About

Hi,

My name is Alexandra and I’m a book blogger.

I read literary fiction, historical fiction, gothic stories and thrillers. I basically read all genres except romance, graphic novels, books for children or fantasy (although I will soon try this one).

On my blog I post book reviews, and discuss what I liked or disliked about a book. My reviews can be positive, negative or mixed. I never hide my opinion. If our tastes match, chance are I will be your source of information about books you might like or hate.

I also review advance reader copies (books that will be published in the future), so I’ll tell you about upcoming releases.

I sometimes post beautiful book photos and occasional cat photos. 😻

Feel free to subscribe, leave a comment or a link to your blog below so that we can keep in touch.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. That means if you buy a book from Amazon after you clicked the link to it on my blog, I will earn a small commission. It will not influence the price of the book for you.

29 thoughts on “About

  1. Thank you for taking time to follow SSDS. It is still early days and part of the philosophy is that we don’t want to set deadlines for completed written work. It means blog posts are a little irregular in their frequency (certainly less frequent than your posts on Reader Witch). I hope you enjoy the posts when they randomly pop up! I’ve just sent the latest photo to contributors so the next post may be a couple of weeks.
    In the meantime I will enjoy keeping up with your wonderful site. Keep up the great work. Best wishes 🙂

    1. Hello Ari, thanks for stopping by. Yes, I love the idea of your blog, it’s very interesting! I don’t think I’ve heard of anything similar online or offline. I instantly started creating stories too when I saw the photos. 🙂 It’s fun! 🙂

      1. If you’d like to message me through the Same Scene Different Story ‘contact’ page I can email you some details about the possibility of becoming involved with SSDS if that is something you might wish to consider? We all write under pseudonyms and if you did get involved then you could do so under a name of your choosing. It is a very laid back blog and you will have noticed the actual posts are not regular because we don’t like setting deadlines 🙂
        If you decide not to get in touch then I’m just happy you felt inspired to create a few stories of your own.
        Best wishes
        Ari
        (I realise this is off the topic of your blog so feel free to delete it after reading)

        1. That is never an off topic and I love hearing from you. I appreciate when interesting bloggers stop by. Yes, as soon as I saw your blog I started thinking what stories I would be able to create but I’m not sure I would manage to create any at all. So I’ll try first for myself and then if I see that I can come up with something I’ll contact you. This way I won’t let you down by first promising to contribute and then failing to 🙂

  2. We are very laid back at SSDS 🙂 I have a few people involved with the blog who so far have not contributed any work for the site. Every time I issue a new photograph I email it to them and if at any point they are inspired to write something then they can contribute. If they never contribute then that is fine. If they write and don’t wish to submit then that is fine too. If you would like to get the photographs each time they are sent out then get in touch through the contact page and I will mail them to you each time they are sent out – with of course absolutely no pressure to submit anything.
    As you can see from the pace of the blog it is unlikely you will feel overwhelmed with emails. It’s interesting that even though I take the pictures I can sometimes really struggle to come up with a story! I sent out the latest picture about three weeks ago and I’ve not written anything yet! Anyway, this isn’t meant to sound like a hard sell so feel free to contact me any time and I will start mailing the pictures your way. Sending best wishes from a very sunny Sheffield. Have a great week 🙂

  3. I enjoy your reviews and this looks like a fun site. I was curious about “spoiler-free” though. I seem to be in the minority, but I don’t like spoiler-free reviews nearly as much as reviews where people just don’t worry about that and concentrate on writing their honest and quirky opinions. I’ve never minded spoilers–I tend to not even notice them. If the experience of reading a book can be “spoiled” by something written in a review, then IMO it’s not a very good book in the first place.

    1. Hi! Thanks so much for stopping by and for your interesting comment! I don’t think I’ve ever met a person who doesn’t react to spoilers. I think I might have been that person once, a long time ago. Up to the point I used to read the end of the books first and then read from the beginning to see how it all came to this end 🙂 One day I did this to a book that had a huge awesome plot twist at the end that made the whole book look different if you read it knowing the twist. I saw all those little hidden details in the plot that now were glaring at me as the parts of demolished constructions. Suddenly I didn’t see the book anymore but saw only the remains of it. Ever since then whenever I accidentally hit on a spoiler I felt the same way. I think it would be the same feeling, for example, that looking at a vandalised house would give you. Especially if you are being shown photos of how beautiful the house used to be. That’s what spoilers do to me. You said an interesting phrase, about the book not being that good if it can be spoiled. I don’t think it depends on the book but on a person who reads it. You have the skill of enjoying the book regardless of spoilers. I have a style of perception where a spoiler ruins a potentially beautiful thing. I’m sure there are as many attitudes to spoilers as there are people. But just in case there are those who feel as devastated as I do when I see spoilers I prefer to protect them from this encounter. Hence the spoiler-free aspect of the blog and actually the one I’m really proud of 🙂

      1. I often still do what you used to do. I read back from the end and see how it comes together. It actually can make the reading experience richer for me. I’m on a movie review site that starts out with spoiler-free reviews and then follows up with analysis that doesn’t care about that. I find the analysis reviews so much more interesting. The spoiler-free ones just strike me as kind of generic and a little boring. But I like that they do both kinds—it’s a good balance for different kinds of readers.

      2. The reason I think a book isn’t that good if it can be spoiled is that’s not why I read (or write). I don’t read for manufactured tension and suspense. I read for characters, language, and insights into human nature. I get more of that if I’m not trying to keep track of plot twists. And I just generally hate surprises. In all areas of life. 🙂

  4. Hi Alexandra
    I was wondering if I could send you my action thriller Savage Lies for review.
    Yes, it’s one of those lone-wolf type books, but I’ve tried to do something different with the genre by adding some twisted humour and making the main character more vunerable – he has PTSD, hears a voice in his head, and he’s older.
    Here’s the blurb:
    John Savage hears a voice in his head telling him to end it all. It’s surprising he doesn’t hear more voices, considering the hundreds of people he’s killed in the name of democracy.
    That changes when a girl disappears. The police think she’s the victim of a serial killer, but John has another theory.
    One that turns out to be far more terrifying…
    Let me know if this is your cup of tea. If not, no worries, at all.
    Kind regards
    Pete

  5. Hello Alexandra,

    My name is Jes D.A., and I’m the content marketing coordinator at Scribendi, the world leader in online editing and proofreading.

    I just wanted to let you know that we featured Reader Witch in an article listing 19 of the best book-related blogs from around the web. We launched the article in April 2015, and it has been very popular, earning the top spot in Google’s search results for the keyword “book blogs.”

    We updated the list for 2019 and are now resharing it to let people know about the additions.

    Should you wish to share it with your own following, you can find the article here. In any case, thank you for your time, and have a great day!

    Best,

    Jes D.A., Senior Editor & Content Marketing Coordinator

    Scribendi – Editing and Proofreading Services for English Documents
    Fast, Affordable, Professional

    405 Riverview Dr., Suite 304
    Chatham, ON N7M 0N3 Canada

    1. Hello! This is absolutely awesome news! Thanks so much for featuring my blog and for letting me know! I’ll definitely be sharing this with my readers 😊

  6. Just stopped by your blog..seems informative, though I just read your review on Nicolas Sparks new book. Then I read your about me that you do not review romance novels. I thought that was romance. Seems a contradiction.

    1. Hi Teresa! Indeed, I don’t normally read romance. If it’s the review I think you are talking about, I actually mentioned it in the beginning that I was expecting to be disappointed with the book because it’s a romance but ended up being disappointed with it for other reasons. Though, I’m slightly unsure if we are talking about the same review because you say it’s a new book but it’s actually a very old one.

    1. Hi Andy, thanks for writing. I’m not accepting and review requests right now but I’ll let you know if it changes. Lots of blogging work ahead, I have to deal with the books I’m going through now.

  7. Hi Alexandra!

    I just checked out your blog and I really like your style! I also blog about books and all things related. I would love to connect with you! 🙂

  8. Dear Alexandra,

    I’m a recent visitor to your website and wanted to say it’s very nice and I appreciate the honest reviews you put out there.

    I am looking to produce a method that helps people retain more of what they read, as this is something I suffer a lot from. I end up forgetting key messages by the end of the book and don’t end up taking a lot away from it.

    I’d love to get your thoughts on how you retain information when you read. Do you use any tools/apps to help you?

    Thank you,
    Nayan

    1. Hello Nayan, that’s an interesting question. I find that as with everything in life, the more work you do on a subject, the more it stays in your memory. If you just read a book, close it and put it back on the shelf it’s one process, if you take notes and write posts about the book, it’s a whole different story. So I always take notes when I read, even if what I write down seems obvious at that moment. All ideas tend to evaporate unless more work applied to them (like, writing them down for example). I’m not using any special apps for that, just my notepad.

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