Category: Bookish Question

Do you prefer romance novels with “just like you” characters, or billionaires or royalty?

Bookish Question #242 | Do you prefer romance novels with “just like you” characters, or billionaires or royalty?

Do you prefer romance novels with “just like you” characters, or stories with billionaires or royalty or superstars of some kind?

I tend to prefer characters I can relate to, which tend to be the “just like me” characters.

I don’t mind the occasional sports star or rock star or actor. They add interest, and glimpse into a different world … especially if they’re paired with a more relatable character.

I’m not normally a big fan of royalty romance, but I did enjoy In Search of a Prince by Toni Shiloh (a Christian twist on The Princess Diaries, set in a fictional African island kingdom). I have the sequel, To Win a Prince, on my to-read pile.

But there are exceptions.

For example, I enjoy Regency Romance (and Victorian and Georgian romance), and stories in those time periods often feature the affluent members of the upper classes, if not actual royalty. Many of these characters are rich—not billionaires, but certainly the equivalent in their times.

For example, I have read and enjoyed several series set in the Restoration era, such as the Empire State series by Elizabeth Camden (starting with A Dangerous Legacy). But I’m not as much of a fan of billionaire romance, although there are exceptions.

So I guess I don’t mind reading about royalty or rich people in historical romance. But I definitely prefer the main characters in contemporary romance to be “just like me” characters.

What about you? Do you prefer romances novels with “just-like-you” characters, or fairy tale stories with billionaires and royalty?

How do you feel about spoilers in book descriptions or reviews?

Bookish Question #241 | How do you feel about spoilers in book descriptions or reviews?

I’m not a fan of spoilers in book descriptions or reviews.

Having said that, I can see they might sometimes be needed in a review.

Book Descriptions

In general, I think the book description should introduce the main characters and the central plot. That’s it. The book description shouldn’t give spoilers about what’s going to happen later in the book. In my view, anything that’s mentioned in the book description should occur in the opening chapters.

(Otherwise, I find myself skimming as I wait for the promised events.)

Book Reviews

Book reviews are a little different. While I don’t want to read (or write) spoilers in book reviews, there are times when they are unavoidable.

A good review will share the basic plot, but should also share something of the reviewer’s emotional response to the book. That can be hard to do without giving spoilers …

One difficulty comes in defining what is actually a spoiler. Some novels contain content that some readers would prefer to know about in advance so they can make an informed decision as to whether they want to read the book or not. Other readers dislike content warnings or trigger warnings as they can be spoilers.

For example, I recently read and reviewed a historical romance where the heroine was married against her will, and the husband consumated the marriage. We call that rape now, but the act was not considered rape in the laws of the time. All the same, a modern reader may well want to be aware of the fact … but it’s two spoilers (saying she was married, and saying the marriage was consumated).

Some novels include references to historical events. If a reviewer mentions that, say, the Titanic sank or the Germans lost World War One, is revealing that a spoiler or is it general knowledge?

My knowledge of history is centred around the history of English-speaking and European countries. A Japanese or Indian reader would have a very different knowledge of history. What about lesser-known historical facts, or historical facts that are common knowledge in other countries but unknown to the reader? Is it a spoiler simply because I didn’t already know about it?

Goodreads allows reviewers to tag some or all of their review as containing spoilers, and hides that part of the review. This is a nice compromise. Those people who want to know the spoiler can read the full review, and those who don’t want the spoiler don’t have to read it.

What about you? What’s your view on spoilers in book descriptions or reviews?

What Christian fiction has another pet as a character?

Bookish Question #240 | What Christian fiction has another pet as a character?

We’ve previously looked at:

This week it’s time to look at other pets. What Christian fiction has another pet as a character?

I read this question, and thought I’d already answered it. But I was thinking of another post: What is your favourite fictional pet and why?

Anyway, my answer to this week’s question is closely related to my answer to the favourite fictional pet question. Here the main series I can think of with non-traditional pets is Heather Day Gilbert’s Exotic Pet Sitter series:

Belinda Blake and the Snake in the Grass (click here to read my review)
Belinda Blake and the Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing (click here to read my review)
Belinda Blake and the Birds of a Feather (click here to read my review)

I have also read a lot of Christian fiction that features horses, although they are generally treated as work animals rather than pets. In case you’re wondering, pets are allowed in the house. Work animals are not.

My list is pretty short.

What Christian fiction has another pet as a character?

How many books do you buy in a month?

Bookish Question #239 | How many books do you buy in a month?

I don’t keep track of how many books I buy. However, I do keep track of how many books I read and how many I review via Goodreads.

I review one book a week, although they are almost all free review copies rather than books I’ve bought myself. I read another one to two books a week, which are a mix of new books and books I’ve had on my Kindle for a while.

I am trying to work my way through my to-read pile, but do seem to buy more books than I read. On that basis, I estimate that I buy eight or nine books a month. It can be hard to tell, as I do also pre-order books from Amazon, and pre-orders can be months in advance (so long that I sometimes forget I’ve already ordered the book. Fortunately, Amazon tells me).

I checked my Amazon account (as I buy all my ebooks from Amazon).

Amazon tells me I bought 57 free and paid-for Kindle books in the first seven months of 2022, which is an average of eight per month. Around half of those were free downloads.  Of the ten books I bought in July, five were free and two were pre-orders.

I haven’t been doing a great job of getting through my to-read pile this year, but I have read most of these books shortly after downloading them … or, in the case of some of the books (paid and unpaid), I’ve started and discarded them.

So I buy around eight books a month, get another four review copies, and read around twelve books per month. That means my to-read pile isn’t growing, so I consider that a win 😉

What about you? How many books do you buy in a month?

Do you know any Christian fiction with a cat as a major character?

Bookish Question #238 | Do you know any Christian fiction with a cat as a major character?

I’ve read a lot of Christian fiction with dogs or horses, and some with more unusual pets. Novels will often have cats as pets, but there is only one Christian novel I can think of where I would describe the cat as a major character.

Melissa Koslin’s debut novel, Never Miss, features a Maine Coon cat called Mac who often acts more like a dog. Mac it a big cat and has an attitude to match. Mac and his owner, Kadance, help Lyndon Vaile stay alive long enough to figure out who wants him dead … and why.

I do enjoy a good romantic suspense novel, and Never Miss was a solid debut that has the added advantage of a cat.

What about you? Do you know of any Christian fiction with a cat as a major character?

You can read the introduction to Never Miss below:

Do fictional characters have to be likeable?

Bookish Question #237 | Do fictional characters have to be likeable?

Do you think fictional characters have to be likeable?

The main character? Yes.

Other characters? Mostly.

I don’t want to read a novel where I don’t like the main character or characters because I want to send time with characters I like … not characters I don’t like. In a romance, I want to like both the hero and the heroine, because I want to be happy when they end up together.

There are novels I’ve given up on because I didn’t like the main character. In fact, not liking the main character is one of the few reasons I’ll stop reading a novel.

I also want to like the other major characters. If a character isn’t likeable, I want there to be a good reason why they’re not likeable. Perhaps they are the foil for one of the main characters. Perhaps they’re the character who is going to be redeemed by the end of the novel. Perhaps they’re the evildoer (I prefer not to like the antagonist, especially in suspense).

I like most people I meet in real life, so I prefer to read fiction with likeable people as well.

What about you? Do you think fictional characters have to be likeable?

Do you enjoy wedding scenes in Christian romance?

Bookish Question #236 | Do you enjoy wedding scenes in Christian romance?

One of the rule of romance novels is that they have to have an emotionally satisfying ending.

Many authors and readers use the phrase happy-every-after to describe the perfect ending for a romance novel.

While I agree that the a wedding is the ideal happy-ever-after in a Christian romance, I don’t necessarily think the wedding has to happen as part of the novel. It doesn’t even need to happen in the epilogue.

As an example, I’ve just finished a novel which featured the hero and heroine marrying at the end (I’m not going to name the book for reasons that will become obvious).

The heroine has just moved to a small town after she inherits the Inn her aunt ran. The hero is a local businessman who maintains the Inn’s gardens in his spare time. They’re attracted to each other, and a relationship develops. The book ends with their wedding, and she’s pregnant by the “one year later” epilogue.

My problem? The “hero” is a widow whose wife and son died less than two months earlier.

Wait. A. Minute.

“Hero” has been widowed for just two months? And he’s already moving on into another relationship? And his mother is encouraging it?

We find out the hero never really loved his first wife, that their marriage was a mistake. Well, that might explain how he’s emotionally able to move on so quickly, but it doesn’t show good judgement. I really wasn’t interested in the romance plot. The subplots were the only reason I kept reading.

In that case, the wedding scene crowned an already distasteful plot.

If the couple only meets for the first time at the beginning of the novel, and the novel takes place over a relatively short timeframe (weeks or months), then I prefer that the story doesn’t end in a wedding, or even an engagement. I’d rather that came in the next book in the series, after the couple have truly had a chance to get to know each other.

But if the story is a reunion romance or a friends to more story, then I’m more relaxed.

The couple have history. They know each other. That, to me, makes it more likely their relationship will succeed … as long as they can resolve whatever issue split them up in the first place.

Now, having said, that, I do enjoy a good marriage of convenience story …

And those typically include a wedding scene at or near the beginning. But in those stories, the whole plot is strangers getting married, then falling in love. The wedding is what brings the couple together, and the whole point of the story is that they will establish a lasting relationship.

What about you? Do you enjoy wedding scenes in Christian romance?

Do you Like Illustrated Covers?

Bookish Question #235 | Do you Like Illustrated Covers?

Illustrated covers … some readers love them, and some readers loathe them.

Which are you?

I always think a book’s cover should clearly show the potential reader the genre.

Illustrated covers are part of that.

One genre that uses a lot of illustrated covers is fantasy. I guess it’s hard to find a real elf or dwarf or dragon to photograph 😉

Science fiction tends to use illustrated covers for the same reason. But they are a different kind of illustrated.

Fantasy can be detailed paintings. It can be detailed symbols or emblems. Both tend to be hand-drawn feel (or at least look hand-drawn), and both clearly say “fantasy”. In contrast, science fiction tends to use computer-generated illustrations of spaceships or far-off planets.

Another genre that uses a lot of illustrated covers is rom-com.

These are my favourite, because I like the genre most. They tend to feature bright colours and hand-drawn fonts, and always strike me as amusing and cheerful—just the emotion I’m looking for if I choose a rom-com.

I have also seen contemporary romance novels with illustrated covers, as well as some Young Adult novels. In both cases, I think the illustrated cover gives the novel a slightly quirky feel, perhaps suggesting a novel that’s a little offbeat.

The best part about illustrated covers is that they are original.

I’m not going to see the same illustration on another title, in the way I sometimes see multiple covers using the same stock photograph. That’s an advantage for the author, as it means readers are less likely to mix up their book with one from another author.

Authors who use illustrated covers also tend to use the same illustrator for the series, so it’s easy to see the books are connected … which is an advantage for readers looking for the next in the series.

What about you? Do you like illustrated covers?

Do you read book reviews before buying a book?

Bookish Question #234 | Do you read book reviews before buying a book?

Do I read book reviews before buying a book?

Sometimes.

A lot of the books I read are advance review copies. As such, there aren’t any reviews to read 🙂

Other books I buy are from authors I’ve read before, particularly books which are part of a series. This is why a lot of authors write books in series—if someone reads and enjoys the first book, they’re likely to buy the next book without bothering to read the reviews.

I do read reviews when it comes to checking out books from authors I haven’t read before.

If the cover and description interest me, I’ll check out the star rating and read a few reviews. But it’s not usually the views that influence whether I buy a book or not. It’s the writing—that all-important Kindle sample.

But that’s only relevant when I’m already on Amazon and looking up specific titles or authors I already know about.

How do I discover new authors?

That’s often through reviews on other book review sites. That’s when I do read reviews, and those reviews will often persuade me to check out the book and download the sample.

What about you? Do you read book reviews before buying a book?

What's your favourite fictional pet and why?

Bookish Question #233 | What’s your favourite fictional pet and why?

My favourite pet I’d like to have is a cat (and I have one. Well, a cat moved in with us ten years ago and allows us to feed her and pet her and pay her vet bills. I would never imply ownership. Dogs have owners; cats have staff).

But my favourite fictional pet is one I would never have in real life.

I live in New Zealand, a country with exactly zero snakes. We don’t have any native snakes, and we don’t allow any snakes to be imported (probably because the Kiwi, our national bird, is flightless and Kiwi eggs make a great snack for snakes and other pests).

So it’s perhaps a little surprising to me that my favourite fictional pets are both snakes.

In fairness, the first “pet” isn’t so much a pet as an unwanted houseguest, the kind it’s impossible to get rid of. One of the characters in Back to Resolution by Rose Dee has a snake living in the eves of their bush house. The snake does a good job at protecting the property from unwanted visitors, so it gets to stay.

The second is snake is the title character in Belinda Blake and the Snake in the Grass, the first book in Heather Day Gilbert’s Exotic Pet Sitter Mystery series. Belinda’s first job is pet-sitting Rasputin, a ball python … who has nothing to do with the dead body she finds in her flowerbed.

It’s an enjoyable cozy mystery, and one I’m happy to read rather than experience.

Can you think of any novels with pets? What’s your favourite fictional pet, and why?