I believe there's a saying among writers, "Never complain, never explain." :) Thanks for reading my book and enjoying it to the extent you did.

See - and my review will reflect this - I did enjoy your book. It is just this specific genre of YA titles that seems to test the limits of adult reviewers the most, I think. It's easy to escape into an adventure and mystery regardless of the age of your protagonist, but to crawl inside the head of a pregnant teenager? Not so easy - not easy for an adult to read and I'm sure not easy for an adult to write.

Your book, and the others in this column, are all purely and totally for teen readers. And adult reviewers are just going to have to wrap their heads around that. (Which does not mean for a minute that adults can't enjoy them - it just means we aren't going to get nearly as much out of them as teen readers will.)

I really do appreciate that you read it. And I hope teen readers don't think I'm trying to scare them off sex - or that I'm encouraging them to go out and have some right this minute! - neither of which is the point of the book.

Thanks for an interesting discussion, Colleen and Lauren. I was especially interested, because both of the reviews that you cited were by Cybils Young Adult Fiction committee members, and this is definitely something for us all to keep in mind in the awards process. Thanks!

Colleen, isn't Laura a regular commenter on your blog here? Does that make any difference in your reviews or what you say about her work? I ask because I wonder about these issues myself. I have a blog, and write about news, items of interest, and occasionally review books.

If I "know" someone, even if it's only through the I'net, I'd have to disqualify myself (from reviewing his book) if I were writing for, say, a newspaper. (But then again I've seen people who know each other review for major publications.) On my blog, though, I do review books of people I know online. Interesting to think about...

Lauren has been a regular for a few weeks I think - maybe just over a month. It was back when I was writing about the chick lit vs not chick lit thing and she had just edited a chick lit anthology and so was right in the middle of it.

I would not review Lauren's book if I didn't like it - I wouldn't have said a thing about it, actually and I imagine she would have wondered if I read it and maybe emailed me and I would have just told her that it didn't work for me. (I've done this with other authors in the past.) I actually have corresponded with Laura Ruby (author of "Good Girls") as I have reviewed her two earlier books (she sent me this one directly) and Sara Zick has commented here (she wrote "Story of a Girl"). Heck- I got Aury's book ("Pop") because of Gwenda Bond who emailed and asked if I would review it - Gwenda and I email and comment all the time. (She's one of my links in the sidebar.)

At this point - I know a lot of folks! (I didn't realize how many in this column though!)

Bottom line, I'm pretty good at being able to read a book and honestly say that I like it or not and very good at just not reviewing it if I don't like it. And so far, no one has taken it personally. I think I was pretty honest about "Angel's Choice" here - my comments in the blog entry aren't exactly glowing because I did not love this book like, for example, I did a book I'm writing about right now, "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein. But again, I honestly think the reason I didn't love it was because I can't distance myself enough from the situation and Angel's response. I think I'm just too old to really and completely fall for a book on this subject. (And part of that is just me - I'm a cynic on the teen first love/sex issue and I can't change myself.) In fact, another author asked me about reading her book for the column after she read my blog entry and I just can't - I don't want to read any more books on this subject - I'm done with it for a while!

So - long answer to your short question! I do read books even knowing the authors. I just have to - I have interviewed and corresponded with so many at this point that I don't want to have to remove all of them from my potential review file. I just work really hard at judging the book and not the writer. And so far, so good.

Colleen, thanks for your thoughtful answer. I had remembered Lauren's name from the conversation about positive book reviews a while back. I asked because I wonder about these sorts of issues for my site, too, and I enjoy these conversations between blogs. (I saw the link to this discussion at Jen Robinson's.) I see what you mean about judging a book and not the author.

I feel like I should add though that if the author was a personal friend - someone more than a commenter on my blog, or someone I've emailed with, then I might refuse to review it. (Obviously if it was a relative.)

The funny thing is that I've become electronic/pen pal type friends with several authors after reviewing a book or two by them (Cecil Castellucci is an example) so I've already shown that I like that author's work, before I "knew" them. I think that helps to prove I'm honest as well.

Very interesting discussion, thanks for posting it. Reviewing YA books is often a challenge for the reviewers because I do think that all of us read through the lenses of what our own YA times were like, to a certain extent. What I read for, and what we are discussing as guidelines during the Cybil readings are things like voice, character development, etc. Things like 'did I like it or no?' are harder to pinpoint.

Though I'm not as close to the YA days as I could be, I'm not sure I wasn't or am not able to read YA novels about sex "right" because of my age. However, I do think the reminder to read with the age of the audience in mind is quite relevant, especially in relation to YA novels about sexuality and sexual behavior.

TadMack - thanks for stopping by!

As I said, you and Sara might just have legitimately not liked the book - that kind of thing is cool and fine and what reviewers do when they review. (And I mean you didn't "like" it for all the reasons about character, plot, etc you mention.) For me though it's the subject matter that makes these books tricky and I can't help but wonder that annoyance at how teenagers act might affect some adult readers. It's kind of like watching a movie aimed at a teen audience - adults can't stand it but the teens flock to the things in droves. (My own mother thought "The Breakfast Club" was silly, for me at the time it was a seminal moment in young adulthood.)

I just now saw these additional comments - I'm always late to the party!

I used to be a Publishers Weekly reviewer, to the tune of 292 reviews of adult fiction. I always said the trick for the reviewer in such a position was to discover not whether the reviewer herself liked the book but whether the intended audience would find it satisfying - not such an easy high wire to walk. I have noticed, though, with the book not even out yet for nearly another month, that Angel's Choice is already a polarizing book: some adult reviewers love it and some, well, not so much. Which is OK! The last thing I'd want is to write a book that got greeted with a tepid response.

As for my posting occasionally on Colleen's blog, well, I just really like it here. It's an intelligent and thoughtful place that leaves the snark at the door.

And finally, regarding bloggers reviewing authors they'd have contact with, I'm guessing that if we tried to eliminate that entitrely, particularly concerning the YA area where everyone is so collegial, there'd be not much left to review.

Collen does have a great spot here! And as soon as I finish reading a lot of non-fiction picture books, I'm going to have to pick up some more YA novels to read. Earlier this year I enjoyed Estrella Quinceanera and Monsoon Summer.

Thanks guys!