Thursday, May 16, 2013

Really confused...hoping someone can enlighten me

So evidently mentioning reading other authors bad reviews made my first one appear on amazon.com today. The really bad thing is that it is perplexing me to no end. This is what the reviewer wrote.

this book was cute except that i read it already from keri arthur and the riley jenson series.same name of vamp and the same as the wolf! couldnt even bother to get new names. an agency where she kills rogues and then tries to escape? love triangle with 2 mates ? so plagiarized . so sad bc she writes well

I have heard never to reply directly to a bad review, or any review for that matter, so I am not going to ask for more clarification, but I am having trouble finding the facts to back up the review. By the same name of vamp and wolf, in my mind that would mean she is referring to Sebastian and Alex because they are the main vampire and wolf in my book. I read the series in question a couple of years ago, and frankly don't really remember what happened in it, but searching through my copies I am not finding Sebastian or Alex's name mentioned. I found Alex Hunter I think in one of the books and that was a girl.

I know I picked my names at random because they felt right to me while I was writing and I really think the world I have built is different from any of the other worlds I have read about. Yes, I am sure there are basic concepts in my books that are like others, but to say I copied the whole book from another source is a little bit much.

I guess I am just curious if anyone else has read that series and can shed some light on things for me. Things I remember from reading the synopsis really quick is that Riley was a werewolf/vampire hybrid and for sure had a werewolf mate, maybe she had a vampire one too, but I only saw a mention of a vampire lover, neither of those two were named Sebastian or Alex, or any other names I have in my books. Even in the first Nyx book, which this review was on, it is revealed that Nyx is more than human, but there are many pieces to that.

So to sum things up, I am really confused. Oh wait, the title of the post already said that. Plagiarizing is illegal last I checked and to be accused of it has me questioning a lot of things. I am not rushing to pull down my books because I really do think they are different, but there is a part of me that kind of wants to throw in the towel because of the claim. Great. Now I am all depressed instead of just being confused. Oh well.

2 comments:

  1. Don't worry about, my step-daughter and I are reading buddies, and we both have read and enjoyed your stories. The vampire-werewolf hybrid thing is pretty common, but I don't recall any stories with her full lineage! ;-) Due the nature of the genre, there are going to be similar themes, but I believe your stories are original enough to stand on their own.

    And I damn sure have never have never seen any other Phoenix stories.

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    1. Thanks so much for reading, Chris, and for commenting. I knew when my mind started coming up with ideas for the book that the genre has pretty well been saturated with about everything imaginable, hence me throwing in some extra DNA here and there and adding some crazy twists wherever my mind can think of them. After letting the review simmer in my mind for a couple of days, and hearing from readers like you, I have decided to only look at the positive parts of the review.

      I do like that Avery's books are out there as far as what the characters end up being. I am really happy that I went through a phoenix phase last year. Phoenix stories, homemade phoenix accessories for my motorcycle and a phoenix birthday cake all made appearances. Since there aren't a lot of other stories out there about them I can make everything just how I want it. I do that with any of my stories to begin with, but it is even more fun when you don't have any previous ideas on how a species should act or what powers they have.

      This ended up being a really long winded thank you for your support reply. I love hearing from readers and I apparently love torturing them with my rambling thoughts.

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