As long time readers of this blog and fans of my books know, I’ve never been particularly shy about asking (begging, cajoling, or pestering?) for a book review. Feedback helps everyone improve and in the publishing world reviews are the gold standard. While reviews are important to every author, they’re doubly important to small press and independent authors who lack the marketing heft of a big name publisher. Reviews help new authors expand their audience beyond their immediate contacts.
Readers who try new authors list strong positive (and credible) reviews just after recommendations from a friend as one of the keys in their decision making process. Many book marketing websites (both free and paid) only accept books that meet their minimum requirements for review numbers and grades. The ego stroke of a positive review is nice, but what all authors really want is to reach new readers. So if you enjoy reading books from small press and independent authors and would like to help them, please consider taking a few minutes to write an honest and hopefully positive review for their books.
When I expanded my blog into a formal website I created a separate review section. I thought taking them out of the blog stream would make them easier to find and increase the number of readers. Based on the stats, that didn’t happen. So I’ve reorganized it again adding genre drop down menus and separate page listings for each review. My plan is to post a review every month and occasionally (every quarter or so) post updates through my blog.
As it’s been more than six months since the redesign and this update has a few more reviews (seven) than I’d like. They’re for two different YA/teen series.
Moon Stealers
The Moon Stealers by Tim Flanagan is a dystopian teen/YA fantasy series that mixes elements of Arthurian legend, high fantasy, and science fiction in a multi-threaded adventure (sound a bit familiar?). After a strong beginning, the second book was a bit of a letdown for me, but things picked up with the third and closed out with the excellent fourth book.
The Moon Stealers and The Quest for the Silver Bough (Book 1)
The Moon Stealers and The Queen of the Underworld (Book 2)
The Moon Stealers and The Everlasting Night (Book 3)
The Moon Stealers The Children of Light
Colonial Scouts
The Colonial Scouts Adventure series by Roxanne Smolen is a unique YA science fiction series where teens are trained to explore and evaluate new planets for colonization. The series features interesting technology and imaginative aliens, but it really centers around the trials and struggles of its teen protagonists.
Alien Worlds (Book 1)
Alien Jungle (Book 2)
Watery Deep (Book 3)
As always thanks for reading.
Armen