Hello, hello, hello! I can’t believe it’s time for another SPFBO season. It seems like the past year has just flown by me. I’ve been a judge since SPFBO 4 and it’s been a wild ride. There have been so many books that I never would have known about or tried out that I ended up absolutely adoring. There have been heartbreaking moments when a book I loved had to be cut from my or another team’s batch. I’m super stoked to see what happens this year, which books I get, and which of the finalists I end up shouting about for years to come.
If this is your first year here, welcome. I’m Esme and long story short I have pretty broad tastes, I can enjoy just about any story or genre. There are a few genres that I don’t always get along with (romance, super dark grimdark, gore/horror), but part of my score always includes the concept of my enjoyment compared to how I feel the general public may feel about it. I try and keep in mind what didn’t work for me may work for others and I make an attempt in each review to highlight who I think the target audience would be. Because of this, my scores tend to be a bit higher than other groups. (Mark keeps track of the averages each year and I’m typically among the top 3 highest rating blogs.) Welcome to my squishy blog <3.
I try and give every book in my batch a review even if I’m cutting it and is a DNF. In past years I have given the books scores as I go along, which means for those of you following my reviews, you can kind of guess which books may hit the semifinals. For many years I also had an intricate rating system that broke down the overall score showing how I rated a book in various categories like character, world building, pacing et cetera. This year I’m being more cryptic, lol. I likely won’t be giving scores until I start announcing my semifinalists (which I hope to announce in a more orderly manner than last year).
I tend to read quickly so expect reviews to come out soon! I’ll likely announce each new book I pick up on my twitter account so you can keep track of where I am with my reading. You can also follow what I’m reading on my Goodreads account.
I have worked as a partner-team with Kristen/Superstardrifter from the start, and unfortunately last year due to a hailstorm of life bullshit she had to take a year off to address a slew of back to back Life Events. This year she will be returning, and as per previous years, we’re going to have our highest joint score go forward to the finals. She tends to be the person who takes the kissy books and YA books since she enjoys them and I tend to bounce. I tend to take the military fantasy books and litrpg since I enjoy those and those aren’t her favorites. We agree on most other areas though, so we’ve made a good team for many years.
Here are our books (there’s a small chance there may be some changes as we continue to shuffle, but expect this to be mostly accurate).
I will announce which books I’ll be reading and which ones Kristen will be reading, and I’ll also give a little snap shot impression of my grouping.
Thanks so much for your submissions and I hope for a great SPFBO 10 experience for everyone!
Cheers, and best of luck!