Do any of you really buy books 'blindly' because of the glittering 5-stars reviews? Or do you actually rely on some trusted reviewers? Because 'paid-review-service' like this one made me wonder about the actual power of those 5-stars reviews...

I wonder what makes certain fandom (for fanfiction) works and others don't. Merthur is definitely my OTP. I'm crushing over the stories (although I gravitate on the modern setting rather than the canon era). I tried reading several Sterek ... but I didn't get the huge love-fest feel like I did with Merthur. Even for those that received highest appraise from my friends. Probably because Stiles sometimes exhausted me.

I tried Johnlock too ... and well, that also didn't work out really well. I tried Thilbo. Fail. I tried Stony ... again, not so much.

My second favorite fandom for fanfiction was Cherik ... because Charles is usually adorable and when Erik is crushing on Charles, it's just the BEST situation ever. Their relationship just clicks. ALTHOUGH, just like my quirk with Merthur, I tend to gravitate towards the non-power/alternate-universe for Cherik stories.

So yeah, I wonder how you end up with your favorite fandom :)

One of the comments I read in this post made feel a bit sad (2nd opinion by Emma). While there is that general perception about self-published books to be poorly unedited, I think there are gems when it comes to self-published books. Susan Ee's books come to mind.

But what do you all think -- is the difficulties to find good self-published books made you avoid it completely? I admit that I usually needs pointers, like reviews from others, when it comes to self-published books. But when they are good, well, they can compete with the traditionally published ones.

Besides I think sometimes the 'rules' or 'standard' of traditional publishers can limit the creativity. Of course, I could be totally wrong. I don't work in publishing industry after all.

For the past few months, there is a very significant change on my Goodreads activity --- the decrease of people liking and discussing books with me. It’s understandable, my Goodreads friends list is predominantly MM readers and well, I’ve been reading more and more MF lately. Yep, I’ve been distracted from MM by MF pretties. In fact, 2 out of 5 books I rated 5-stars are MF, the last 2 books I rated 4.5* are also MF.

I think I have been reading MF more these past few months compared to the last 5-6 years. It’s probably a result from being bored with what MM genre is offering OR probably because I’ve been finding what I want to read in romance (emphasis in romance). A good relationship building or in case of MF urban fantasy/paranormal – a more complex world building and relationship. It is definitely more than just a case of instant-love-wham-bam-thank-you-sir variety.

OR, it is because my favorite MM authors are taking their sweet time to release their books and I’ve been very careful with new MM authors or those that I only “like” but not exactly auto-buy.

The thing is, MM doesn’t excite me as strong as 5-6 years ago. Oh, I still read them, I do find few new promising authors. I even try historical MM (something I never see I will do) – but I feel that ‘the pretties’ are being offered by the other genres. I’m dying to find MM urban fantasy with complicated story-arcs like written by Jim Butcher, Nalini Singh, Ilona Andrews, Patricia Briggs, etc. I’m dying to find MM contemporary romance that explore issues outside of the usual abuse/rent-boy/bigotry/female as villains/slavery/instant-love things.

I know that they are what popular in MM genre and most readers are looking for those. But as someone who are no longer reading MM exclusively, I realize that the themes in MM are now, well, boring.

It’s probably just a case of being burned-out. It is possible that this time next year, I will be ditching MF again (although not with the urban fantasy genre, I’m still loving those). But in the meantime, my Goodreads is a bit silent *LOL*

Random musing of the moment

Sometimes I wonder if I'm being too picky and stingy for my 5-stars rating. I mean, will it be fair (since I also write review for a blog review) if my standard is different with others. But then, I just can't give out 5-stars if it's not perfect read for me. I just can't. It's against every cells of my being.