, I've felt the need to hassle people to read the great Ol Skool Romances that I've been recommending to them. That spawned the idea to actually create a challenge so . . . . . . Grab my button and join on in!


<a href="http://lynettestwocents.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" width="90%" src="http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac337/amstrent/lynette2011challenge-1.png"/></a>

BTW, thanks to my girl Dren for creating the awesome button for me, because I totally suck with blog design and html stuff.


HERE ARE THE RULES:

1. Participants can join at any time from now until the end of the 2011.

2. Agree to read 12 Romance novels with an original publication date PRIOR to 1996.

3. Once a month (most likely at the beginning of the month), I will do an Ol' Skool Romance Post. At the end of my post, you can link any reviews to that post. You're reviews can be from your blog, goodreads, amazon, wherever. I will just need a link to your review. You have all month to get your reviews in.

4. If you want to be really cool and earn suck up points, if you have a blog you can grab my button and post it on your blog as well. Not mandatory, but I think it would be cool. Just sayin'. LOL!

5. Once a month (most likely at the end of the month), I draw a winner from those who posted their links. They will win a pize (gift cards, books, etc.).

6. At the end of the year, I will draw a grand prize winner. That person will get something really cool. (No, I have no clue what it is yet. I have until December 2011 to think of something Awesome, so bare with me! LOL). So, if you post a link once a month you will have 12 chances to win. The Grand Winner must be a follower of my blog. Tacky probably, but hey, I need a little self-promotion out of this puppy. LOL!

That's it. Easy, Breezy! Don't you want to join in? Sign Below to Register. Make sure to include your name and if applicable a link to your blog, amazon, goodreads, shelfari, etc. profile page.

Also, leave a message in the comment section to let me know what you think!

Yesterday, Twitter was buzzing about the NY Times Article on how romance e-book sells have out paced other genres. The conclusion was that readers felt more comfortable reading novels with the sexy covers on e-books in public rather then the print copy. I did a double take. Such a broad assumption surprised me because . . .

I am a grown as- woman. Who gives a flying f--k what people think about my reading tastes. I mean really . . . was that the major drawl for people to buy e-readers so that they won't have to discuss what they're reading? Was it yours? I have an e-reader and that thought never crossed my mind. I bought my e-reader because, everyone else had one, they looked cool and I wanted to be cool too and I finally had the money to do so! LOL!

Seriously, I brought my Kindle back in February. Back in February the Hubster and I were talking about getting new furniture and while we were talking about that, he mentioned that he wanted a new gun (he's a cop, so don't worry). So, I'm like if you get something, I want something too, because that's the way we roll in my household – LOL. So it ended up that he got his gun, I got my Kindle, the kids got something and we didn't end up getting our new furniture until Black Friday. Yup, nine months later. Hey, it was a close thing as we both want iPads and Queen wants an iPod as a matter of fact so do I. – LOL.

Anyhoo, I digress, but this post is called Friday Ramblings, so bare with me . . .

The first grown up romance novel I ever read with Velvet Angel by Jude Deveraux. I was eleven years old. Once I closed Velvet Angel, I was hooked to romances for life. I spent any money that I could find on romance novels. Back in the day, it was Jude Deveaux, LaVryle Spencer, Judith McNaught, Linda Lael Miller, Julie Garwood, etc. I read those books everywhere. I didn't care who was watching me, what they said. And I don't remember anyone caring what I was reading. In hindsight that might not have been a good thing, but I think because I was a black girl growing up in the inner city people were just grateful that I was reading instead of running the street. And two, I come from a large extended family of readers. While I'm the only one who reads romance, and I read a lot more than the rest of my family, everyone reads to some extent. I learned about The DaVinci Code when I went home for a visit when I pregnant with Queen and my aunt and my mother were analyzing the book and the biblical ramifications. Nothing says home to me like sitting in the hood listening to my family argue about politics, books, etc. It totally boggles me, because some of those same people in my family make stupid decisions in their personal life.

Oops. Rambling again, hence the title of this post! LOL!
The only time, I remember being criticized for what I'm reading was when I was sixteen and Jackie Collin's Lucky came out. I was reading it at my aunt's house and my aunt had a hissy fit and snapped at my mom and my other aunt who were in the room for letting me read it. Of course, I barely remember the fight because my face was still buried in the book while they were arguing. As I finished the book and actually had the book for years (it actually still might be in my basement somewhere), I'm assuming that they ended up dropping the matter.

As you can probably tell, my reading romance has never been a big deal in my family. They would tend to get annoyed when I would ignore them at family gatherings and read instead, but that's about it.

I'm assuming since my family never had a problem with me reading, I just didn't care what others thought about my reading tastes. I have no shame reading books in public. I have no shame standing in a bookstore, grocery store, whatever, taking my time scanning titles or walking through the store in public reading a book. I read when I go somewhere and I know I'll have to wait. I read if I happen to be going to lunch by myself. I actually prefer to take a physical book with a smexy cover when I'm out in public and not an e-book because when I have ShaNayNay people usually interrupt my reading time with e-reader questions.

Also, I know I have young kids. The other day Queen sat next to me on the couch while I was reading and was looking at the cover. She was trying to point out all the words that she could read on the page I had open (she's six it wasn't much). She asked me why I was reading that book. I told her because I'm grown and if she wants to read my book so bad she better stop looking over my shoulder, get out her flip book (it's a book I made for her to help her with her sounds) and practice her sounds so she learn more words to read better.

And that was that.

Well, that's my story. What is yours? I can't wait to hear it!

5. YOU ARE YOUR OWN GREATEST CHEERLEADER (NOT): I completely understand that no one will love you like you love yourself. But WTF. STOP GIVING YOUR OWN BOOKS 5 STAR REVIEWS. I am tired of going on review sites like Goodreads, Shelfari, Amazon and the like and seeing that you have given your own work 5 stars. That is so freaking tacky. Please, please, please stop. Also, while I am on that note, this applies to you too, publishers and editors. You always say that romanceland is a small community, but that goes to you too. We know who you are, so if we see you on Goodreads or Amazon and the like, giving books you published or edited five star reviews, that annoys us and makes us not want to buy your author's book and depending on the size of the publishing house and your position, anything from your publishing house.



And sort of on this note, romance authors. Going to your website and seeing that you are an Award winning author does not entice us to buy your books, especially if you are a newly published author. If you can't preface the Award winning author with the type of award it is, like New York Times Bestseller, USA Today, RITA Award Winning, don't do it. PLEASE. Sorry, we really don't care that you won a couple RWA Chapter Contests unless it's the RITA or GOLDEN Heart, because really, even I've won a couple of chapter contests, LOL.



4. I LOVE EVERYONE JUST THE WAY THEY ARE: Authors, don't bother rating the books you've read if you're going to give everything an A or B or 4 or 5 stars. I understand about wanting to show support for your friends, lovers, brothers, whatever, but it is just not believable. We are not stupid. We know you are doing it just so you can get your readers to buy your friend's books. That just annoys us and makes us hesitate over buying YOUR books in the future. I would admire you more if you gave a book you liked one, two, three stars and just didn't elaborate futher then if you went around giving EVERYTHING four and five stars. Stop making me cringe when I go onto author's pages and see the constant barrage of four and five star reviews. I'm sorry if I'm offending people, but we are totally onto you on that one.



3. IF YOU CAN'T DO IT RIGHT, DON'T DO IT AT ALL (SOCIAL NETWORKING 101): I'm a Twitter addict. And it drives me nuts when authors get on Twitter and only post links to good reviews of their books, what they posted on their blog, and the like. Of course, you should promote yourself and your brand, but not to the exclusion of all else. That is not the point of social networking. Authors, the majority of your tweets should not be about you tooting your own horn, or promoting yourself. While you don't have to tell everyone that your husband considers cleaning up wiping the counters down and putting dirty dishes in a sink full of soapy water, or you had to hold your daughter down last night to get her to brush her teeth, and your son kicks you out the bed when he sleeps with you because despite only being two he likes to stretch out horizontally across the bed and freaks out if your too close despite it being your freaking bed . . .. (Oops, on a tangent, see what fun things you can learn about me if you followed me on Twitter – LOL). Anyhoo, you don't have to be that open; however, you do have to show traces of your personality. Do you like jewelry, shoes, whatever? Talk about that. Take a picture with your phone of something you're contemplating buying that's not too personal. Are you on deadline? Tell us how many words you managed to write today. Or a snippet about a character your writing. Heck, some authors take pictures of their cats on their computers. Something. And, while I'm on the subject because this really annoys me . . . don't bash Twitter and say you don't like it or it's not worth doing just because you don't understand how to use it effectively. Once again, if you can't do it right, don't do it at all.



2. I LIKE TO GIVE A SHOUT OUT TOO ALL MY PEEPS. Come on, you know what this one is don't you? How many times have you opened up a romance novel only to learn that the heroine, or some other character loves romance novels and is conveniently reading either another of your books, or books by friends of yours. No, dear author just because your characters say they love the books is not going to make us want to run out and read the books as well. It makes us think badly of you and want to gourge our eyes out, or not buy your books. Sorry about that. That also goes for book blurbs, when we read them.





But, I do have to admit, I thought this blurb by Sherrilyn Kenyon aka Kinley McGregor was full of awesomeness and cracked the f up when I first saw it several years ago when the book came out.










1. IT IS BETTER TO KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT THAN OPEN IT AND REVEAL TO THE WORLD THAT YOU ARE BAT SH-T CRAZY! Do I really need to know about your sex life, your personal fights with other writers, editors, publishers. Do I really need to see a picture of you posted in your underwear, even if you do write erotica. Do I really need to see You Tube videos of you stimulating a sexual act. Not really. Please spare me.



So this is it. These are some of my pet peeves. Take a moment in the comment section and tell me some of yours! Can't wait to hear about them!