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Got expectations? Lower them.

Got your attention with my title? Good, even if it’s not completely accurate. 😉

This is gonna be a fun post today!

And by fun I mean I’m going to write something that might piss some people off. And that’s okay, because honestly, sometimes angering people amuses me like nothing else.

Are you ready for my confession? Because here it is…

I read every single review of my book posted that I can find.

I don’t care if someone 1*’s me or 5*’s…or whatever other number the reader chooses in between. Many times I will read the review, laugh or frown at the things written, and move on. Reviews of my books are, for me, something I can’t manage to look away from. We’ve all been there – an accident on the side of the road has us craning our necks to see what happened.

Yep, reading reviews is like that a lot of the time.

I love blunt honesty. I don’t care if someone hates my book, but I sure as hell want them to hate it for actual reasons that make sense.

If a reader wants their hand held through every single book, making sure the characters state the obvious so the reader doesn’t have to remember information from the first chapter when they are reading the 20th, my books are not for them. I treat my readers like the intelligent beings they are and want them to get things without needing to be told. Show, not tell, yes?

Don’t like romance? Don’t read my books.

The only promise I make in my books is, if they are romance, they will have a happy ending. THAT’S IT!

When I read a romance, I don’t begin reading the book and automatically have expectations of the characters based on what I’m reading. It’s not my story. I’m not the one writing it and I sure as hell don’t have the right to say how it should end.

You’re disappointed at the ending? I’m sorry, but how does it honestly ruin the whole story when it’s more of a quiet shutting of a door than a flurry of excitement and big booms? Or vice versa.

First person is personal. Period. That means the person telling the story is the character or characters, and they make not speak correctly all the time or even part of the time. This doesn’t excuse typos and obvious errors and straight up nonsense, but it does mean the reader should understand the way the person is speaking is intentional. If all my characters sound and speak the same, then they aren’t individuals, are they? Requiring proper grammar and sentence structure from the character’s voice ALL THE TIME takes away the character and just leaves someone with no personality.

Don’t like first person? Don’t read my books. Don’t like two POV’s written in different tenses from two different characters? You may not want to read my books, although this style is rarely done by me and when it is used, it’s intentional. Like in Mate.

The reader is free to hate my book for any reason, as long as they understand how foolish they will look when they get things wrong about the book or storyline they are writing a review about. If the reader can’t even get the details correct about the story, why exactly are they reviewing the book at all? Can someone even give an honest review of a story when they can’t even recall the details properly?

If as a reader you end up reading a book and think THIS IS NOT FOR ME, that’s fine. You should state that in your review. It’s a completely legit reason, especially when you state it.

But uh, if you pick up a book that is, say, a stepbrother romance and it’s right there in the title, then complain about the stepbrother aspect…what the FUCK did you expect?! Same goes for dark romance or erotic romance, books that have dub-con or non-consent or lots of sex, and the genre demands it, yet you read it and complain about that genre doing exactly as it’s meant to. WHY the hell are you reading it if you never, ever like it?

Ever heard the quote, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results” or however the hell it goes?

Know what I think when someone complains about something that was made obvious? I think they’re an asshole, flat out, who merely wants to be unhappy about something, anything. And I don’t think this just about readers. I think this about EVERYDAY people who complain about things made crystal clear if they had just paid attention to what the hell they were doing.

And I know someone will be like “OH MY GOD, NOT EVERYONE WILL LIKE YOUR BOOK” but if that’s what you think I’m asking for in this post, you’re one of the people I’m talking about with this post!

Somehow we’ve gotten to the point that the reader can say anything they want, up to and including insulting the author by remarking they should get a new job or how we’re greedy, but somehow we’re just supposed to hold our tongues. And that’s bullshit.

I write serials. If you don’t like it, don’t buy my books. It’s clear in the “part” used in the title, or in the description of the books, and I shouldn’t have to EXPLAIN this over and over. I’m not greedy, not by a long shot. It’s a method that sells books for me. I have full novels and guess what? My serials outsell my “whole books” by MILES. MILES. So every time someone reads one of the ‘free’ part one of a book of mine and complains it should be a whole book, guess what? It is and they didn’t buy it!

And no, nobody is entitled to read the whole book for free. If they don’t like it, there are plenty of freebies out there, so move on.

In that vein, do yourself a favor and stop one-clicking a book that’s free without reading the description. READ THE SAMPLE most sites provide so you can see if the story is something you’ll like BEFORE you buy it.

Might you hate it before the end? Yes. But at least if you read a bit of it before you buy it, you won’t hate it from the first sentence and then spend time ‘finishing a book I started because I always do’…who has time for that? Go read something you enjoy. Don’t torture yourself and then take out your anger on the author because you forced yourself to finish a book you hated.

Don’t get me wrong here. I’m not angry, I’m just frustrated at this tiny slice of the world. We have so many books to read and yet people spend precious time hating on something they don’t even understand or like, when they would’ve known or made an educated guess at their level of enjoyment by spending an extra ten seconds checking out the title they were buying.

And I’m making this post even knowing that I may be retaliated against for having an opinion about something I’ve seen way too much. Not just on my books, but on other books by different authors, too!

To anyone who wants to begin a hate campaign because of this, please do, and understand you look like an idiot when you do it. Because you’re the one with the issue, not me, by the simple fact you would spend your time being a jerk-off behind a keyboard instead of finding something hot to read or even interacting with another person and having an orgasm that might release all that pent up frustration you feel. 🙂

I love my readers and I love my fans and I love gaining new ones all the time! But if you don’t like my books or someone else’s books, that’s fine.

Chill out, go find something to read in a genre that you DO enjoy, and have a nice day!

<3 Violet

serial books, violet haze books, violet haze serials

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