Imitation is the Sincerest Form of…Theft
Have you ever had your home broken into? Even if no one is hurt and nothing is damaged, that feeling of violation remains. What if someone copies your work, puts her name on it and turns it in as her own? Pretty outrageous, huh? Ever since an observant author notified us last week that another romance site called Ramblings on Romance (a new blog, NOT to be confused with the blog of the same name authored by the lovely Kristie(J), who is innocent in all this) has rather blatantly copied material from All About Romance, our feelings have run the gamut from anger to pity to disgust over having been ripped off.
The author of this blog is a plagiarist. She claims to read and review romance novels, but many of her “reviews” are actually excerpts from reviews here at AAR – copied without our permission and without attribution to the authors or the site. This plagiarism was brought to our attention by an author who saw these reviews on the blog and recognized them as reviews she had read at AAR. When she notified me of this last week, I checked the blog against our reviews and found that almost every review on that blog was ours.
I decided to give Bonnie Blumel, the reported owner of the blog who styles herself “Queen of Romance”, a chance to explain herself. So, I sent her an email stating among other things that, “Having read your entire blog, it is readily apparent that the vast majority of your content consists of sections…which you have cut and pasted onto your own page.” I went on to point out to the blogger that she had plagiarized our original material and that she needed to remove it from her site right away.
I gave her until Saturday, April 17, 2010 to remove our material from her site. To date, I still have received no direct reply to my email from anyone affiliated with the blog. The blogger’s only response was simply to alter the front page of her own site and to replace our reviews with awkwardly worded summaries of those same reviews. For instance, the blogger’s review of Lady Sophia’s Lover was initially lifted from our 2002 review which you will find here and which appeared like this on Queen of Romance’s blog last week:
Following my email to the blog’s owner, the review of Lady Sophia’s Lover that appears on her blog is no longer primarily a word for word copy as I found there last week, but the review entry which remains on the blog reads like a summary of what Sandy Coleman originally wrote. For instance, the original copied Sandy Coleman’s almost exactly, including Sandy’s statement, “But, despite their differences, all of them share one very important quality – the ability to both touch the heart and stimulate the senses. And boy, can they stimulate the senses.” That has now been changed to, “But, despite their differences, all of them share one very important quality – the ability to both touch the heart and stimulate the senses. And, I truly have my senses stimulated with every book that Lisa Kleypas Writes.” Not exactly a sweeping edit.
Once readers venture beyond the first screen of the blog, they can still find outright copying of All About Romance reviews. For example, the review of Mary Reed McCall’s The Crimson Lady which the blogger passes off as her own contains several paragraphs of language lifted directly from our review of the book. Paragraphs 1-5 of the blog review correspond exactly with paragraphs 2-6 of Jane Jorgenson’s review on AAR, down to the use of italicized bold lettering for emphasis at the same two points Jorgenson emphasized in her original back in 2003. And while the conclusory paragraph does not track Jane’s original word for word, it does paraphrase it closely.
By way of another example, check out the “Queen of Romance”‘s review of Gone Too Far by Suzanne Brockmann. Sandy Coleman originally reviewed this book in 2003. The blog put up what the owner passes off as her own review on March 8, 2010. As one can tell from the way that review appears, paragraphs 1-5 match paragraphs 3-7 of the AAR review word for word. And while parts of the last paragraph appear to be original, our blogger drifted right back to her unauthorized borrowing from Sandy’s hard work when she called the book “easily Ms. Brockmann’s crowning achievement.”
The plagiarism doesn’t even stop with reviews. The “Queen of Romance” copied our sensuality rating system when posting her own ratings guidelines. To be fair, I noticed that after I sent my email last week, the Queen of Romance did at least acknowledge that she’d gotten her sensuality ratings from All About Romance. How nice.
We all put a lot of very hard work into this site and volunteer long hours just to keep the lights on. We do it because we love romance books, and we appreciate the authors and publishers who bring us the books that we love to read. Having someone steal that work feels like a violation to us and we feel quite upset that someone would do this to us without acknowledgement, explanation, or apology. The members of the romance community who share their stories and thoughts with the world get my respect for doing their own work even if I don’t always agree with everything they say, but Bonnie Blumel, the “Queen of Romance”? What she has done inspires no respect from me.
– Lynn Spencer
P.S. Please note that in this blog piece I reference the status of Ramblings on Romance as it appeared last week as well as how it appeared last night when I wrote this piece. The blogger may change her site at any time, but I do have enlargable screen shots of the reviews I discuss here that I can forward by email to interested readers upon request.
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My mistake. I bookmarked a page with a “”lifted”” review and that page has obviously been deleted. She is probably trying to clean up her site before posting again. ;0)
The site is still showing, as far as I can tell. She has deleted at least some pages, however. At one point she had reviews posted for three of my books (lifted from AAR reviews, as noted in Lynn’s blog). Now only one is posted, and it’s been changed to her “”own”” writing.
I notice that no new blog posts have been added since 4/18, however.
I see the site has been taken down. Is there an update on what transpired?
I think society is becoming very lax about morality and cheating. I’m sorry this happened to you ladies and I think your reaction was very appropriate. I can’t believe that site is still up and I would hope you would have some legal recourse against the thief.
Having said that I have to rant about two things that drove me nuts reading these posts. First off I would be very happy if I never hear/read “”put on your big girl panites”” again. Arrrgghhh! God, I hate that. I want smack the person who coined that phrase.
Secondly, without discounting the seriousness of plagiarism or the pain it causes the victim, I resent anyone comparing it to rape and that Nora Roberts does so ticks me off.
Since I’ve posted my remarks regarding this issue earlier on, I’m not going to mention them again here. I will say that word-for-word stealing by someone in the public view from another in the public view for any sort of personal gain, without crediting the original sources, is totally against what I believe.
And, even though I feel that this is the correct and moral way to feel regarding this issue, AAR readers and staff always welcome differing viewpoints. I also felt that AAR did a good job in how they initially handled it, quite tactfully, without resorting to last measures, yet. In every discussion, there will never be 100 percent agreement. What we do object to is being labeled rudely and told in no uncertain terms that our opinions suck. So, my comments to the dissenting poster is not what you said, but how you said it. You certainly have the right to your POV, but not at the personal expense of the other posters who disagree.
When someone replies to a post of mine with comments like, “”put on your big girl pants”” and “”men don’t ‘bleet'”” I automatically wonder just what was it in my post that set someone off? Obviously I hit a nerve and since my original post dealt with legalities, I think it is safe to assume that at some level, legal issues troubled the poster. Therefore the diatribe was designed to distract the discussion from the fact that plagiarism is in fact THEFT, by attempting to make the issue a trivial one. Thankfully, I am a big girl and comments such as those tend to roll off of my back. It is kind of like what my mother told me when I was younger: When people resort to name calling in an argument, it is because they have used up anything of substance to refute you with, but refuse to concede the point. It in fact signals your victory of the debate…and it is much easier to win a debate when you are in the right.
I hope Cindy takes her own advice and doesn’t come back. LOL
It’s obvious that she has probably plagarized in the past or knows the blog “”Queen”” in question since hers is the only dissenting opinion and she doesn’t see what the big deal (or drama) is all about. Thanks Cindy for getting us lurkers to post…;o)
Ok, I never leave comments either but this topic caught my attention the day it showed and I have followed it since. I have to write a LOT of papers in college and plagarism is the one thing that can automatically get us kicked out of school. (That and cheating) But I have to say that this board, with this particular topic, was not hostile at all until a few days ago when someone accused others of whining! I have gone back through and I have yet to see it. These ladies were violated. Apparently the gravity of the situation has not hit home with Cindy. And I agree with MarySkl about protesting a little too much…
I will never understand people who have to post on something just to start some crap! If the person doesn’t like it, move on!
Really, Cindy, can you be any more narrow minded? I read AAR every day, but rarely post, even on important issues like plagiarism.
Using your logic, newspapers are full of whining, not news, right?
Cindy, I think we’ll have to agree to disagree about appropriate responses here. I don’t think calling attention to plagiarism is an inappropriate response to the situation, given the casual way its treated by all to many people pointing out incidences of it to make people aware of the problem is not a bad thing.
And since my understanding of slander charges is that someone has to be saying something they know to be untrue in order for it to qualify I’m not worried about ARR’s legal standing here.
Cindy, you’re entitled to your opinion but don’t assume what the rest of us “”non-posters”” are thinking. I for one care quite a bit about the subject and feel the owners of this blog acted appropriately. Just because I don’t post a comment doesn’t mean I don’t care.
Amazing. This woman lifted two entire paragraphs from my To Tame a Highland Warrior review and, without changing a comma, stuck them into her review. She then added her own comments and signed the review.
Many thanks to AAR for being so public about this. It’s sickening, but its also amazing that anyone would be so brazen.
It’s true I don’t often offer my comments, but Cindy you should not assume I don’t really care about the topic
So if I have a dissenting opinion I must be in the enemy camp? Go back and read the opinion I offered. I stated the person who copied this site was in the wrong, but felt this site handled it incorrectly by complaining about it. I will go further to suggest that the point of posting this blog is to get loyal fans to harrass “”the thief”” (such drama!) I believe I wasn’t the only one to have a differing opinion, didn’t someone suggest giving the benefit of the doubt? It’s all about making a moutain out of a molehill. You need to get some perspective, the reviews offered on this site are the opinion of ONE person. I don’t take anything reviewed here as gospel and compare to about 6 other sites. Your not unique. Nice site, but hey your not curing cancer here.
I think you are making the same mistake Suzanne Brockmann made, she created a hostile environment by allowing her boards to get off target and finally had to shut them down.
You post that you have over 15k visits daily but have about 10 people respond to this issue. Maybe people don’t really care about this topic and you should do as I suggested originally and move on. I believe I will also. Adios!
Wilssearch, I checked some of her other reviews, those with properly constructed sentences anyway; they turned out to be publishers’ blurbs. If you want to check this sort of thing, just google twenty words or so of the text you want to check. If it exists anywhere on the web it will show up.
What our “”Queen”” likes to do is grab the blurb, then add a brief paragraph of her own thoughts at the end. There is nothing to indicate that the foregoing paragraphs are not her own and the whole is labelled “”review””. The implication, as far as I am concerned, is that she is claiming authorship.
I gave a brief presentation last night to our local Scout Group on Anzac Day which commemorates the landings on the Gallipoli Peninsula in the First World War. I was jolly careful to make sure that the kids knew what I had inferred from original documents, where I got the copies and photos I displayed, and when I was using someone else’s research. And I if was ever giving the talk in a more formal setting, or presenting it in written form, it would be fully annotated and footnoted.
Elizabeth
Anne M said “”Emma Holly has been accused of plagiarism? I don’t remember hearing about that case. Or are you boycotting her for another reason? I’m confused — again.””
Apologies to Emma Holly – I do not read her as I do not like her writing. It was Cassie Edwards who was caught with her hand in the ferret hole, so to speak.
My second question on this subject of stealing from AAR: As the “”Queen”” stole the title of her blog, the AAR rating system and some of their reviews – How do we know she didn’t steal from other reviews sites as well?
And, PS, Cindy,
Do you realize what I just did? I attributed your original words to you. Wasn’t difficult.
I love your website and reviews…. I read your reviews because I find them witty and entertaining. Your website changed the way I think about romance novels. And also, most of the time, reading reviews here has replaced reading books for me (no time)… You are just THAT good.
I think you are handling this very well. I trust you will do whatever is necessary to make this situation right.
No one here is whining. How rude and sexist of you to say such a thing. We are discussing an injustice. What the AAR people do legally about it is up to them…that doesn’t mean they don’t have a right to make this THEFT public. It is by shedding light on what is wrong in this world that change is made.
And for the record, Pride & Prejudice is in the public domain. That doesn’t mean I can publish it with my name on it as if I wrote it.
What she said.
Well, it’s fairly obvious WHY she is plagiarising the reviews from this site; she can’t construct a sentence.
Cindy, I haven’t heard anyone whining. A statement was made that the site in question was plagiarising AAR’s reviews. I went and compared the Brockman reviews for myself. Conclusion? Plagiarism is the right word. It is absolutely blatant, word-for-word copying.
It could be that the blogger was under the mistaken impression that material on the internet was in the public domain. Lynn et al are doing the gracious thing in giving the blogger the chance to put things right without going to the extent of litigation. MarySkl has explained clearly why this is the right way to go. In contacting the blogger and pointing out her error, Lyn et al HAD pulled up their big girl panties and were suggesting that she should pull up hers. Lynn contacted the blogger and gave her a chance to fix things BEFORE this went public. The blogger chose to leave her panties around her ankles and hope it would all go away. So Lynn took the next step; she made it public. After that, if there is no acceptable response the appropriate step is to seek legal advice.
As an author I see plagiarism as a major issue. I am not quite sure what your problem is. Do you seriously believe that if something has been stolen from you that you should not speak up? That you should not attempt to solve the problem? If your neighbour’s dog digs a hole in your front lawn do you call the police and your lawyer at once? Or do you call on the neighbour, point out the hole and ask him/her to fix it?
LOL! That was exactly my impression. It also appeared when she was “”revising”” she just pulled up a handy, dandy thesaurus and changed some words. I guess loving to write does not always equate with the ability to write well.
Totally agree with everything you’ve said MarySkl, especially what kind of men does Cindy hang around (?!). All the guys I know complain to no end about things I mostly find trivial…of course I don’t cut into their conversations, call them toddlers, and tell them to man up or hit the road. Thank you for your well reasoned responses, much appreciated!
Thank you Sophie. I really was kind of surprised and thought Cindy’s diatribe came out of nowhere, especially since I am neither a site manager or reviewer affiliated with this site. This blog section is not the review section. It is an opinion sections that invites commentary. The reviews that have been written on this site constitute intellectual property. The authors of these reviews have as much right to protect their property as Stephen King or J.K. Rowling. By not asking permission or giving credit, the blogger at Ramblings on Romance gives the impression that the reviews are the result of her own hard work. Any way you look at it that is just wrong. I am very sorry that Cindy seems unable to grasp the obvious.
“”It sounds to me as if you are protesting a bit too much…any connection to the blogger who lifted a few reviews perchance?””
My thoughts exactly MarySkl.
Cindy:
I do not review books on this or any other website, so I don’t have a dog in this fight other than an intellectual one. I also come here for assistance in finding new books to read. I answered your post mainly because you were bringing up legal issues and I am an attorney. Your post showed some serious misconceptions about defamation and I sought to set the record straight. One does not go straight to the court house to file a suit if they are prudent (especially if any appreciable damages would be hard to prove) without resorting to other means of setting right a wrong first. Litigation is costly and time consuming.
You might not see plagiarism as any big deal, but the women who wrote the reviews feel very differently. I come to AAR because I trust their judgment and opinions. If I knew they were taking reviews from other sites and encouraging people to read those books based on other people’s thoughts and ideas, I would rapidly lose any respect for those that maintain this site.
If someone came into my home and stole my money, would I be considered a victim? Should I just say…””Oh well. Whining is unproductive, so I will just pull up my big girl pants and let it go?”” Sometimes people ARE victims and I would rather work on getting my money back than let the thief get away with it to steal another day. Thwarting the thief seems to me to be a better guard against victimization than doing nothing. Relinquishing control is more about victimization than action to right the wrong.
You don’t think it is a big deal. Fine. No one is asking you to agree or do anything. You don’t have to read this blog, but can go merrily about your way focusing on the review section of the site. The owners of this site thought the issue a big enough one to write about it on their blog. I agreed with them. Since the owners of this site thought the issue appropriate then it belongs on THEIR site. It sounds to me as if you are protesting a bit too much…any connection to the blogger who lifted a few reviews perchance?
MarySkl this is a website for people who love books. Not wewomenshallwhine.com. If this was wewomenshallwhine.com then it would be appropriate to have this discussion. Put your big girl panties on and deal with it. I frankly can not stand women who cast themselves as the victims, I am not purposefully trying to hurt your feelings, however if you can’t handle a dissenting opinion than don’t start it.
As you stated in your earlier post, you tried to contact her to no avail, my point is what are you going to do next? Move forward or drop it. Frankly your depressing.
If what this blogger did is illegal, then pursue it in court. Your maligning her on your website can be deemed slanderous as you don’t have a legal standing to back it up. If you did wouldn’t you be pursuing it? Nora Roberts took her issue to court and rightly so.
Men don’t bleet and wail about issues such as these, they put up or shut up. How you are handling this issue undermines your standing as a strong woman. Empower yourself, seek legal advice and quit looking for hand holding on these boards.
Written speech that is defamatory is called libel. Slander is spoken/oral defamatory speech (just to set the legal definition straight). The first and best defense against defamation is the truth. When a sensuality system is taken (that the blogger states she “”borrowed”” from AAR so she cannot claim ignorance of the site) along with reviews that are IDENTICAL to those written by AAR reviewers, it is very apparent that the blogger co-opted intellectual property. I do not know if she plans on selling advertising space, but if she does then she will be making money off property that does not belong to her. Until there are some damages that can be claimed from the site (i.e., advertising revenue), the cost of a lawsuit would not be prudent as it would cost more to litigate than what could be awarded in damages. There is definitely legal standing here, but not every legal wrong is worth litigating unless you want a moral victory.
If you don’t think men “”bleat”” about issues such as these, you haven’t been around the same ones I have. In my experience, men hash out these types of issues every bit as much as women…perhaps more so. How would you feel if someone took your hard work and claimed it as their own? I have emailed the blogger and so far she has not responded. I would think that MOST people would rather have a non-legal solution to a problem before coming out with legal guns blazing. Step one is to contact the person and give them the opportunity to make things right (as many here have already done). It may come down to legal action, but that should be the LAST resort, not the first.
Excellent remarks from the both of you. That is exactly how things should be handled at the beginning of a problem. Only later would someone want to pursue the courts if that became necessary. The blogger is being given an opportunity to readjust her thinking. Common decency hopefully will prevail here.
Cindy –
Let me preface this by saying that I am no longer affiliated with AAR…but I did create it and published it for its first decade. I find it interesting that you mention Nora Roberts; before she went to court when she was plagiarized by Janet Dailey, the theft was actually brought to her attention by readers online, and AAR, via some reporting I did, was among the media outlets to publicize what had happened. Both Roberts and Gina Wilkins, also plagiarized, when I interviewed them, called the theft the equivalent of “”mind rape.””
When I, along with some valued senior staff, created our sensuality ratings, it was unique among romance sites, which were frankly few and far between at the time anyway. Rather than being of a parental advisory sort, they were actually there for the opposite reason as when I’d been at another site before starting AAR, there were lots of complaints when books were not as strong, sex-wise, as “”advertised”” by the rating. Hence, our blush factor rating, created so that a reader looking for “”hot”” would not be frustrated when she ended up with a “”warm”” read instead.
While the effort I put into that, and the review also borrowed by this person in no way equates to the writing of a book that is stolen, it still violates journalistic ethics, morality, and the copyright notice found on the bottom of all pages at AAR. I noticed that in the review borrowed from me, not only were the grade and sensuality rating the same, she also borrowed an italic I’d used in my original review. A thief…and a sloppy one.
Venting about this while this person refuses to act and while Blogger/Google decide what action to take seems perfectly natural to me. One of AAR’s publishers, btw, is a lawyer, and she is doing precisely what she should do. While I am no longer affiliated, I am proud that the women who took over this site are doing what’s necessary to rectify the situation, while at the same time making readers aware of something very ugly that needs illumination. Stealing the name of somebody else’s blog to get ARCs, which has been suggested, is bad enough. Stealing my work and that of others who have written and/or still write at AAR, is a horrendous thing to have done and this person deserves all the ridicule she can get for her unethical, immoral behavior.
As for nothing to back things up…do you really think that without screen shots this would have been made public?
I call horse pucky. This is not a male/female issue. Men “”bleet and wail”” all the time over just such things, without “”putting up or shutting up””. Mayhap you aren’t privy to those types of conversations, but I’ve been in many of them over the years. Guess I was the “”hand holder””.
Is it possible the thief thinks blogs are public domain? Regardless, you don’t want someone stealing your work. I think it’s time to call in a lawyer. I agree with others, I’ve used your site to help pick my romance reads for years.
It’s weird that this author picked AAR reviews being the most read reviews in the online romance community. They are without spelling and grammatical errors, to-the-point and not long-winded and boring. Pretty much someone out there is going to recognize the review because they stand out for all the reasons above. Stupid move.
As for students not understanding plagiarism, my daughter had a guy friend at her university during her Freshman year, who copied straight from Wikipedia and was suspended for the next semester. He never went back and apparently wasn’t the brightest bulb on the tree.
Donna, benefit of the doubt? WHY? Why does she deserve this?
Plagiarism is NEVER accidental. It’s lazy and it’s selfish and it’s wrong. My daughter just took a class (6th grade) where the first assignment was to watch a video about plagiarism…and yet, one of her classmates yesterday posted a paragraph that was lifted straight from Wikipedia. She called him on it–without any encouragement from me. She’s 12. If she knows better, you can bet a 23 year old does.
@Hannah – Rest assured, we are taking further steps to pursue this one. Thanks!
The blogger is using the free platform–if you report her and they see that she’s plagiarizing, they can delete the blog just like that!
wilssearch says:
I will never read anything by Janet Daily, Emma Holly, or now this so called Queen. Besides I thought Nora Roberts was the Queen of Romance?
Emma Holly has been accused of plagiarism? I don’t remember hearing about that case. Or are you boycotting her for another reason? I’m confused — again.
KristieJ says:
As the original Ramblings on Romance, etc. my answer is yes, she did steal the name of my blog. I’ve been blogging under that name for five years now. When I first came across her blog, I was annoyed that she ‘appeared’ to have stolen the name of my blog, but I shrugged it off. But when I found out that she was consistently stealing – because that’s what it is – reviews from AAR, I really got angry. The reviewers here work hard at what they do and even if, on occasion, I don’t agree with a certain review, that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate all the hard work and ‘heart’ they put into their reviews. And to have them stolen without approval or recognition is just wrong and nasty.
And after reading some of the responses here, something occurred to me – and I can only hope it’s not true. And that is soliciting ARC’s using Ramblings on Romance as the blogger. Because you see, I DON’T solicit ARC’s – never have – and I’ve been used for that purpose before and it’s a nasty feeling. And it it’s happening again – I will be livid.
I don’t blame you. When I saw the name of the blog, I thought, “”Wait a minute here…”” It doesn’t look like the sort of name she would have come up by a coincidence, does it?
You can’t copyright titles, but I wonder if people are going to start trademarking the names of their blogs to keep this sort of thing from happening. What a pain if bloggers have to do that.
Just heard about this, and yes, there are some of my reviews there written when I was with AAR. I found these two very quickly; I’ll do some more digging ;ater and see if there are any more. I tried to leave a comment on the reviews, but it wasn’t working. I can’t tell you how angry this makes me. Sic ‘er, ladies!
Sleeping at Midnight: Jacquie D’Alessandro
AAR Review: http://www.likesbooks.com/cgi-bin/bookReview.pl?BookReviewId=6312
Stolen Review: http://romanceramblings23.blogspot.com/2010/03/review-sleepless-at-midnight.html#comments
It Happened One Autumn: Lisa Kleypas
AAR Review: http://www.likesbooks.com/cgi-bin/bookReview.pl?BookReviewId=4092
Stolen Review: http://romanceramblings23.blogspot.com/2010/04/recommend-me-1.html
I am confused about one thing here – Did she steal the name of her blog as well?
I am a beginner book reviewer and plan to post reviews on my own site, plus post on a list-serv site (not the same books – different types of books – and am scared to death to read anything about the book until after I have finished my draft, where I might insert quotes from others ti show my agreement or disagreement. But these quotes will be properly cited.
I will never read anything by Janet Daily, Emma Holly, or now this so called Queen. Besides I thought Nora Roberts was the Queen of Romance?
As the original Ramblings on Romance, etc. my answer is yes, she did steal the name of my blog. I’ve been blogging under that name for five years now. When I first came across her blog, I was annoyed that she ‘appeared’ to have stolen the name of my blog, but I shrugged it off. But when I found out that she was consistently stealing – because that’s what it is – reviews from AAR, I really got angry. The reviewers here work hard at what they do and even if, on occasion, I don’t agree with a certain review, that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate all the hard work and ‘heart’ they put into their reviews. And to have them stolen without approval or recognition is just wrong and nasty.
And after reading some of the responses here, something occurred to me – and I can only hope it’s not true. And that is soliciting ARC’s using Ramblings on Romance as the blogger. Because you see, I DON’T solicit ARC’s – never have – and I’ve been used for that purpose before and it’s a nasty feeling. And it it’s happening again – I will be livid.
I’m still trying to figure out why she’d do this and what the heck is she thinking now. As of 1040pm Monday night, the blog sidebar still lists 66 reviews, most of them AAR’s. The whole thing doesn’t make sense and has gone into the realm of the truly weird. Is she really a 23-year-old girl living in Utah who fancies herself The Queen of Romance? Or is she an internet troll with lots of identities who wants to get in on the free ARC gravy train, which everyone knows is the road to fame and fortune (ha!). I dunno. On one hand I find it pretty funny as in HOLY CRAP WHAT A DUMMY! On the other hand, I feel bad for the reviewers whose hard work has been so cavalierly stolen.
Reading some of The Queen’s comments, she sounds oh so young – capping off a lot of her sentences with multiple!!! The Tempt Me With Kisses review starts with “”I haven’t read any of Margaret Moore’s books for many years…”” Now come on and laugh with me. This from a 23-year-old? She read them when she was 9? If this review didn’t come from AAR, I’m willing to bet it didn’t come from The Queen of Romance either.
Still wondering what she’s thinking tonight and if she’ll find a few minutes tomorrow to erase all the plagiarized content on her 3 blogs. This whole thing fascinates me because I just can’t figure it out. Why she did it in the first place and why she’s ignoring the firestorm. Which leads me back to HOLY CRAP WHAT A DUMMY!
I know that it is horrible to plagiarize reviews. That said, AAR reviews are always without spelling errors and stand out grammatical errors and they are not long-winded and boring. At least they picked out beautifully written reviews. Bad and awful for these bloggers, but they picked the best-of-the-best. Just sayin….
…and isn’t the goal of writing your own blog to get YOUR opinions out there, not steal someone elses? Even when she has “”rewritten”” some of the AAR reviews, she has still taken the ideas and opinions of the original reviewers, not formed her own. I would hope that if I were reading a review to determine whether or not to buy a book, that I could count on the fact that the reviewer actually read the book and formed her own impressions. But maybe it is for the best that this got out. I would certainly never take anything she wrote seriously and none of her blog readers should either.