What is it about books!

At the beginning of the year I lost my reading mojo and flitted about trying unsuccessfully to source something I wanted to read. Then I remembered Twilight, which I recently blogged about. Afterwards, I read Claimed by Seraphym, followed closely, Watching Glass Shatter, both exceptionally entertaining reads. All of them were large books, which I don’t really go for, but was proved wrong.

So, next I looked for something else and turned to my Kindle to see what was on there. One, was a book about a girl dating a famous actor. It’s just the type of thing I love. (If you have any recommendations, throw them my way.) For the first few chapters I enjoyed it. But, I became confused with the dialogue. Sometimes it gave no indication as to who was speaking, and there was no narrative between to break it up. A few times they roared with laughter at something that just wasn’t funny. There was also a naivety about the writing. How many times can you use the word gorgeous as a description? I gave up at Chapter 4 knowing exactly where the story was going.
On checking, the book had mixed reviews ranging from one star to five.

I looked for another and came across a hunky man’s torso on a glossy cover about a bodyguard. It was fifty seven pages long, and I didn’t doubt it would end up as erotica. The two main characters were Mia and Luca and each had chapters of their own so there was no mystery as to what they were thinking about each other. We need mystery, don’t we?

Mia was a professional gamer who live-streamed on YouTube and made lots of money doing it. When she receives death threats, she hires a bodyguard and in comes Luca. It was cliched in as much as he was a great big guy and she was a petite girl. The writing was good and it was easy to read. Then I came across something I just couldn’t get passed. Mia wore nappies because she couldn’t be bothered to go to the toilet while on a live stream. That image was too much, and I was disgusted. As the reviews called it a sweet romance, I battled on. Until I hit the sex scene and Luca pulled off her nappy. I was totally repulsed. There was nothing sexy or romantic about it.
Mixed reviews for this one too, and I’m surprised it had any!

Next, was a sixty three page story that sounded charming. It was about a cottage by the sea where a family went to holiday. It opened with the parents and three children travelling to their destination by car.

Their conversation was repetitive. The mum thought about getting food, and what kind she would get, as the kids would be hungry. The whole process was then repeated in conversation with the children. Everything the reader had been told, was now repeated with speech marks. The next thing I found annoying, was a conversations between the adults that started or ended with their names. For example, “Would you like to stop for some food, Ben?” “Yes, Beth, I would, I’m hungry.”

We already knew they were hungry, because Beth thought about it, and talked about it. It was such a trivial conversation for the first page of a book, the one that is supposed to hook you. I didn’t make it to chapter two, and once more it had mixed reviews.

Sigh, is it just me? Am I being too picky? I don’t think I am.

When I download a book from Amazon that has a good cover and a good description, I expect to read a good read that lives up to expectations. Sadly, it doesn’t always happen that way.

I have now started one with seventy six pages long called Seizing Cinderella. Wish me luck.