someone's been a very bad blogger and how ARC descriptions can mislead tender young bloggers

sorry for the long-time-no-post thing I've had going on here. I just have been more of in a "reading" mood than in a "blogging" mood. Plus I've been enjoying the Oregon sunshine... us native Oregonians know that if you snooze you lose when it comes to sun. So summers tend to be an explosion of outdoorsy-ness.

But! This weekend's forecast does not look good and Roommate will be at his parents. These two things are perfect conditions for a blogging marathon. I've got a lot of catching up to do.

I've also excitingly received my second ARC through LibraryThing Early Reviewers, A Constant Heart by Siri Mitchell. I decided to do a couple of googles on the book as I patiently waited for it to arrive, and I learned an important lesson, which I will henceforth refer to as ARC Commandment #1: Thou shalt not request ARCs based upon the Early Reviewer description alone.

Here is the description that was posted on LibraryThing:

Born with the face of an angel, Marget Barnardsen is blessed. Her father is a knight, and now she is to be married to the Earl of Lytham. Her destiny is guaranteed ... at least, it would seem so. But when her introduction to court goes awry and Queen Elizabeth despises her, Marget fears she's lost her husband forever. Desperate to win him back, she'll do whatever it takes to discover how she failed and capture again the love of a man bound to the queen.

This seemed to fit right in with one of my very, very guilty-pleasures: Tudor-romance, a la Philippa Gregory and The Tudors on Showtime. So I was ecstatic when I saw I would be receiving the book -- it was my top choice! Woo!

But then I Googled and found that I was actually going to be reading Christian fiction, which I normally would not have requested -- only because I worry about my ability to give an unbiased review.

I used to be a very prolific reader of Christian fiction and particularly enjoyed novels by Francine Rivers -- who seems to be in the same vein as Siri Mitchell. But, I haven't read any since my fairly recent departure from the faith and I'm not sure how it will read to me now. I truly do not want to let my religious views color a review of a book that I am sure will be excellent for the right crowd. Eek!

I'm just going to try my best to read it as a story... It will be an interesting exercise for atheist-me to read Christian fiction -- a genre once beloved by evangelical-me -- in any case!