Reviews … to read or not to read?

It’s a scary feeling to read someone’s words about these words you pretty much threw your heart and soul into. To hear the criticism as well as the love. Good or bad, reading reviews can leave me an emotional mess.

Recently I received a review of Losing You that made me think about the entire writing process of the book, of the characters (especially Tom, and not just think about him; I haven’t been able to get him out of my mind since), of giving up. These parts of her review … god … got me right in the heart:

Tom. Best friend and lover. I’m so glad to have his story. Tom’s story of Mia. Tom’s story of Marc. Tom’s story of Lizzie. Tom’s sadness, strength, and love. Tom was good through and through. His story was a mixture of beauty and heartbreak.

Thank you for Tom’s story. I can only imagine the heartbreak and tears that went into each page of his story. But the man who we saw in the other stories needed his own and it truly was beautiful.

This was the hardest story I’ve ever wrote; so emotionally draining in ways my therapist might have said, “oh sh!t!”. This book was the closest I ever came to giving up and saying, “what the f$ck am I doing? Why am I putting myself through this?”

I just wanted to thank you the reviewer for her words and to also take this time to thank all the readers that have written a review for one of my books.

Reviews aren’t just about those stars next to the title on Amazon or iBooks. To me, they are about the drive to continue when you are trying to juggle all the hats you have to wear plus the ones you want to wear; they’re the drive to better my craft when left a negative or critical review despite the fact that it adds another hat to juggle. To me, they are a connection to you, the reader, telling me what you think.

So, again … thank YOU!

And because that review let Tom into my head again, my Teaser Tuesday post this week features Losing You …

It’s available now on Amazon as well as Kindle Unlimited!

Amazon: http://amzn.to/1UsCOsj

‪#‎teasertuesday‬ ‪#‎mightyhammer#‎nevergiveup‬ ‪#‎breathe‬ ‪#‎lizzie‬ ‪#‎starsonfireseries‬ #thankful