Feature & Follow Friday is hosted by Parajunkee @ Parajunkee’s View and Alison @ Alison Can Read. Each week the two hosts post a question for Book Bloggers to answer, provide a link-up, and choose a participant to feature on their blogs. If you participate, the point is to follow others and in return gain followers.
Welcome to this week’s edition of Feature & Follow! I’m Lillian in case you didn’t know that already 😉 I started blogging a year ago and it has been a fun and crazy year! I read pretty much anything that is placed in front of me, I’m a bit of a cover snob, and I tend to gravitate to young adult fiction. Why young adult? Well, it’s usually a cleaner read than adult fiction, there’s plenty of action/suspense, and who can resist a romance about first love?!
My blog features whatever I happen to be in the mood to read. I’ve had some fun interviews with authors and characters and hope to do more in the very near future. Please join me in some bookish adventures. You can follow via Bloglovin or anyway you choose 😀
This week’s questions is: “How do you write your reviews?” – Suggested by Blue Books and Butterflies.
I can honestly say that I have no system for writing my reviews. Sometimes I can write a review in ten minutes and it be funny and gif-filled, other times (a majority of the time) it takes me a few hours to write a good one.
Mostly I try to give a straight-from-the-heart review. Meaning that I don’t look at grammar (unless it’s completely atrocious) or editing issues in any given book because that’s not my expertise. My expertise is good books 😀 So when I write my review I focus on everything that made a book good for me. I write a lot about the characters because if they aren’t good then I usually won’t read a book.
I don’t write a lot about the bad in a book unless something really put me off. I might mention that there’s a lot of curse words or sex scenes as a head up for minors. If the editing/grammar is just atrocious (I read a lot of indie) then I’ll mention it, but if the story is good usually this doesn’t bother me and I forget about it in my review. Does that make sense?
I try to write my reviews within a day or two of reading the book so it’s fresh on my mind, but that doesn’t always happen. Life of a mom 😜 Like right now I have 11 reviews to write which is really stressing me out!
How do you write your reviews? Any tips for me?
…or follow any way you chose 😀
Remember this is a blog hop. Be sure to visit the other blogs and give them some love too!
Having 11 reviews to write would really stress me out also. I don’t know how you guys do it. I write maybe one or two a month lol. New Follower. My FF
I’ve knocked a few out. I guess technically I don’t HAVE to review them all because some of them are library books, but I like to review what I read 😉
I react differently depending on how I feel about the book I think, but I have to admit, I didn’t think about whether I react differently in my reviews if I think a book is bad — you gave me some food for thought to add to this: http://editingeverything.com/blog/2015/05/22/feature-and-follow-friday-3-how-do-i-write-my-reviews/
New follower on FB and Google!
Verushka recently posted…Feature and Follow Friday #3: how do I write my reviews?
Woops no, Bloglovin and FB. And probably Google eventually if I can figure out why that’s not working for me right now 🙁 But I’m there!
Verushka recently posted…Feature and Follow Friday #3: how do I write my reviews?
Yeah I have a really hard time writing a review if the book was bad. If you take a look at my review index you’ll see very few reviews for less than 3 stars. I just don’t have the heart to rate them that low…lol
Heee, my reviews tend to stay around the 3.5 star range. I did have a DNF recently though — The Demon Door. I was just turning page after page in the beginning wondering when the book described in the blurb was going to begin. I just didn’t like that.
Verushka recently posted…Feature and Follow Friday #3: how do I write my reviews?
Characters are a big thing for me too; they can honestly make or break a book!
New google+ follower 🙂
Joana @ The Boundless Book List
Sorry, messed up on my link. Here’s the right one: The Boundless Book List
Joana recently posted…Feature & Follow Friday (32)
Exactly 🙂 I love a good character-driven novel.
Your answer is very similar to mine, I do try to review mine within the week so it’s fresh in my mind 🙂
My Follow Friday
Me too! It just doesn’t always work that way 😉
Hopping through. It used to take me about an hour to write a review. Now it’s probably about 20 minutes. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s better – more than I ramble things out quickly.
My FF
Alison (@AlisonCanRead) recently posted…Feature and Follow Friday #254
LOL! I’m the worse rambler / fangirl / gusher when it comes to reviews. It’s like verbal diarrhea 😉
I have that same problem! Sometimes it just flows out so quickly, other times I have to force it and I hate when that happens! GIFs are amazing! I feel like they add a little something special, especially if it’s a snarky review!
Lizzie the Sarcastic Blonde recently posted…Feature and Follow #18
I gifs! I just don’t always have the best luck at finding good ones 😉
I’m such a perfectionist that it takes me a while to think of what to write and then I just hope that I can get it down the way I had it in my head.
My FF: http://onceuntold.blogspot.com/2015/05/feature-follow-friday-writing-reviews.html
I think that’s my problem too! I’m very much a perfectionist when it comes to writing. It’s why I’ll probably never publish any of my stories 😉 It’s hard enough blogging about other people’s writing!
I love your blog design!
I’m a mom too so I definitely understand. I try my best to write my reviews right after I finish a book but sometimes that just doesn’t happen.
New Follower!
Tina recently posted…Feature & Follow Friday – Writing Reviews [2]
I appreciate reviews that come straight from the heart. It just seems more authentic that way and I always try my best at doing the same! Also, I usually write mine shortly after reading a book.
New Bloglovin’ follower! 🙂
Sophie @ Seamless Reader recently posted…Feature and Follow Friday #3 {How do you write your reviews?}
I also don’t really have any set method for reviewing and my grammar as well is not perfect!! Nice response . New bloglovin follower 😀
Maura @ Monsterofbooks.blogspot.com
Maura recently posted…#4 FF: Feature and Follow
I love using GIFs too! I can definitely agree on the time spent writing reviews. Thank you for stopping by. 🙂
Old follower
Jess recently posted…Feature and Follow (47)
Thank you for the comment and the follow! 🙂
I have to say that bad editing, grammar mistakes or weird language/wording to the extent that even I, as a non-native notices them, usually puts me off a lot and it’s usually -1 Start already 😀
Fhina recently posted…Feature & Follow Friday #3
Good luck getting your load of backed up reviews finished! 🙂
New Twitter follower; old Bloglovin’ follower! 🙂
Maggie @ The Novel Orange recently posted…Review Writing