I'm happy to introduce Heather Kuehl, author of the fantastic Promises to Keep and Fade to Black.What I look for in a good book
It a rare thing for me to go into a bookstore looking for an author I haven’t read. No, I haven’t read them all already. I’m just picky. I hate to waste money on a book that’s not very good, so I usually stick with authors I like. But sometimes, I want something new.
I’m sorry to say that I do judge book by its cover. Well, starting out I do. If the cover art interests me I’ll pick it up. I discovered Patricia Briggs doing that (How cool! A main character with tattoos!). Then I read the blurb on the back. It’s a plus if the author or the book has review to go along with it (It can’t suck too bad if Publishers Weekly thought it was good). The last thing I do before running up to the register with my new find is that I open the book to a random page in the middle and start reading. If it can pull me in when I have no clue what’s going on then it’s a keeper. There’s been a handful of times this has failed. My random page ended up being the only exciting part in the entire story and the rest of it fell flat. I cut my losses, make a note of that author on the “library only” list (I’ll borrow them, not buy them), and go back to reading Charlaine Harris for a while.Another thing that will make or break a book for me is if I can’t get into the first ten pages or so. If those ten pages drag on and it takes me forever to read them, I give up. Maybe that’s not the book for me right now. I’ll put it up to try again later.
I love trying new authors, and love it even more when I find one that I can’t get enough of. Sherrilyn Kenyon was like that; I finished her entire Dark Hunter series in a month. There was something about those books that just did it for me. The romance? The adventure? The danger? Whatever it was, it worked. I can’t wait to see what else she has out there.
What I want to know is, what do you look for in a good book? And what author did you discover that just did it for you?
Heather Kuehl is the author of Promises to Keep, Fade to Black (#1 Bestseller in fantasy eBooks on Fictionwise.com), and Malevolent Dead as well as numerous short stories and poems. Visit Heather online at www.heatherkuehl.com, www.heatherkuehl.blogspot.com or follow her on Facebook or Twitter.
Grab your copy of Promises to Keep today, available from Eternal Press and Amazon.com.
