GETTING TO KNOW US: How Do We Select Books To Review?

There are actually several factors that determine what we decide to read and review for the blog. A little over a year ago Courtney and I realized that we were reading and reviewing at an unsustainable pace; we were slaves to our calendar and neither of us seemed to be able to catch our breath. I remember at one point feeling extremely stressed out about how I was going to basically read a new novel a day for an entire week in order to keep up with what we'd promised to various authors and PR people. Crazy, right? Thinking back, it was all my fault. A rookie book blogger move: so many great books coming out and wanting to be a part of the launch of it. Once I regained my sanity and took a step back I realized that, duh, those books will always be there and maybe Court and I should scale it back some...be a little more selective about what we're reading, and spend more time on those books. So now there are a few things that we look at when we decide what to read:

• Have we read and liked the writer's previous works? 
• If the writer is new to us or we're giving a writer a second chance: does the blurb sound like something we'd want to try?
• Is it Kristen Ashley? Haha. No lie, we'll drop everything for her.
• Do we have enough time to read it?
• The buzz around this book is incredible, wanna see what it's about?

Those are just a few things that we consider but sometimes things happen. Unfortunately not all the books we pick up to read are books that we feel comfortable recommending. If I'm reading something and I can't recommend it to anyone, what's the point of spending the time writing a blog post about all the reasons why it didn't work when I could spend that time doing something else? I know that fair and critical feedback is important and I appreciate that many bloggers put their less than flattering thoughts out there. And who knows, maybe one day Court and I will feature books that didn't work for us and explain why, but for now we're featuring the books that we like. 


I have good success at using Shelley's picking powers to pick good books, and I'm sorry Shel for somehow lumping that onto you too! But...sometimes when I pick books I don't really do a lot of research on it regardless if it's someone I have read before...Why? Well, I love the cover, or the blurb seems interesting but I don't really check and see how their other works fared in the name of editing so that'll sometimes be my biggest downfall I think. I also have go to people that are tried and true, like Kristen Ashley, that just because she has a new book makes me pick it up. I also go through different tropes that are my favorite: military men (dunno why...hero complex I guess) to the point that I always keep a men-in-uniform shelf on my goodreads for the year, most all biker books, books about rock stars/celebrities and kidnapping. I don't know how it always seems like I enjoy these things, but I'm hoping it's because it is out of the realm of normal life, and not that I expect to get kidnapped by a biker who is a rock star, and expect to be rescued by a navy seal. But, who knows. Until next time, y'all...carry on!