I have a confession: As a writer, I love Goodreads. I discover new books and authors by reading what everyone else is reading, and it’s interesting how honest readers can be, especially when they dislike a book. Sometimes so honest you have to gird your author loins to even dare check reviews for your books. Needless to say, as an author, I’m terrified of Goodreads.
But tonight, while entering my name in a giveaway for a free book by Aidan Quinn (go do it now; it ends tomorrow!), I found this review today for Loving Ashe. I actually noticed she marked it as Reading a week ago and I quaked. Loving Ashe is so not of the usual contemporary romance genre fare, and so people either love it or hate it.
Anyway, it didn’t make my author heart quake. It actually made me smile:
When choosing Loving Ashe I honestly did not notice that there were supposed to be more than one book. Meaning that it was supposed to be a series. Well, when I discovered that fact it was already too late and I had started reading it.
So all the time I was afraid that I would be left with a cliffhanger of epic proportions as the story continued in such a way and at such a pace that I felt it could only end THAT way.
Then I discovered that the author really had a lot of plot that she packed into this one book – it was really a “WOW – I SO DID NOT SEE THAT COMING” read for me. And I could even live with the way she left the readers at the end of the book.
Why can’t all authors be like that?
Where others struggle to come up with enough plot to fill one book Ms. Durano almost had TOO much to tell for this one book. I almost got a whiplash a certain points and several “wait what?” moments.
All of this plot packed in a very intriguing writing style that captured my attention from the first to the last page are guarantees that I can hardly wait for “Loving Riley” to be released…
-Jeri’s Reviews via Goodreads
Liz Durano 
That’s awesome, Liz!! Congrats on the review =)
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Thank you! I was scared to death when I saw her add it to her Want To Read list last week lol
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I understand what you mean^^ I still get scared when people add my stories to their reading list. I also get scared when fellow writers say they are going to read my stories.
I’m always thinking, “Please don’t hate, please don’t hate it.”
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Exactly, especially in the case of Goodreads where people can be stingy with their ratings and generous with the reaction gifs. But if anything, I’ve since learned not to pack too much plot in one book and pace myself lol
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That’s actually a Wattpad habit since when a story is serialized, you forget what you’ve already put into the book from months earlier.
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I suppose so. Wattpad stories tend to be fast paced with little down time for the characters. For my next set of books, I won’t be posting them on Wattpad. I want to give myself more time for the story and not to feel rushed.
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I have a lot of downtime for my characters. But maybe it’s because my readership is older? I know some readers didn’t like that my heroine was 40 but they kept reading anyway.
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I think it depends on how you write your story. Writing so much fast paced to me hurts a book, but a lot of readers on Wattpad want that. At this time point, it’s write what you want =)
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Some writers allow themselves to be paced by their readers but I go by my own pace in my writing. It’s one of the few places in my life where I have any control and Wattpad readers are the least of my worries. Some of my stories are slow paced, some are fast but they all go their by their own speed according to the story and characters, not the readers. We all write what we want in the end 🙂
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