Funny Beta Reader Comments

My husband is one of my beta readers. He’s definitely not my target audience, and he’s not much into romance (says his eyes glaze over when I write about how somebody smells), but he is a fan of fantasy and has a BA in English, so he’s not the worst pick. While I do have other people beta reading for me who I trust, Husband can be brutally honest and his perception of certain things is often spot on, so he gets a crack at every book before they’re released.

That being said, this dude fucking hates Conrad from Vacancy. I acknowledge that there could be a likeability issue with the love interest from this series, he’s broody and self-absorbed, and not every hero is going to be to every reader’s taste, but, ya know:

Anyway, because of this hatred, and because he just likes messing around, he leaves me some humorous comments on the doc on occasion, so I thought I’d share some choice ones here.

This was one of the FIRST comments on the whole document. No request for clarification, not even a comment on something that ACTUALLY happened, just straight up judgement about how he hates this guy.

Husband doesn’t understand that the alalynx LIKES Conrad, so that makes him a GOOD GUY because pets always know.

Everybody Hates Conrad. And it’s important to note, Husband doesn’t hate him on anyone’s behalf, he doesn’t feel bad for Lorelei (he says she can probably do better but doesn’t care about her really), he just thinks the dude sucks. “Oh, your parents are dead? Boo hoo!” he says. “Get over it!”

Grier, on the other hand, he does like. Go figure. (But it makes a sort of sense–he has more sympathy for Grier’s situation and explained it pretty well and even asked for a Grier/Hana spin off, but when I explained that would potentially be very romantic, he changed his mind.)

I don’t know where that typo came from, but seriously, please be-a-careful. Also, don’t worry, we’re Italian, it’s not offensive.

If you made it this far, here’s a tiny bit of Insider knowledge for you. The Wayward Deed is coming out on May 19th! I’ll be making a bigger announcement soon, but now you know! I just have to write the blurb first, and that’s the worst part. Like, I don’t know, man, there’s more magic, some mystery, a little romance, cupids, witches, faeries, and human exasperation–what more do you want? Just buy it!