Just Because You Like It...

That don't make it good.

I've talked about reviews before, I think. Or at least, I meant to.

I have this friend, Kay*. Kay and I have been good friends for upward of 20 years now. We have a lot in common.

Aaaaand we have a lot of NOT in Common.

For instance, she thinks (she is deluded here...) that Bon Jovi is good music. She also believes (erroneously!) that Fight Club is a very bad, stupid movie.

Despite these befuddled, deluded moments on her part, I still believe that Kay is a wonderful person. Intelligent, beautiful, kind, compassionate, funny, sarcastic, a killer punster, generous, and amazing.

And she hates Fight Club.

And I decided that if someone that smart can hate Fight Club, this does not make Fight Club a bad movie. It just means we have differing tastes.

(Bon Jovi still sucks, tho.)

I say all this because I've recently come across these two reviews...

This one, from Publisher's Weekly:

This firefighter anthology starts off with a fizzle: Rachel Firasek’s “Smoking Stilettos,” featuring a pair of stunningly immature characters and almost no sexual chemistry. Fortunately, it flares to life with some kinky heat in Sabrina York’s “Saving Charlotte,” setting the pattern of ups and downs with some seriously hot stories (such as Lynn Townsend’s “Big Trucks”) and some that aren’t much more than smoke and bluster (such as Adele Dubois’s “Hook Me Up”). Likewise, the firemen vary: there’s the sweet hero coming home to make hardcore love to his worried girlfriend in Shoshanna Evers’s “Falling Ashes” and then there’s the jerk willing to take advantage of a terrified woman in Cynthia D’Alba’s “Something’s Burning.” Despite the variation in tone and quality, any woman who has ever had a fireman fantasy can probably find one or two stories to enjoy. (Oct.)

(emphasis mine)

And this one from an Amazon reviewer

Big Trucks by Lynn Townsend: Another firetruck hookup involving two firefighters. Only story in the collection with a female fighter (woohoo!), but unfortunately both Amy and Steve felt disconnected as characters. The love scene isn't hot and the story boring to follow; my eyes glazed over this one (Rating: 2/10)

Same story. Two completely different - and opposing - viewpoints.

I used to worry that I'd be devastated by bad reviews**. (I have shown this tendency in the past to be a little bit oversensitive...)

I'm pleased to report this hasn't been the case.



* Not her real name

** This does not include obvious trolls who attack the writer, not the story. I haven't yet dealt with much of that (except for the occasional dick shot that shows up in my email... can someone explain to me why men like to take pictures of their dicks? Because, really... I mean, I don't get horrified by it, it's just flesh. But it doesn't really do anything for me, either.)