Sunday, September 26, 2021

Boneshaker by Cherie Priest

Rating: WARTY!

"Ezekiel Wilkes’s father invents a cutting-edge drilling machine — but when it tragically malfunctions, he’s blamed for creating a zombie-ridden wasteland...." So a purported steampunk novel that once again, isn't about steampunk at all, but about a zombie apocalypse. Yawn.

The Pillars of Enoch by David S Brody

Rating: WARTY!

Talking of tired plots: "After telling historian Cameron Thorne about a hidden, ancient stone tablet, an elderly man is murdered." No. There's nothing in any ancient stone tablet that can be Earth-shattering, or that can bring down a religion (short of all its adherents committing suicide), or that is even remotely problematic for the modern world. It's bullshit, and this storyline has been cloned far too many times. Yawn.

Blindsighted by Karin Slaughter

Rating: WARTY!

I've never had a shred of good luck reading this author, which is why I won't touch her novels any more, but the issue here is how unoriginal this plot sounds. Author Tess Gerritson (who I have heard of for once!) claims Slaughter is "one of the boldest thriller writers working today” and I guess this is because of how uninventive and unimaginative her plots are. The blurb says: "When a young professor is murdered in a small town, coroner Sara Linton discovers her past could hold the key to catching the killer" so this is yet another in a tedious line of retreaded stories where the protagonist has a troubled past which holds the key to catching a killer. Seriously? This is tired; so very tired.

Switched by Amanda Hocking

Rating: WARTY!

Amanda Hocking was once the darling of the publishing world, rising from self-publishing her stories to the New York Times bestseller list. We're told this novel has some 34,000 five-star (Amazon-owned-)Goodreads ratings, so the question is, why is she reduced to flogging it for two bucks in a discount book flyer? The blurb has it that "Years after her mother tried to kill her, Wendy discovers she’s a changeling — and now someone has arrived to take her home to an unfamiliar world… This richly imagined fantasy is first in a trilogy!" Of course it is because why not milk an unoriginal idea for every penny you can get (hence the two-buck deal, I guess). From what I understand about the book, never having read a word of Hocking's writing, this story is pure authorial wish fulfilment from start to finish (which probably explains the lack of a plot), and both main characters are bad tropes as well as complete jerks. So no, just no.

The Worst Best Man by Mia Sosa

Rating: WARTY!

This is "Rom-com perfection" according to Entertainment Weekly, we're told, which in turn tells me everything I need to know about about how utterly useless they are when it comes to gaging the quality of a novel. The tedious blurb says, "After wedding planner Lina is left at the altar, the job opportunity of a lifetime falls into her lap. There’s just one catch: She’ll have to work alongside Max — her ex’s infuriating brother!" How many fucking times has this EXACT SAME STORY been told? The left at the altar horseshit, the suppsoedly new life, the infuriating someone? Seriously? Get a fucking clue and come up with something original. For. Fuck's. Sake.

Saturday, September 25, 2021

A Tale of Two Murders by Heather Redmond aka Heather Hiestand aka Anh Leod

Rating: WARTY!

"Book one in a series" of curse it is. "In 1830s London, young Charles Dickens is an ambitious journalist on the rise — but after a dreadful murder, he must team up with his boss’s daughter, charming Kate Hogarth, to search for a killer." Barf. Another abuse of historical figures. No wonder the dipshits at Kirkus thought that "Mystery fans and history buffs alike should cheer." Their approval is enough to put me of any book for life.

Expelled by Ell Leigh Clarke

Rating: WARTY!

"When Jayne Austin’s" Seriously? "...shocking discovery gets her kicked out of spy school," what - she discovered she was still a virgin? "...she starts an agency of her own — but her first case could decide the fate of the planet!" Could it be any more melodramatic? Assholes who write these spastic, spittle-inflected book blurbs need to step it down. Not everything can be continually shocking and explosive even when you're trying to sell an unimaginative and derivative novel. You know, people are only neophilic for a time, then the novelty wears off and they become varetophobic, so if you're using these same overly-dramatic terms constantly, how long do you honestly think the novelty and impact is going to last? Never mind I ought to be asking that of intellgent people which excludes you fucktards.

Pleasant Grove by Jason Price

Rating: WARTY!

"Twelve-year-old Agnes lives in Pleasant Grove, a lovely small town surrounded by a glass dome. No one is allowed in or out, but when a mysterious and amnesic boy arrives in town, can Agnes discover where he’s from — and what he knows?" If no one is allowed in or out, how the fuck does Amnesiac Boy get in? This is one more in a long and tedious line of trapped maidens being rescued by St George. Yawn.

The Thorn Princess by Bekah Harris

Rating: WARTY!

"First in a series" - of course it is, because why wrote one dumb-ass novel when you can clone it endlessly into a series?! "When Ivy meets enigmatic transfer student Barrett," so this is yet another YA novel where the girl is dumb and useless until a guy saves her. Fuck this shit.

Snowflakes at the Little Christmas Tree Farm by Jaimie Admans

Rating: WARTY!

"After a few too many glasses of wine, Leah awakens" so Leah is a Lush, "...to discover she’s accidentally purchased a Christmas tree farm in Scotland!" and a dumb-ass. But it gets worse: "A getaway to rural Elffield" Elf Field? Really? "...might be just what Leah needs to distract herself from her cheating ex" If he's her ex, then how is it cheating? If he cheated before, then it's understandable given that she's a lush who impulse buys farms when drunk. Jeeze! Shes lucky he stayed with her as long as he did. He was more than likely driven to distration by her appalling and out-of-control behavior. But guess what? This asshole is rewarded because "she meets handsome pumpkin farmer Noel" Yep, but Noel (seriously - in a Christmas story this is the best name you got?) is looking so pie-eyed at the pumpkin farmer that she doesn't realize he really is a pumpkin that one of those elves has enchanted. When his pump(kin) ejaculates, Leah finds out just how seedy he is.... The amusing thing is that this isn't the dumbest idea this author has had!

Dream Casters: Light by Adrienne Woods

Rating: WARTY!

"When a high school prank goes terribly awry, Chastity learns that" she's no longer a virgin? The convent won't accept her application? Murdering a fellow student, even accidentally, is a "bad thing?" Dream Topping isn't a sexual position? Who cares though, really?

Just Desserts by GA McKevett

Rating: WARTY!

"When a murder rocks California, sassy Southern-bred detective Savannah Reid must sort through the suspects to make sure the killer gets their just desserts" Seriously? Could you be any more of a cliché? Since she's southern, she's named Savannah and she's sassy? Barf.

The Accidental Beauty Queen by Teri Wilson

Rating: WARTY!

This isn't so much the accidental beauty queen as it is the intentional fraud. "When her twin, Ginny, falls sick the night before a beauty pageant, shy librarian Charlotte must take her place in a glitzy run for the crown." If they were sisters but not twins that might have made for a decent story, but do we really want our hero to be thoroughly deceptive and dishonest?

Looking for Me by Beth Hoffman

Rating: WARTY!

Stop right there! That title is an automatic reject.

In Your Dreams by Julia Kent

Rating: WARTY!

"After ditching her boyfriend when she found out he was actually married, Laura starts having passionate, pleasure-filled dreams that involve two men." So his wanting two women is a no-no, but her wanting two men is a dream? Barf!

The Burning Girls by CJ Tudor

Rating: WARTY!

"After Reverend Jack Brooks" Stop right there. Another dipshit story with a main character named Jack. GET A CLUE!

Finding Joy by Adriana Herrera

Rating: WARTY!

"When Dominican American emergency relief worker Desta spends 12 weeks in Addis Ababa, he meets Elias, an Ethiopian doctoral student. Can the two risk everything to build a future together?" What the fuck, exactly, are they risking? And who is Joy? LOL! Shouldn't it be titled "Finding Elias"?! Another dumbass book description with the bonus of a questionable title.

A Pepper Brooks Mystery Collection: Books 1–3 by Eryn Scott

Rating: WARTY!

"Bookish amateur sleuth Pepper Brooks uses her knowledge to solve murders based on the works of Shakespeare, Hemingway, and Austen." WTF? "With the help of a handsome library clerk" (barf) "and a dog named Hamburger," (double barf) "can she read between the lines and crack the cases?" Why must she? Are the police useless? And how is Jane Austen, with so little sense and sensibility, and much pride and prejudice, going to help her solve the crime? It's a three day blow, all sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Red Death by Alan Jacobson

Rating: WARTY!

Another book blurb fail! "When FBI profiler Karen Vail arrives in Honolulu to investigate a woman’s supposedly natural death, she finds herself hunting an elusive serial killer" What serial killer isn't elusive? That's why they're serial killers! Duhh! If they weren't elusive, they'd be caught before they could serially kill! Yawn.

The Girl at the End of the World by Richard Levesque

Rating: WARTY!

That title is suspect to begin with, but it gets worse! "Scarlett Fisher leads an ordinary life - until catastrophe strikes across the globe, decimating the population and changing the world as we know it. As she navigates an apocalyptic wasteland..." Stop right there! How many times have people 'navigated an apocalyptic wasteland'? Far too many. This is tedious. Does the book blurb writer not understand that decimating literally means losing one in ten? Yes, it’s a catastrophe, but it still means there is well over six billion people remaining. Or does he or she simply need to retake English 101 before writing any more shitty blurbs? Yawn.

Resurrection Row by Anne Perry

Rating: WARTY!

"When disinterred corpses start appearing across London, inspector Thomas Pitt and his wife, Charlotte, must venture into the city's seedy underworld to solve the case" And his wife? Why exactly? Why would a Victorian man even consider involving his wife in such a ghoulish case? No. just no.

Up to Date by Susan Hatler

Rating: WARTY!

"Ginger is at an impasse - bored with her job and desperate to forget her infatuation with Greg, a sexy emergency room doctor." How is this tedious retreaded crap even remotely entertaining? A jackass who isn't smart enough to look for more challenging work and who naturally has the hots for a doctor, because no other profession is worth lying down passively and opening your legs for, which is all she wants to do, right? And no doctor is worth shit unless he's an emergency room doctor. Barf. What a bunch of trash! Slap a DNR on this DoA.

The Deep End by Julie Mulhern

Rating: WARTY!

For reasons which escape me, this author seems obsessed with women swimming into stiffs in the water. Make of that what you will. "When Ellison's morning swim brings her face-to-face with the dead body of her husband's mistress, it's a stroke of bad luck indeed - especially when she becomes a suspect in the woman's murder! Can she clear her name and find the killer before the case goes belly-up?" And she must prove her innocence rather than have the prosecutors prove her guilty because...? It's opposite day? She's a person of the first water? Her name inexplicably, is Ellison? Her husband's mistress's name was Chlorine Fresh? Yawn.

Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman

Rating: WARTY!

You know I've done an amusing number of these (and a number on these), and the same names keep on cropping up. I'd be against this one just from the title, but the author seems to love that kind of title. The plot is intriguing: "CeeCee begins a quirky new life in Savannah with her great-aunt Tootie." Does 'Tootie' have a problem with gas? At least she has wind in her sails.... I'd be tempted to see, but it would probably blow. That 'quirky' in the description is a huge turn off.

London Dynasty by Geneva Lee

Rating: WARTY!

"For 10 million pounds, Kate takes on the identity of Kerrigan, a missing London socialite - but her explosive connection with aristocratic Spencer could complicate her plans. Book one in a series." Of course it is. What else could it possibly be? Now if it were named "London Die Nasty" or London Dysentery" I might be tempted, but since this is just another female stand-in novel with nothing really new to offer, then no. If the author's name was Lee Genella, then maybe, but as it is? No.

Undercover Reaper by RaShelle Workman

Rating: WARTY!

"Ever since she started seeing spirits, Detective Faith Ghraves has led a secret double life as a reaper" seriously? That's the best you can do for a character name - a reaper named Faith Ghraves? Barf. I'm out of here right at that point. Okay, I admit the title is kind of catchy, but really, come out of your 'Shelle and be more Workman-like....

The Sixes by Kate White

Rating: WARTY!

"When new professor Phoebe Hall" Wait, is Phoebe Hall a person or a building? Or both? "...volunteers to look into an on campus death" Why? Are there no police in this world? Or is this just another White wash job?

Winterkill by CJ Box

Rating: WARTY!

"When game warden Joe Pickett goes hunting for a killer in the rugged Wyoming mountains, his own daughter becomes a target." And he's putting his daughter at risk hunting for a killer because? There are no police in this world? Seriously? Or am I misunderstanding this? So...he's hunting and his daughter is a target.... Wait! What? He's hunting his daughter?! Shoot!

In Her Arms by Melissa Tereze

Rating: WARTY!

"When country girl Reagan visits a big-city lesbian bar, she meets a beautiful stranger - but after one passionate night together, Reagan returns home. Will fate bring them back together when Frankie decides to escape city life by renting a quaint cottage in the country?" Nope because Reagan has already died from a fatal venereal disease she got through having unprotected sex with a big city girl the one night she met her. The Reagan era is over. How tragic....

How to Snag a Shifter by Karin De Havin

Rating: WARTY!

"When witch Brooklyn starts her senior year at a new high school in Los Angeles, she finds herself dealing with drama, romance, and unexpected danger" Brooklyn starts a new school in Los Angeles? The next story in this series has Angeles starting a new school in Brooklyn. And of course she finds herself dealing with drama, romance, and unexpected danger because this is a cookie-cutter clone of every other high-school paranormal novel ever written. Nothing to see here. Havin writer's block. Move along.

Escape by Barbara Delinsky

Rating: WARTY!

"A New York Times bestseller from a 'first-rate storyteller' (The Boston Globe)" who nevertheless finds herself forced to tell cookie-cutter weak-woman escape stories. Yawn. "Dissatisfied with the way her life has panned out, Emily escapes to a small New England town to discover who she really is." That would be a runaway coward instead of a woman who shows courage, stands her ground, and fixes her shitty life. Yeah. I really want to read that one. Not.

The Aviary by Emily Shore

Rating: WARTY!

"Taken from her family and sold to the highest bidder, 16-year-old Serenity is put on display at The Aviary, a museum of living art. To escape, she must earn the trust of Luc, her mysterious captor." Of course she must because making a female character fall for the captor who has brutalized her is high romance. This is Shore to fail.

Devil’s Corner by Lisa Scottoline

Rating: WARTY!

"When her partner is shot right in front of her, assistant attorney Vicki Allegretti is" glad she had quickly hidden behind him.... Yawn.

Friday, September 24, 2021

We’ll Always Have Paris by Sue Watson

Rating: WARTY!

"I adored it" says someone named Cathy Bramley. Who the fuck is she? And why would I care what she thinks? The tired plot of this ridiculous book, appropriating an already over-baked title, has it that "Widowed at age 64, Rosie can’t stop thinking about Peter, the first man she ever loved." Peter? Really? That's what you name this obsession of hers? Seriously? It goes on, "After an unexpected reunion, can Rosie seize her second chance at happiness?" I really don't care. It's been done to death and it's time to get a new Peter. And don't forget to tell Cathy Bramley you got one - so she can adore that, too.

Bailey and the Bad Boy by R Linda

Rating: WARTY!

"After her ex-boyfriend runs off with her best friend, Bailey stages a fake relationship with the town bad boy - and soon their pretend attraction becomes all too real." This has only been done - what? - a billion times already? Yawn. And barf.

Marked by Fire by Mia West

Rating: WARTY!

"In medieval England," Um, Arthur was Welsh.... "Arthur is hopelessly drawn to his older brother’s shieldmate, Bedwyr." Bedwyr? BEDwyr? Seriously? "But after Arthur’s recklessness leads to a battle injury that might end Bedwyr’s warrior days, the two men discover an unexpected passion." Unexpected by everyone except the reader this blurb is aimed at, apparently. Yawn. Mia West appears to be obsessed with turning the entire Round Table into a gay club, which means all of her stories are essentially the same. Now, maybe one or two of those guys were actually gay (assuming any of them actually existed), but all of them? Seriously?

Blood of Dragons by Robin Hobb

Rating: WARTY!

Now if this was authored by Robin Hood, that would be something wouldn't it? The author seems obsessed with writing about disabled dragons which means all these stories are essentially the same. Yawn. Apparently George RR Martin said of this that it's "fantasy as it ought to be written." Has George has been getting away with fantasy as it oughtn't to be written? Just askin'! "A group of dragons and their keepers journey to find the lost city of Kelsingra - and the mythical well that the creatures need to survive" - and we're just learning this now? So how have they survived thus far? I guess George likes dumb stories.

The Secret Wife by Gill Paul

Rating: WARTY!

"Reeling from a shocking discovery, Kitty Fisher flees to her great-grandfather’s cabin. " Another chick-in-shit story. Barf. Whya r eblurbs always larded with words like 'explosive' and 'shicking'? I know the reason, but for fuck's sake, can you blurb-writing assholes not have a little fucking faith in the readers?

The Last Days of Us by Caroline Finnerty

Rating: WARTY!

"Sarah is distraught after her husband, JP, abandons their family. But when their youngest child is diagnosed with a brain tumor, will it bring Sarah and JP together - or force them even further apart?" Honestly? Who gives a shit! The kid has a brain tunmor and all the author is concerned about is whether Sara gets her piece of shit husband back? Barf. The very title of this novel should broadcast loud and clear that it's a complete non-starter.

Spark by Aleatha Romig

Rating: WARTY!

"First in a trilogy" Of course it is! "When Patrick is reunited with beautiful Maddie," Stop right there! The only distinguishing characteristic she has is beauty? What the fuck is wrong with female authors that they do this to their own gender so predictably? Barf. Could she not have been depicted as smart? Clever? Inventive? Successful? Having integrity? Industrious? Talented? Influential? Shit. So all he finds is "the spark of passion he’d been missing," and now we know how shallow he is! It was her beauty and no other quality which solved his problem. Yep! That's what a pretty girl is for: to solve a guy's problem! The blurb gets worse, believe it or not: "She might be fiercely independent, but he’s determined to explore their sizzling connection." So in short, no matter what she wants, what he wants counts more and it's all about sex. That's why I mean it from the heart when I say: fuck him and this style of horseshit-writing. Aleatha Romig should be thoroughly ashamed of herself.

Trophy by Steffen Jacobsen

Rating: WARTY!

"Two bone-chilling cases intertwine when PI Michael Sander and police investigator Lene Jensen discover a link between an unusual death — and a mysterious hunting club that favors human targets." The plot itself has been hunted to death. Publisher's Weekly Bullshit claims: "Stieg Larsson fans will find much to like." Excuse me but what the fuck does this have to do with Stieg Larsson? Or is Publisher's weekly claiming that all Scandinavians are the same?

Kill Me Once by Jon Osborne

Rating: WARTY!

Karin Slaughter thinks this is "genuinely original" despite this same plot having been done to death already. That tells me all I need to know about her as an author. The title of this tells me pretty much all I need to know about this novel, too! The tired plot is that "FBI Special Agent Dana Whitestone is tracking a serial killer who models his crimes off some of the most notorious in history." On the positive side, the title is appropriately stupid. Yawn.

Moving Target by Ross Kemp

Rating: WARTY!

"When an old friend lands in trouble, former Special Reconnaissance Regiment officer Nick Kane steps out of retirement and sets out to hunt down a relentless cartel leader." Not a thing new here. Coming out of retirement to solve a problem? Been done to death. Same old tired and retreaded title as well. Yawn.

Once Blessed, Thrice Cursed by Coralie Moss

Rating: WARTY!

A Coralie Moss gathers no tomes.... This sounded good on paper, but unfortunately I read it as an ebook and that's not so good! I liked the idea of three sisters. I am not a fan of shapeshifter stories, but I read a thoroughly entertaining novel about three wolverine shapeshifter sisters and it was funny and told a good story, but this one, which I had hoped might be similarly entertaining - although this is witches, not shifters - wasn't.

It began well and after I had a sorry encounter with the trope 'hot' demon guy which about made me barf, it seemed to resolve itself, and I thought, okay, let's move on. The story had some original takes on stuff and so was different enough to really appeal to me, and it had some interesting situations - although the magic was a little trope and oddly inexplicable at times. But lo and behold, the demon guy had two hot brothers, so three demons, one young, one middle, and one older, were sickeningly magical matches with the three sisters of the same relative age. The nauseating description of the main character's assigned demon about made me cry-heave, and that was it for me. It was far too high-school and YA and I was out of there.

Demons are problematical because it seems like writers have to make them either hot and studly, or foul and disgusting, and there's no middle ground. I don't get that approach to demon-writing. To parody Clypso in their song Middle Ground:

Create a demon and it make you throw up
Or the beast is written like Chris Hemsworth
The appeal runs straight to zero
No middle the ground, they don't write just so

Demon characters in general are only intriguing to me if they're not retreaded clichés or trope cloned characters. Having had to deal with it myself in Nature of the Beast, and looking at, somewhere down the road, at least one more story involving a demon, this is more than an academic interest for me. Demons came into Judaism (and thence to Christianity and Islam) from Zoroastrian religion, which itself seems to have drawn them from Hinduism, and although they don't appear in the Old Testament, they are rife in the New. At that point they're consistently evil, so a writer really needs to offer some sort of an explanation if their demons are good, and sadly, most have none to offer.

It's like they think, "Hey! I know! I'll toss a good demon into the mix!" Clunk. The problem with this is that not only are demons represented as evil in the Bible, so are witches (remember "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live"?). There's some minor dispute over what the writer of that passage in Exodus 22 actually meant by 'witch' - or rather by the ancient Hebrew word that was translated as witch, but it seems to have meant those who practice forms of magic. So if you're gong to have demons and they're bad, how can you have good witches? OTOH, if you can have good witches, then I guess you get to have good demons too, but please try to offer some sort of rationale for it rather than just put it out there as a fait accompli! So in short, I did not like how sadly trope the demons were in this story, and especially not the sparkly horns, and evne mroe especially with no attmept at any sort of justification or rationale. I just found the rendering of them laughable here, which was another turn-off.

Some editing was called for such as when I read, "I noticed the threads had become noticeably..." Really? But that was a minor issue. Overall though, and for the reasons detailed, I can't commend this, although I would consider reading something else by this author.

New Lease Of Love by Arizona Tape

Rating: WARTY!

This was a dual first person PoV that I quickly tired of. It was so larded with cliché, and it had one of the main characters smoking, which is a huge turn-off for me. I mean it was already failing for me before then, but I was prepared to read on for a while; all that did was completely burn it for me.

It wasn't only the first person (barf) that spoiled it, either, but first person from two perspectives which is barf squared. Whenever I read that, it reminds me of two suspects being grilled by police, in different interrogation rooms, and it doesn't work. Well, it works for the police if they can catch them in a contradiction or get one to sell out the other, but it doesn't work as a tired plot device in fiction. 1PoV is bad enough and is usually horrible to read, but two of them just makes it so much worse. It's rare to find a 1PoV done well, let alone a two, and this sure wasn't one. The premise was wonderful - a March-June relationship (as opposed to a May-December or worse, a January-December which is frankly perverse), between two women, but the execution killed it.

I read at one point, "...but she had a symmetrical face. The customers would appreciate that" which strictly speaking isn't true. People like faces that are close to the average face they're used to. As far as symmetry goes, a study in 1996 discovered that children and young adults found those with slight facial asymmetry to be more attractive. It's a minor point, but let's not get hung up on perfection. Perfect faces, according to another study, might not be the signifier of good health that our long history has misled us to believe!

The story was marred by poor writing here and there. On one occasion I read, "With a sigh, I shoved my phone back in my designer purse." Really? You have to specify designer purse? That felt so pretentious that it about made me gag. I cannot read books written like that. I can't even take them seriously. Later I read, "With a sigh, I ran a hand along my head." Along? I can see ‘over’ my head or ‘down’ my face, but along? That's just weird. In and of themselves, things like this are not that important, unless there are many of them. Everyone screws up. Every author misses a grammatical or spelling problem here and there, or writes an awkward phrase now and then, but these added on top of other issues just make a novel unreadable for me.

Overall, I found this story plodding, tediously metronomic, and I did not like either character at all, so this was a DNF for sure. I can't commend it based on what I read.

Bitter Alpine by Mary Daheim

Rating: WARTY!

"When a murder occurs in the snowy mountain town of Alpine, Emma Lord, who runs Alpine's newspaper, investigates - with help from her sheriff husband and her receptionist." Excuse me? She investigates with the help of the sheriff? Isn't that ass-backwards? Shouldn't it be the frigging sheriff who investigates? WTF? Another dumbass story, but at least it doesn't have 'sleuth' in the blurb, so it has that. Yawn.

The Mostly Real McCoy by Julie Christianson

Rating: WARTY!

"Former kindergarten teacher Brooke needs a fresh start, far from her life in Los Angeles." Another female-authored chick running from something to a small town for safety and meeting the love of her life. At least she has the perfect name - brooks do run.... But seriously, how many times has this exact story been done to death now? "a temporary nanny gig in charming Apple Valley, Oregon, seems like the perfect idea." Wait, she was a teacher and now she's a temp nanny? And that seems perfect to her? Sounds like Brooke is a dumb-ass. "until she starts falling for single dad Mac" Daddy mac, really? "...and his pigtailed daughter, Daisy." Og tailed? Really? Daisy? really? Oh wait! I see what happens here. When Daisy comes of age Brooke plucks her from her miserable existence with brutal Mac, runs away with her, and they live happily ever after in a May-December relationship in Cider City, Oregon where they open the avant garde Daisybrook fashion house. Got it! Great idea for an original story. Yawn.

Lost Soul by Adam Wright

Rating: WARTY!

"First in a series" No shit! Yawn. "Paranormal detective Alec Harbinger" Stop right there. Another dumbass character name. Barf. I don't need to read anymore to know this is a non-starter.

Black Amaranth by Sasha Hibbs

Rating: WARTY!

"After her high school graduation, Ally arrives home to find her uncle in a deadly battle against a powerful monster!" Yeah, his penis got out of control again. This is why Ally's mom left them. "With her life turned upside down, she" discovers she's actually in Australia and a kangaroo court finds her guilty of performing medical Hop-erations without a license. She runs away to a small town where she meets the love of her life among men who can actually control their respective and respectful penises...in interesting and very satisfying ways. Yawn.

Treasure of Darkness by SW Hubbard

Rating: WARTY!

"After losing everything she holds dear," all that she has left is cheap shots. "Audrey Nealon takes a job going through a cluttered home in hopes of finding a valuable historical artifact. Instead, she uncovers a series of explosive secrets that" blow up in her face, killing her. From the afterlife, she sees that a nearby radiator has gone nuclear, causing a chain reaction that destroys the entire planet. Boy is she glad she's not on Earth anymore! That's the spirit! Yawn. WTF is it with authors and explosive secrets?