Review: What the...?
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 11 5, 2012
Having read Shadonna Richards' first book, and having enjoyed it, I expected quite the same for this novella. Sadly, I was left quite disappointed. Honestly, to quote another reviewer, it felt like a high school teenager's English assignment. Quite frankly, had I written this in high school, I would have been too embarrassed to leave it on my computer, forget actually turning it in. Past the grammar mistakes and the inconsistencies (like the fact that Alexa goes from having a cubicle to an office and then back to a cubicle), the novella just felt incomplete. Yes, it's a short story and it's meant to be short, but what could have been a great story suffered from an overabundance of words at the wrong times. Why does Jess need a nearly seven page long scene about how he can't sleep (and then doesn't even bother to read the e-mail that was sent to him during this exact scene) when the rest of the story is short and choppy with frequent and unnecessary POV changes? And the story adds hints about Alexa's past love, who died, and even hints at Jess' own past, but it goes no further. Why bother adding either plot point when nothing was going to be done about it? To go along with this theme, why add anything about Lee's disapproval or the past lawsuit or anything about employee fraternization when they disregard this in the end with barely a thought given to it? If this is meant to be a short sexy story about the office fantasy then why add any conflict or details that can only detract from the story once it's clear that these plot points go nowhere? I gave this two stars simply because of what I feel Richards' could have offered and for the shining (but unfortunately brief) moments in this story where I actually did enjoy reading it. Like other reviewers have said, their reactions are cute and I did like that. But Richards, honestly, you could have done better. I'll be getting my money back.