Karma Girl just got reviewed in the May issue of Romantic Times … and got a 4-star rating! Who-hoo! (The highest rating the magazine gives is 4 1/2 stars).

Here’s what Jill M. Smith, the reviewer, said:

Secret identities and superpowers take on a delightful and humorous new twist in Estep’s exciting debut, written in the first person. Fun and sexy, Estep’s caper demonstrates how revenge can backfire. Here’s hoping for more Bigtime adventures from this impressive talent.

Wow! She liked it! Three sentences’ worth of like!

Needless to say, I’m having an excellent day. 😎

So, I’m surfing some of the romance blogs I frequent, and I came across this post over at Magical Musings talking about what makes an ideal book — complete with the cover for Karma Girl.

I sent an ARC of the book to Edie Ramer, one of the MM bloggers, and she wrote me back to tell me how much she liked it. But putting it with a blog about the ideal book? Wow. That’s a tremendous compliment.

I got a good review in Publishers Weekly and some kick-ass cover blurbs from other authors, like MaryJanice Davidson and Erin McCarthy. But I’m most anxious to see what readers think about Karma Girl. Will they like it? Love it? Hate it? Think it’s the worst thing that’s ever gotten published?

I know I’m going to get some bad reviews. Every author does (unless you’re J.R. Ward who seems to get universal acclaim). But one person liked my book — enough to recommend it to other people. That makes me smile. Makes me feel proud. Makes me feel downright giddy. It’s the reason I wrote Karma Girl in the first place – to entertain someone with my wacky world of superheroes and villains. 

So, even if every other reviewer in the known universe rips me a new one for writing such drivel, I know I made at least one person happy. And the glow from that won’t fade for a long, long time.

How do you cope while you wait for the reader reviews to come in? Inquiring minds want to know …