I like to keep myself on the 'straight and narrow' with everything in my life, and this includes being on the right side of the FTC via the FTC DISCLAIMER! So, let me get the legalities out of the way right from the top:
In accordance with FTC guidelines for bloggers and endorsements, I would like to clarify that the books reviewed on my blog, Moonshine and Rosefire and elsewhere on the internet are provided by the publisher/author free of charge. I am neither compensated for my reviews nor are my opinions influenced in any way by the avenues through which I obtain my materials.
Now on to the 'good stuff'!
Hello everyone, it's very nice to meet you all. My name is Mary McGirr and I'm a relatively new blogger on the Internet. I'm originally from Derry in Northern Ireland but left when I was three-years-old and moved to England with my family (somewhere close to Lancashire) I'm an avid reader who will read just about anything (except M/M, BDSM, hardcore fetish, howto and cookbooks, epic fantasy and sci-fi, young adult and bodice-ripper type or paranormal romance). My primary genres that I like to read are Contemporary Fiction, Horror (please no zombies, vampires or werewolves-type horror) True Crime, Historical Fiction, Non-Fiction, Autobiographies, Biographies, some politics, Suspense and Mystery.
My daughter did a little scheming to get me to use the Internet actually. :) I truly only ever used email more than actually blogging - I left the blogging to my daughter Mareena.
She set up a book blog for herself and a year and a half later I learned of it. Mareena casually let it drop in conversation, "Oh mom, I'm actually blogging about books that I read, and so are you." :) I was honestly a little shocked at first, but was calmed somewhat when Mareena said that she had set the blog up under an alias Emeraldfire's Bookmark. She assured me that she was being safe online by giving me the alias of Rosefire.
As time went on, Mareena kept telling me all the nice things she was learning from the book blogging community. She told me all about new books that are out there and she handled my book reviews herself, Writing the synopsis and just asking me to give a star rating. She seemed to be having so much fun that it sparked my interest as well. What really sparked my interest was a comment from an author, Stephen B. Seager, M. D. thanking me for my review of one of his books. I was ecstatic; as was Mareena for me. She told me about her own email interactions with authors and how she had been wonderfully surprised by their attitude towards her as a book blogger.
That was what did it for me. I had to become a book blogger for myself. Not for the books that I could obtain, but for the interactions with truly good people that came through. Mareena now has been blogging at Emeraldfire's Bookmark for about five years and I have been blogging for about four years. Now, it's time for me to take baby steps of my own into the 'blogging world' and I can only hope that the people that read this are gentle to this blogger. Please be constructive in your criticism as I will be with mine. :)
I currently obtain my books from four main sources: Bookmooch, Paperback Swap, Library Book Sales and Barnes and Noble. I will post my reviews on this blog, Shelfari, Goodreads, LibraryThing and Amazon where applicable. All books are from my personal collection (which is extensive) and when possible, bought and paid for with my own money. :)
My average turnaround time when writing my book reviews is between three to five days and I generally post two or three reviews a week. I prefer reading hardcovers and paperbacks, although I do occasionally read Kindle ebooks when my daughter Mareena lends me her Kindle to read from.
All reviews are honest and fair impressions of what I read and range from A+! to F! Very rarely will I give an F! to a book (only one so far) and I generally range from A+! to B+! in my ratings. If you would like to contact me, please email me at moonshineandrosefire(at)gmail.com; moonshineandrosefire(at)mail.com or leave a comment on this blog.
Enjoy your reading and please feel free to follow me but only if you want to. :) Oh if you're curious about the title of my blog, I wasn't talking about illegal 'moonshine' (I'm a tea-totaler) I was talking about the moon shining down because I like to read at night :)
