The book is a sport college romance set in America, and suited for 18+ readers due to the steamy scenes.
Anastasia and Aaron are pairs for figure skating. On the ice they are flawless and destined for gold. She trains hard and has no time for a boyfriend.
Nate is the captain of the ice hockey team. When the hockey rink is destroyed by a rival team, they have to share the ice skaters rink. This messes up everyone’s schedules making the team unpopular on the Maple Hills campus.
The damaged rink gives Ana and Nate a rocky start, but there is an obvious attraction that makes it difficult to avoid each other. The pair have some funny banter which was a real highlight for me. Their differences bring out the best in each other. I also enjoyed their friends, especially Lola and Henry.
Ana and Nate’s romance was fun to follow with all the ups and downs, and challenges they overcame. Best of all it had a satisfying ending with everything tied up in one book.
Please note the intimate scenes were detailed (no mystery, a fully open door). If that’s not your thing then avoid, but if it is you’ll enjoy this.
People often talk about why writing reviews are so important to authors but what about for you the reader. Here we go:
Your Reading History
If you read a lot, you can forget what you’ve read. You don’t want to waste time reading a book you didn’t enjoy, twice.
But on the flip side, wouldn’t it be awesome to rediscover the books you did love. You don’t want to forget those gems.
Reading Goals
If you enjoy a challenge, set yourself a reading goal. Celebrate your wins doing something you love.
If you discover your not getting time to read, it could help you identify that your life is too hectic and you don’t get to relax. Or maybe your energy is focussed elsewhere, which is fine. You can reduce your goal.
Favourite author
It helps you not forget the name of that author whose voice you loved. Now, you can discover more of their books.
You can follow authors you like on sites like Goodreads, Book Bub and Amazon. This will help keep you notified of new releases.
Better Recommendations
Over time your tastes may change but seeing what you enjoyed helps identify what you love. In turn, this will help you discover more fabulous books.
If you post your review to sites like Good Reads or Amazon, then algorithms will learn what you want and recommend what to buy/read next. This can save you time in finding your next great read.
Others will read your reviews, see what you like and be able to make intelligent recommendations.
Reading Buddies
You may connect with people with similar tastes, get reading buddies, and/or develop a book club. Reading can become a social activity, and thanks to the internet, you can buddy a reader anywhere in the world.
By talking about the books you read, you become someone people trust for recommendations. Imagine being an influencer for the books you love, someone others take notice of? If you’re good at reviews, this could be you.
Self Development – Reading
There’s more to reading than getting from page 1 to the end. When you write a review you reflect on what you read.
What was it about? How did it make you feel? Did you learn from the story?
Reflecting on what you read is a skill you are taught at school to deepen your reading but is often lost when you no longer have a teacher invested in your reading.
Self Development – Writing
When you write a review, you’ll think about what was done well and how you can use those techniques in your own work. Being a reader helps you deliver more of what readers want.
You will also be exposed to new words or phrases, expanding your vocabulary. You will visit places, meet new people, and explore plots that will inspire new ideas.
Free Books For Honest Reviews
Authors look for people that read their genre. If they are giving their book away for free, they want it to be to someone that will appreciate and love their book. If you apply to be a reviewer, your history as a reviewer could be checked.
The reason is, if you love their genre, their book is off to a good start already in your hands. If you have a following that enjoy your reviews on this genre, then you’ll be helping the right eager readers discover it.
When authors can see what you like, it helps them know if their book is right for you. Someone that enjoys gritty serious crime novels is unlikely to enjoy a sweet high school romance.
We’re all beautifully unique. It’s okay if YA Contemporary Fantasy isn’t for you, but I’m hoping those that do will love and review OCEAN HEART.
Have you preordered Ocean Heart?
If you buy a copy of Ocean Heart between 1 Oct and 1 Dec, you can enter my preorder giveaway. Visit my Giveaway Page for more details.
Where can you find my reviews?
Let me know the positives you’ve experienced from writing book reviews, and check out my reviews.
Here is a collection of other useful hashtags that are popular with writers.
General Writing Challenge hashtags
You could take part in challenges for writers like Nano and post progress updates on IG or do a photo prompt challenge and add any of these tags that are relevant.
If you are a writer that also blogs here are some general tags for you although you will also want to add some that are specific to the content you’ve created.
I know many writers are stationery addicts and can’t resist a planner. If you are sharing your planner, here are some general tags although you may also wish to add tags relating to the type of planner you are using too.
I only discovered recently how important reviews are especially for indie books. If you can find the time, write a review, share it on IG and everywhere else to help it get discovered.
When tagging you may also want to tag the picture with the books genre, where you bought it and what media it is. See part 2 for bibliophile tags or part 3 for genre tags.
