Spectaccolo

by Christine Catlin

Leona is a beautiful, determined, talented performer. Abandoned at the circus as an infant, she befriends a pack of circus lions who become her family as she becomes Leona, the Lion Tamer. Her performances gain her the highest recognition and eventually garner the deepest jealousies. Kidnapped by the neighboring circus, Leona and her lions are forced to perform against their will. Unable to escape, Leona is commanded to train an erratic male lion with a history of violence.

184 pages, Hardcover

First published November 3, 2015

About the author

Christine Catlin is a writer and editor living in New York City. She grew up in Minnesota.

Reviews

[Khanh, first of her name, mother of bunnies · Rating 1 out of 5]

Catfished. Please read this post for more info.

http://bookishantics.com/2016/01/04/b...

I got that same email from "Corinne," by the way.

[Dear Faye]

I was approached by the author/"publicist" a few days ago, asking if I can review Penguin books once a month because I had some "klout" in the book blogging sphere. I was sent an epub of this author's book (SPECTACCOLO), and an ACSM file off Edelweiss that didn't work, and found out later that it was a sick but clever scheme by the author to get bloggers to read and review her book. She posed as a publicist and deceived me, and I'm just glad I wasn't able to give her any of my personal details.

Needless to say, I am not touching this book ever. Nor this person. EVER.

To know more, click here: bookishantics.com/2016/01/04/beware-c...

[Erin Lynn · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm not even sorry for saying this, but any person who pretends to work for a major publishing house to get addresses of bloggers is not the type of person we need in this community.

[Rose]

You know, the funny thing is that based on the blurb of this book and the fact I love circus stories, I actually would've read this book. Now though? Not so much.

[Katie(babs) · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bloggers BEWARE of a person going by Christine Caitlin: Catfished By A Fake Penguin Employee- http://bookishantics.com/2016/01/04/b...

[J · Rating 1 out of 5]

January 5, 2016

As a general policy, I don't ever rate a book I've not even attempted to read. However, when I'm on the receiving end of a catfishing scam, that policy flies right out of the window.

Read Jon's blog post for details. The down low: Christine Catlin/Corinne Rosanna Catlin (whichever her real name is) pretended to be a publicity assistant of Penguin Random House to collect addresses from quite a number of bloggers. Many gave them to her, several of whom were minors.

I too gave her a mailing address (thankfully a proxy), believing she was legit because she had access to an official company email address. Yes, she used her private email address to reply but when I emailed her, I only addressed my response to the company email address. I did not even CC her private email address. Correspondence wasn't interrupted because of that.

As of now, I don't know who she really is but she breached the trust of bloggers and scammed us. This cannot be tolerated and should not be supported by buying, recommending or reading her book.

[Jessie Leigh · Rating 1 out of 5]

FUCKING NO.

[Heather K (dentist in my spare time)]

This person tried to catfish our blog also. Shameful.

http://bookishantics.com/2016/01/04/b...

[Taylor · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just a few weeks ago, me and my co-blogger, Stephanie, received an email from "Penguin Random House". The day after Stephanie received her package and the day after I got mine, we learned that we had been catfished after reading this blog post: http://bookishantics.com/2016/01/04/b...
We both are very angry and disappointed. Words can't describe how I feel about this situation.
I hope other bloggers can learn from the countless people that "Corinne Rosanna"/Christine Catlin has scammed and not accept this book from her.

Stephanie and my blog post about the scam: http://bibliophilegathering.com/2016/...

[Lexie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Talk about doing yourself a spectacular disservice.

Be very, very careful of who you share your personal information with, my lovelies.

Apparently being a blogger is just a notch below the mafia now. We're surrounded by spies.

I sense a spy thriller about this event in our futures.

[Sandra]

NOPE!

http://bookishantics.com/2016/01/04/b...


This person contacted me via my blog and offered monthly books from Penguin for review. She seemed to be genuine, but apparently that's not the case.

I'm disgusted. What a waste of time and energy to try to fool honest people into your sick marketing scheme.

[Lesley Hudson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. I would say that it is written with a teenage audience in mind, but can definitely be enjoyed by adults too. The storyline is very unique and the circus setting adds an air of colourfulness and glamour. I really enjoyed the characters, particularly Leona who I found to be interesting and at times quite inspirational.

If you are looking to read something that is entertaining and vibrant then I would highly recommend this book to old and young readers alike.

[Becki · Rating 1 out of 5]

I believe Grumpy Cat will tell you exactly how a lot of people feel about this, than I ever could.

[image error]


[image error]


[image error]

[Lyn *GLITTER VIKING* · Rating 1 out of 5]

How dare you.

[Erin BookNut · Rating 1 out of 5]

This has officially gone into Kathleen Hale territory, and like her this author has made it into the "will not touch" list. Good job.

[Cee (The Mistress Case)]

Beware, my GR friends and followers! Be safe!

http://bookishantics.com/2016/01/04/b...

[Tess Wilderspin]

Another author acting like a twit. Do stop it.

[Kathryn Barrett · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you want to know the problems with this book, simply search for "''BEWARE: Catfished By A Fake Penguin Employee" on the website Bookish Antics and you'll see how this "author" tried to generate book reviews by faking correspondence from Penguin.

No one should ever buy this book or anything this person writes.

[Meedah · Rating 1 out of 5]

THIS BOOK SOUNDS RIGHT UP MY ALLEY BUT NOPE SINCE THIS AUTHOR WANTED TO DECEIVE BLOGGERS. NOPE!

[Alexis U]

http://bookishantics.com/2016/01/04/b...

This woman's behavior is repulsive and I will not be supporting her or any of her future writing endeavors.

[Scorpio-of-Autumn · Rating 1 out of 5]

I will NEVER read this novel after learning what the author has been doing:

http://bookishantics.com/2016/01/04/b...



Hmm. Such a shame, Catlin. I was actually going to read this one. Heck, I might've really liked it. Too bad your little publicity scam cost you a potential reader. Too bad, so sad.

[Angela]

Catfishing.

http://bookishantics.com/2016/01/04/b...

[sraxe]

Author catfished bloggers and reviewers. [x]

[Susana]

Someone sure made a spectacle of herself -_-

[Emily · Rating 1 out of 5]

I just want to throw this out there for all of my book blogging friends

http://bookishantics.com/2016/01/04/b...

[Heather · Rating 1 out of 5]

not even read it but, how could you catfish a ton of readers just to read your book?? That's horrible as it is! Never ever ever going to read this book even if it does sound interesting

[M]

Shameful. Just type in "Catfished by a fake penguin employee" and read more about it. An author who had to lie to bloggers in order to get reviews should not only revise their book, they should also take a good long look in the mirror and ask themselves how they're gonna live with their shame and disgraceful behavior. Never going to touch this.

[Bee · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not in a million years. Thanks for your lovely e-mail. If you'd gone about it in a normal way and just sent a request, I'd have considered this book. Now I'd rather burn it.

[Lilian · Rating 1 out of 5]

Either the author or her marketing person now has my address. If it's a marketing scheme and the goal is to build awareness through negative publicity, she is doing a brilliant job. I am tempted to applaud her.

Despite the scam, I pity her. For an independent author to mail people free books in hopes of them reviewing your book isn't cheap and rather inefficient.

I admire writers who are so dedicated to their craft to write a novel, so I wanted to give Christine Catlin a chance. So, I tried to read Spectaccolo...

And about a minute in, I couldn't get over how poorly edited this book is. Perhaps the money spent sending reviewers books would have been better spent on a good editor. This book needs it.

Part of me wanted this book to be good, so that I could sympathize her. It would make a better story if she went though the lengths of creating fake profiles and sending copies of her book to address she got her hands on to get people to read her undiscovered masterpiece. But, alas, masterpiece this is not.

[Carolyn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Despite placing this on my DNF shelf, I've never purchased or read any part of this book- and I NEVER will. This author catfished booktubers pretending to be a representative from Penguin. For the full story, check out this video: http://youtu.be/bBlurwLyYY0

Please don't even consider supporting this author. It is a shame that she ruined her career, but she clearly isn't confident in the quality of her book if she went to all of this trouble to scam bloggers who could have helped her.