Review: Shocked at the other reviews.
Rating: 1 out of 5
Date: 03 15, 2013
How have 88 people reviewed this as a five star read? Did they get a different version of the story than I did? Honestly, I am completely befuddled.First, let me say that I am an avid reader and romance is my favorite genre. I have no problem suspending disbelief so that strange or out-of-this-world things can happen in order that our hero and heroine enjoy a fabulous HEA. But the numerous typographical and grammatical errors kept throwing me out of the story. I am a bit of a self-declared grammar nazi, but I tend to give a wide berth to eBooks, self-published books, and free downloads. I can overlook the use of an incorrect homophone, misused punctuation, and even liberties taken with regards to the meaning of words. But here's what drives me bonkers - an adult, a writer no less, who does not know the difference between THEN and THAN, OF and HAVE, and who cannot correctly choose the use of YOUR and YOU'RE. Everyone makes mistakes, and things slip by editors, but halfway through the book I'd grown so frustrated with the overabundant errors that I just started to highlight some of the more egregious as I continued to read.The only reason I stuck with this story is that I'm one of those people that is cursed with the obsessive need to finish any story I start, no matter how horrible it becomes. The author leaves out and misuses words throughout the story. Here are a couple of examples, and this is by no definition an exhaustive list:I'm hope you're not really planning on having 12 children, Colleen.I have no intention of any of them right; so I'm going to try.I think we're working on some sort of record myself that I would try in mine and Brad's marriage.She smiles at little - just enough to look sincere.I peek around the corner and see that she's looks unhappy.Part of it is that we don't communicators, but I think that most of it is that she enjoys being a pain in the ass.Louise probably shouldn't of drank with that one.Dr. Roth though that she'd of let the critters out by then, but they were just waiting for the right time.(Seriously, the author doesn't know that 'should've, which is the SOUND she's hearing when speaking, is 'should HAVE', not 'should OF'. And this mistake is made more than once in the book.)Do you see why these threw me out of the story and frustrated me as a reader?Now, let me tell you what I hated about the actual story. These things are objective, and maybe you'd think they were just peachy and would love to read them.***** SPOILERS *****Colleen, the heroine, is a screaming, selfish, totally self-absorbed, immature and maniacal bitch. She's supposed to be an up-and-coming lawyer with an Ivy League education, but she is completely unrefined. I won't even get into the many detailed ways that she is cruel to the hero, who she is supposedly in love with, but I will share this gem with you:"Pardon me," I say in a faux nice voice. I look at her badge and try not to sneer. I have an irrational hatred of her name. "Vicky," I say, drawing it out. "My name is Colleen Frasier Patrick. That means my daddy is the Chief, my brother is Detective James Frasier, my godfather and father-in-law is John Patrick, who is the Assistant Chief, and my husband is Detective Bradley Patrick. Please remember that." My tone is snotty and I know it, but this "Barbie in Blue" needs to know who she is dealing with. I grew up in this station.SERIOUSLY? She just said that to a women she JUST met, who is a police officer that happens to be working at the front desk and -gasp! dares to do her job and stop our screaming bitch heroine from marching on through the police station without identifying herself or her business for being there. What kind of person does that? Even if she is angry (which she wasn't supposed to be during this scene), there is no reason to be rude to a stranger you've just met, or to try and 'pull rank' on someone by using the people you know as some sort of scare tactic meant to intimidate. I already disliked the heroine, but at this point, I began to give up hope that she was going to become a rounded person and redeem herself through change and maturity.Moving on, the h is supposedly a Harvard graduate. (She attended community and then state college for undergrad, and then somehow got into an Ivy League school), but I digress. Her entire family and community has told her, her entire life, that a woman's place is as a wife and mother, and men should support their families with blue collar jobs. Even at her graduation from Harvard, her father comments to a professor that he has no idea why she's gone to school and thinks she should just get home and find a husband so she can have some kids. But still, she's $200,000 in student loan debt, owns a condo in a better part of town, spends her money frivolously on high-end clothing, and works at a job she loves as a lawyer doing mediation for a family owned firm. After she whirlwind married the H in a drunken Vegas wedding on her 35th birthday, she suddenly starts to hate her job and notice all the things about it that she doesn't like. Before we know it, our heroine no longer desires to be a lawyer, she just wants to have babies babies babies. They've been married a couple of weeks at this point, and are 'pretending' that they are going to stay married, but they've agreed to have children together. They still won't admit they love each other, they don't talk about her career or her life goals that she has worked so hard to achieve, but they do hump like bunnies without protection and decide that 35 years of antagonism and painful childish antics make them good candidates to co-parent.I could seriously go on and on about the reasons I hated the heroine, and I could give you example after example of why the hero is a spineless, vindictive glutton for punishment. But, I'm exhausted at this point. I'm looking forward to deleting this book from my Kindle and pretending it never existed. I honestly hate to write scathing reviews, and typically stick with only reviewing stories that I truly enjoyed because I want to encourage others to read. This book, I couldn't let go because of the huge amount of positive reviews. I don't know if the author just has that many friends and family to support her, or if I'm the exception to the norm here. I thought this entire ordeal was horrible, from beginning to end. There is no growth. No maturity. No realizations. In my head, I picture this couple 10 years down the road, with their unruly children in need of therapy while they are at each other's throats. Honestly, I think this is how those types of relationships start, where one spouse ends up getting arrested for attempting to hire a contract killer to murder the other spouse. In this instance, everyone else might be better off without these two idiots.