ResQgeek

Back in the summer of 2007, I received an e-mail from Amazon, inviting me to join a new program they were launching for their top reviewers.  The Vine program, as they called it, would give me access to new products to try for free, so I could post reviews of them on Amazon.  I immediately accepted the invitation, and every month since then I have received at least one newsletter filled with books and other Amazon merchandise to select to receive and review.  To date, I have written an even one hundred reviews for the program, and I have mostly enjoyed the experience.  I say "mostly", because there have been a few hiccups along the way.  Three of the items I have requested failed to ever arrive.  The tracking information for one of these indicates that it was actually delivered somewhere in Illinois or Indiana (I guess the wrong label was attached to the box), and the tracking information for the other two seems to indicate that they never actually left the Amazon warehouse.  Amazon has not been responsive to these issues, and since I hadn't paid for these items, I let the matter drop.

This morning I received an e-mail notifying me that the terms for the Vine program will be changing in May.  Previously, you could continue to request additional items as long as you had posted reviews on 80% of the items you had received, and there was no time frame for posting the reviews.  Starting in May, they will require reviews to be posted within 30 day of receipt of the item and they will require 100% of the items to be reviewed before we can request additional items.  Both of these new requirements create issues for me.  For some merchandise, it will take me more than 30 days to fully evaluate the product in a way that will allow me to write a fair review.  For example, I recently required a network switch from the Vine program.  However, I have not yet implemented to planned changes to my home network that require this switch, and I don't know when I will be able to do so.  I haven't used the switch, yet, but I fully intend to and will review it once I have enough experience with it to properly do so.  Also, I can't always read the books I get from Vine within a month, because I'm reading other books or because life happens.  Besides, the 30 day requirement is basically moot anyway, since I *can't* review 100% of the items I have requested, since I never received three of them!

So it looks like my time as a Vine reviewer for Amazon is drawing to a close.  I will probably make my selections from the April newsletter(s), and I will (eventually) post reviews on the items I have received, but I can't review items I haven't received and thus haven't used.  That means that when the new rules go into effect in May, I will effectively no longer be a Vine reviewer.  Which might just be for the best anyway, since I spend a lot of time reading and reviewing books for Vine, instead of tracking down and reading the books on my extensive wish list.  It has been a fun receiving things for free from Amazon these last six years, but I think maybe the time has come to move on...

Back in October, I posted a review of a children's book entitled "Angel Girl". It was the story of survival during the Holocaust and an improbable love story. I *loved* the book and the romantic possibilities of the story, and couldn't wait for the full memoir to be published this winter.

Well, as it turns out, the story really was too good to be true. I've just discovered that this story was revealed to have been fictionalized back in December. The publication of the full memoir has been canceled and the author will have to return all money received from the publisher. Furthermore, the children's book has been recalled!

Here are some of the related articles:

http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6625043.html?rssid=192

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article5409220.ece

http://www.delmio.com/tag/holocaust/

http://www.lernerbooks.com/angelgirl/

I am beyond disappointed. I wrote my review of the book (which was also submitted to Amazon.com for their Vine program) with the assumption that the inspiring elements of this story were true. Would I have found the story so powerful if I had known it was fiction? I don't know, but I do know that my initial reading of the story was strongly colored by the alleged "factual" underpinnings of the story. I feel cheated and deceived. Since I didn't pay for my copy of the book (which was sent to me free through the Amazon Vine program), I'm not out any money, but I wonder how many copies were sold based on my reviews. Hopefully not too many. If you bought the book based on my review, feel free to contact Lerner Books using the link above to get your money back.