Did we REALLY read the same book????

I started thinking this after I wrote up and posted my review of The Last Goodbye. I don’t check Amazon reviews that often, but I do like to check other blog reviews and sites like AAR, TRR and The Romance Reader at Heart.

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Sometimes it’s the review that kicks me into trying out a book – often it’s one of these reviews that kicks me into it *g*. But if it’s a book I’ve decided to read on my own, I either only briefly skim a review or ignore it until after I finish the book and do up a review so I’m not influenced or inadvertently plagiarize another reviewer. Goodness knows there’s been enough about plagiarizing in the past couple of years.

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So it wasn’t until after I posted my most recent read that I went looking around for others thoughts on it. The first place I checked was AAR and I was quite surprised when I saw the low grade and when I read the review, I couldn’t help thinking did she really read the same book I did?

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I often find it quite amazing that despite all loving romance in general, so many of us have such different loves and dislikes. There is a current discussion underway on one of the AAR boards about a book that received a DIK from the reviewer there but a number of posters have had a complete opposite reaction to the book; some to the point where they haven’t been able to finish it. Now this isn’t a book I’m interested in so I have weighed in with an opinion but it does exemplify why I think it’s a wonderful thing that there are so many romance blogs around now. I’ve been blogging officially six years now; I celebrated my sixth year in February. It was a quiet celebration; just between me and the blog. In fact I think I probably missed the exact date *g*. But back when I started, there weren’t that many around. It was mainly through review sites I garnered opinions on books. And the problem with that was if any particular reviewer and I had different tastes in books, then depending on that, I would either dislike a book they enjoyed or miss a book I would have loved. And that’s why I also think it’s important to get more than one take on a book. I’ve seen some people post at AAR that they only trust them and don’t trust blog reviews but I’m of the opposite opinion. I do read and totally appreciate the reviews on AAR and other review sites, but as with review blogs, it’s only one person’s opinion and I like gathering more than one opinion on a book if possible to read either before or after I read the book.

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That’s one reason why the proliferation of blogs is so great. It’s interesting seeing different styles and critical-ness of others. I’m not so sure who much help I am to other readers, I tend to like an awful lot of what I read. And if I’m not enjoying a book, I have no problems putting it down and starting something new. I did get a message from someone from the Chapters site who had read my review of Queen of Shadows and got the book based on my review. I was thrilled to pieces when she contacted me and said how much she loved it. It makes me feel good when someone reads and enjoys a book I’ve recommended. I’m very slow getting to know the different styles and preferences. Me, I’m easy. I like just about everything. So it does kind of startle me when I read a review somewhere on a book I didn’t care for but someone else did. This happened with the latest Jill Shalvis book I read. I checked AAR and they had a much more favourable review than mine. And that made me happy since I feel bad when I’m not so positive in a review.

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Some others though are much tougher than me. Nath, for example, my soon to be roomie, is much tougher than I am. It’s a rare thing that she gives a book the highest grade. Wendy, The Librarian of the Year is also a tough critic. If she gives high grades to a book, then I know I will like it. There are also a few tropes she’s not too fond of that I like so if she downgrades a book because of that, I know it won’t bother me. Some of the younger bloggers don’t care for older women/younger men stories and it’s one of my favourite – now that I could possibly fall into that category of older woman. So if it gets a lower mark or grade due to that particular reason, that won’t be a minus in my books. Leslie and I seem to have very similar tastes so that if she really likes a book, chances are I will too. I know we both agree that the Joss Ware books aren’t that big on the romance aspect but they work great despite that! Renee who hasn’t been blogging as much as she used to also has very similar likes and dislikes. We are of an age and both have been reading romance for years. Jill, a relatively new romance convert, as judged by her blog name *g*, and another former room mate, seems easily pleased like me. She reads more historical than I do though.

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See, this is all stuff that you never get to really know from a romance reviewing site. I think getting to know the person behind the review. I did get a chance to meet a few reviewers from AAR so now when I read their reviews I have more of a sense of who they are.

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All this is to say that getting to know who is doing a review say Wendy, o n a book helps ever so much when reading said book and I loved it and she hated it and it’s soul mates I don’t have to wonder, “Did we REALLY read the same book????”

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And if I seem to be rambling more than usual – that’s cause I am. Both my case managers here at work are on extended leave of absences and until we get other case managers to fill in, my workload has taken a drastic drop – thus giving me time to ramble and be a bad little worker bee. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not. It also gives me time to come up with rather bizarre answers to simple questions. Some came over this morning wondering where the in office case manager was. I told her the space aliens came by and beamed her up to the Mother ship. I think that Coast to Coast AM radio show I listen to first thing in the mornings is having a strange affect on me.