Review: Good Storyline Ruined by Terrible Writing, Editing
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 01 11, 2011
The storyline was okay, the characters sympathetic (although the names are stupid), the sex scenes well-done.However, the writing was inexpert and the editing was completely absent.  The whole thing reads like a first draft.  Anders writes entirely too much in the passive voice so that things happen, but by hands or chins or thoughts and not by people.  Really, it's embarrassing that this text has been published!Here's some examples of what I'm talking about.  Twice the word "sordid" was written as "sorted."  At one point, Arabella "shuttered" when she should have "shuddered."  Victor waves a "treacherous knife" and Darth takes a "languished puff" off a cigar.  Cliches are attempted repeatedly and yet repeatedly gotten wrong.  It's almost as if the writer's native language is not English and she tries to compensate by depending too heavily on a thesaurus.When I pick up a romance novel, I want to be transported away--to enter a dream.  The terrible quality of the writing and editing here jerked me out of the dream repeatedly.  What's the point of a book so bad you just laugh at it, the author, and the publisher?  And based on the blurbs in the back advertising other books by Anders or the publisher, the quality of this book is no worse than any of the others!  Therefore, I cannot recommend this book, the author, Shirl Anders, or the publisher, Allure Books.