Whenever I give one of my friends one of my books to read (some are too tight-fisted to cough up for one themselves :-)) I always say the same thing: you can be brutally honest. Of course, people still feel they can’t be. One pal took months to admit she hated my third novel with a passion, after loving the first two, thinking that by saying that, she’d upset me. Actually I was fascinated. It was illuminating to hear what had affected her so badly and we had a really interesting exchange as a result.
Refreshingly, My-mate-Mike, my fellow-columnist on the Isle of Thanet Gazette 
has no such inhibitions. I wouldn’t normally shove a review in front of you but the running commentary spread over several emails, made me laugh so much, I thought I’d post the edited highlights. (The dots are where I’ve removed a spoiler – just in case after reading this, anyone still feels like braving the PRIME TIME. The Italics are mine. ) It’s been good to see how one of my books – primarily aimed at the female market – goes down with a chap too. Could he possibly empathise with the heroine? It seems not…
“I’m enjoying the plot but developed an early and intense dislike for the central character. No wonder hubby cleared off.”
“Not a difficult choice when the alternative is a wine-saturated busybody, always wittering about her internal workings.”
“Too much wine and whine in first 100 pages.”
“What the hell’s it got to do with her if he….? Surprised he didn’t smack her when she started quizzing him.”
“I trust you have planned a suitably hideous end for her.”
“Don’t like the sulky son or the oily television bloke, either.”
“Really enjoying it, especially now she’s …… Very droll and picking up pace splendidly. Still hope central character comes to a distressing end.”
“I reckon oily tv bloke will turn out to be a ******” (NB he was wrong)
“Looks as if the raddled woman might finish up with ….. Serves her right.”
“Your best book so far, by a mile. Can’t understand why it was nominated in the romantic comedy section…”
“Didn’t find a typo for more than 200 pages, then two more followed quickly, but three in 300 pages is a miracle nowadays. I trust they sacked the myopic work experience dunce who allegedly roof-read ……” (Insert title of one of my previous books) (Not sure if this is Mike being hilarious or he really left the “p” out…)
“I shall be sad when I’ve finished – which is the highest compliment anyone can pay an author! ”
“Wonderful! So the two ghastlies finished up ….”
“A very good modern morality tale, which I think is too profound to deserve a rom-com tag. ”
“Wonderful! Apart from the beginning….”
Thank you, Mike! Reviewer to the Non-Faint-Hearted.
Am sure if YOU’D like a no-holds barred review for your magnus opus, I can probably persuade him to oblige… 🙂
Jane Wenham-Jones 