Marlene’s Comments (group member since Jul 07, 2017)

Marlene’s comments from the Austenesque Lovers TBR Pile Reading Challenge 2017 group.

One more I never added! Several of you already saw my review, but I'm adding number 12 just for the sake of completing my YTD record! :-)

I got to 11 by the end of the year (and surpassed it by one!)

1. Of Time Gone By (JAFF)
2. Carpet of Snowdrops (Regency, but not JAFF)
3. A Peculiar Connection (JAFF)
4. Divine (time travel Regency)
5. Emma (Austen - the one narrated by Juliet Stevenson)
6. Sense and Sensibility (Austen - the one narrated by Juliet Stevenson)
7. Surrender the Sea (Christian Regency)
8. Miss Fortescue Steps Out(Regency comedy of errors)
9. Northanger Abbey: An Audible Original Drama (Abridged Austen novel)
10. Mansfield Park (Austen - narrated by somebody. Haven't written my review yet.)
11. The Regency Brides Collection (Regency anthology by several Christian authors)
12. Persuasion (Jane Austen's novel in audio form)

Amazing! 🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀

I wore them for two weeks straight. I could read better without them, and help with focusing while reading was the reason I wanted them in the first place! These are just perfect! For the distance, it was really insignificant.

Sheila - I like your method, by the way. 😊

Ha! My method is: review on Goodreads, then NetGalley (if applicable), then Amazon, then submit content ratings to My Book Cave's sister site. I usually take two days to do the posting and multiple days to write the review. (Mostly because I'm too tired to do it all at once.). The new glasses help a bit! I got rid of the trifocals in favor of the computer/reading glasses. (It was just too hard to stay in the tiny reading window with that first pair I got. These new ones are perfect!!!)

J.W., I post from my laptop. One more question - what was the highest number of times you had to resubmit until it worked? Thanks.

Do you ladies still post on Amazon? I'm considering giving up since I have to do the work of removing links and HTML.

To clarify, JW, have you gotten to the point where it works when you go back repeatedly to resubmit? It hasn't worked for me, but I've given up if a resubmission didn't do the trick.

Huh.. So Sheila, you've talked to Amazon about this? And JW, have you ever had your review never post? And both of you - does this happen only for books with a lot of reviews?

Some of the reviews I've posted on Amazon over the last few months have never shown up. I've never even gotten an acknowledgement e-mail for these particular reviews saying that my review was being examined for approval, etc. This has happened several times, and each time I have resubmitted at some point with the EXACT SAME RESULTS! I haven't paid close enough attention, but I think that each time it's been for a book with many reviews. As if "OK, we've gotten 1,000 (or whatever) reviews on this book, so we're not going to bother considering it."

Has this happened to anyone else?

I don't think NetGalley sells any books. But if you're interested in getting books for free to review, it's great. Mr. Rochester is probably archived, though. 😞

Sheila, that's one I got from NetGalley and isn't lendable. Bummer!!!

Sophia wrote: "As a fun way to look back over the challenge year and show case some great books, I'd like to encourage our group members to share your favorite Austenesque/JAFF reads for 2017."

Here are my reviews to my favorites. :-)

Northanger Abbey: An Audible Original by Jane Austen (but abridged)

Persuasion by Jane Austen

non-JAFF Regency reads

Surrender the Sea by MaryLu Tyndall

Mr. Rochester by Sarah Shoemaker -- Jane Eyre from Mr. Rochester's POV - LOVED it - but warning: Jane Eyre doesn't show up until 70% into the book. It was 5* for me anyway.

non-JAFF non-Regency - this one is a romantic cozy mystery in the Victorian era, which feels close to Regency, and hey - it's a Christmas story by one of my top 5 favorite authors

12 Days at Bleakly Manor by Michelle Griep, first in the Once Upon a Dickens Christmas

Talia wrote: "Amazon has a promotion for print books. I think it was spend $15 and get $5 off using BOOKGIFT17. Just used it and it worked."

Thanks for the tip. We still have some Amazon shopping to do and will hopefully give it a try today.

Anji wrote: "this is Regency rather than JAFF but I'm ahead of target, and have included the previous one in the series earlier in the year. Very reminiscent of her cosy JAFF mysteries."

When I asked about it, Sophia said that Regencies count as Austenesque, so you can count them even if you haven't reached your target! :-)

Cool! I've read Most Truly because I couldn't resist that cover!

Thanks!

Sheila and JW - I'm so sorry you lost your book store and your credit!!!! That is tremendously sad! Our B&N has a used book section, which I love!

Thanks!, Wose!

Thanks! It's apparently clean. 😊