Stupid Girl by Cindy Miles Publisher: TKA Distribution on May 13, 2014
Genres: Contemporary, Contemporary Romance, New Adult, Romance
Pages: 332
Source: Blog Tour
Purchase: Amazon
Add to: Goodreads
Only fools fall in love…
After her senior year of high school leaves behind nothing but heartache, Olivia Beaumont is sure of this: She’s no stupid girl. She sets out for Winston College, promising herself that she will remain focused on her first and only love – astronomy. But all it takes is cocky sophomore Brax Jenkins and an accidental collision with a football, to throw her entire year off course.
A quick-tempered Southie who escaped the inner city streets of Boston to pitch for Winston, Brax is known to play way more fields than just the baseball diamond. So, when his name is drawn to take part in his fraternity’s hazing dare, Brax eagerly accepts the mission to take Olivia’s virginity. But he doesn’t plan on falling hard for the sweet and sassy Texas girl who sees right through his bad-boy persona.
As Olivia and Brax battle their feelings for each other, echoes of the past year begin to surface. A boy who once turned Olivia’s whole world upside down reappears, and “harmless” pranks wreak havoc. Pretty soon the aspiring astronomer is on the verge of revealing her most difficult, heartbreaking secret. All the while, Brax must wrestle with the irrevocable dare, and Olivia struggles against all logic as she does the one thing only a stupid girl would do: fall in love.
Guest Post
How I Handle Negative Reviews
by Cindy Miles
Freedom of speech. Freedom of the press. Everyone has their own opinion. It’s part of what makes this world go around! When you’re a writer, or an actor, or an entertainer of any sort, you will expect reviews. Good ones. Bad ones. Helpful ones. Hateful ones. No one escapes it. At the same time, no matter how long you’ve been in the business, the bad ones sting. You just can’t help it. For writers, you’re creating something. Kind of like giving birth. Having a baby, so to speak. You feel very protective over that baby. At the same time, you have to set that sting aside and make use of the tools a bad review has handed you. Whether you like it or not, you never stop learning. Ever. So when I read reviews good and bad, I try to take something useful away from them to apply to my next book. For instance, in Stupid Girl, the hero’s South Boston accent. 🙂 I’d say about 50% loved to “hear” me describe it. The other 50% couldn’t stand it another second! I mean it absolutely drove them nuts. So what I took from that was that next time I write an accent, go easy on it. Yes, I particularly LOVE the Boston accent. And my heroine loved it, too, and I wanted to convey that. So to some, it was too much. And next time I’ll tone it down a bit. 🙂 Because I’m conscious of the other 50% of the readers whom it annoyed, LOL. A writer can get a lot of useful info from a negative review, and I do. Now, there is a difference between a constructive negative review and a, say, Jerry Springer-type, no class and full of hate (for why, I don’t know) review and I’ve had some of those too. Those reviews are usually just purely the reader’s opinion—that they hated the book. There’s usually no helpful criticism involved, just a rant, and with those a writer just simply has to chalk it up to freedom of speech, everyone has an opinion, and let it go. Just take what useful tidbits you can to help you craft a better story next time!
About Cindy Miles
National bestselling author Cindy Miles writes edgy romance, ranging from contemporary love stories to sexy paranormals. A native of southern coastal Georgia, she loves reading (naturally), baking swoon-worthy desserts, traveling abroad, yoga, and classic rock. The cover for her upcoming New Adult romance, STUPID GIRL, was featured on USA Today’s Happily Ever After blog. In the novel, a volatile mix of bad boys, sassy smart girls, dark secrets, and red-hot romance add up to one wild ride through college.
Giveaway
This was a tour wide giveaway.
Chanzie @ Mean Who You Are
Great post and advice! The negative side of publishing a book does stress me out a little bit. I absolutely love the cover of this book 🙂
Jennifer Bielman
I thought it was a great guest post too!
Giselle
It would be so hard for me to read bad reviews if I was a writer. I don’t think I’d handle it very well really lol. And I’m the kind of person who could not NOT read them, too >.< I am curious about the Boston accent now. I'm terrible and knowing what accents are from where but I love a guy with any sort of accent 😉
Jennifer Bielman
Accents in a book are so interesting when an author pulls it off. I can totally imagine the accent in my head.
It would be hard to read bad reviews for me too.
Julie
Great post! It is great to hear authors taking negative reviews well and just moving on. There’s enough drama out there already surrounding how people take negative reviews.
Jennifer Bielman
I agree, no point in spreading the negativity.
braine
That’s a great way of looking at it! You have to learn how to cancel the BS to get to the constructive part. I’m glad that she takes the bad feedback into consideration though and doesn’t stubbornly stick to her ways
Jennifer Bielman
I agree, every author should take bad reviews as constructive criticism. Maybe it will help them improve their book next time.
braine
I love that she takes the time to wade thru the BS & find the constructive part of the criticism. Not all authors do that, most of them think they know better than their readers on certain things.
Jaclyn Canada
My son just started Drama, and we had this discussion about how artists of every flavor have to deal with so much criticism. I think your take on it is excellent. If there is something useful there that you can take, then you absolutely should. The rants mostly have to be blessed and released. Excellent post!
Jennifer Bielman
LOL, I agree about the rants. I may rant once or twice about certain books and I totally expect the author to ignore it because I am just letting off steam. Not all reviews should be taken seriously.