I won! An author that I follow held a contest the other day and the prize was an advanced reader copy (ARC) of her soon-to-be released book. When I got the lovely white bubble envelope in my mailbox, I was sooo excited. I mean, like thrilled. I read the book in 10 hours – quite an accomplishment with kids, work, cooking and that annoying thing called sleep.

It took me until the end of the entire book , after all the anticipation had turned into reality, to recognize that the book didn’t resonate with me as much as I had hoped. I mean, it was a good book – but it wasn’t GREAT. Huh. Now what? If you know anything about ARCs it’s assumed that you write a review and post to Amazon, Goodreads or your blog to spread the word. And I felt at odds with not being able to give a glowing review when I had done so before with other books.

In the end, I wrote what I felt to be true and others wrote along the same thread as well. It was a surprise to know I wasn’t alone with my opinion, but it goes back to being authentic.

Readers have to be honest to keep writers honest.

If you want to read the review, it can be found on Amazon.