The Pond

Frank, irreverent quacking about the Romance Book industry. Reviews, interviews, contests, and mayhem!

Forthright and frequently adult views on the writing industry. The Good, The Bad & The Unread has 2 to 4 book reviews every day (mostly romance but sometimes we swim into other genres). There may be occasional rants, but we like to think of them as strongly worded opinions.

Some authors are silly enough to let us interview them. We even talk a few into doing guest blogs, contests, and more. TGTBTU hosts about 3 guest author days a month. And the ducks are here, just because we like them.

We are quacky like that…

What other people say about TGTBTU

“TGTBTU always reminds me a bit of the first floor of Macy’s (the NY flagship store) at Christmas - crowded and crazy and buzzing with energy and good vibes - but dang, these people love them their books.”  - Bestselling author Karen Templeton.

Feed the Ducks

Have a question? Want to know if your book is set for review? Wanna know the secrets of the pond? Have a suggestion for the duckies? Want to submit your romance novel for review? Have news you wanna quack about? Ideas on how to make Gwen behave? Know of a topic we should put our beaks into? Have some top secret quackery? Just have something silly to share or wanna tell us how pretty our feathers are?

The Duckies

Sybil

Meet the Ducks

Alicia Thomas	Azteclady
Naughty Bev(QB)	Nice Bev(QB)
Connie	Devon	Finn
Gwen	LauraJ	Lawson
Nikki	SandyM or Sandy	ShannonC’s Icon
Sybil	Sybil	Sybil
Teddypig	Teddypig’s alterego

Review Grades

Many questions are asked of how we grade things around here, how a book can get reviewed, and, generally, what’s up with this blog thing. Here’s our logic, such as it is…

A+
Squee worthy. Fantastic “keeper shelf” shelf material. So damn good the reviewer wanted to have sex with the book AND recommend it to everyone they know.

A to A-
Excellent. Highly recommended to everyone the reviewer knows.

B+ to B-
Good. An enjoyable book with a couple of problems but no major issues. Recommended to people the reviewer thinks would like it.

C+ to C-
Average. This is an average read that perhaps didn’t appeal to the reviewer, but may to others. Recommended to fans of the author/genre, with buts. (Note - A ‘C-review’ isn’t a bad review on TGTBTU.)

D+ to D-
Poor. Has many problems but one shining moment saves it from sinking into oblivion. Not recommended unless you’re a die-hard fan of the author or genre.

F
It blows. No really, the reviewer asks themselves “Why am I reading this?” and then remembers it is so they may share with others on the blog. Not recommended except as birdcage liner.

DNF
Did Not Finish. But for whatever reason a reviewer wants to talk about it to either warn others away, or to see if anyone else was able to get thru it.

Things to keep in mind

Books may be reviewed by more than one person, but not every book can be reviewed. We don’t have enough reviewers or time in the day to get thru the mountains of new books published every day. If there is a particular book you want to see reviewed, feel free to email tgtbtu @ goodbadandunread . com (minus the spaces) and we’ll see what we can do - we love new books, genres, authors and we’re always looking for something shiny and different.

If bad reviews make an author sad or feel the need to make an ass of themselves in public, we suggest not reading our reviews of their books. We do not guarantee a good review simply because we’ve been sent a book. There are sites for that kind of stuff, this isn’t one of them.

Feel free to comment on how we do things around here. Not a lot bothers us. Opinions and discussion are what makes the world go ’round, after all.

Guest Author Days

GAD’s occur approximately 2 to 4 times a month, depending on the time of year and other events on the blog. We invite authors we love, hug, squeeze, and call ‘George.’ You are welcome to request a GAD, but the book being released needs to be sent to Sybil (by email or print) and read before a Day can be scheduled. We only do Guest Author Days for authors with books we would recommend.

More info can be found here:

The Duck Mantra

Any questions? Emails us (tgtbtu @ goodbadandunread . com ) and we’ll try to help you out.