Follow Friday Fun (20) & TGIF @ GReads (16)

Weekly recap - what's been going on at Ramblings of a Daydreamer:

Reviews:

Virtuosity by Jessica Martinez

The Spirit of Nora by Lyle Scott Lee

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

 

Memes:

Top 10 Tuesday: Winter TBR List

Other

2012 Standalone Challenge

Blue Sky Days Teaser #4

Follow Friday Fun Week 20: This weekly meme is hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read.  Check out their blogs for details/rules, and to join!  Also, be sure to check out this week's featured bloggers on each of the girls' sites!

This week's question: What is your biggest pet peeve when it comes to books? Maybe you don't like love triangles or thin plots? Tell us about it!

Hmmm…well, I’m pretty easy to please when it comes to books. There are a few things that annoy me, though…like whiny, woe-is-me characters. Suck it up, get over yourself, and move on! A little bit of angst and self-doubt is to expected in books about teens, but some characters are just too busy having a pity party for one to really develop beyond that. 

I also really hate build-ups that fizzle out. You get really excited waiting for this big fight, or for a character to get their comeuppance, or a couple to get together, and then the story just fizzles and leaves you with a bad taste in your mouth. Also, characters who learn absolutely nothing or don’t grow emotionally or learn anything leave a bad taste in my mouth. What was the point of the story?

 

TGIF at GReads Week 16: TGIF is hosted by Ginger at GReads - be sure to check out her blog and join in the fun!

This week's question: Writing Reviews 101: What's your process for writing book reviews? Any tips or suggestions you would recommend to other bloggers?

 

My reviews are pretty general - they’re more my thoughts on a book than an actual review. For the most part, I don’t go too in-depth, I just basically talk about what I liked and what I didn’t like. One of my main focuses is usually the characters - if I could relate to them, if I loved them, hated them, wanted to slap them, formed a crush, etc, etc. And since I read a lot of romance books, I also like to focus on the romantic aspect in my reviews. 

As a writer, I always pay attention to the writing style, and sometimes comment about that, especially if the author had a unique writing style, or if it was strange and hard to follow. 

If I didn’t like a book, I will never bash it or the author. Even if a book is poorly written, has plot holes, or is just plain bad, writing a book isn’t easy, and authors work hard. When I read a book I don’t enjoy, I always try to say at least a few positive things about it, and not dwell on why I didn’t enjoy it. I absolutely hate writing bad reviews...I like to make people happy, and writing bad reviews makes me feel really icky and guilty lol. 

 

Happy Friday and happy December! I hope you all had a great week! I went away last weekend and still haven't written a blog about it...I haven't even uploaded my pictures to Facebook yet, which, if you know me, is unusual, especially considering I took like 500 pictures in 3 days lol. Anyway, be sure to leave a comment...I'm way behind in visiting people and commenting, but I'm going to catch up this weekend!