JD
Fantastic! And these do apply to more than just romance and I think she gives you good actionable hints on how to find the butter in your own genre!
For a long time I'd struggle seeing things like twilight or 50 shades become huge but after reading this I know why and have some ways to infuse my own writing with the same after a fair amount of practice lol.
DNF on 1/2/2022. Might just not be in mood. But the main guy feels stereotypically autistic without even labeling him. Being neurodivergent this was not hitting the spot for me.
This is an instant classic! I'd say it's required reading to go over to substack and read an Encore of Roses right after. It's the epilogue you didn't know you needed.
For me, this is a perfect horror romance! You have pansexual characters in poly relationships, learning to love and learning how to live. You have a narcissist that gaslights and controls but does not win. You have people finding their strength for love!
Keep in mind the beginning is a bit slow at first. But as soon as Magdelena shows up it speeds up.
FYI this is a unique style where it is 1st person pov of Constanta but it is written as a sort of letter to Dracula who is referred to as “you.” I love the letter format as it stays on theme with Dracula as well. But it is a bit odd at first.
I'd give it 3 if you knew it was for joke writing (one liners) not incorporating humor into longer formats. In the blurb it says this will help you write stories and prose yet in the introduction and throughout his only examples are one liners.
I also, personally, despise when non-fiction and writing teacher take the “this is the only good/right/smart way” This writer thinks sarcasm is lowly for instance and satire is the only intelligent form of humor writing.
For one liners, sarcasm would be hard. I also disagree with the funny characters definition. I think there are a lot of funny characters that are very dimensional.
Overall, not for me. And if you're a novelist I would look elsewhere!
Overall rating: 4.5/5★Writing: 5/5★, There are some beautiful, haunting phrases in here!Plot: 4/5★, It's more character-led than a plot I'd say. But it flowed really well.Characters: 4.5/5★I doubt I could ever give a novella a 5/5 for characters just because there is very little time to explore them. But this is close, mostly because the characters are bizarre so they aren't meant to be very deep. It works here!
Would I reread?: Yup, definitely
This is very unique. It's one of the few books that I think really stands on its own best if you know very little going in. Though I will say that I do believe some Christians may have issues with this. So, if you are very religiously Christian I would pass and avoid possible upset. For everyone else that is a fan of unsettling horror, definitely read this! It was fun although a short ride!
I would give this Witchy Friendship book a 10 frankly. I was a bit worried about how this would end, given its tag of horror, but was tickled pink that it ended so strongly. Go in knowing that this is NOT horror. I think the only folks that might be scared of this book are old mediocre white men. But if you're queer or fem presenting person I think you'll find this a treat. I'd say this is more appropriately Dark Women's Fiction.
This is all about finding yourself after a breakup, finding your true self after people-pleasing, and finding a female friendship that is worth the risks!
Maybe I'm just an angry witchy gal myself with a taste for people getting their comeuppance but this is a warm mug of tea and piece of delicious cake perfect for winter or summer. I highly recommend reading this with your coven ;)
I love this is narrated as an interview. The voices are great. It's a really fun, cute read. More like a podcast episode than a book. It's worth a listen for sure!
This was a fun read! If you like A Shade of Vampire by Bella Forrest this is the adult, very racey version of that to a large degree. You have the whole human captive thing and the vampire safe haven bit as well. It's not a carbon copy by any means but there's a lot of similarities.
That said I still thing this is a pretty unique take on the Vampires and the plot direction is interesting and I want to find out more.
This is a pretty short book and it is mostly sex scenes but you are still finding out more information. It is a fast burn with detailed sex scenes. So it depends on what you're looking for. But if you like that sort of thing this is good. The sex scenes weren't cringy and were very HOT!
I will give a heads up there is M/M scenes which some people aren't into, and there is some light BDSM (I'm hoping for more in the future books myself). So if that's not you're cup of tea, move on :)
The POV is the first person for Aisha with alternating chapters in 3rd for the men.
Another creepy and colorful retelling by Henry. She is great at building characters and making you care for them before putting them through hell, lol. The story is a unique take that occurs after the original story.
Very well done indeed. And I loved the trans representation without making it a huge deal if that makes sense. She makes it clear what Ben's wishes were but doesn't make it the only thing unique or developed about Ben!
This is a bare-bones book that could be good if you are very new to writing. It gives some basics on 3-act structure and some tips that she uses to write faster. I will still read the rest in this little series because I am curious about her free promo strategy.
For me, this wasn't groundbreaking but it gives you an idea to move forward. I would say Monica Leonelle has better help in terms of productivity to write faster as does Chris Fox.
And I prefer the 3-act structure from Super Structure by James Scott Bell. But I could see myself recommending this to newbies that need a foundation to build off of.
You can't go wrong with Amanda Frances!
If you buy one book on manifesting money have it be this one. Are there spelling errors and formatting issues? Yeah. But guess what? The information is gold. So who the fuck cares? Just read and do the exercises, and become a wealthy woman!
I love her work and this book is a blessing! Just buy it already!
If you've never done investigations maybe this isn't for you. I get that the book was maybe not what others were expecting, it is not in any particular order. And despite being from the owner it is not the tales of her living in the house from the start to finish. More just short stories of the most memorable accounts.
I enjoyed it a great deal!
If you are like me, you may wonder if you want to finish this book at about the 50% mark because of where things seem to be going. Well, I ended up reading the epilogue at that point, because if it ended in the way it seemed like it might I knew I'd hate it very much. But after reading the epilogue I was calmed and happily finished and I'm glad I did. If you'd like to be calmed too,
Spoiler
This is very reminiscent of the movie vvitch in some ways. The main one being it is a slower build, much slower than I was expecting but you connect to Agatha quickly and that carries you through. It of course plays in the themes of the hypocrisy of religion and men playing at gods.
This is a bit triggering if you have religious trauma FYI. But also weirdly cathartic if you get past that. Overall, I am very pleased with how the story went because the ending was every bit what I wanted it to be. And definitely check for trigger warnings if you are sensitive!
Merged review:
If you are like me, you may wonder if you want to finish this book at about the 50% mark because of where things seem to be going. Well, I ended up reading the epilogue at that point, because if it ended in the way it seemed like it might I knew I'd hate it very much. But after reading the epilogue I was calmed and happily finished and I'm glad I did. If you'd like to be calmed too,
Spoiler
This is very reminiscent of the movie vvitch in some ways. The main one being it is a slower build, much slower than I was expecting but you connect to Agatha quickly and that carries you through. It of course plays in the themes of the hypocrisy of religion and men playing at gods.
This is a bit triggering if you have religious trauma FYI. But also weirdly cathartic if you get past that. Overall, I am very pleased with how the story went because the ending was every bit what I wanted it to be. And definitely check for trigger warnings if you are sensitive!
I think every author should read this book honestly! Especially with it (currently as of 12/28/2022) being on Scribd! I do wish that it covered more on the types of ads she uses to drive traffic and how they set that up. But you can find a lot about ads.
Now, that said, I have a background in marketing and graphic/web design. I agree with 98% of everything in here with a few exceptions mostly of things she left out that are relevant in my mind.
One, I can't believe that she didn't mention Stripe as a method of payment versus Paypal. Paypal gives me anxiety almost as badly as Amazon. I've known more than a few entrepreneurs selling legitimate products especially digital products that had their accounts randomly suspended or locked for MONTHS. To me, Stripe is far superior in quality and handling. I use it for stores and invoicing my design clients.
Two, Coupons. In the book she talks about offering a percentage instead of a free reader magnet. I disagree, especially if you're new. Why? Because it is still about building trust. Give away the first in the series and then offer a discount in the back to get them into book 2. That's my recommendation.
Three, shocked that she doesn't talk about the huge opportunity with not only going direct with sales but also memberships. You can run a self-hosted Patreon-esque service with a few plugins and have monthly guaranteed income coming on in. With that membership you can also include member-only coupons.
Four, cross affiliate. With a few plugins you can trade affiliate codes with other direct authors. They promote your direct store and get a piece when people buy and you do the same for them. It is easy to setup and I think a great tactic to get people into your store.
Fifth, I wish she would have talked about UI. User interface. The websites linked in the book were not optimized for Users. The shops were not well designed to make browsing easy, none from what I saw had filters to select genre or series easily and some were only accessible from the home page and not the menu. Now, that may be because most of their traffic is ad driven or social driven to landing pages. BUT, that is still not optimized for organic search traffic. Don't neglect UI.
This is a great starting place and with the right template you could have a store up in a day or two if you are tech savvy.
Best steamy contemporary I've read
Fully developed plot, characters, and great pacing. This is a good as it gets!
Some steamy romance lacks in depth. It can read shallow and be just as bad as porn acting. This, this is different. And for the harem it makes sense if doesn't feel forced. It's like a natural next step.
And the plot, the problems and dilemmas were all very real feeling. I don't even usually like contemporary non-paranormal romance but this hooked me from page 1.
Read it!
Oh and for readers that like reverse harem but not m/m your save with this one. And it has alternating pov with 1st person.
This keeps you guessing! I totally agree this is 100% the craft meets Jennifer's body! With all the delicious angry feminism and revenge justice you'd want! Great short read and I can't wait to see more from this author!
Great for fresh out of the gate authors. The questions asked are the best part of the book for anyone with experience in the basics. That's what I'll use moving forward.
I'd recommend for any newbie for sure.
I was disappointed that the line editing section was so scarce. But seeing her process was interesting.
Queer magicians, intrigue, curses, what more can I ask for! I cannot wait for next book of the series to come out!
Really hoping Adelaide becomes an even more prominent character in the next installment!
Fun and naughty
This book isn't for Christians that are easily offended for sure. But for an ex-catholic is perfect. Tons of sex, but of gore, post apocalyptic situations and a horny angel. What's not to love!
Oh and you definitely get m/m and an group sex FYI, also there is a bit of bdsm so heads up!
Can't wait to read more from both authors!
This is good, but it is just one technique. And this is more or less discussed in her Course in Manifesting series. So if you have read that this really isn't necessary.
And to be honest it did feel a bit to be an advertisement for her online courses that she now offers in magic on her site. Which honestly is fine, I just wish there was a bit more meat to this one.
It still is valuable and I would still recommend it as a short read but I do prefer her original books on Magic much more.
3.5star would be 5 stars if the sex scenes were removed or better written. I'm not into clean romance to be clear but the sex scenes were 100% cringey to me. Even her dreams were pretty weird.
But other than that this serves up 100% of the holiday rom-com antics one could desire. It definitely has You've Got Mail meets The Hating Game vibes. I loved the characters. It has great rep we've got some queer characters, our main gal is Neurodivergent and demisexual! Which I related to a lot as I am too. Our main dude has a secret disability He has type 1 diabetes and it is a spoiler because the main gal doesn't realize what's going on with him.
I'm hoping maybe the author can improve on the sex stuff as she puts out more work because this was really fun. But the sex stuff seemed like it was porn-like or written for men versus women if that makes sense.
Two other cons were how often he says her name. It's constant and gave me 50 shades flashbacks in a bad way. It didn't come off as sexy to me. AND in the audiobook, the women's male voices were pretty terrible. Very forced and raspy. It came off very fake if that makes sense. And in general, I wish if that they used the male narrator for the male voices throughout instead of him just reading the epilogue. Still think its fun, but fast forward past the last 20ish minutes of the book to avoid the cringe lol.
This is concise and actionable. It gives you clear things to think about not only while editing but while writing to make your work clearer.
This man has been an editor for over 50 years and he knows what it takes to get published. Concise writing with good books will get sold a whole lot easier.
This is a valuable tool to improve your writing. Period.