I heart book bloggers

In the coming weeks and months, I'll be doing interviews with some of the fabulous book bloggers out there.

First up, my pal Vanessa. You may remember Vanessa who helped me with a vlog to celebrate the release of FAR FROM YOU.

1. First of all, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you came to be a reviewer of YA books? My name is Vanessa. I live in south Florida. I'm almost sixteen. I'm your average girl (except for my addiction to books), I hang out with friends, listen to music, and aspire to do great in school. I started reviewing for myself. For about nine months the blog was unknown. Then I started another blog (http://whatvanessareads.wordpress.com/ ) and started making contacts with other (awesome) book reviewers which led me to exposure and the courage to contact authors like you!

Note from Lisa: I'm so glad you did!

2. What are your favorite and least favorite parts of being a reviewer? My favorite parts include getting my opinion out there, making friends that have the same interest in reading, and meeting super cool authors like you, for example. The free review copies don't hurt. I dislike sitting down and typing up a review, making it flow and sound like a story, especially if I have a lot to say. I think that's why I do VLOGs (http://youtube.com/vanessathebutterfly) or podcasts.

Note from Lisa: I'm super cool? Wow, thanks!

3. What's your process of writing a review? How do you handle it if you have more things you don't like than you like? I normally sit down on my bed and write bullet points of what I liked and didn't like on paper. After I finish writing everything, I look over the amount of good things and bad things and decide on a grade or rating. When there's more things I don't like I do write about them. However, if around 70% of the review is negative I normally don't review the book. (If you really think about it, I won't finish a book that's that bad, so I barely do these bashing reviews.)

4. Have you ever had an author write to you, upset about a review? Thankfully I haven't. I think this is so because overall in my reviews I don't say I just despised the book.... I explain my reasoning. To me every book has at least one miniscule flaw... I have yet to read a perfect book.

Note from Lisa: No perfect book? Okay everyone, hurry and try write that. Vanessa is waiting!

5. I'm curious if you finish all the books you start. Do you comment on your blog about a book that you don't finish? Not most of the time. I don't really like telling people they shouldn't read a book just because I disliked it... who knows? Maybe they'll love it. I normally tweet (http://twitter.com/vanessacaterina) about not liking a book as I'm reading it.

Note from Lisa: I'm starting to feel like I'm the only one left in the world who doesn't tweet.

6. How many books would you say you read, on average, per month? Where do the majority of those books come from? Per month it's usually around 5 (in the summer it's more, obviously!). Sadly lately I haven't read that much. Most of my books come from contests, review copies, and about every six months my mom takes me to the local book store to buy about 15 books (yeah, I know, she's awesome like that), and sometimes I do pitch in my own money. That's enough for me to survive, haha.

7. What's one interesting thing about you that not many people know? I've been wanting to start a collab channel on Youtube like fiveawesomegirls or vlogbrothers to get to know other book lovers better for a really long time! This all however, came into place when Sarah from Sarah's Random Musings contacted me about starting one. We started today (March 9th)! We talk about our lives, books, and other random things. We'd love it if you checked us out and subscribed at http://youtube.com/user/Sevenbookbabes . There's many book bloggers taking part in this. :)

Note from Lisa: How exciting!

8. If you were going to order a dozen cupcakes, what flavor would you get and who would you share them with? Vanilla. Yes, just plain old vanilla. I'm classic like that... haha. I would share them with my mom, dad, stepmom, 12-year-old brother Robert, 22-month-old brother Junior, my friends who always put up with me: Danny, Hayley, Pablo, Connor, Ryan, Paul, and Fatima. <3

9. What books are you especially looking forward to in the coming months? Willow by Julia Hoban, Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen, You've Got Blackmail by Rachel Wright, One Lonely Degree by C.K Kelley Martin, Something, Maybe by Elizabeth Scott... among others.

10. If someone wants to send you a book to review, how can he/she contact you? I'd love to review your book! You can contact me through e-mail at whatvanessareads (at) gmail.com. I normally reply within a day or less.

I enjoyed thinking up answers for this interview since the questions weren't easy and typical. Thanks so much Lisa!

Thank you for being here! It was fun getting to know you better!