What’s There to Like about Book Reviews?

A snapshot of the star rating system which Amazon sent to me in an email asking me to rate a purchase.

When you purchase a book, do you read the reviews first?

As authors, Rose, Zoe, and I know that book reviews give “social proof” to our work. In other words, prospective readers can see the reviews and know that others have read and (hopefully) enjoyed that particular book.

Personally, I’m not a review reader very often for books. I read reviews before purchasing something like electronics but rarely do I read them for books. However, when I do read book reviews I will often scroll through looking for the “spoiler” reviews. I know some people hate those sorts of reviews but for me, their lovely little golden nuggets that give me what I need to know to make my decision about a book. I even do this with movies. I will Google search spoilers for movies I might be on the fence about seeing. Spoilers might ruin a book or movie for you, but they do not for me. (I also tend to read the end of a book first. 🙂 )

Another thing I tend to do when reading reviews is vetting the reviewer. This means I look at the reviewer’s other reviews. I’m looking for things such as: does this reviewer only post low star reviews or is there a wide range or have they read any books that I have read and if so, how does their opinion compare with mine?

But what about when it comes to reviews of my own books? Well, Zoe and I are going to talk about that, as well as share some reviews we have enjoyed, in today’s episode of the LLS Society Papers*.

The live stream will begin at 3 PM EST or 4 PM Atlantic. (But you can always watch it later, too. 🙂 )

Books and links mentioned in the show:

Leenie’s Links

NEW RELEASE: His Darling Friend https://mybook.to/HDF

MASSIVE book sale http://bit.ly/FridaysFeature

What’s in KU page http://bit.ly/KUreads

One Winter’s Eve http://bit.ly/OWE_link

Henry: To Prove Himself Worthy http://mybook.to/HTPHW

Master of Longbourn http://bit.ly/MOL_link

Sweet Tuesdays http://bit.ly/SweetTuesdays

Zoe’s Links

Lady Catherine Impedes: https://books2read.com/u/3L9rM7

Darcy’s Secret Marriage: https://books2read.com/u/47zwJq

Matches Made at Netherfield: https://books2read.com/u/3yPM2n

Have a great weekend! Thanks for joining us!

*Longbourn Literary Society (LLS) is a Facebook group founded by three friends, who share a love of writing and Jane Austen for the purpose of promoting those loves and our work.  

~*~*~

You can find Rose and Zoe’s websites at these links:

ROSE FAIRBANKS          ZOE BURTON


Behind the Scenes: Writing Spaces

Back in September, I took part in an Instagram challenge to post various things daily. Day 10 was to share our writing nook — this is still how it looks for the most part.

In today’s episode of the LLS Society Papers*, Rose, Zoe, and I are going to let you take a peek at our writing spaces, which means I should probably tidy up a bit. 😀 I mean, one always does some cleaning before company comes, right? (Even if that company is only visiting virtually.)

I hope you can join us live, but if you can’t, you can always watch later.

The live stream will begin at 3 PM EST or 4 PM Atlantic.

Books and links mentioned in the show:

Rose’s Links

Stolen Moments with Darcy http://books2read.com/u/mZN2wD

Leenie’s Links

His Beautiful Bea (Free until 11:59 PM May 12, 2019) https://mybook.to/HBB

NEW RELEASE: His Darling Friend https://mybook.to/HDF

Zoe’s Links

Darcy’s Secret Marriage Large Print Edition https://amzn.to/2LCJCGM

Have a great weekend! Thanks for joining us!

*Longbourn Literary Society (LLS) is a Facebook group founded by three friends, who share a love of writing and Jane Austen for the purpose of promoting those loves and our work.  

~*~*~

You can find Rose and Zoe’s websites at these links:

ROSE FAIRBANKS          ZOE BURTON


Secondary Character Inspiration

Chris Hammond (1860-1900) [Public domain] via Wikimedia Commons
Every H/h needs a good wingman — a person who…

has your back (or wishes to stab you in the back),

helps you succeed (or hopes to see you fail so they can trample you once you’re down),

points out your flaws to help you improve (or illustrate your ineptness),

makes you look good (or ensures you look ridiculous).

For good or ill, all stories NEED secondary characters.

But how do we create these important, though not headlining, cast members?

In this episode of the LLS Society Papers*, we’re talking about how we created and used a few of the many secondary characters we have written into stories.

Live Stream will begin at 3 PM EST or 4 PM Atlantic. 🙂

Books and links mentioned in the show:

Rose’s Links
Sufficient Encouragement
Mr. Darcy’s Bluestocking Bride

Leenie’s Links
Henry: To Prove Himself Worthy
Charles: To Discover His Purpose
Music Monday post, containing an intro to Trefor Linton with Charles Edwards as a secondary character

Zoe’s Links
Darcy’s Secret Marriage

Pride & Prejudice & Racecars series
Darcy’s Race to Love
Georgie’s Redemption
Book 3/Friday’s Race to the Weekend blog feature

Have a great weekend! Thanks for joining us!

*Longbourn Literary Society is a Facebook group founded by three friends, who share a love of writing and Jane Austen for the purpose of promoting those loves and our work.  

~*~*~

You can find Rose and Zoe’s websites at these links:

ROSE FAIRBANKS          ZOE BURTON


Does life imitate art or art imitate life?

Welcome to the first Longbourn Literary Society (LLS) Society Papers Broadcast post on my blog. (Yes, that is a mouthful, is it not? LOL)

Zoe Burton, Rose Fairbanks, and I have been doing these video chats as Facebook live videos for a year and have just recently moved from Facebook to YouTube so that the videos can be accessed more broadly.

Now, I realize I mentioned that I would share these videos on Sundays here on the blog, but I just had a “brilliant idea” which means this is either going to work or be a dismal failure. LOL

I think that I can share the link to the video early and then if you want to join us live, you can just use it to hop over to YouTube where you can comment, or you can just watch us here. We’ll see. Fingers crossed. And please accept my apologies if it does not work. I will get it sorted out afterward if necessary.


This week, we are discussing how real-life experiences have inspired scenes on the page and reading from some of those scenes as well.

[The broadcast will start at 3 PM EST or 4 PM if you’re in the Atlantic time zone like I am. 😉 ]

Books and links mentioned in the show:

Rose’s Books

Stolen Moments with Darcy books2read.com/u/mZN2wD

The Secrets of Pemberley books2read.com/u/b62Ne6

Mr. Darcy’s Compassion books2read.com/u/3kGWdn

The Gentleman’s Impertinent Daughter books2read.com/u/mgLqVx

Letters from the Heart books2read.com/u/4AYVnd

No Cause to Repine books2read.com/u/mYR17G

Mr. Darcy’s Kindness books2read.com/u/bMx184

Leenie’s Books

Through Every Storm mybook.to/TES

Mr. Darcy’s Comfort http://bit.ly/mdctab

So Very Unexpected http://bit.ly/SVUTab

Zoe’s Books

I Promise To …  https://zoeburton.com/zoes-books/i-promise-to/

Promises Kept https://zoeburton.com/zoes-books/promises-kept/

To Save Elizabeth https://zoeburton.com/zoes-books/to-save-elizabeth/

Friday’s Race to the Weekend: https://zoeburton.com/category/fridays-race-to-the-weekend/

Join our Facebook readers community

Longbourn Literary Society: https://www.facebook.com/groups/LongbournLiterarySociety/

Subscribe to our channels

Zoe http://bit.ly/ZoeBurtonYT

Rose http://bit.ly/RoseFairbanksYT

Leenie http://bit.ly/LeenieBrownYT

Discover more about Leenie, Rose, and Zoe and their books

Leenie: https://www.leeniebrown.com (You’re here already 🙂 )

Rose: https://rosefairbanks.com

Zoe: https://zoeburton.com


Have a great weekend! Thanks for joining us!