I specialise in reading romances about couples in their mid-thirties and older. I’m a midlife reader who loves stories about people in her life stage and above.

I do enjoy reading science-fiction and historical romances about younger characters, but I’m definitely not the right beta reader for stories about secret babies, pregnancy, age gaps, authority figures, or the omegaverse.

When I carry out a beta reading, I make notes of my reactions on the manuscript itself. In my annotations, I share my immediate responses to the characters, pacing, emotions, and surprises.

After reading, I write a report. It covers six main questions.

• Which characters did I connect with?
• Which scenes made me eager to read more?
• Where did the story absorb me?
• Where did my attention drift?
• Did anything strike me as confusing or unclear?
• Did anything make me uncomfortable or disappointed?

If the story is set in a different time period or world, I also ask questions about the world-building. I love historical fiction, science fiction, and urban fantasy, so I really enjoy immersing myself in other worlds.

• Do the characters do or say anything that feels like a poor fit for their time period or world?
• Does anything in the story pull me out of the world of the story and into the author’s modern life?
• Is there anything in the world-building that contradicts itself or feels unexplained?

I’m from England. If requested, I can also give my viewpoint on English characters and settings.

I always want my reports to be constructive accounts of my experience as one of a manuscript’s first readers. My aim is to support and encourage authors at all stages of their writing careers.

I sell my beta reading service through an escrow platform called Contra. The benefit of using Contra is that the payment is held by the platform until I complete the job.

The weblink below will take you to my page on Contra.

https://contra.com/thebetafiles/about