Review: And I'm done with this series
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 07 30, 2013
I have read every single book in this series - from the beginning, when the books were great - through the middle, when the books were uneven - and now the end, when the books are more bad than good.I am officially done.Terri Reid created a fun - if white-washed - world. This series was easily five books too long, though. Essentially it's just a money grab at this point.This book, really a novella, took less than two hours to read. It pits the Virgin Mary (soon to be Immaculate Conception Mary, if you're looking to collect the action figures) against demented perverts (two of them, this go around).The central story in this book is Clarissa turning from angel child to the bad seed - with no believable reason why. Apparently, Clarissa overheard someone calling her an "obligation" at the wedding and she's now possessed. Perfect Mary, though, will fix everything.Clarissa's growing pains would have made sense in the first book where she was paired with Bradley and Mary. Instead she called them mom and dad within minutes of meeting them - never mentioning her adopted parents. This go-around, Clarissa is all about her adopted patents and suddenly calling Mary and Bradley by their first names. It's too late. The sudden shift in personality screams Amanda Bynes, not confused adolescent.The "alphabet agency" is back and as stupid as ever. Conveniently, or massively contrived, whatever you prefer, as long as Mary has kids she and Bradley are free. Yeah, the heavy-handed miracle baby was an obvious ending early on.These books have gotten more and more religious as they've progressed - and in a wacky way. In this book, God offers no help to those that are purposely wicked - even confused children. Nice message.Ever the virgin, Mary is suddenly happy to fornicate on Bradley's desk at work. You can't have it both ways. She can't go from prude to harlot overnight.Finally, the formatting is fine in the beginning but has issues starting about halfway through the book. There are a lot of typos, punctuation errors and run-on sentences in this one, too. More than any previous book.Sometimes you need to let a series go before running it into the ground. It's too late now. I'm personally done, though.I'm sad that this turned from a series I absolutely loved into one I can so easily give up. I didn't see it coming - but I think the miracle baby pushed me over the edge. With how perfect Mary is, I have no doubt she will give birth to the second coming of Christ.