A little house cleaning

Or rather a bit of kindle app cleaning. If you are like me you also have a kindle app or a kindle full of random books. Mine range from the free books I have gotten when they were kindle freebies, or the promo books that are always free , to assorted books from netgalley I was approved for and just never got around to.

One of my New Years goals is to be more organized. So I spent an afternoon sorting. I went through my kindle (well over 200 books) I sorted the books using kindle collections. Books I know I read went into one section, books I know I have not read into another and books I was unsure of into another. Then I added the books to my good reads, of course I did this the hard way before a friend told me Good reads can sync with your kindle (face palm gif here)

My goal to get through and review each book on my kindle. As of the writing of this post I have read and reviewed
At least 10 books on good reads. I suck at keeping track there too. I will try to work out some posts for here of course.
If you are interested in my progress follow me over on Good reads or Twitter or the blogs Facebook.

A little house cleaning

All He Ever Dreamed by Shannon Stacy

All He Ever Dreamed

Shannon Stacey 

Josh Kowalski is tired of holding down the fort—better known as the Northern Star Lodge—while his siblings are off living their dreams. Now that his oldest brother has returned to Whitford, Maine for good, Josh is free to chase some dreams of his own.

As the daughter of the lodge’s longtime housekeeper, Katie Davis grew up alongside the Kowalski kids. Though she’s always been “one of the guys”, her feelings for Josh are anything but sisterly. And after a hot late-night encounter in the kitchen, it’s clear Josh finally sees her as the woman she is.

Katie’s been waiting years for Josh to notice her, but now that he has, she’s afraid it’s too late. Giving her heart to a man who can’t wait to leave town is one sure way to have it broken. But Josh keeps coming up with excuses not to leave—could it be that everything he’s ever wanted is closer than he could have imagined?

Yes, it is another Kowalski book. I requested this one from Netgalley an eon ago. See how long I let posts just sit half-finished here. I need a badge that says Worlds Worst Blogger.

When I got the book. I was so happy. I love those boys, and I enjoy Shannon's writing so much.

Now I'm going to tell you that if you don't want to be spoiled, you need to stop reading right now. I have a few choice words I want to say to the character Josh, and they might spoil some of the story for you

SO if you are leaving the post now I will give you the short version of my review

• If you like the Kowalski boys and their universe, you wanna read this
• If you like a good tear-jerker that makes you giggle in places, you wanna read this
• If you like some hot sexing, you wanna read this
• If you like a story where you get so angry at a character that you wish he was real, so you could storm over to his house and bitch him out for being an ass, READ IT

We shall take a short pause here while those who do not want to be spoiled leave, and I prepare for my bitch-out session with a pretend person ....

Take your time

For those sticking around, look at this.

Okay, are they gone? Good. Sit back, my dears. It's gonna get bumpy

Josh, what the hell is your problem? If you were real, I would be offering you a Midol, you old curmudgeon.

Yes, I called you a curmudgeon.

What the hell kind of man, and I use that term loosely, acts like this?

You have your lovely friend Katie, who not only likes sports but also likes you and puts up with your shit AND supports herself AND is hot and sweet. Granted, she cant cook as well as her mother, but you know that shit takes practice

I get the whole "I didn't see her as a female" thing, which is fine and all. I was great up until
Christmas Eve. Yes, the party you and Katie put together, because Rosie was not well enough to help out, which of course was all a plot by the brilliant Rosie to get you two knuckleheads to work together.

Anyway, there she was under the mistletoe that your bro put up, because he's a sneaky SOB, and
you're all hemming and hawing and making poor Katie feel like chopped liver, because you can't get over get over being fifteen-years-old !!!

I was so angry for Katie. There she stood in her pretty dress, all crushing on you, and you're being an asshole. If I was her I would have walked away and left you to kiss yourself. You did not deserve to kiss her

Poor Katie is so smitten with Josh, and he has his head up his ass for most of the book.
I know I know, he had to leave home and learn about how much she meant to him, but I swear I was so angry, I wanted to see him hurt more than Katie was hurting, which made Rosie hurt, and that made me cry

I just wish I was one of the aunties, because I would have hit him upside the head!

You know what I've said before. When I have a visceral response to characters, either good or bad, it means the character was crafted well.

I do not like Josh

I don't care if he was redeemed (it is a romance, so no shocker there).   I do not like him. He made me so angry

I liked Katie, even though I wanted to be one of her friends to tell her Josh wasn't worthy of her tears or devotion, and that if he came back, she should make him work for it

I knew Katie loved him, but HOLY COW there's only so much a girl should take. He;d better be the most amazingest hubby ever, because he's so so so lucky he isn't real.

Now, is it worth the read? Yes, I think it's worth the frustration, because I got to know Katie, and to me, she makes the journey worth it. I like her a lot.

Josh. not so much. He needs his brains rattled a few times

BUT he is very much a guy

I give this one 5 Stars just because it caused such a reaction within me.

All He Ever Dreamed by Shannon Stacy

Cinderella and the Ghost by Marina Myles

I know I usually write posts that are glowing five-star reviews of books I've enjoyed, because I'm lazy and busy and don' have the time to write up something full of complaints. If I don't like a book, I don't finish it, and in my mind, it's unfair to review a book I haven't finished. I guess I could start a flounce list along with reasons why I stopped reading, but that's another post for another time.

Someone once told me that negative reviews are important, because I'm  saving others from reading bad books.

Now it seems I had to take that person's advice. This had just about everything I despise in a romance novel. I have to say, I'm horribly disappointed

I love NetGalley, It gives me a chance to sample all kinds of different books. I was browsing there when I happened upon this cover:

Isn't it striking? I love a good cover, and this one didn't have half-naked people wound around each other. The picture made me want to read the summary, which is what a good cover should do.

When her demanding stepmother died, Ella Benoit knew just how far their fortunes had fallen, unlike her spoiled stepsisters. So she never expected the bequest from her late father. A chateau in France and the freedom to live her own life, all at once!

The chateau has seen better days, but Ella knows she can put the ruined house to rights. The life-size portrait of its first owner, Jean-Daniel Girard, seems to watch her work with approval, even pleasure. With bright blue eyes, strong features, and an athlete€™s body, the viscount is a tempting sight even now, more than three hundred years after his tragic death. But the more she looks at the portrait, the more convinced Ella is that shes met Jean-Daniel before. In another life, perhaps or maybe, as the form who haunts the halls at night, invading Ella€™s dreams

NOW I was intrigued, so I submitted my request later that day. I was excited to read about the cursed prince, but it all went downhill from here.

Here are the three main problems I have found in this book

1) A lot of telling, no showing

This is a huge problem in many books but especially in romance.

Telling me he is handsome and how pretty she is and how tormented she is by her life is NOT character building. You as an author have not given me reason to sympathize with her, nor have you shown me why he is desirable.

There are sentences like, "He is absolutely perfect." No! Just, NO! Please stop. It's torturous and makes for a tedious read. When an author goes on and on like this, it makes me skim to find when the hell something is going to happen. That is something you never want the reader to do, because they are pulled out of the story. Long, vapid descriptions of the hero's eyes and his perfection is not compelling storytelling, Not to mention the whining about how miserable she is and how terrible life has been to her and how she has no self-esteem and if only something would come along and save her. I have notes in my kindle version that include "get therapy" and "seek help"

Also, repeating it does not make it so! Aquamarine was used ten times in the book, nine of which was to describe his eyes. And it's a short book! Her eyes are described as Lapis, and her hair is ivory. Ummmmm...okay.

My other issue on this topic was the repetitive drilling into the readers' head about how miserable her life was with her evil step mother and stepsisters. Of course with it being a Cinderella book, I expected some of this, but I would have preferred a new take on it. Perhaps a humanizing of these characters or showing me how they were nonredeemable. Instead, we have Ella grousing about it to the point where she sounded bitter and whiny.

random Channing I found when googling "frustrated"

That is the difficulty with taking on something like Cinderella. It's a delicate balance. She can either be taken too far one way where she is a cross between a doormat and a saint, or she comes off as whiny and bitter.

I love my google

For these issues, a good pre-reader who tells the author to knock it off, would do the trick. And you as the author need to listen to these trusted people. A good pre-reading team and editor are not there to blow smoke up your ass. They believe in the writer, but they are also there to kick your ass, and book, into shape. They want you to present the best of yourself, and the best of your work.

this is what google gives me when I search faithful

2)  Continuity Errors

This is what a pre-reading team and editor are for. The writer is too close to their own work to catch these issues. The problem with continuity errors is that it disrupts the vision in the readers' mind.

3) Superfluous, Distracting Story Points

The main thing to me that could have been left out is (SPOILER ALERT) Ella was raped. First, it was not dealt with well, since it didn't happen in the story itself but before the story began. Again, this is a delicate issue.

Having a rape survivor in a book with some erotica needs to be handled better. In my opinion it was not handled well at all. It was just brought out to make the reader feel some sympathy for Ella. It did not work with this reader. To me, it was just piling on more crap. It didn't drive anything in the story. When I pre-read for others and come across something like this, I always ask the author, "What does this do to drive the story? Does this have a point? Is it needed? If not, get rid of it and expand on something else. There were so many places that could have been fleshed out, Things that could have been made beautiful with the right treatment. Sadly, these were ignored.

google is confused I typed in pleading and this is what I get!

This story idea had so much promise. It could have been something fantastic. In my mind, I had at least a dozen different scenarios as to different avenues the story could have taken. It would make a great writing prompt for a contest or writing practice.

In the end:

I felt no attraction to the cursed Prince

I felt no sympathy for lead female

I am horribly disappointed and would love to see someone take this idea and fix it

Cinderella and the Ghost by Marina Myles