I'm not kidding, this book is awful. It literally has no redeeming qualities. It isn't just that the protagonist is an obnoxious Mary SueSelf Insert, or that all the other characters are as flat as pancakes, or even that every female character aside from the Sue and her mother is a bitch, a slut, or a slutty bitch who hates her for no reason (though of course all the men love her, also for no reason). Nor is it the rampant Rouge Angles of Satin, or the Wanton Cruelty to the Common Comma. Oh no.
No, it's the writing itself, which is so horrifyingly abysmal I have no idea how the author or anyone connected to her thought her scam would work. Some "gems" in the text:
"I nodded in agreement to my own statement."
"Mel licked her lips and narrowed her eyes as she crossed her arms and tilted her head."
"I guess I had a panicked look on my face with the thoughts that had taken over me"
"Mac paused but Charles sat, not reacting, Mac realized he needed to say something more than that."
Plot? What plot? The love triangle that is this book's selling point is beyond tepid, there's very little actual magic (and the only potentially interesting use of it is deliberately forgotten by the protagonist, in favor of her bland romantic problems). It's like a literary trainwreck, and I skimmed the last half of it. The fact that the Sue is a "gypsy" who does magic and reads tarot cards (and yet looks completely Caucasian) is its own can of worms — but considering Sarem calls herself a "rock n'roll gypsy", she might not know that the Romani are an actual people, not a trope. Supposedly the book had 3 editors, but given the plethora of mistakes, they either read it while drunk or didn't speak English. Either way, Sarem should ask for her money back.
I have to wonder, even if Sarem was delusional enough to think that garbage could scam the bestseller list and not be caught, why didn't anyone involved stop her? Why didn't someone sit down and say, "Wait, this is trash that reads like a 13-year-old's first fanfiction, so what the hell am I doing?" You'd think anyone else would be too ashamed to want their name attached to this turkey. Anyone with more than three brain cells ought to have realized this would blow up in Sarem's face.
This "author" should be embarrassed she inflicted this crap on the world. At least Gloria Tesch had the excuse of being a full-of-herself teenager surrounded by people who refused to ever say 'no', but Lani Sarem is a woman in her 30's who should damn well know better.
Somehow manages to be as bad as the Maradonia Saga
I'm not kidding, this book is awful. It literally has no redeeming qualities. It isn't just that the protagonist is an obnoxious Mary Sue Self Insert, or that all the other characters are as flat as pancakes, or even that every female character aside from the Sue and her mother is a bitch, a slut, or a slutty bitch who hates her for no reason (though of course all the men love her, also for no reason). Nor is it the rampant Rouge Angles of Satin, or the Wanton Cruelty to the Common Comma. Oh no.
No, it's the writing itself, which is so horrifyingly abysmal I have no idea how the author or anyone connected to her thought her scam would work. Some "gems" in the text:
"I nodded in agreement to my own statement."
"Mel licked her lips and narrowed her eyes as she crossed her arms and tilted her head."
"I guess I had a panicked look on my face with the thoughts that had taken over me"
"Mac paused but Charles sat, not reacting, Mac realized he needed to say something more than that."
Plot? What plot? The love triangle that is this book's selling point is beyond tepid, there's very little actual magic (and the only potentially interesting use of it is deliberately forgotten by the protagonist, in favor of her bland romantic problems). It's like a literary trainwreck, and I skimmed the last half of it. The fact that the Sue is a "gypsy" who does magic and reads tarot cards (and yet looks completely Caucasian) is its own can of worms — but considering Sarem calls herself a "rock n'roll gypsy", she might not know that the Romani are an actual people, not a trope. Supposedly the book had 3 editors, but given the plethora of mistakes, they either read it while drunk or didn't speak English. Either way, Sarem should ask for her money back.
I have to wonder, even if Sarem was delusional enough to think that garbage could scam the bestseller list and not be caught, why didn't anyone involved stop her? Why didn't someone sit down and say, "Wait, this is trash that reads like a 13-year-old's first fanfiction, so what the hell am I doing?" You'd think anyone else would be too ashamed to want their name attached to this turkey. Anyone with more than three brain cells ought to have realized this would blow up in Sarem's face.
This "author" should be embarrassed she inflicted this crap on the world. At least Gloria Tesch had the excuse of being a full-of-herself teenager surrounded by people who refused to ever say 'no', but Lani Sarem is a woman in her 30's who should damn well know better.