The wheat from the chaff

Hello everyone,

It's Shellie here posting today.  If I haven't met you yet, I'm the bookshop's newest bookseller.  I'm writing to tell you today about how dilligently we try to pick out the best possible new titles for the store.  I think it's safe to say that we are all voracious readers here and we happily attack our stack of ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies) that we get from publishers on a regular basis.  It has been my delight to discover an author's debut novel and get it into the store for our customers to enjoy--specifically, The Wives of Henry Oades by Johanna Moran.  This book was wonderful!

But let me tell you, folks.  It's not always a walk in the park.  I recently read an ARC that was so poorly written.  It was only because I am an absolute sucker for Tudor-era England that I stuck through to the end.  What was the major issue, you ask?  It was the narrator's constant battle with her own stomach acids!  At every turn, the protagonist was either "feeling the bile come up into her throat", "combatting waves of nausea", or "swallowing the sickness that rose up inside her". 

As Wally aptly said:  "Somebody get that woman an antacid!". 

Now, I understand that during Henry VIII's reign many perfectly disgusting things were done that would certainly make a modern person cringe.  But to read--page after page--of this character's urpy exploits...Well, it was a little much for me.

But you know, it's all part of the job.  We separate the wheat from the chaff--always keeping our beloved customers in mind and thinking of what you will like best.  Happy reading!