Book Blogger Appreciation Week: Day Five

What do you MEAN they haven't announced Best Romance Blog yet?? What am I supposed to do with this post?

Oh, tell people what I love best about my blog, in 50 words or less? As wordy as I usually am, I only need three:

My review format.

As regular readers know, my reviews for the last two years have a specific format. While I've tweaked it a bit over the months (adding the Alternate Title for laughs), I've generally remained the same. If you look into my older archives when I was just starting out my blog in 2004-2006, you can see that I had a really, really loose way of reviewing things (I briefly had a Crush du Jour rating which I jettisoned because it used too many images and made no sense).

But my review format really reflects myself as a reader. You'll notice I start out with a break-down of the hero and heroine and the main problems that keep them apart, then I have a funny little synopsis of the plot and the romantic conventions, and then a lengthier, in-depth review of the book as a whole.

Whenever I remember a romance I read, I always remember the characters first. Romance is generally more character-driven than plot driven - a lot of plots are really similar (I stand by my belief that Loretta Chase's Lord of Scoundrels and Celeste Bradley's The Duke Next Door have the same plot - although Lord of Scoundrels is by far the better book), but it's always the characters who stand out to me.

There are, in fact, many romances that have silly plots but are redeemed by loveable, empathetic characters, which is why all my reviews have a silly plot breakdown but can still be favourite reads.

But I like to go in-depth about what I care about, so after my plot descriptions and romance conventions I do a detailed review as well. There's nothing I hate worse than a review that states an opinion and doesn't back it up with an explanation. Sometimes this involves plot spoilers (in my review of Teresa Medeiros' Yours Until Dawn, I needed to spoil the ending because it was the ending that ultimately decided my review grade).

So, as you can see, I love my review format because it fits the kind of reader I am, and what my priorities are when I read. As well, the break-down format also forces me to analyse a lot of what I've read in hindsight, which helps me understand the books even more after I've read them.

Now, my task for BBAW today is also to describe in 50 words or less where I'd like my blog to be next year. Hmmm, that's a tough question. I like routines and schedules. I'm not really a fond-of-change person.

I think what I'd like to be next year is a blogger who has a more regular schedule. Right now, I read whenever I can and review whenever I'm finished, so that means reviews can be anything from two days to two weeks apart, because I have a 3-romance books, 1-regular fiction book reading habit. I guess I'd like to be a faster reader so I can get you guys funny reviews faster, but how I'll accomplish that is anyone's guess.