Reviews are the life blood of authors. The number of reviews on a book (good, bad, or indifferent) leads to bigger and better advertising options which leads to more sales which leads to more time to write more books. Authors give books away to encourage readers to post reviews. The best thing a reader can do for a writer is to review it. You’d think it would be buying the book, but no. Reviewing a book causes more people to buy the book. For the author, it could mean the difference between writing another book and taking up needlework. Not long ago I was at a low point. Circumstances had led to a slump in sales. I was considering chucking it to—I dunno—watch a movie? Read a book? Do anything but put myself through the highs and lows of writing, revising, editing, proofing, and publishing another book. Then I was cruising around Instagram and I found a review for Try A Little Tenderness. Not only did she like the book, she got it. She got it in ways I wanted readers to get my books. The review was months old when I found it and it is still, months later, making my day.

So how, you ask, do I get in on this fabulous deal where I get free books and help out the author whose work I love? There are a few ways to go about it. The direct route is to see if your favorite author is requesting reviews. Up at the top of this page is a tab for how to get on my review team. Sign up for my newsletter and you will be offered a spot. I will send you an email when I have books to review. Since this is the year of the review for me, I will have a couple every month. Not sure if you’re already on my mailing list? Email me at Christabellemaurice(at)gmail(dot)com and ask. In fact, if you only want to be on my review list, email me and I’ll make that happen too. Other authors do similar things so feel free to check their websites or email them and ask.

Don’t want to approach an author directly? There are a few places you can find free books in exchange for reviews.

Netgalley is well known. My books aren’t posted there and I find many Netgalley reviewers to be vicious, but there are books there to be reviewed.

Booksprout does have my books in limited quantities and you can follow me there so you will know when I post a book for reviews.

Bookbub actually just gives you a daily email of free books, but authors who post free books are really hoping for reviews (and sales on other books in the series.)

These are the sites I know about. If you know of others, leave them in the comments.

But how is a review written? It’s really easy. Really. REALLY easy. I have posted reviews on Goodreads that ran along the lines of “This books was fun. I liked it.” You don’t have to summarize the book. You don’t have to list pros and cons. It’s your opinion. That’s all. Nobody is judging you on grammar, punctuation, or clarity of thought. We, the authors, would appreciate it if you get the title and characters’ names correct if you are going to mention them though. It’s really confusing when a review mentions a character who isn’t in that book.

Where are these reviews posted? Amazon is best. Goodreads is good. Any book retailer. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. Any place other readers are going to see it. The review that made my whole 2018? It was on Instagram. The problem with posting there, though, is that the reviews disappear. If that review was in Amazon, it would be helping me more. But I’m really not going to be picky here. Word of mouth is the best kind of advertising and if you’ve got a bunch of friends/followers who like books no matter where you are, review the books you love.

So help out an author. Review a book.

So I have a student who I have been working with for over a year and a half. He prefers to work with me and complains about every other tutor. And he looks a LOT like Jason Momoa as Beef on SNL. This first time I watched this skit, I was a little uncomfortable because all I could see was my Jason Momoa as my student. The first time I say my student after seeing the skit was awkward too. You just never want to see a fantasy object in a kid, y’know?

If you haven’t seen this, you are in for a treat. It’s not for kids (or really husbands, because we don’t want them to know how far you can change your features with make up) but it’s hilarious. I really wish she was still doing these, because all her videos are wonderful. However, one of my students told me that she’s working on an acting career and heaven knows the kids know a lot more about this stuff than I do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJaaLXZwmsU

For some reason I had not read this until recently and I really was denying myself a treat. It’s light and funny and I really need to hunt down the rest of them. Soon.

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I am a sucker for Disney. There are some oddities, but for the most part, Disney is inclusive and positive. The last year I taught in the UAE I had a movie day for my students. I brought in Frozen and a movie called Black Gold (AKA The Day Of the Falcon) which is about the discovery of oil in the Middle East because we had time form two movies. The girls wanted to watch Frozen twice in a row. The boys wanted to watch Black Gold twice in a row (and stunned their Arabic teacher when she walked in and they were enraptured by a movie in English.) Anyway, one thing Disney is really good at is songs that really hit the nail on the tissue box. Here’s a video of many of them. Let me know in the comments if you agree.

I am constantly on the lookout for books to recommend to the reluctant readers I teach. Okay, that’s a lie. Well, a half truth. I do keep an ear out for books to recommend, but I really enjoy YA too. Sci fi YA, even better. Sci fi YA that shamelessly references many of my favorite shows? Could not get to it fast enough. The tag line is something about The Breakfast Club meets Guardians Of the Galaxy, but that really sells this book short. It’s got a multi-ethnic, multi-sexual cast of cast of believable teenagers fighting a realistic terrorist group in a run and gun adventure. Best of all (at least from my point of view) the heat level falls right about angsty longing with nothing graphic so I can recommend it to my high school students with out fearing their parents are going to come down on me to recommending a book with sex in it. If you are looking for a book for a teen (or for yourself), this is a great one.

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I still entertain this fantasy that someday, I’m going to go in vacation, fall in love with some hot, exotic man and he’s going to reciprocate so hard that after I leave he feels he must follow me home (because I want that HEA.) This despite experience to the contrary.

I’ve traveled. A lot. I had to have pages added to one of my passports. I’ve traveled with friends, with family, with my ex-husband (when we were married), and by myself. This last freaks my mother out every time it occurs to her. “I can’t believe you went to Venice alone!” Went to Venice, got lost, had a lovely conversation with a woman about Pasta Puttanesca despite the fact that she spoke no English and I speak no Italian, hung out with two Chinese girls who were traveling on a break from college in England, walked about 400 miles. All by myself. Did not meet a single eligible man. Pretty much the same thing happened when I went to Kuala Lumpur alone. I wandered the city (didn’t get lost thanks to directions from a cop and a trio of Muslim girls on their way back to their office after noon prayers.) I ate a lot of crazy food, and some very familiar food. (Christmas Eve dinner was Subway.) I visited a Borders Books in one of the largest malls in the world, because what else would be on my must see list? I also went to a market my friend insisted I had to visit because it was so amazing. It reminded me a lot of the flea market a few miles from home.

When I went to the Maldives one of the guys who worked at the resort started hitting on my friend. His name was Omar and he managed the restaurants on the tiny island we were staying on. Muscular, bald, warm voice, funny. I was so jealous. Until he conned her out of $5000 and disappeared. I’m still a little jealous up until the money part. She had a great vacation.

So I have to satisfy my craving for a fling by writing my own. I’ve done a couple. Victim Of Love originated with me daydreaming on a beach in the Philippines. Filipinos are darling.

I really need to write another fling story. In the meantime, Victim Of Love is free on Amazon until 1/12, so grab a fling of your own while it’s available.

Victim Of Love on Amazon

These are actually the best books I read for the latter half of the year because that’s when I started keeping track (shortly after I got 20 pages into a book before I realized I had read it and forgotten.) So, as if you need a longer wish list, my favorites from 2018.

While I found his near constant references to San Francisco annoying, he did have a ton of great information. I’m a complete geek for linguistics and food, well, who doesn’t like food? This was a fun trip through the linguistic history of food and will probably leave you hungry. It has recipes in it and will leave you hungry.

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I have long been a fan of Rhys Bowen, but I somehow lost track of the Molly Murphy series. I missed about 7 books from where I left off and this one so yay for me because it means I have a backlog to catch up on. The whole series is fantastic (as are Bowen’s other series, Evan Evans and Royal Spyness.) This one is grittier than the other two, but full of fun cameos and witty language. And, surprisingly. I did NOT have the whole mystery figured out before the end. I only had half of it.

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I glommed this series. As in serial grabs of the audio versions finished in 2 weeks glommed. I love dystopian YA and this one with the moon knocked out of orbit was different from the usual pandemic-zombie apocalypse-nuclear war back drop. There were a lot of complaints about the science in reviews, but that didn’t really bother me. A) because I don’t read YA Sci Fi to learn physics and B) because I think many of the reviewers are wrong about the science themselves. My one caveat? Stop after book 3. Book 4 was a waste of time.

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I was kind of scarred by this book. Mostly because I ended up reading it much earlier than I normally get to things on my wishlist and it’s the first in series and there are not more and I’m dying here waiting for the next one. That in mind, maybe you should back burner this one until there are 2 or 3 more out so you don’t suffer like me. It’s just after the Civil War and the war ended because the dead rose. Blacks are now free, but limited job prospects leave them with the fantastic option of being bodyguards against the zombies. Meet Jane, zombie killer extraordinaire and yet second class citizen. See Jane kill zombies and deal segregation at the same time. Where oh where is that next book?

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This was recommended in O and normally I don’t like lit fic, but this one didn’t have the required downer ending. It also has a really interesting set up and meaty story. I think it resonated most for me because the main character traveled forward in time by 15 or so years while everyone she knew just kept living there lives and it reminded me a lot of living overseas. I would come back after a year away and be like “what happened to that restaurant? I loved that restaurant!” (No, I am not getting over the loss of Metro Burger. It’s been 7 years and every time I round that corner I hope to see it instead of the Wally Waffle that’s there now.)

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I can’t say I’m a Martin Short fan. Previous to reading (or listening to the audio read by Short himself) I would have been hard pressed to recall any of his characters despite the fact that the Santa Clause movies are a Christmas ritual. However, he is a great story teller and he knows everybody. Short doesn’t name drop, he carpet bombs. But he is really friends with these people and he gives a ton of interesting background. Even without all that, it’s worth the whole book to read about his lifelong romance with his wife through all the crazy Hollywood stuff. It’s like he wrote the book as a memorial to her just so he could relive all those memories. Funny, heartbreaking, and loaded with cameos. Three of my favorite things.

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This was a seriously cute romance. Not my normal fare, because it’s utterly fluffy, but it’s really good fluff and I enjoyed every moment. Obvious overtones of the current crop of royals (though their Diana isn’t dead or divorced, she’s crazy and exiled and that is about as gritty as the story gets.) I loved it enough to recommend it to a student who (gasp) doesn’t like to read. Now I’m wondering if there’s a sex scene in it. Then again, maybe it will make her want to read more.

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What was the best book(s) you read this past year? My wish list is down to 130 titles so I need to add a few.

And it has a dog in it! A dog!

When I first noticed this movie listing I was afraid it would be another small town Christmas pageant gone wrong, but no, the shepherd in this case is one of the furry German variety. When I was little my parents built a house on what used to be farmland. The farm house still stood, set back off the road about 100 feet and the farm family lived in it. That family had a large German shepherd named Duke and, since I was five at the time, he out weighed me by about double. My parents were—concerned—, but I loved that dog and he loved me. When the neighbor accidentally ran him over (he was deaf and sleeping behind the father’s truck and the father didn’t look when he backed up) I was destroyed. They immediately got another shepherd they named Penny who I also loved. Duke and Penny cemented a life long love of German Shepherds (as well as medium large dogs of all minds) in me. So when I realized the shepherd was a dog, I was thrilled and plopped down to watch. I won’t give away the plot, but there’s leading and healing and everything ends happily. Worth a spot in your holiday movie line up!

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