Reviewing book in 2017

As you know, I took December off from pretty much everything (except getting better). This gave me a little extra time for doing some of those thing I never get to do...

...like indulge in books.

Not Wanting To Go Out meant I couldn't raid a library or bookstore, so I stayed at home and downloaded a whole lotta freebie novels.

I'm into Fantasy and Romance, so I got a whole bunch of those and started reading.

Since I am an advocate of posting book reviews, I am going to review those books I start.

Be warned: I plan on being honest.

Having started at least twenty books,  I have this one thing to say about indie freebies: a lot of them were not ready for publication. Some of them were, and they held my attention to the end. A couple of them even enticed me to buy more in the series, and one of them is seriously pushing my "Kobo-preferred" policy by being good enough to get me to buy the rets of the series on Amazon, though I dislike reading on a laptop.

Of the ones that weren't ready, if I couldn't see any value in my reading on, I didn't finish the book. There's far too many books out there for me to waste time finishing a bad book. If I didn't finish, I will explain why.  Also, I reserve the right to refuse a book purely because of taste. I might not like a book other readers love. If so, this doesn't necessarily reflect on the quality of the book.

I plan on posting reviews here, and, depending on reasons, will do the author a solid and post reviews to Amazon. While it can hurt hearing not-so-good things about a book, every author needs to hear that sort of thing. It's just best if said author can hear it before the book is published and not after.

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Her Grace has a few beta mss she needs to read as a favour to a couple of fellow authors.

What Her Grace Has Been Up To

Hello Gentle Readers,

Apologies for the long period of silence. I've been busy.

I recently had a gastric sleeve procedure. This was to correct a long-standing issue I had with the overproduction of the hormone ghrelin.  The surgery went well, though recovery has had a minor complication, which I've mostly recovered from. Due to the impact this surgery has for my whole system, I've not had much energy to do much of anything over the past few weeks, much less get online and blog.

So as I stuff my tiny little tummy on a jar of Beef Casserole with Quinoa baby food, I'm hoping you all have a Happy Holidays.

Wishing you a Happy Solstice for yesterday. I had solstice plans, but with a splitting headache with accompanying photophobia, those plans came to naught.

Speaking of light, wishing many of you Happy Hannukkah for Saturday and the rest of the week. May your hope and faith endure.

Wishing my fellow Christians a Merry Christmas and everyone a Happy New Year.

One of the few things I have been able to do is read.  I got the first few books of a series called "Legends of Dimmingwood" by C. Greenwood.  I've grown attached to the main characters. It's my kind of escapist fiction. I like what I've read so far and am happy to recommend this series to other fans of Fantasy

Unfortunately, the rest of the series is exclusive to Amazon only, so I've got to figure out if I'll be able to read it via a Kindle reader on my laptop without my eyes going spare from the light emissions. I tend not to read books on a laptop or computer because my eyes can't stand the electronic screens. eInk or paperback is much kinder on my aging eyes.

I love my Kobo eReader because of its eInk. It does have self-lighting, but this is reflective, which is kinder on eyes in the long-term.

Here's a  thought: does the Kinder reader app on a laptop do out-loud text reading? If so, I'd totally be in to that. Must investigate further. Or does calibre? I am fond of audiobooks, though I can't alter the pacing like I can when reading text.

Are you fine with reading books on a computer screen, or do you prefer something less... bright?

Anyhow, I'm rambling so I'll wish you a safe and sane Holiday season and I'll see you in January 2017.  In the new year I hope to post more Tuesday's Tales and have more publishing news.

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Her Grace believes in taking the holidays easy, not rushing around like a madwoman. She advocates this approach.