More urban fantasy

[jmc_bks]

 Since I'm stuck like a record (for those of you old enough to remember records), I'll post again about reader expectations.  Labeling and marketing make such a HUGE difference.

I borrowed Ilona Andrews' Magic Bites from the library.  Thank you, Ace Publishing, for labeling this book as a fantasy; thank you, BCPL, for categorizing and shelving it as such; thank you, Borders, for shelving it in the SFF section (even though I haven't bought a copy).  There are things I liked about the book and things that I thought could've been improved.  But the big thing for me is that my expectations were met.  Because this was not labeled, shelved or marketed as a genre romance novel, I wasn't expecting Kate to meet a love interest; I wasn't expecting any sort of hints about a Happy For Now or Maybe Happy Some Day; I expected magic and vampires and beasts and suspense with some mystery tossed into the mix.  And the adventure, the character development, etc., all worked as I expected them to, which means I had a happy reading experience.  Which is all a reader (well, maybe just this reader) can ask for.

(Note -- expectation =/= anticipation.  I did not anticipate the bad guy being who he was or how Kate et al. would get to the bottom of the mystery.)
 

Comments

[ilona-andrews.livejournal.com]

Yay!