REVIEWS

**I am now currently accepting a small number of books for review, but still prefer Kindle OR NOOK (HD) books. See below. Due to a large number of requests daily, I cannot respond to each & every email. Thank you for understanding**

If you are an author or publicist or anyone else with a book you’d like me to review, please e-mail me at anastaciaknits AT gmail DOT com.

• If you want me to seriously consider your book, please spend the time to find out my name, & do not address emails vaguely “to whom it may concern” or some such – I will immediately delete. Please do not send me a bunch of links to look at – if you want me to spend a few hours reading your book & then spend another hour reviewing your book on various sites, please spend five minutes telling me about your book. Again, if you just send me a bunch of vague links, I will delete your email without a reply. It’s come to this point, because I’m sick of vague, mass produced emails. I don’t get paid for this, & yes, I love to read & love getting free books, but I do this for fun. Thank you for understanding.
• If you just leave a comment on this or any other page on my blog, I will delete it without reading & without replying. Simple courtesy, people.

I prefer historical fiction (especially European), paranormal, urban fantasy, fantasy, dystopia, sci-fi, general fiction, young adult/middle school, biographies on historical characters, & craft related books (both non-fiction or fiction).  I’m especially fond of all things Tudor, Scottish, and anything with vampires or witches!

On reading series: You probably notice, I tend to give bad reviews on books that are part of a series. I adore series, LOVE them, but hate jumping in in the middle of a series. Please keep that in mind when requesting a review – I’d be happy to start at book 1.

I do not read romance, but don’t mind if there is romance subtext (no erotica, please). I don’t read sports, politics, poetry, business, self-help books, most children’s, parenting books, and stories where the pet/main character dies. Please stop sending me emails regarding books from these genres, it’s a waste of your time and mine.

As you can see from previous reviews, I tend to write short, small, chatty, brief reviews – written for real people, by a real person.

I’d also be happy to look at, read, & review a limited number of non-fiction books, such as gardening, history (especially European or World War II / the holocaust), cats, or crockpot/freezer cooking/baking cookbooks, or any simple, easy, not-gourmet type of cookbooks. As we are big campers, I’d also be interesting in books about camping (fiction / non fiction).

In most cases, I can post reviews within three-six months of receiving them. I’m currently accepting a limited amount of books to be reviewed as I have been swamped with requests & the craft side of this blog is my main passion right now.

I am happy to take ARCs, galleys, e-books in kindle format (prefer to be “gifted” on amazon or given a coupon code on smashwords), e-books for the NOOK (have the HD version, I don’t think this makes a difference?), finished form, self-published, small press/indie.  I currently prefer e-books for the Nook. Please contact me if you have something else in mind.

I post reviews here on my blog, on goodreads, amazon, http://www.barnesandnoble.com, facebook, and link up to my review on twitter. I’d be happy to post a review elsewhere, if a preference is stated ahead of time. Knit/crochet related books are also shared / talked about on Ravelry.

Stats:

* minimum of 800 unique views per day / 22,000 a month on average

* over 950 twitter followers, with more every day

* over 330 “likes” on my facebook fan group

By taking your book, I am agreeing to consider the book for review, but I make no guarantees that I actually will.  If I read a book & decide not to review it, I do try to let you know but sometimes I get busy & forget.

If you are wondering about my ratings:

one star: hated it, probably did not finish reading it but did at least skim it enough to feel comfortable in sharing my thoughts about the book. Most likely a book has earned a one star review from me because of major editing errors or major plot holes that I couldn’t agree with. That being said, there’s SOMETHING in this book worth reading, which is why I’m reviewing the book & not just skipping over it.  It may still be your cup of tea.

two stars: I very seldom give 2 stars. I did read the whole thing, but I didn’t care for the book, & I had problems finishing the book because I couldn’t get into the characters or the storyline, & and had to force myself to finish. There’s sometimes major plot holes I didn’t agree with as well.

three stars: liked it, but it wasn’t a “can’t put the book down” type of book. Would probably read another book by this author or the next book in the series.

four stars: loved it, loved the story, raced to finish it, thought about the book a few times when I wasn’t reading it, but something was missing.

five stars: No matter how much I love a book, I only give five stars to a book where I fell in love with one of the characters – the type of book that you can’t put down, you think about all the time, you talk about it to your friends & coworkers & try to get them to read the book. You can’t wait to read another book by this author & there isn’t a thing you’d change.