Hi. I'm Athena. I read books. All kinds of books. Good books, bad books, fiction and non-fiction. I read the backs of cereal boxes and those circulars that still come in the snail mail. I read indiscriminately when I'm in reader-mode. Which can be bad because I'm a writer by trade and I'm supposed to be learning/improving my craft all the time. So I *should* only be reading the *good* books that Very Serious People tell me are good.
The Very Serious People and I don't get along much.
I've been known to read hot messes of books all the way through because there's some indefinable "heart" in there. I've been known to chuck the best and brightest into the DNF pile, or take over a year to finish the book everyone's talking about.
As a writer, I'm on an eternal quest to ride the line between that creative chaos and the good mechanics that make up the truly magical experiences of really great stories.
As a reviewer (informal as I am), I have a policy for reviews that I post. Any story I choose to review will be treated with respect and care. I'm an indie author, so I'm keenly aware of the power of a review--I've got skin in the game, and I believe in paying it forward whenever I can
Any review I put up anywhere for public consumption will be thoughtful, and hopefully pretty complete. I'm pretty good at separating my personal tastes from more objective criteria, and have been known to give high ratings to books I don't personally like as an appreciation of the author's skill, talent, or effort. I've also been known to be a little critical on books I otherwise love if my instincts tell me there's something off in the story. In any review, I will do my best to identify the kinds of readers to whom a book might most appeal.
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