“A” For Effort?

We all know books like these, it doesn’t take a scientist to figure out the premise (look at the cover art)

There are thousands of women that devote time, energy and a boat-load of money to keeping this particular genre alive. (Yes… I have been known to indulge in some blatant “trash” novels myself) There are even conventions to let those same women bath in a little eye candy while chatting up their favorite authors.

Now,  while every novel differs in its own way,  to write a successful novel like this there are a few (but very important) things that need to take place.

1.  You must quickly establish the 2 main objects of affection, however, it’s important to keep them apart and tease the audience with their “togetherness” for a few chapters. (The more you tease the more invested the reader will be in the outcome)

2.  There must be a dramatic interference in the lovers lives, something that (once they finally get together) starts to tug them apart.  This could be 1 of about 5 million scenarios.

3.  The drama (mentioned in 2) has to start immediately and span the entire length of the novel.  It must twist and turn the characters in ways you didn’t imagine, it must make the reader continually question whether or not the lovers will survive this horrible hiccup and it must culminate in epic fashion somewhere around the 75-85% mark in the novel.

Now… here is my point, (yes, I know… that was a really long winded way to get there)

“My Love Eternal” had all of the above, (it even had vampires) but unfortunately they were plotted horribly and the lasting effect was one of complete indifference. (God I hate admitting that)

“Liz Strange” has the ability to write a knock out  (I could see her potential  glimmering right under the surface, ) but for a novel that is supposed to be the start to a new series, the way in which THIS novel was set up was even more detrimental than if this was a stand alone read.  The first 40% was a weird twist of dream like sequences and confessions of undying devotion.  The initial chemistry “set-up” between characters was severely lacking going from 0-60 in just a few paragraphs, and there was absolutely no mention (or hinting of) potential life changing drama.  Finally at about 50% in we got the details, the “Watch out… here is my really ugly ghost and I just plopped you down into Casper’s path drama” but after 3 paragraphs of “rushed chaos” and “Oh my gods” the entire problem disappeared.  For 20 years. (Literally) It was not until 95% of the book was long gone that the story finally started to get exciting and even then I found myself caring more about the “son” in the story than the 2 leads.

Could this story have been a good one? Yes…absolutely. Like I said above it had all of the necessary elements to capture the hearts of the “devoted” it’s just to bad that the timeline was unforgivingly crumpled.

If you want to take the risk, go for it, who knows… maybe Liz will take some notes, find her inner goddess and let the world she has created take over in a fit of fury in book 2, but as for me… this was just another book, and not a very compelling one.

Happy reading my fellow Kindle-ites and remember: sometimes even vampires can be boring.

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