Reviewing Guidelines

PLEASE NOTE: I am not currently accepting any new books for review since I've been diagnosed with Stage IV cancer and my brain isn't working well enough to do much reading.  I'm hoping this is temporary, but even once I am reading again, I'm so far behind it would not be fair to those to whom I've already promised a review (some as long as 2 1/2 years ago) and have not yet provided it.

I have been reviewing books on Amazon.com for a number of years. I became an Amazon Vine reviewer in 2008, and am currently a Top 1000 reviewer on Amazon. I also regularly post reviews on Goodreads, Shelfari, LibraryThing, and here on my blog.*

I read a wide variety of books, and am willing to consider any genre except traditional romance. I have a large number of books in my current pile to read and review -- at an average of about 350 books a year, I think I currently have at least 2 1/2 years' worth -- so keep that in mind if you contact me regarding reviewing your book. You can find me on Goodreads or Shelfari by following the links, and either site makes it easy to contact people once you have a free account, so that is the best way to contact me.  I can also be e-mailed at katy.sozaeva@gmail.com  But please please please do NOT just send me your book.  If it is not something I like, I will read it anyway and you will have to deal with the fallout of a grumpy review.  Contact me first and ask if it is something in which I might be interested (I'm not sure how everyone is hearing about me, but I'm receiving a lot of random books and some are things I really am not interested in, so again... do not do that)

I will provide an honest review and assessment of your work -- I will not flatter you without true merit, nor do I write cruel or mean-spirited reviews just for laughs. I try to be fair and provide constructive critique that will help you to write better in the future. I do not charge for reviews. I believe that is unethical.

My review criteria:
5 stars - I really loved this book
4 stars - I liked this book a lot; perhaps there were some editing or plot discrepancies that distracted me, or perhaps it just didn't catch me like I had hoped
3 stars - Either: this book is okay, I enjoyed it well enough, but there were some issues that kept me from really enjoying at as much as I could; Or: I really did NOT like the book BUT it is well-written and others might enjoy it. Details will be in the review.
2 stars - I didn't like this book, but managed to finish it.
1 star - This book was so terrible that not only did I not finish it, but I flung it across the room in a fit of pique (unless I was reading it on an e-reader). Fortunately I don't run across too many of these (probably because I don't deliberately read books I know I won't like).

My Age Rating/Reading Level definitions:
I started adding a "Reading Level" section under book information when a friend asked if the book would be appropriate for her son.  So, this is what my "Reading Levels" mean:
Middle Grade/MG:  This book is written for a target audience equivalent to middle school in the US, or for readers age 10 to 14
Young Adult/YA: This book is written for a target audience equivalent to high school in the US, or for readers age 13 to 19
New Adult/NA:  This book is written for a target audience of college-age or recently graduated college students, or for readers 18 to 24
Adult: This book is written for a target audience of those aged 25 and above, or this book has extensive "adult" content (erotica, profanity)

* I have stopped posting reviews on Barnes and Noble due to their ridiculously strict ToS, which causes them to reject reviews arbitrarily based upon certain key terms -- and due to their constant site "improvements" it is difficult to figure out how to get into my own review to edit it! However, if I have a request to post a review there, I shall make the attempt.  If you want reviews posted at any other specific sites, again, just let me know and I will do my best.  I share the reviews from my blog through social media: Facebook, Twitter, and G+ and if I know the author's Twitter handle I will try to include that in the tweet.