Review: Really Glad I Used Prime
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 05 20, 2013
Fortunately I didn't pay for this book.I say fortunately because I wasn't able to finish it.  Now, that's not because the writing style is bad or the characters are uninteresting or the plot isn't engaging.  I really enjoyed the author's writing style or I wouldn't have borrowed the book in the first place after reading the sample, the characters were definitely interesting and I could totally get behind the romance, and the plot itself isn't entirely unique but it was engaging enough when backed up by a good writing style.So what went wrong?Well the dialogue was wretched, the characters became caricatures very quickly, and the plot bogged down in the bad dialogue and the sudden mood changes of the characters.Some of the dialogue was just completely unrealistic.  At one point Chad greets one of his ranch hands and then says something along the lines of "it's a good thing you were made her guardian after your parents because I know you'll keep her on the straight and narrow despite your grief".  That's not a direct quote, btw, because I don't feel like going back and trying to find the actual quote, but it was the first one that stuck out to me as the author's incredibly stilted dialogue that started up after the sample pages.There's a little bit of drama with Chad's mother, which is supposedly one of the big dramas of the book... but it's completely settled in one quickie scene where Sierra saves her life.  And, of course, neatly manages to show Cathy's true colors too - Cathy being the woman that Chad's mom wants to set him up with.  Although we find out a couple of scenes later that Cathy's apparently not even into Chad and is "tired" of his mother's "insufferable matchmaking."  Um... then wtf is she doing going out to lunch with the Mom? Why is she sucking up to her? THIS MAKES NO SENSE.  Making even less sense is that when Cathy runs away (after insulting Chad's mom), she says that she didn't want to "waste the day coming to this stupid luncheon, but Daddy insisted."  And a few scenes later, her Daddy is the very man describing the insufferable matchmaking to Sierra... so why did he insist that Cathy go to lunch in the first place?  Why is he telling Sierra a couple days later about how he's glad Mrs. Parker will now cease trying to match his daughter with her son? How did the author not realize how strange this was?And then there's the weirdness of Chad and Sierra's internal thoughts.  Before they even know whether or not the other is attracted to them, they start wondering "is he/she the one? is he/she mr./mrs. right?"  The relationship wasn't allowed to build naturally, instead both characters were immediately thinking long term and permanent.Things like that continually thrust me out of the flow of the book... which was upsetting because it was otherwise really well written.  Some of the dialogue was super hot, especially during the romantic/erotic scenes.  When the characters weren't being caricatures, they were often very easy to respond to emotionally.  But then something would happen either in the dialogue or the thoughts of the characters or the sudden cliché situation they were suddenly thrust into and it would jolt me right out of my enjoyment of the book.  Eventually it got to the point that I just had to put it down because I couldn't deal with yet another bit of ridiculousness, it was too frustrating.I was unable to finish the book, unfortunately, so I can't speak as to the ending.  All I can say is that I was really enjoying it up until Sierra got to the ranch and suddenly there was needless and stilted exposition in the form of dialogue, a meddling mother who has a complete turn around without any real drama (lots of build-up and then... NOTHING HAPPENS), and romantic feelings that move way too fast and are way too convenient.  I felt like this could have been a really enjoyable book, but I probably won't be reading anything by this author again and I'm really glad I have Prime and borrowed it from the library rather than paying for it.