My Rebuttal...
So I've gotten more good reviews than bad. Example:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A New Fan!! I cannot say enough about this story. I was pulled in from the first page and read both stories in one day. It was that good. Twyla Turner bravo to you. I don't know why it took me so long to find these books, but now I've purchased everything with your name on it.
Madison AKA Sonny is a character that I really relate to.. her sense of humor, her insecurities and her love for life. Finally a heroine that isn't weak, but has vulnerability. And Gabriel! I mean what can you say? Don't we all want a man like that. He's my dream put to paper. Their chemistry jumps off the page.
Overall, I cried, I laughed, I smiled and got a LOT hot under the color reading this story. Don't think, just click the buy button. You won't regret it.
I love this review! So sweet and had me grinning from ear to ear! Now, I don't want people to read this blog post and feel that they can't leave reviews on my novels if they don't like them. But I wish I could leave remarks as to why I write the way that I do on the sites where they leave these reviews, so that these readers can understand where I'm coming from. So I decided to write my response here. So here is the review I want to respond to (The highlighted parts are what I want to discuss:
Sunny, is short and overweight. She has a beautiful face and smile. She's also smart, intelligent and witty. And she's a breath of fresh air to everyone that gets to know her, but she's insecure about her weight. Gabe is a superstar actor, tall, fine, sweet, well built, protective, great in bed and has enough in his pants to 'feed the needy'. He sees Sunny and falls for her immediately. Within a few days they fall in love. Sigh...and this is part of the reason this book is okay to me. If you've ever been madly in love it takes more than a few days to occur. It's infatuation at first, lust and other things but head over heels in love with someone you've only spent a few hours with is unrealistic. Authors please stop this mess!
Anyway, Sunny is adorable and Gabe is equally so. Soon the press and others get wind of their relationship and Sunny becomes self conscious at every turn about how she could be with Gabe. She questions their staying power even after Gabe tells and shows her he's committed to her time and time again.
***Spoilers Below 👇👇👇***
An accident happens. Sunny can't deal with the constant press and people questioning why Gabe wants her. She ends things and the book ends.
Here's the other reason I say the book was okay for me: Sunny has real insecurity problems. It was annoying. Gabe was constantly at the ready to make love to her, which means he's obviously attracted to her. He helped her career as a writer. He beat up a man that spoke bad about her. He brought her to his job and made others know he wanted her in public. However, she couldn't get over her weight insecurities to accept that this hunk of a mega star millionaire wanted her, so she ended their relationship. At that point I wanted him to move on. I really liked Sunny's character but she needed a back bone to deal with the media. Time and time again she read negative press clippings and links about her and Gabe. That made no sense. You're already insecure, so why torture yourself. And why leave a man you love, who is a beast in bed and who loves you because of what other's think?! He's perfect, accept it and get over yourself and be happy. And...end of rant.
So apparently this reader is not overweight, because if she was she'd understand that it is not something that you can get over easily. And if you're a curvy girl dating a mega movie star, do you really think that you're going to not have some major insecurities? And it's called CONFLICT!!! Every book needs to have it or it's boring as F***!
Next, I want to address the issue of falling in love so quickly. And by her statement "Authors please stop this mess!", I'm assuming I'm not the only one doing it. Well here's the reason for love so quickly in a novel. I'm not writing some epic story like Outlander (which is amazing), if the author wants to write an 800-1200 page book, then taking our time with the characters falling in love makes sense. But I personally don't have time for all that!!! They have to fall in love quickly to get to the crux of the story.
And finally, has this reader ever been scrutinized by the media? Being made fun of by the whole world? Being filmed or photographed absolutely everywhere she goes? Well neither have I, but I can only imagine the type of damage that can do to one's self-esteem and psyche. Especially for someone that is already battling insecurities. And Sunny didn't read the bad things the media said time and time again. It was only a few times and most were by accident.
Anyway, I just wanted to get it out. Often as authors we have to sit back and quietly let the negative reviews and comments roll off of our backs. And everyone is entitled to an opinion. But it is nice to get it out every now and again. And...end of rant.
