BOOK REVIEW:
I was Sold to My Dead Brother's Best Friend
I first read this on the online reading/publishing site, Wattpad. This book by author Jaqueline Pearson--her Wattpad username is pcjaclie22--has a cool 14 mil reads last time I checked. It won an award as one of the best paranormal books on the site, which definitely says something (though I'll let you decide whether that's good or bad).
This book above, with a different cover from the Wattpad version, is a slightly longer version of the original. Sadly though this self-published version is riddled with the same spelling errors, grammar mistakes, etc. found in the Wattpad original.
It really is an editor's worst nightmare. And what's really sad is the plot and characterization were quite good, once you can get by the atrocious story structure. Unfortunately it needed a lot of revision before it hit virtual shelves at the exorbitant paperback price of ~$14.
The author DOES explain in her bio she suffered from dyslexia as a child and it continues to affect her written work. Understandable, but then it should have fell on editor(s) to help her out as far as spelling and grammar go (NO editor should help you plot a story; an editor's job is first and foremost to edit--though you can bounce ideas off them if both parties feel comfortable with that).
But the characterization was consistent, and that was a plus.
Told in 1st-person from heroine Annie's POV only, I Was Sold... follows the unfortunate circumstance of Annie's kidnapping by her vampire soul mate, prince Luke.
BTW, no one has a last name in this book as far as I'm aware, which is fine. Just fine. Moving on...
So Annie gets kidnapped and the rest of the plot just details her reaction to her surroundings and the vampire royalty holding her captive and her attempts at escape and reunion with her human fiance, Joel Who-Also-Has-No-Last-Name. (And she likes to rant about her cruel parents and how they basically let Luke carry her to his castle-mansion or whatever. Though I was totally cool about this. Seriously. Bad parents are bad parents should be lynched, or made into mindless vamp slaves.)
In short, Annie is stubborn and super vocal about what she thinks of Luke, his crazy vampire customs where mates are concerned and his kidnapping her and forcing her to love him: and for that I loved her. Even at the end Annie remains pretty much true to who she is; that is she doesn't up and melt into Luke's arms--
*
**
***
****
*****
******
*******
********
*******
******
*****
****
***
**
*
SPOILER!
Annie and Luke get their HEA, and while they're entwined, Annie closes off the story with this final line:
There is no promise I will never have issues with Luke again. I'm pretty stubborn and have a bad tendency to over react. But, at the end of the day, as long as he is by my side everything will be okay. (pg. 382)
*
Cheesy, but I like my pizza that way too.
Of course it helped that I liked Luke, too.
He's nothing like Edward Cullen, Patch (from Becca Fitzpatrick's Hush Hush), Daniel Grigori (from Lauren Kate's Fallen), Francis and Bash (from Reign), Damon-Stefan (from TVD), or any of the rash of "dangerous boys" plaguing PNR.
Luke really loves Annie, even if he REALLY shouldn't have kidnapped her. There should have been a better reason like, ohh, the old "I-had-to-kidnap-you-first-or-those-other-bad-guys-would-kill-you-so-really-I-saved-your-life-now-please-love-me!!!"...
The plot, like I said, shines through here and there. It could be a great story if some of the characters' back stories were fleshed out, the dumb childish pranks were smoothed out, and the world-building (particularly the vampires-humanity coexistence) was explained better instead of being tossed out there and left for the reader to presume.
I would definitely recommend reading the FREE Wattpad version first.
I bought the book because I liked the story, and I wanted to support the author.
I'd also love if she were to consider better editing services the next time she publishes another story for money.
As an aside, here are some random quotes confusing "gently" with "genitally" (lolz, pretty sure it was unintentional on the author's part, but it gave me a good laugh every time it popped up...and I'm not even sure if that was a pun):
My verdict:
✮✮
(2 stars)
This book above, with a different cover from the Wattpad version, is a slightly longer version of the original. Sadly though this self-published version is riddled with the same spelling errors, grammar mistakes, etc. found in the Wattpad original.
It really is an editor's worst nightmare. And what's really sad is the plot and characterization were quite good, once you can get by the atrocious story structure. Unfortunately it needed a lot of revision before it hit virtual shelves at the exorbitant paperback price of ~$14.
The author DOES explain in her bio she suffered from dyslexia as a child and it continues to affect her written work. Understandable, but then it should have fell on editor(s) to help her out as far as spelling and grammar go (NO editor should help you plot a story; an editor's job is first and foremost to edit--though you can bounce ideas off them if both parties feel comfortable with that).
But the characterization was consistent, and that was a plus.
Told in 1st-person from heroine Annie's POV only, I Was Sold... follows the unfortunate circumstance of Annie's kidnapping by her vampire soul mate, prince Luke.
BTW, no one has a last name in this book as far as I'm aware, which is fine. Just fine. Moving on...
So Annie gets kidnapped and the rest of the plot just details her reaction to her surroundings and the vampire royalty holding her captive and her attempts at escape and reunion with her human fiance, Joel Who-Also-Has-No-Last-Name. (And she likes to rant about her cruel parents and how they basically let Luke carry her to his castle-mansion or whatever. Though I was totally cool about this. Seriously. Bad parents are bad parents should be lynched, or made into mindless vamp slaves.)
In short, Annie is stubborn and super vocal about what she thinks of Luke, his crazy vampire customs where mates are concerned and his kidnapping her and forcing her to love him: and for that I loved her. Even at the end Annie remains pretty much true to who she is; that is she doesn't up and melt into Luke's arms--
*
**
***
****
*****
******
*******
********
*******
******
*****
****
***
**
*
SPOILER!
Annie and Luke get their HEA, and while they're entwined, Annie closes off the story with this final line:
There is no promise I will never have issues with Luke again. I'm pretty stubborn and have a bad tendency to over react. But, at the end of the day, as long as he is by my side everything will be okay. (pg. 382)
*
Cheesy, but I like my pizza that way too.
Of course it helped that I liked Luke, too.
He's nothing like Edward Cullen, Patch (from Becca Fitzpatrick's Hush Hush), Daniel Grigori (from Lauren Kate's Fallen), Francis and Bash (from Reign), Damon-Stefan (from TVD), or any of the rash of "dangerous boys" plaguing PNR.
Luke really loves Annie, even if he REALLY shouldn't have kidnapped her. There should have been a better reason like, ohh, the old "I-had-to-kidnap-you-first-or-those-other-bad-guys-would-kill-you-so-really-I-saved-your-life-now-please-love-me!!!"...
The plot, like I said, shines through here and there. It could be a great story if some of the characters' back stories were fleshed out, the dumb childish pranks were smoothed out, and the world-building (particularly the vampires-humanity coexistence) was explained better instead of being tossed out there and left for the reader to presume.
I would definitely recommend reading the FREE Wattpad version first.
I bought the book because I liked the story, and I wanted to support the author.
I'd also love if she were to consider better editing services the next time she publishes another story for money.
As an aside, here are some random quotes confusing "gently" with "genitally" (lolz, pretty sure it was unintentional on the author's part, but it gave me a good laugh every time it popped up...and I'm not even sure if that was a pun):
✮✮
(2 stars)
No comments:
Post a Comment