…otherwise known as my weekly round-up post. I haven’t written one in months but I’d like to resurrect the tradition.

WHAT I READ:

I finished three novels this week, and started and set aside another (Kieran Kramer’s When Harry Met Molly – simply not my kind of historical romance). I’m also reading quite a bit of non-fiction at the moment, including a couple of writing reference books.

Blurb: Admiral Philip Guthrie is in an unprecedented position: on the wrong end of the law, leading a rag-tag band of rebels against the oppressive Imperial forces. Or would be, if he can reach his command ship—the intriguingly named Hope’s Folly—alive. Not much can rattle Philip’s legendary cool—but the woman who helps him foil an assassination attempt on Kirro Station will. She’s the daughter of his best friend and first commander—a man who died while under Philip’s command, and whose death is on Philip’s conscience.

Rya Bennton has been in love with Philip Guthrie since she was a girl. But can her childhood fantasies survive an encounter with the hardened man, and newly-minted rebel leader, who it seems has just become her new commanding officer? And will she still be willing follow him through the jaw of hell once she learns the truth about her father’s death?

My Thoughts: This is my favourite book in the Dock Five series. I’ve been looking forward to Philip’s story since he first appeared in Gabriel’s Ghost, and Hope’s Folly didn’t disappoint. I can’t say too much about the plot for fear of series spoilers, but suffice it to say the rebellion develops in an interesting fashion, as does Philip’s character. I liked Rya and thought she was a good fit for Philip. Yet again, Linnea Sinclair has written a strong heroine who is well able to take care of herself and who doesn’t resort to TSTL tactics in order to be rescued by the hero. B+

I went on a mini shopping spree when I discovered that Harlequin have reissued several of Janice Kay Johnson’s older Superromances as part of their digital backlist program. I bought three titles, including Whose Baby?

Blurb: Lynn Chanak is living the nightmare every mother fears. There was a mix-up at the hospital. Her baby isn’t hers. And the only way she can have the baby she gave birth to and keep the child she loves is to marry Adam Landry—a man she doesn’t even know.

Adam was devastated when his Jenny died. And his only consolation was their daughter. But as much as he loves Rose, he can’t stand to think that the child Jenny carried for nine months will grow up without him. If marrying a stranger is what it takes to have both his daughters, then that’s what he’ll do. Even though he still loves Jenny…For the sake of their daughters can they make this marriage work?

My Thoughts: Whose Baby? has an interesting premise and the author does a good job of showing the angst and conflicting emotions of both the parents and the grandparents. What didn’t work so well for me was the hero’s personality. Adam seems passive for much of the story and obsessed with his dead wife. His decision to move on with his life and to learn to love Lynn came rather abruptly and wasn’t wholly convincing. C+

Finally, I read Michele Albert’s All Night Long. It’s now out-of-print, but the author sells it as an ebook on her website for $1.50. She has five of her backlist titles available for $1.50 each, and Absolute Trouble is available for free download. I’ve read three of Michele Albert’s books so far, and enjoyed all of them.

Blurb: A forever kind of guy tangles with a rolling stone kind of woman… On a hot July night in 1832, a young infantry officer disappeared. Almost 170 years later, the search for what happened to him — and why — draws Annie Beckett and Rik Magnusson together in a passionate affair. She tells herself she can’t stay. He decides he won’t let her go. Annie and Rik are determined to overcome the painful obstacles of their pasts to find happiness, but history is about to repeat itself as timeless constants of human behavior — love and honor, friendship and rivalry — threaten their fragile bonds of love and trust.

My Thoughts: This is a wonderful, nuanced romance with memorable characters. Rik is a deliciously tortured hero, and Annie is a lost soul with a heart. The historical mystery subplot is well done and has a few interesting twists and turns before its resolution. B+

WHAT I WROTE:

I’m taking a few writing workshops this month. My goal for the first quarter of the year is to work on my craft, as well as finishing the first draft of my current WIP. I’m also working my way through the exercises in a couple of writing reference books, namely Alicia Rasley’s The Power of Point of View and Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King.

WHAT I WATCHED:

The second season of Cracker (UK version starring Robbie Coltrane). I loved this series when it was first shown back in the 90s and I’m enjoying re-watching it on DVD.

I’m also on the first season of the English historical drama, Lark Rise to Candleford. It’s a gentle, feel-good programme with a few glaring historical inaccuracies which I’m choosing to ignore (e.g.: someone being sent to debtor’s prison in 1895).

Have you read/written/watched anything interesting this week?

♦ The past week has been crazy. I was sick; my son was sick; we had several appointments and we were late to all of them (Note: I am NEVER late); I got us locked out and had to call C to come home from work and rescue us; I lost my keys – twice; my laptop, iPod and cell phone all died on the same day (thankfully, they now work again); my daughter dumped water all over my ticket for the parking garage and I had to plead with the security guy not to charge me for a full day’s parking as the ticket was unreadable. All in all, I’m looking forward to August ending. Hopefully, September will be a better month.

♦ This was another slow reading week for me. I read Brenda Novak’s Killer Heat and I’m halfway through Jeannie Lin’s Butterfly Swords.

♦ My second draft for my book is coming along. The first part of my revisions went quickly as the the first half of the book was already fairly polished. The second half is more challenging. I need to re-write quite a bit of it. My goal is to have my second draft finished by next weekend. Fingers crossed!

♦ I finally saw the finale for the second season of Sons of Anarchy. It ended on a cliffhanger and want the third season to be on now! We’re also addicted to The Shield. I got the complete series box set as an early birthday present. We’ve already seen the first season and we’ve started the second. For anyone who enjoys character-driven cop shows, this is really good.

♦ Now for something which has been irritating me for a while: Remember that whole Amazon Fail business last year, when we were all encouraged to boycott Amazon, Google bomb them, etc.? How many of the people baying for blood back then are now linking to Amazon again on their blogs and/or the proud owners of a reduced-price Kindle?  This is just one example of why I no longer engage with online “controversies”. The age of Twitter, blogs and 24-hour news makes information immediately available in a way that wasn’t possible in the past. However, instant information is not always accurate, and Twitter tweets and retweets are like a game of Chinese Whispers. Having been burned more than once by people jumping to conclusions and posting/tweeting stuff that later turned out to be inaccurate, or not representative of the whole story, I prefer to wait these days before getting irate about anything.

So how was your week?

June was a very busy reading month for me. I read a record twenty-two books, plus an anthology containing three novellas! I’ve noticed that I read faster on the BeBook than I do print books. Plus a significant number of the books on my list are short, category romances.

What is even more astounding than the number of books I read in June is the fact that I’ve written reviews for all of them. Admittedly, some of them are in the form of mini review posts, but that still counts, right?

At any rate, my review for Cold Sight by Leslie Parrish will be up on Saturday, and the other June reviews will be posted over the next couple of weeks.

1. The Bikini Car Wash (2010) by Pamela Morsi – A
2. Bought: Damsel in Distress (2009) by Lucy King – A-
3. Red’s Hot Honky-Tonk Bar (2009) by Pamela Morsi – B+
4. The Secret Mistress Arrangement (2009) by Kimberly Lang – B+
5. Cold Sight (2010) by Leslie Parrish – B+
6. Demon Night by Meljean Brook – B
7. Fatal Affair (2010) by Marie Force – B
8. Almost Perfect (2010) by Susan Mallery – B
9. Next Comes Love (2009) Helen Brenna – B
10. A Man Lay Dead (1934) by Ngaio Marsh – B
11. Ruthless (2010) by Anne Stuart – B
12. Her Very Own Family (2009) by Trish Milburn – B-
13. Exclusively Yours (2010) by Shannon Stacey – B-
14. Crazy for Love (2010) by Victoria Dahl – B-
15. At Last Comes Love (2009) by Mary Balogh – B-
16. Born on the 4th of July (2010) by Jill Shalvis, Rhonda Nelson and Karen Foley – C+
17. Mia’s Scandal by Michelle Reid – C+
18. Winning a Groom in 10 Dates (2010) by Cara Colter – C+
19. Then Comes Seduction (2009) by Mary Balogh – C+
20. Ms Match (2008) by Jo Leigh –  C+
21. Married by Morning (2010) by Lisa Kleypas – C
22. Grave Sight (2005) by Charlaine Harris – C
23. Riding Wild (2008) by Jaci Burton – C

Did you read anything particularly good in June?

Reading various tweets and posts over the past few months has made me reflect on what visitors to book review blogs want to/should know about the blogger. What makes a blog visitor trust the reviewer’s integrity? Are there factors which visitors feel are important for a blogger to disclose regarding their hobbies, professional interests, and relationships with authors/editors/publishers/agents?

I’ve compiled a list of factors which visitors might feel are important for a book review blogger to disclose, plus my thoughts on each.

Receiving ARCs or other free books from authors/publishers: I know that bloggers in the US are now legally required to disclose the receipt of ARCs, but I’d like to broaden the discussion of this issue to bloggers worldwide. Personally, I like to know if a blogger receives ARCs. Unless they only seem to award high grades to the books they review, it doesn’t affect my perception of their honesty, but I think it’s important to mention it. I’ve been around the blogs long enough to assume that the vast majority of reviewers receive ARCs, but I didn’t realise this at the beginning.

Friendships with authors/editors/publishers/agents: This, for me, is where it gets tricky. I’ve exchanged tweets with authors, plus the odd email. Does that make me their friend, or affect my ability to grade their books honestly? Not as far as I’m concerned. When reviewers are genuinely friends with an author, I don’t think they should review their books. At the very least, they should mention this fact in their review. The same applies to critique partners.

The book review blogger also writes: Once more, this factor is not straight forward, and I’m referring exclusively to those writers who are not yet published. If a review blogger has at least one completed manuscript and is actively seeking publication, but fails to mention this on her blog, I can see that this might affect visitors’ perception of her ability to review fairly. On the other hand, if the blogger has the vague notion of writing a book some day and occasionally writes a page or two, I don’t think this is relevant. And what of all the people who fall somewhere in between? Some only write during NaNoWriMo; others write regularly but don’t feel comfortable discussing their work publicly; yet others write in fits and spurts, sometimes leaving years between manuscripts.

For the record, I do write, and I have mentioned this on the blog before. I didn’t put it in my bio when I set up the blog because it never occurred to me to do so. At any rate, I was going through a writing slump at the time. I would put myself in the “in between” category of writer reviewers: I’m not at the stage of actively seeking publication, but I’ve been writing regularly and now have a critique partner. In other words, I take it seriously, but I’m not yet at the point of submitting to agents/editors.

The reviewer is a published author: I take published author book recommendations with a pinch of salt if they are of books from the same genre or subgenre in which the author writes. The cynic in me always checks to see if they share the same agent or publisher. On the other hand, I don’t see a problem in an author reviewing books from other genres. Authors, after all, are also readers.

Reviewer is  employed by an author/publisher/agent: I definitely think that the reviewer should be forthcoming with this information. As a blog visitor, I’m likely to be interested in what they have to say due to their inside knowledge of the publishing industry. If, however, they chose to conceal this from their visitors, and it somehow came out at a later stage, it would definitely have a negative impact on my perception of their honesty and integrity.

Self-proclaimed expertise on a subject: If a blogger presents themselves as an expert on a particular subject, I like them to mention their credentials. While I find the anonymous agent/editor blogs amusing, I don’t take them seriously as I have no idea whether or not they are the real deal.

Ads on blogs: I ignore ads on blogs. I understand why some bloggers choose to run them in order to cover postage costs, etc., if they run a lot of contests, or post books to other reviewers. However, I don’t care for them. (Thanks to Janet W for the reminder!)

Some Questions to Ponder:

• What factors do you think a book blogger should disclose in order to circumvent potential accusations of conflicts of interest?
• Does it alter your opinion of a reviewer when you know that they also write? (Yes, I review and I write, but I welcome honest opinions, so feel free to disagree with me.)
• Can you think of other factors which would alter your perception of a reviewer if you knew of them?

From blog hopping, I’ve noticed several references to a reading list or a reading plan. I have the impression that many book review bloggers – and, indeed, many readers – are more organised than I am with regard to planning their reading material.

Reading is the one area in my life where I allow myself complete freedom. I’m a planner by nature. Actually, if I didn’t have a ‘To Do’ list for each day, plus a regular routine, I would be in my PJs at 5 pm with the breakfast dishes still sitting on the table. I’m all-or-nothing in that sense.

When it comes to reading, I have a set time of day when I sit down with a book, but no plan as to what book it will be. I read according to my mood. I often go through phases of reading, say, several mysteries in a row, followed by several contemporary romances. Although I regularly post a list of books I’m looking forward to the next month, this doesn’t necessarily mean I’ll read all of them in that particular month. Much as I might be anticipating a certain book, if I’m not in the mood to read its particular genre, it will sit on my TBR shelf until I am.

I’m also peculiar when it comes to series books. I can’t read more than two books in a row which belong to the same series. I will often wait months between series books even if I’m really enjoying the story. At the very least, I’ll space them out by reading two or three other books in between.

I’m curious: What’s your reading style? Do you plan your reading schedule in advance, perhaps to coincide with a book’s release date? Or do you allow yourself to read whatever strikes your fancy?

Malle Vallik has a thought-provoking post up at Romancing the Blog entitled Five Tips on an Easy-to-Use Social Media Tool: Commenting.

To summarize, her 5 tips are thus:

1. Respond to people who comment on your blog - I try to do this
2. Authors should thank all reviewers who review their books, even if review not positive - Umm…I disagree, but see below
3. Comment on several blogs per day - I try to visit several blogs per day but I only comment if I feel have something to say, or if I have the time
4. Don’t use commenting as an opportunity to self-promote - I definitely agree on this point
5. Think before publishing comment - Very good advice

The point which stuck out in my mind was the second one. I don’t think authors should feel obligated to thank reviewers for reviewing their books, particularly when said reviews were unsolicited.

Ultimately, reviews are written with fellow readers in mind, not authors. I have no problem with an author commenting on something I write, but I certainly don’t expect them to do so. I’ve also rarely seen a truly classy response to a negative review, so that’s another consideration for an author thinking about weighing in. While they have a right to respond to a negative review if they wish, it’s very hard to do so in such a way that sheds them in a positive light. In the case where the reviewer has made glaring mistakes about the content of the book, or falsely accused them of inaccuracies, I think an author is entitled to draw attention to those errors.

What do you think? Do you agree with Malle that responding to all reviews is good author etiquette?

As of December 1st, the US Federal Trade Commission will require review bloggers to disclose any payment or freebies they receive in exchange for reviewing a particular product. In other words, book review bloggers will be obliged to mention whether or not a book was given to them by an author or publisher, or if they received any financial incentive to write the review.

I am not resident in the US, so the ruling can hardly apply to me. However, it raises the general question of reviewer integrity and full disclosure of potential conflicts of interest. Personally, I am all for transparency. I assume many of the review blogs and sites I visit receive advanced reading copies, but I would prefer this to be mentioned explicitly. Equally, special circumstances such as a personal or professional relationship with an author should be revealed, e.g.: if the reviewer is the author’s critique partner or BFF.

I visit many blogs and review sites. I gravitate towards those which I see as trustworthy, and this is a trust which has built over time. I don’t expect to agree with their assessment of every book reviewed, but I want to feel the opinion given is an honest one. I am not for a moment suggesting that it’s not possible to give an honest review of an ARC. But in the interests of transparency, and for inspiring trust in new visitors, I think mentioning that the book is an ARC is valid.

There’s a growing trend for review bloggers to regard themselves as more than hobbyists, with some accepting paid advertising. In their case, I think it’s especially important to be upfront about the source of the books they review and the giveaways they have on their blog.

Equally, I would apply the appeal for full disclosure to endorsements from fellow authors, be they in the form of cover quotes or books being pimped on their websites. I often see authors from the same publisher give each other cover quotes. Perhaps they truly loved the book, but to my mind it represents a clear conflict of interest. Most potential buyers do not know which authors know each other in real life, have the same agent, or are contracted with the same publisher.

Seeing as we’re discussing full disclosure, I should mention that all the books I have thus far reviewed on my blog are ones I bought myself or borrowed from friends. I have agreed to review two ARCs and I will mention this in their respective reviews.

Here are some links to further information on the new FTC rules:

http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/10/endortest.shtm

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/10/05/business/AP-US-TEC-Bloggers-FTC.html?_r=2 (Thanks to Magdalen for this link!)

What do you think of the new FTC ruling? Is it unfair to bloggers as it fails to include print publications such as Publishers Weekly? Would you prefer reviewers to mention the source of the books they review?