Jeri Smith-Ready

Starred review for BAD TO THE BONE!

I know, I know. Too many of my recent posts have exclamation points at the end. I can't help it if exciting things have been happening.

The latest is a bit of a dream come true, one of those career goals in the category of Things I Can't Control. My upcoming vampire book, Bad to the Bone (WVMP Radio Book 2), just got a starred review in Publishers Weekly.

This is apparently a big deal. I know because I Googled "starred review in Publishers Weekly big deal?" and found a blog post by the editor of the science fiction/fantasy/horror review section, Rose Fox. The full post explains how stars get allotted Here's a brief excerpt:

A starred review from PW is a big deal. Like diamonds, their value is in their scarcity. Also like diamonds, that scarcity is to some extent artificial. The question of how many books to star is necessarily going to have a rather vague and arbitrary answer: few enough that a star really means something, while making sure that really outstanding books get the recognition they deserve.

Her current blog Genreville is now on the Publishers Weekly website. It's definitely worth reading, as she has many interesting insights into the genre.

So why should you, the reader, care? You shouldn't, except to know that the review might make it easier for you to find Bad to the Bone in bookstores, because the buyers for both the big chains and the little indies read PW. In these days of cutbacks (both of money and time), they might use reviews even more than usual to make their choices.

Oh, here's the actual review (if you click through you have to scroll way down to the sf/f/horror category):

Bad to the Bone Jeri Smith-Ready. Pocket, $15 paper (384p) ISBN 978-1-4165-5178-2

In Smith-Ready’s espionage farce sequel to 2008’s Wicked Game, Ciara Griffin and her vampire DJs face another threat to their Maryland radio station 94.3 WVMP, the Lifeblood of Rock ’n’ Roll. When the Family Action Network (FAN) disrupts WVMP’s Halloween broadcast by pirating their signal and jamming it with antivampire rhetoric, Ciara swears revenge. Under the aegis of the International Agency for the Control and Management of Undead Corporeal Entities, Ciara turns spy and infiltrates the cult’s fortress, armed with her wits and her vampire-healing “antiholy” blood. Aiding her are a crew of hip vamp buddies and vampire dog Dexter, whom she rescues after finding him chained to a cross outside a FAN enclave. Smith-Ready pours plenty of fun into her charming, fang-in-cheek urban fantasy, which frequently skirts the edge of parody. (May)

So yay.

Labels: reviews, vampire series

• posted by Jeri @ 11:48 AM
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