The first (and definitely not the last) bad review for Life After Joe.

Being an author is such a curious thing – so much of what we do is private, involving almost no one else.  We write, edit, rewrite ad nauseam before we send our precious manuscripts out into the world.

It is unrealistic to think every person who comes across our work will enjoy it, after all, there is no ‘universal novel.’  Still…  With my free download activity, I have been frantically checking to see if and when my new audience will update me with their feedback.  For the most part, it has been completely rewarding and wonderful – that people have taken the time to contact me or leave positive reviews has been nothing short of fantastic.  Still… I knew better and this morning I got exactly that!

Spoilers for Life After Joe ahead.

“The book ends with the author starting a new relationship. I am getting very, very tired of books in which a sad woman gets over her problems by being “saved” by a man.”

That is one opinion.  Mine is quite different.  Liz’s struggle with grief ends in reconnecting with someone from her past, but the overwhelming majority of her journey is alone – working through things good, bad and ugly on her own.  In the end, it is not just Adrian who ‘saves’ her.  From the beginning, I always wanted Liz to save herself.  Throughout the novel, she has help from friends and family, but the struggles and triumphs Liz had were hers alone.

Sigh.  Goodreads absolutely does not want authors to comment on reviews, so this is me (hopefully) not coming off too whiny and too ‘someone didn’t like my book and now I’m going to cry about it.’  I feel strongly about my characters, so I’ll try and leave it at that.