About Us

There's an odd thing that happens once writing fiction has been your career for many years: you can no longer read fiction books in the same way you used to. Rather than just enjoying a book, you find that you can't help but look at the structure of it – the dialogue, narration, characterisation, pacing – and you look at it all differently to how you used to.

This doesn't alter your enjoyment of reading; rather, it forces you to acknowledge that you now read in a different way and look for different things in a book than what you used to, to fuel that enjoyment.

Another complication of having a career as an author is that you can no longer review books in the same way. You now have knowledge of the struggle it can take to bring a novel into existence; of every stage that goes on behind the scenes; of how personally an author can feel about their work. So, you stop reviewing books altogether, even if you might have valid opinions about them you want to share, and you focus solely on the good and wonderful reviews you can give your fellow authors to help them launch their new book ... often these reviews, even if honest, can leave out all the negatives of the story, and boost the positives only.

The BFB Review was set up following these realisations and frustrations. Among wanting to bring readers fair and honest reviews of all books, we were also following the urge to immerse ourselves in books as the bookworms we used to be; to love reading again without feeling we "shouldn't" think that about a book or post this about a book.

This is the reason we have chosen to remain anonymous as reviewers – it allows us to remove any feelings of doubt or guilt and be impartial. We have three reviewers on board (reading various genres when they are free and able to do so) and may also accept more reviewers as and when.

None of our reviewers are paid, and books are chosen voluntarily by each reviewer. One day, we may consider a "paid editorial reviews" option, but that is not our current aim.

All the reviews we receive are looked over before we post them to ensure they are not hurtful or overly personal. Every review (even critical ones from well-known organisations like Kirkus or Publishers Weekly) are merely opinions at the end of the day, but "it's just an opinion" is no excuse for publicly tearing into someone's hard work with neglect. No author has skin of stone; we prefer the approach of expressing our opinions with care and impartiality.

Our aim for our readers is that our reviews help you in some way, either before reading the book to help you decide if you will or won't, or after reading the book and realising you are not alone in your opinions and they are perfectly valid.

Our aim for authors is to help you come to a place where reading and reviewing books is fun once more, still a fair and acceptable undertaking, and a valid thing to do, even if you may not adore every book you read as a five-star treasure that is beyond all treasures.

Now, let's read some books!

Disclaimer: The BFB Review does not review books for Bitten Fruit Books or any of its imprints, nor do our reviewers, if they are authors, review for each other under the BFB label (they can under their own names on their own sites), as all this would be unethical and a huge conflict of interest. Our reviewers may have their own review sites where they post other reviews not connected to The BFB Review.

The BFB Review does not post reviews to Amazon or other retail sites.

The BFB Review was established in June, 2026.