Fresh Fiction Reviewer Profile | Make Kay

Here at Fresh Fiction, we love book chat, and we have a lot of reviewers with fierce opinions about the authors, characters, and books they love (and about the things that drive them crazy). This is one in a series of reviewer profiles. Hopefully, these will give other readers ideas about what books to add to their TBR lists, as well as spark some conversations.

What qualities make a book super satisfying for you – characters, dialogue, setting, mood? Does it depend on what genre the book is? Any examples?

I adore urban fiction and paranormal books, especially paranormal romance books.  I also really enjoy historical fiction, especially historical mysteries, and historical romance.  I find that I am more willing to give leeway to characters in historical settings than I am in contemporary or futuristic settings, which is intriguing to me.  I still haven't figured out why, but it's fun to ponder why that might be.  I guess its easier to put myself in the shoes of a contemporary character?

I really like kick butt heroines.  Seeing women be uber competent and take charge is super satisfying to me, as a counterpoint to the patriarchal society we are challenged to try to live in.

I enjoy snarky characters and snappy dialogue.  Julie Anne Long and Julie James both provide some fabulous snappy dialogue that makes me gobble up their books.

Are you a reader who has favorite “re-reads”? If so, what makes a book a re-read for you?

I have lots of favorite re-reads!  There are multiple series that I re-read every year.  Sometimes I will do a re-read if I'm in a reading slump, or if I need some "comfort reads", or if none of the books I have on hold at the library are available yet.  I always max out the number of holds I am allowed at the library on my card and on my spouse's.  I'm a natural speed reader, which can be a challenge in some ways!

My favorite series to re-read are Patricia Briggs, both her Mercy Thomspon and Alpha and Omega series.  The Anne Bishop Others series.  And everything from Ilona Andrews.  Paranormal urban fantasy books are the ones I am most likely to return to again and again.

I've been a re-reader my whole life, starting as a child with Little Women by Louisa May Alcott and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, which I read yearly for over 2 decades.

What makes a good character for you? Some readers must “like” or find a character likable in order for them to enjoy a character. Some don’t feel a character has to be likable to be interesting. What about you? Favorites?

I don't have to like a character to enjoy the book.  An example would be Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid.  Every single member of that band was an unlikeable disaster, but the book was so compelling!  Or Loving Frank by Nancy Horan - my goodness, Frank Lloyd Wright was an absolute ass, but a fascinating man.

My favorite characters from fiction, however, are all characters that I love.  If I can't identify with a character's traits, it can be hard for me to be invested in them long term.

Favorite villains?

I am delighted by anti-heroes.  I always enjoyed Professor Snape even before I knew his backstory.  Hugh d'Ambray in the Ilona Andrews' Kate Daniels series is a marvelous villain- highly competent and sinisterly attractive.  So often villains are buffoonish, so I relish a skillful villain.

Any books you took a chance on, that you otherwise might not have normally read, but turned out to be amazing?

I am not a big horror fan, but T. Kingfisher has a breathtakingly good re-telling of Edgar Allen Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher.  It's called What Moves the Dead.  It is highly creepy, but despite the chilling story it has dry humor and kept me chuckling through the whole book.  Her writing is so lyrical, and it's my favorite book of 2022 thus far.  I've been recommending it to everyone I know.

Has a book ever made you cry? If so, did you still enjoy the story?

Oh yes, lots of books make me cry.  It can be very cathartic to have a good cry from a book!  Oftentimes it's my book club books that make me cry, because my usual reading fare of urban fantasy and mysteries don't have a lot of tugging on the heartstrings.  I'm not typically a fan of books that make me teary, however.  I will often get so caught up in a book that I start to feel the emotions that the characters have, which can be a challenge for my spouse when I am reading a book with a feuding couple.  I read my books for escape, not to make my emotional landscape more rocky!

Are there any supporting characters you wish an author would devote an entire book to?

Most of the time, I am in favor of the trend to write novellas with the secondary characters, such as Patricia Briggs or Thea Harrison do.

How do you feel about an author killing off a favorite character, or one you felt invested in?

I don't mind characters dying if it advances the story, even if it's someone I'm invested in.  It makes me sorrowful, sure, but it can make it more interesting for the story as a whole if an important character to the plot is killed.

Without naming names (specific authors or titles), what are some things you dislike in stories?

I dislike characters who are too stupid to live.  I'm not very forgiving of someone who makes poor choices consistently or won't learn from their mistakes.

I also hate factual errors by authors.  Medical mistakes drive me nuts, and will often drive me to DNF (Do Not Finish) a book.

Make Kay is a Senior Reviewer at Fresh Fiction. You can find more of her articles and reviews here.