Review: Little more than an unedited rough draft
Rating: 1 out of 5
Date: 07 13, 2014
Newspaper reporter Kinzey Vance is determined to get an interview with the reclusive Rane Kirk, the billionaire no one’s seen in years, but for all her efforts, she keeps coming up empty.  Well, not exactly empty.  Time with Mr. Kirk’s hot gardener is something, right?Rane Kirk learned the hard way that the spotlight is not for him.  He’d rather run his business, fund worthwhile causes, and spend his free time landscaping and gardening.  It’s made for a good cover, too.  No one would expect the polished billionaire to be the guy with dirt on his hands, spending more time in the greenhouse than the boardroom.  But the feisty little reporter that fell in his koi pond is getting closer to the truth and to his heart than he ever expected.But... The lack of editing in this book is just glaring – typos galore, mixing up words that sound alike, no clue when apostrophes should not be used, splitting up compound words for no apparent reason, and screwy punctuation.  Normally, I’d just feel bad for the author, since all this falls under editor and publisher failure.  But there’s no mention of an editor, and a check into the publisher listed on Goodreads shows they’ve only ever published books by Eliza Lloyd, so it sounds like a self-publishing situation. To be honest, I have to wonder why it even went to print.  Serving up a story for publication, not to mention expecting people to actually pay for it, warrants at least a half-assed attempt at polishing it up.  I can’t really justify paying for something that reads more like a very rough draft.  It’s unfair to the readers who buy it, and it really undermines the efforts of independent authors.The Verdict:  The story was actually pretty great, assuming one has no idea what English should look like in its written form.  It was an intriguingly complex story line that avoided a lot of the cliches one might expect.  Kinzey was smart and funny, and Rane’s alter ego allowed him to be interesting, more than just an angry, suspicious rich guy.  I can’t say the story was 100% believable, but I think that’s probably true of all billionaire romances.  Still, this one had enough interesting turns and sweet moments to keep me turning the pages, and I did love the way it all  turned out.  I probably won’t be reading anything more from this author unless I see an editor’s name attached, but I do think she’s got talent when it comes to spinning a romantic tale.  Unfortunately, I can’t really give it more than one star due to the fact no one should be asked to pay for what’s essentially little more than an unedited rough draft.