Mrs. Giggles, that notoriously tough and snarky reviewer of romance novels, gave Waiting For Spring an 82. This is a good thing (even though WFS isn’t actually a romance novel.) Highlights:
“Brian LaChance…has his problems and no, it’s not due to people making fun of his last name.”
“Despite the fragmented harshness of the story, there are truly heartbreakingly beautiful scenes of romance and tenderness between Tess and Brian.”
“Waiting For Spring contains a harsh kind of beauty in the prose and there is a heartbreaking poetry in the whole tale, all of which I find appealing.” 😀
Naturally, I’m only posting the postive stuff. To find out what she didn’t like, you’ll have to go read the review. Ha!
R.J. Keller 
That was nice I guess. It sounds like she was expecting a different kind of book than what she got. Why did you send it to a romance reviewer?
Actually I didn’t send it to her to review. She must have found it on one of the free ebooks sites that list it as a romance novel.
I thought it was a great review! 82? That rocks! I wish I had gotten an 82 in my first semester of Bio 1, let me tell you!
What do you have against romance novels? I’M SO TIRED OF LITERARY SNOBBERY!!!!!!!
Me too, Robin! I’m pretty psyched about it. I’m happy MoJo told me about it, or I never would have known. 🙂
Mary, I have nothing against the romance genre, and there’s nothing in my post or comments to suggest that I do. I have been, and still am, surprised when I see Waiting For Spring listed as a romance novel because it isn’t one. Period. Just like it isn’t a sci fi/ fantasy.
I’m sorry you’ve encountered “literary snobbery” during your online travels, but you should bitch about where you find it…not here.
And here I thought getting Giggled was a euphamism…
Anways, congratulations on getting another good review. An 82 doesn’t sound bad at all.
Yeah, I also thought that was a good one. She only has some problems with the plot. Not a big issue.
I just finished reading a copy of “Waiting For Spring” that I found at http://readersandwritersblog.com/ under their fiction section.
I can see why some might classify it as a romance novel, but however you classify it – I loved it.
I loved how the beginning started – it was a disjointed feeling, almost … I don’t want to offend you and say ‘amateurish’, but that kinda how it is portrayed, and … with good reason, once you read it. It reads in some places, as a diary or a recounting of events, rather than just a “this happens here, why, and when and it has to go in this order”. You know – cookie cutter structure. It felt like it had a written structure that worked because of how the main character is at the beginning versus the end. I don’t want to give away anything about the book itself, so I won’t go into more detail.
There were places I laughed (extinct monkeys in the Congo… lol), places I teared up, and places I flat out cried. You can really feel what is going on – and that makes it great. The plot SEEMS like it’s all over, but if you really sit there and think about it, then link everything together on how it reflects through the events & characters, it fits exactly how it was meant to fit.
Thanks so much for popping in with that. You made my day! Yes, I wrote and edited Waiting For Spring very deliberately, everything from when certain events were revealed to the various styles of narration. And I’m very happy that you liked the hippie chimps. (FYI: They’re real…Bonobo chimps. Gotta love ’em.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonobo
I’m glad to know where you read the book. Sid Leavitt has been very kind to me, and to other authors, by giving us a forum for our work. Even though his blog is on what I hope is a temporary hiatus, I STRONGLY recommend his place for finding good reads.