Welcome to Bayside Book Reviews. I’m so glad you stopped by.

My name is Adele Downs and I’m the owner of this blog. I’ve been a book lover and avid reader all my life. I’ve also been published in the romance genre for nearly 20 years and was a journalist, newspaper columnist, and magazine freelancer before I turned to fiction.

I’ve learned a few things about the publishing industry during my lifetime and understand the elements of story construction. As a blogger, I think it’s important to know storytelling structure when looking critically at another author’s work. It’s not enough to say “I liked this book” or “This book wasn’t for me.” We need to know why a book worked or why it didn’t.

When I started reviewing novels on NetGalley as a hobby after I moved to the beach in my semi-retirement, it came as a pleasant surprise that I enjoyed the process more than I expected. I posted my reviews on the NetGalley site, Goodreads, Amazon, and occasionally on my author blog at AdeleDowns.Wordpress.com/

Everything changed when publishers started quoting sentences from my reviews on their promotions pages. In response, NetGalley awarded me a Top Reviewer icon.

That little icon got me thinking about reviewing books full time. After all, I live at the beach and always have a book at hand. What could be a more natural transition from writing books to writing about books? After writing more than 25 novels, novellas, short stories and hundreds of articles, I was ready for a challenge that required less author angst and more time in a lounge chair on the sand. Reading a book with one hand while holding a margarita in the other seemed like the perfect job.

Of course, some books that resonate with me might not resonate with you. Opinions aren’t facts. However, I base my opinions not only on taste, but on the knowledge of story structure and the elements of good writing. Hopefully, based on my observations, you’ll find lots of great books to read that will bring you hours of entertainment.

At Bayside Book Reviews you’ll find novels that made the cut with four or five stars. (Four Sand Dollars or Five Starfish). Of all the books I read, only the best books with the best reviews will be included. I might occasionally post a three star review, but only if the book had an outstanding element that couldn’t be overlooked, though the rest of the story didn’t work as well.

So there you have it. My publishing life story pared down to paragraphs. I hope you enjoy the books reviewed here and will visit Bayside Book Reviews often.

Wishing us all sunny weather!
~Adele