Book Reviewer... how and why?

Recently I was asked how I became a book reviewer and WHY. I thought it was an interesting question, but to be honest I didn't know how to answer it. Over the last few years I've done somewhere between 10 and 12 book reviews (for some reason not all are on here... hmmm) but it took some digging to get to the first one. Thankfully I keep all my emails in a slightly organized mess.

After a while of searching through emails of years past, I finally came across an email from Tifani Clark. She is an amazing author (if you haven't read any of her books, seriously check them out!) and she was asking ME to do a book review for her! To say I was surprised, and nervous, is a total understatement! But, I accepted with a flutter in my stomach and wrote my first book review. It certainly isn't the best written review, but I did LOVE the book and I'm hoping to read more of Tifani's work as soon as I get my 2nd book on shelves.
Check out the review here -

After this first review I received emails both off of Goodreads and through this blog regularly asking for reviews. I started having to turn some down because I just couldn't read fast enough AND I wasn't getting much done on my own book while reviewing others. 

I currently only have one review on my calendar for the next couple of months but I do hope to add more. And that brings me to the WHY I like to do book reviews. 

We all have our favorite authors - mine is Stephen King - but even our absolute favorites can only write books so fast. That leaves a LOT of extra time without a book. I have discovered some amazing new authors by doing book reviews. Authors just starting out that I might not have found otherwise. 

If you love to read and are good at putting your thoughts down on paper, I highly recommend searching through blogs to find authors that might match your book style of choice. Especially Indie authors - we are ALWAYS looking for someone to give us feedback and an honest review! Most of us don't have editors and/or promoters so having help from our readers is an amazing thing!