It had been a tough week for a writer. A reader of the type I like to call “hell’s spawn,” left a horrible review on a major website about one of my books. It took many days for me to finally believe myself when I reminded me: (1) Many, many people have given the book glowing reviews and seemed giddily happy to do so. (2) Many people have written me to tell about re-reading the book and finding it just as enjoyable a second time. (3) Many people, upon reading this book, vowed to read all my other books as soon as last month’s credit card bill was paid and they could start charging at Amazon again. (4) (I should have noticed this first.) Much of what was said in the hell’s spawn review did not correspond with my understanding of what the book says, at all. It was as if the brimstone-coated reviewer had read a different book entirely.

Recently another author wrote on social media that their favorite unfavorable review stated, “I never read this book. It’s not even on my Kindle.”

The author laughingly remarked, “Are these people allowed out? Unsupervised?”

The reason for this post is not to complain about review demons; they’re only doing what demons do, and nothing else should be expected of them.  (I forgive you and honor your right to opine, trolls and gargoyles.) No, what prompted this article was the review I received last night that vanquished the sulphurous negative diatribe. Many thanks to you, “L.S.,” for posting this five-star review on Amazon and Goodreads.

Hugely entertaining with endearing, well-drawn characters that pull you into their world. With plenty of humour, great dialogue and an old-fashioned community spirit the story moves along at an easy pace. Unexpected situations abound and there is plenty of intrigue and several not-so-welcome surprises.
Thoroughly enjoyable and a writing style that has convinced me to read another of the author’s books.

Mind you, this reviewer is not a relative and has received no gifts or remuneration from yours truly. My spirits soared upon reading this. For a moment I considered renting highway billboards from Key West to Maine along U.S.1 to share the review with the world. Sanity returned swiftly, however, and I settled for sending a sincere thank-you note.