Tez > Recent Status Updates

Damn it, Goodreads - I need you to get Combine Editions pages working again!

June 2023 Releases

Includes books by Cassie Alexander, Claire Askew, Cyn Balog, Eliza Jane Brazier, Amy Suiter Clarke, Kim Harrison, Megan E. Hart, Megan Hart, L. A. Larkin, Cindy L. Otis, Tom Perrotta, Veronica Roth, Riley Sager, Paul Tremblay, Rachel Vincent, Wendy Walker, Francesca Zappia

May 2023 Releases: https://tezmilleroz.wordpress.com/202...

Includes books by Megan Abbott, Stacey Abrams, Kelley Armstrong, Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Emma Cline, Kim Harrison, Megan Hart, Greg Iles, Emiko Jean, Amie Kaufman, Kris Kneen, Katharine McGee, Andrea Robertson, Andrew Shaffer, Meg Shaffer, Victoria Helen Stone

"The Walrus asks why anyone still uses Goodreads, calling the platform “terrible for books.”"

I easily record my reading & ratings on it. I check what my pals thought of the same books. (Obsidian Blue & I seem to read similar stuff.) I don't go beyond that, and don't need to.

Authors, I'm happy to Combine Editions for you on Goodreads.

But if you have a lot of comic editions or foreign languages, I might leave those be.

Otherwise I'll do what I can.

(P.S. When choosing a pseudonym, I'd recommend you avoid using initials.)

We only get an inkling of "suspense" (the genre the book is marketing itself as) in Chapter 36.

This book has 48 chapters. So over half of the book is bollocks. Until finally the author realised that there was no conflict within the couple anymore, so it was time to bring in conflict from without.

Lily & Kane are boring, though. Hot mess Amy is way more interesting.

Halfway through Sylvia Day's SO CLOSE.

It is marketed as "domestic suspense" and "Gothic". It is neither.

It's actually "soap opera". That is not an insult; it is an accurate description. You could also classify it as "family drama". Or "bonkbuster". No judgement; just facts.

OK, he didn't drug her. She just fell back into a coma until she's conscious again in the penthouse. Lily's chapters are in 2nd-person POV, addressing Kane. But she's not Lily. We learned that earlier when Witte found her ID.

Eva Cross update: she's into "cosmeceutical" brand. Not just working on a charity.

All this wealth seems so vapid.

So when she regained consciousness in hospital, she was paranoid. 3 weeks later, she's moved into the penthouse, but she's unconscious all the time, like in a coma.

Did Kane order for her to get put into a coma so he wouldn't have to deal with her paranoia?

Reminder: This novel is clearly marked as "domestic suspense" (well, the UK edition, anyway). The author calls it "Gothic" (if I remember correctly). So be prepared for it not to read like a romance, because it's not.

It's kind of interesting to begin with the butler's POV. Bit airy-fairy, trying to seem poetic, though. Amy's POV is bitchy, which I'm enjoying. (Cuts through others' BS.) Aliyah's a bit toffy.

Does it matter? Yes. For representation.

Because sometimes white characters with "ethnic" names can mean they were named by their parents in the spirit of cultural appropriation, and that can explain or influence characters.

Knowing characters' ethnicities won't turn me away as a reader. It makes it easier for me to picture the characters, and understand behaviour (like if they'd experienced racial prejudice.)

A character is named Aliyah. She has pale blue eyes, but I may have misread.

A character is named Ramin. I hadn't come across this name before, and wasn't sure how to pronounce it, so I looked it up.

The name of Aliyah has Arabic origins. The name of Ramin has Persian origins.

I don't know the ethnicity of the characters of Aliyah & Ramin in the novel because it's not mentioned (yet).

There was an excerpt of SO CLOSE (don't know how accurate it is now) in the back of the last Crossfire novel with Macmillan (or was it in the back of BUTTERFLY IN FROST published by Amazon?).

I agree that if you choose to self-publish in one market, you should try to obtain traditional publishers in other markets. If you want to be published in languages other than the one you wrote in. And in physical bookshops.

My notes on the Crossfire series still get visits to my WordPress years after I posted them. Perhaps I should blog my notes for this, too.

Interesting to note that SO CLOSE is self-published (Rōnin House is an imprint of Sylvia Day, LLC.), but traditionally-published elsewhere. But you never know - BARED TO YOU was first self-published, before Penguin picked it up. The series later moved to Macmillan in the US.

Dr Jen Gunter's THE MENOPAUSE MANIFESTO Kindle Edition is currently only $1.99: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08GYBZNMR?...

Checked my Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

Turns out I've only rated one book 5 stars so far in 2023: Megan Shepherd's DOG STAR. Impossible to talk about without spoilers, and thus spoilery notes are here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Buy it here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08X3DRD42?...

Karen Ann Hopkins's DARK HOLLOW ROAD (Kindle Edition) is currently FREE: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09WR9TCLD?... @KarenAnnHopkins #BookTwitter #BookTwt #KarenAnnHopkins #PossumGap #DarkHollowRoad

Dr. Jen Gunter's THE VAGINA BIBLE (Kindle Edition) is currently only $1.99 in the US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07L25YWR1?... (affiliate)

https://tezmilleroz.substack.com

Beth Revis's BLOOD AND FEATHERS (Kindle Edition) is currently only $0.00 (yes, you read correctly): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B61WJMW9?...

Recent purchase: Tori Amos's LITTLE EARTHQUAKES sheet music book. (I'm not a musician. But I did vocal back in my teenage years. We learned #Winter.)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0825613450?... (US)

https://www.bookdepository.com/Little... (Worldwide)

#ToriAmos #LittleEarthquakes

I could only read 2 chapters of Megan Shepherd's DOG STAR last night, before I reached for my tablet instead. I love the book, but I'm putting off crying. Because I'm pretty sure I will, and I rarely cry at books. (Even rarer do I read middle grade books.)

DOG STAR is based on a true story. Laika was real. This photo of her (and the line of text beneath) is from the Author's Note in the book.

Abigail Barnette's (aka Jenny Trout) TAKEN BY THE ALPHA KING (2nd May 2023) is now available for US pre-order:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BZ2TY27H?... (Kindle Edition)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BZFZK63Y?... (Paperback)

Now Available for US Pre-Order https://tezmilleroz.wordpress.com/202...

Includes books by V. C. Andrews, Kelley Armstrong, Keri Arthur, Simone Buchholz, Theo Clare, Suzanne Collins, Ally Condie, Sylvia Day, Ariel Djanikian, Christina Farley, Mina Hardy, Kim Harrison, Megan E. Hart, Karen Ann Hopkins, Kris Kneen, Mur Lafferty, Melissa Landers, Marie Lu, Katharine McGee...

February 2023 Releases: https://tezmilleroz.wordpress.com/202...

Includes books by V. C. Andrews, Kelley Armstrong, Keri Arthur, Tess Gerritsen, Mira Grant, Karen Ann Hopkins, L. R. Lam & Elizabeth May, Mindy McGinnis, Seanan McGuire, Natasha Preston, Veronica Roth, Lisa Scottoline, Paul Tremblay, Lisa Unger, Rachel Vincent

January 2023 Releases: https://tezmilleroz.wordpress.com/202... Includes books by V. C. Andrews, Kelley Armstrong, Claire Askew, Julianna Baggott, Samantha Hayes, R. Z. Held, Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner, Seanan McGuire, Janelle Monáe, P. J. Tracy, Lisa Unger

Anni Taylor's THE SILENT TOWN (Kindle Edition) is currently FREE: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08HYGFWNQ?...

According to Wordpress's stats, the most-viewed pages of my blog in 2022 were...reviews of books by Colleen Hoover and Sylvia Day.

1. Sylvia Day, Entwined with You http://tezmilleroz.wordpress.com/2013... 1177 views in 2022

2. Colleen Hoover, Hopeless http://tezmilleroz.wordpress.com/2013... 1095 views in 2022

December 2022 Releases: https://tezmilleroz.wordpress.com/202...

Includes books by Cassie Alexander, V. C. Andrews, Kelley Armstrong, Janet Edwards, Mina Hardy, Paula Hawkins, Tiffany Reisz, Beth Revis, Andrew Shaffer, Lisa Unger, Rachel Vincent

A reminder to authors leaving or limiting social media: Make sure you have an email alert sign-up that is free to all would-be subscribers. I know paywalls & exclusivity are the new normal, but please don't forget to have a basic, open-to-all level. For upcoming books and events.