Tell me about the person behind the blog?
I’m, Becca, a forty year old single mother of boy/girl twins who are six. I’ve had various jobs over the years, from being a midwife and counsellor to working in a pet shop and boarding kennel. I love animals, cactus and hummingbirds.
When did you start blogging and why?
I started blogging a year ago. I started up because I had come to realise how important it is for authors to get reviews and word of mouth going about their books and I wanted to help with that if I could. I also had quite a few people who would ask me for recommendations of books to read so I thought that if I had a blog then I could direct them to that and it would be easier. When I started it I totally thought that only a handful of friends would ever read it.
What are your proudest moments or achievements todate as a blogger?
Er, there are so many! I love the interactions with authors, having a twitter conversation with Karen Rose (and her husband!) was pretty amazing, Jodi Picoult has liked a couple of my tweets, Elizabeth Haynes has talked to me, Angela Marsons sent me a signed copy of Silent Scream. I love the signed books that I’ve got and every interaction with authors and readers of my blog who have read a book based on my suggestion and enjoyed it.
I also felt incredibly proud when I took part in the blog tour for My Husband’s Son by Deborah O’Connor as her book shot up the charts after the tour which was amazing to see and be part of. The fact that she was lovely made it even better.
If you had to breakdown the components of your ideal perfect book what would they be?
This is so hard as there are so many things that make a good book. I think that believable characters are important, I don’t have to like them but I do need to believe that they would behave how they’re behaving. I hate reading the first chapter of a book and guessing how it all pans out, I like lots of twists and turns and surprises along the way. Short chapters help too, if I see that a chapter is, say, four minutes long then I’m far more likely to keep reading than if my kindle tells me that it’s fifteen minutes long. Don’t rush the ending and no huge cliffhanger that confuses the reader so much they’ve no idea what happened.
What is your favourite genre to read?
My favourite genre would have to be psychological thrillers. I love how the human mind works and so they appeal to that side of me and I enjoy the twists and turns. There are plenty other genres that I like too, though!
Finally, tell me more about your blog and why we should subscribe?
I hope that my blog, If only I could read faster, is easy to read and interesting, I’m not a fast reader so it is easy to keep up with as there aren’t too many posts. I go for quality over quantity! I’m told that my reviews are very thoughtful and I never, ever, give away a spoiler in my reviews. You can follow my blog via email, wordpress, bloglovin, facebook, twitter or instagram.
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