Nobody has ever paid me for a review

This article was brought to my attention by author P.N. Elrod.  

Book Reviewers for Hire Meet a Demand for Online Raves 

www.nytimes.com 

I will state here for the record nobody has ever paid me for a review.  I have received books (mostly in electronic format with an expiration date) in return for a fair and honest review and I believe I have done my best to be un-biased.  I’ll admit that I usually volunteer for authors or genres I enjoy already.  So my reviews tend to be positive.  I am thrilled that Mr. Rutherford is out of business.  I hope this means that readers such as myself can continue to give our thoughts on a book without folks wondering if our opinion is paid for.  The best that I can suggest is find a reviewer such as myself or someone else who likes the same type of books as you do and compare how you felt about the book with how they felt about it.  Then you have a basis for comparison.  If they feel the same as you do trust their reviews to get you to the books you want to read.