Opinions are like...

Well, I don't need to finish that sentence. You know where I was headed. I make this point because as the release of Frozen Heart approaches, the issue of reviews becomes...complicated. I'm not talking about the book bloggers and general reviews from strangers on Goodreads and Amazon. Some of them will like it, some of them will be unenthused, and some of them will wish they could beat me with a sock full of pennies for every single word. That's how this whole thing works and I'm totally prepared for it.

The tricky part is friends and family. All of my wonderful friends who have supported me through the ups and downs of this roller coaster want to read it. Aunts, uncles, cousins, and parents want to read it. And while I want them to read it, I don't. Because there is absolutely NO WAY they can be objective. And even if they think it's so bad that they can't help but hate it, they will be compelled to tell me they loved it. It's a terrible situation.

Then there is the very heated debate about whether or not you should "allow" your friends and family to review your books in public arenas (ie:Amazon, Goodreads, B&N.com, et al). I'm torn. On the one hand, *I* want to do nice things for my friends and *I* would want to leave a positive review for any friend of mine. Yet, this is often seen as "padding" the reviews. But what if my friend really does like my book and wants to leave a review saying as much? Do I ask her not to because in the eyes of half the literary world she's not an impartial judge and has no right to review my book? Or do I thank her and bask in the glow of her 5 star review?

It's quite the conundrum.

So, I'm taking this moment to say, officially, to all of my friends and family:

I TRUST YOUR JUDGEMENT.

There, I said it. You're all adults (well, most of you, anyway) and you can, and will, do what you feel is best. You don't need me to chase you down and tell you that a host of people who think they're better writers than everyone else and will nitpick every review under my book so please, please, pretty please don't make it obvious you're my friend if you review my book. You know what? If I didn't have any friends that wanted to review my book, there'd be a good chance I was a recluse living in my mom's basement. So, THANK YOU for reading my book at all, no matter what you decide to do in the end.

One caveat: if you hate my book, please don't give me that awkward smile and say "it was nice".  Just tell me you hated it and why so I can write something better next time. That is, unless you hate books with sex in them, then you're SOL because my books will always have sex in them *nods*.

Frozen Heart comes out exactly 3 weeks from today...