Genre Specific Review Groups discussion

In joining this review group you have agreed to review the novels assigned to you on a two month schedule. This group is now in the review phase and is no longer open for sign up.

This is Fantasy Review Group 11, which will include all types of books classified as fantasy. As with other review groups, you will be expected to read and give an honest review of the books assigned to you. Assignments will be made after the group sign-up has filled.

Participants are expected to post reviews to Goodreads. If the review is positive (three stars or higher on Amazon), the review should be posted to Amazon (US and UK) as well, if the book is available there. This makes having accounts with both Goodreads and Amazon.com a requirement.

If a reviewer and the author agree that the review should not be posted to Goodreads due to quality issues, the reviewer is relieved of the requirement of posting the review. If this occurs in the first round, the second reviewer is relieved of the requirement to read and review the book. This is entirely at the discretion of the reviewer and is not intended in any way to manipulate the rating of any book.

Contact the authors you are scheduled to review to arrange to receive a review copy of their work.

Please post to this topic, both when you receive review copies and when you post the reviews.

If you are going to be late with your review, either post to this topic as soon as possible or message the author and the moderator.

If your book has not been reviewed by the deadline for either round, contact the review group moderator. This is necessary to make certain that the review process is fair for everyone.

Note that any participant who makes no effort to fulfill his or her commitment to this group will have all reviews of his or her work resulting from this group deleted and his or her membership in the Genre Specific Review Group will be terminated.


THE AUTHORS AND BOOKS ARE:

1 K.T. Munson - 1001 Islands

2 C. Esther - Oasis in the Clouds

3 Sanna Hines - Shining Ones: Legacy of the Sidhe

4 Ryan Troske - The Rising

5 Stephanie R. Sorensen - Toru: Wayfarer Returns

6 Ash Toroid - Tooth Goblins

7 E.L. Ervin - Michael Hanson and the Desolate Woods


THE ORDER OF REVIEW IS AS FOLLOWS:

August 19 to September 19

K.T. Munson reviews Ash Toroid
C. Esther reviews E.L. Ervin
Sanna Hines reviews C. Esther
Ryan Troske reviews Sanna Hines
Stephanie R. Sorensen reviews K.T. Munson
Ash Toroid reviews Stephanie R. Sorensen
E.L. Ervin reviews Ryan Troske


September 19 to October 19

K.T. Munson reviews Ryan Troske
C. Esther reviews Ash Toroid
Sanna Hines reviews E.L. Ervin
Ryan Troske reviews Stephanie R. Sorensen
Stephanie R. Sorensen reviews C. Esther
Ash Toroid reviews Sanna Hines
E.L. Ervin reviews K.T. Munson

Yay for fantasy! 1001 Islands is presently a stand alone pirate fantasy book full of adventure, intrigue, and a touch of horror. This book is basically pirates meets inception all on a planet with 1001 Islands.

1001 Islands

Thank you,
K.T. Munson

I would like to include my epic fantasy, Sehmah's Truth. Here's the link:

Sehmah's Truth

Please include Shining Ones: Legacy of the Sidhe. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

Would love to get a review for my urban fantasy novel The Rising.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/153512...

I would like to include my historical fantasy, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2....

I'm about to publish my review of Shining Ones: Legacy of the Sidhe in the next few days, so I would not be able to review that one nor could Sanna review mine.

Stephanie wrote: "I would like to include my historical fantasy, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2....

I'm about to publish my review of Shining Ones: Legacy of the Sidhe in the next few days, so I wou..."

I haven't read your Toru, Stephanie, but I have reviewed other books from authors who reviewed mine. Have not encountered any problems so far.

Hi Sanna,

I was thinking you would want two reviews out of the group, not the same review from an earlier group, so I wanted to let the moderators know to avoid assigning us to each other.

We both want to avoid any direct reciprocity, lest we be accused of the foul crime of trading reviews by Amazon.

Stephanie

You're right, of course. I just wanted to say that none of my reviews for people who've reviewed me (or vice versa) have been challenged--but the Big A moves in mysterious ways.

I'm just paranoid. :P

I'd be happy to offer my fantasy adventure, Tooth Goblins.

Ash Toroid.

Authors:

We have six participants and are entering the scheduling phase. Please let me know if there are any conflicts as soon as possible. A schedule of reviews will be published in the initial post of this topic in a day or two.

R.

I've reviewed Sanna's Shining Ones and Stephanie's Toru: Wayfarer Returns.

Authors:

The review schedule has been published in the initial post of this topic. I did the best I could with the conflicts as stated.

R.

So I probably should not review A.J. Culey, since that would throw us into reciprocity. Two options:

1) I drop out and you get someone less conflicted to fill the spot since I am the most conflicted participant
2) I read a different Sanna Hines book so she gets a second review for this group, although only one for her fantasy.

If it would help, I'd be fine with Stephanie reading my Stealth Moves, though it isn't fantasy.

Stealth moves looks fun, so I'm game if that will work for others.

I think it works if:

Round 1: I review Sanna instead of Ryan while Ryan reviews A.J., others as is.

Round 2: Ash reviews AJ instead of Sanna, Ryan reviews Sanna, Sanna reviews Ash, others as is.

Ryan can't review me because I'm reviewing him in Round 1. Wow, this is complicated lol

Also, I've reviewed both Stephanie AND Sanna, and they're both scheduled to review me here.

A.J. wrote: "Ryan can't review me because I'm reviewing him in Round 1. Wow, this is complicated lol

Also, I've reviewed both Stephanie AND Sanna, and they're both scheduled to review me here."

With so many overlaps, it was impossible to avoid some people reviewing others who have reviewed them in the past. I think it will be okay, of you are all willing. We have done this in the past without problem.

Yes, it is complicated. I worked out an Excel spreadsheet to automate setting up review groups. In using it, I have found that there is no way for two or more pairs out of six participants to be arranged so that they do not review each others works. (In this group, we have three pairs.)

We could open the group up for sign up again. If we added a seventh person, I believe that we could avoid the conflicts.

How do the members of this group wish to proceed?

R.

I vote we open for more participants. As it stands, both reviews I would receive in this round would have the potential to be shut down due to reciprocity issues (as would the reviews I already completed for Stephanie and Sanna).

Of course, that's my purely self-serving response :)

I also just realized that Ryan was just assigned to review me in a different group, which means if I review him here that throws both of those reviews into the fire.

So I definitely vote a 7th person or I can bow out, which still means you'll need another person.

If you all are opting for a 7th book, I can propose mine. My only conflicts are Sanna has already reviewed mine, and I've already reviewed Toru. I can take on AJ's Sehmah's Truth, because she gave me a copy already during our last review group mix-up.

I would vote for adding more people. Even waiting for an 8th person so it's all smooth and untangled. Lots of demand for this category, so I bet we could bring in more reviewers, which is bonus good for the author-reviewer community.

A.M.H. wrote: "If you all are opting for a 7th book, I can propose mine. My only conflicts are Sanna has already reviewed mine, and I've already reviewed Toru. I can take on AJ's Sehmah's Truth, because she gave ..."

Unfortunately, this results in five pairs of conflicts, which cannot be resolved even by having seven participants. Thank you A.M.H. for offering.

I will open the group for sign up again.

R.

I would love to include my fantasy book Michael Hanson and the Desolate Woods. :)

I have Ash Toroid's book already. Can I still have their book first? I don't care who I get second but Sanna is reviewing on of mine for another review group.

Thanks!
K.T. Munson

Hi everyone. I'm going to go ahead and bow out of this review group given that my participation is generating so many conflicts lol

Hopefully this will make scheduling a bit easier for the rest of you.

Have fun!

A.J. wrote: "Hi everyone. I'm going to go ahead and bow out of this review group given that my participation is generating so many conflicts lol

Hopefully this will make scheduling a bit easier for the rest o..."

Thank you A.J. Since two conflicts remain, we still need a seventh without conflict to generate a schedule. I have broadcast a message to the membership of Genre Specific Review Groups. Hopefully we will get another participant soon.

R.

I would like to submit my book, Oasis in the Clouds, a coming of age YA fantasy fiction novel!

I've read Oasis in the Clouds already. Just so you know R!

Right! Sorry, I didn't see K.T there

Authors:

With the addition of C. Esther, we have seven and can generate a workable schedule of review. The schedule has been published in the initial post of this topic. I think we are finally on our way.

Happy reading,
R.

Sanna Hines is already reviewing my book in a different group.

Ryan wrote: "Sanna Hines is already reviewing my book in a different group."

I have regenerated the schedule so that Sanna does not review Ryan's book. Ryan is going to have to be okay with reviewing Sanna's book. There is no other way to make this work with the participants we have.

R.

Doesn't matter to me.

Okay. We are on our way. The review cycle has started. Please post to this topic when you receive you review copy and when you post your review.

R.

Sent my requests to Sanna and Stephanie. Waiting to hear from E.L. Ervin and K.T. Munson.

Copy sent to Ryan, format query sent to Ash. K.T. query answered, request sent to C. Esther. Head spinning, but I think I've contacted all my folks in each direction. Awaiting books!

Review of Ash Toroid's Tooth Goblins:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

My review of Michael Hanson and the Desolate Woods is up (currently being processed by Amazon, will be up there soon!)

Review of Michael Hanson and the Desolate Woods

Review of Ryan Troske's The Rising:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Finished with a month to spare!

Here is my review of 'Toru: Wayfarer Returns'

Goodreads

Amazon

Thanks.

Ash, thank you very much for the timely and helpful review. I know we are not supposed to comment on reviewers, but I cannot help myself.

I really appreciate how your review helps steer readers toward what they may like and away from what will outrage them, like fantasy-fast industrial revolutions and insufficient bloodletting. I wish I could put your review on the cover with a big shiny gold sticker so the folks who want lots of sword-bashing will go find something else to read and folks who want to explore that time and place will grab it and read it!

Thank you!

So Tooth Goblins was a really quick read for me, and I've posted my review to Goodreads: Review of Tooth Goblins
I have also posted my reviews to Amazon US and UK, they are currently being processed!

Here is my review of C. Esther's Oasis in the Clouds

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

https://www.amazon.com/review/R3HW2M6...

I've posted UK but it has not come up yet. I'll replace this line when I see it.

Thank you for the read.

Stephanie, thank you so much for your review, and for posting it on your blog! :)

C. wrote: "Stephanie, thank you so much for your review, and for posting it on your blog! :)"

You are welcome!

My review of The Shining ones is up on Goodreads, Amazon reviews still pending.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R3L8L...

Thank you for reading and reviewing, Ryan.