Petals Key
One Petal: Did Not Like
Two Petals: Room for Improvement Three Petals: Enjoyable, But Not Perfect Four Petals: An Interesting Read Five Petals: A Must Read The Genres
Paranormal: A story set in the modern world, but with a magical twist.
Paranormal Fantasy: A story set in a dystopian or somehow magically changed modern world. High Fantasy: A story set in an entirely new, magical world. Fantasy: A story set in a world that might have been the modern world had magical things not happened. Dark Fantasy: A story where blood, death, and dark magic are the norm. Science Fiction: A story set in a world dominated by futuristic science, rather than magic. |
FAQ
How do I get you to review my book?
Why did you choose paranormal and fantasy as your genres?
But I've seen books of other genres in your reviews.
Why do you review science fiction books? I thought you only reviewed paranormal and fantasy?
Do you ever feel bad for giving a negative review?
You review a lot of books that are M/F or M/M. What about other romantic pairings?
Why does it seem like you're reviewing books from only a few publishers?
- All you have to do is ask! Fill out the form in the Request A Review section. As long as your story is completely written, has an official publishing date, and falls under the paranormal or fantasy genres, I will accept it.
Why did you choose paranormal and fantasy as your genres?
- My favorite books have always contained magic of some sort. When I was setting up this blog it just made sense to focus on the genres I read the most, especially since I read so many of them.
But I've seen books of other genres in your reviews.
- There are two possible reasons for that:
- One, a story was part of an anthology that also contained fantasy and paranormal stories. I'm not going to ignore a story that I've been given for review purposes just because it's the wrong genre.
- Two, a book I requested with an unclear summary that I thought was fantasy or paranormal turned out to be a different genre. Again, I was given the book for review purposes and it would be wrong to disregard it, so I'll write a review.
Why do you review science fiction books? I thought you only reviewed paranormal and fantasy?
- There is so much overlap between fantasy and sci-fi books. The best example I can think of is Anne McCaffrey's Dragon Rider's of Pern series, which is sci-fi, but has dragons flying around fighting what at first appears to be mythical thread falling from the sky. I'm not going to go too far into the weeds on sci-fi. Any books that are extremely scientific will most likely not appear on this site, but ones that might have some overlap or whose authors write primarily paranormal or fantasy will appear here.
Do you ever feel bad for giving a negative review?
- I always feel bad when I have to give a book a one or two petal review. Writing books is hard and just completing a book is a great accomplishment for any author. However, as I said on my home page, I'm going to be honest in my review. If I didn't like the book, I'm not going to sugar-coat and I'm not going to lie.
You review a lot of books that are M/F or M/M. What about other romantic pairings?
- There's a few reasons so many of the books I review are M/F or M/M:
- First, there are far more books with those two romantic pairings being published. I feel that my ratio of reviews reflect the real world ratio of what is available for me to read.
- Second, the books made available to reviewers on Netgalley (the primary place where I find books to review) are overwhelmingly M/F and M/M. I can only request to review what is provided.
- Third, on a personal preference note I do prefer to read M/F and M/M over other romantic pairings. What this means is if there are two books available for me to review, but due to scheduling conflicts for my website I can only choose one, I'm most likely going to choose the romantic pairing I prefer. I feel that I still request to review a fair amount of other romantic pairings anyway, so this balances out.
Why does it seem like you're reviewing books from only a few publishers?
- There are only a few publishers that regularly post their selection of novels on Netgalley, which means my reviews will overwhelmingly belong to those publishers. I also have a limited budget of books I can buy, so I unfortunately can't diversify too much. Additionally, Magnolia Reviews is a small, one woman reviewing website, which unfortunately doesn't attract some of the bigger name publishers or authors. I'm hoping as this site and my following grows, I'll be able to review books from a wider range of publishing companies and that more and more authors will approach me for reviews.