About This Site

 Who I am:
I am affiliated with http://www.theindieview.com/, a great resource to help both reviewers and those looking to be reviewed to find each other.

For a long time, I was just a lurker hidden in the shadows of online reviewing. I would read these great, often indie published, books and have opinions, disagree with other reviewers but never state my mind. Then I thought, "You know what? I've read voraciously since I was seven, I think I have the right to validate my points."

So around mid 2012, I started to post reviews on http://Amazon.co.uk if the book was available there, then at the start of 2013 I also began to post on https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/997028-laura-of-lurking

That year I stacked up a massive 125 books read! This shocked me, I'd never kept track before. This was also the year I began to request a few ARC copies of books, a copy, usually before or at the beginning of publication, the author wanted reviewed. I thoroughly enjoy this aspect and hope to expand and do more from now on.

What I read:

Anything and everything really, including the contents of the bathroom cupboard on those days you well… just get stuck there!

My favourite genres though are science fiction, fantasy and I enjoy a good biography of somebody who has overcome great obstacles. Celebrity biographies don't really interest me unless I already have a strong interest in that person

I am not a big fan of stories with a heavy number of explicit sex scenes, or "on-screen" rape, but given the right book I will still read it.

What I review:

Pretty much anything I read I will review. If I do not finish it I may or may not depending on the reason and how far I got. My did-not-finish count though is usually only one or two a year.

If you would like me to review your work please read my submissionguidelines and contact me at lauraoflurkingreads@hotmail.co.uk

Ratings guidelines:

5 stars: I want more! These are books that really touched me in some way whether because of storyline, character or another factor. The writing also has to be great.

4 stars: Very good, I enjoyed this book. I may have had some small issues with it but overall I was impressed.

3 stars: I did enjoy this book but had issues with something and came away not fully satisfied. This could have been writing, characters, plot or an overall sense of incompletion.

2 stars: I was not a fan of this book, I felt it had issues I couldn't get past and was not happy with the overall experience.

1 star: I believe an author automatically deserves 1 star for just having the determination to write  book and put it in the public eye so this rating is rare from me. It will usually be because I found something extremely offensive or spelling, grammar, etc., were so bad it was unreadable.

DNF: Did not finish. While I may comment within a review that I would have given it x stars for the voice but only y for the plot I do not usually give these an overall rating. This does not necessarily mean I would have given it 1 star or less


Star image from http://www.famfamfam.com/lab/icons/silk/
Half star image from http://www.famfamfam.com/lab/icons/silk/ edited under creative commons license