Jennifer Geoghan

12 Aug 2019: Regional words in my writing

One issue I come across in my writing is trying to make sure I use the correct regional words for my characters. I’ll admit, I fudge around this issue a lot because all my main characters are from my home town in New York State. If I grew up calling an item a certain word, it’s accurate for them. But supporting characters are always an issue.  Thankfully, living here in Orlando, I know folks from all over the country.  We’re a bit of a modern-day melting pot of Americans from all over this great country.  Most of these friends are used to random questions from me, like “Sneakers” or “Tennis shoes?”  “Ballcap” or “Baseball hat?”

A while ago I was leafing through a Reader’s Digest and came across this interesting article on regional words.

I thought this one odd. I mean, growing up on Long Island, I’d say Fireflys and Lightning Bugs were pretty interchangeable. Maybe more Lightning Bugs.  Never knew it had real regional variation.

I disagree here. We were Yard Sale folks out on Long Island. I see some green there saying garage sale.

“You guys” vs. “Y’all.”  Humm … Where “Alls you’s?”  On Long Island, it would be “Are alls you’s guys going?” or “I don’t think alls you’s guys are gonna fit in that car.”

Ok, straight up, A garbage can and a trash can are two different things. A garbage can is what you leave at the curb for the garbage man. A trash can is what you have in your kitchen or bathroom (inside the house). I think this is an unfair question to ask.

A Bubbler? Yeah, never heard that one before?!?!?!

Caramel (three syllables) is the candy. Two syllables is the town in California. Guess that makes sense now.

-Jennifer

4 Apr 2019: Lesson 1 in A Writer’s Lessons from Reading

I’ve often said that I feel like every book I read is like a lesson in writing. With that in mind I decided to share some of my lessons. Today I finished reading Dead Ringers by Christopher Golden. Not a bad read all things considered.  I’d probably recommend it to someone looking to read a book in this genre.

Love the cover!

Here’s the book blurb:

Tess Devlin runs into her ex-husband, Nick, on a Boston sidewalk, and is furious when he pretends not to know her. Afterwards, Tess calls his cell to have it out with him…only to discover that he’s in New Hampshire with his current girlfriend. But if Nick’s not in Boston, who was the man she encountered on the street? Then there’s Frank Lindbergh, who left his grim past behind and never looked back. But now that both of his parents are dead and he’s back in his childhood home, he’s assaulted by an intruder in his living room―a man who could be his brutal, violent twin…if it weren’t for the fact that Frank is an only child.

The big picture:

This book, in my opinion, has no plot. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying this is a bad thing. I mean, look at the sitcom Seinfeld.  It didn’t really have a plot either. This book is a ‘situation’ our characters find themselves in. There’s very little back story, so it’s really WHAM! and away we go into how they deal with the situation. Because I create detailed outlines of my novels, plot is very important to me, the evolution of my characters, their journey and how they change along the way. I really hadn’t conceived of writing a novel with no plot and wonder how one outlines such a novel. Certainly you’d have to do it differently than I do. Do I need so much plot? Something to ponder.

My favorite turns of phrase:

Here are some of my favorite passages.

“All but once. That one time, Frank Sr. had made his boy a mug of hot chocolate and told him, in a rare moment of introspection, that people made their own monsters … that half the time, they were their own monsters.” (page 7)

“But there had been that moment when they’d first locked eyes, that instant recognition that said, hey, you don’t know me, but I see something in you, like some invisible thread connected them.” (page 19)

“When the starry-eyed belief in a lover’s perfection passed and the ravenous lust of a relationship’s early days began to abate, it was adoration that people really wanted. When just being together was enough to make two people happy, that was the real deal.” (page 134)

“Her itchy eyes burned with tears and her lungs with that held breath, her unvoiced scream.” (page 143)

“The past hung between them, an unwelcome companion whose presence would not allow them to speak freely.” (page 154-155)

“Down in the subway, she always felt far too cut off from the world, the air clammy and insinuating.” (page 170)

“Fear had spread through her like a low-grade fever, lingering and threatening to settle in more deeply, and she didn’t like being afraid.” (page 171)

Words I wasn’t quite up to snuff on:

Either I wasn’t familiar with the word or was confused by its usage. I love increasing my vocabulary and will try to find ways to use these words.

Wan (page 5) (of a person’s complexion or appearance) pale and giving the impression of illness or exhaustion. “She was looking wan and bleary-eyed”

Moue (page 12) A pouting expression used to convey annoyance or distaste.

Verisimilitude (page 18) the appearance of being true or real. “The detail gives the novel some verisimilitude”

Pattered (page 49) Verb. Past tense: Pattered. To make a repeated light tapping sound. “A flurry of rain pattered against the window.” I guess the expression pitter patter of little feet makes more sense now.

Psychomanteum (Page 67) This word has no real definition. I honestly don’t know if it’s real or the author just made it up. In the book it’s some sort of mirrored object, large in size, that was used in a ritual to raise a demon.

Muzzy (page 147) unable to think clearly; confused. “She was shivering and her head felt muzzy from sleep.” I like this word.  I’d call it an onomatopoeia ( A word that sounds like what it is.)

Intuit (page 175) Verb. Past tense: intuited; present participle: intuiting. To understand or work out by instinct. “I intuited his real identity.” I kind of figured this one out, seeing as it sounded like intuition, but don’t recall seeing it before.

Baleful (page 194) Adjective. Threatening harm; menacing. “Bill shot a baleful glance in her direction.”  I have to admit I dislike this word. To me, it’s the antithesis of an onomatopoeia  Baleful sounds like it should mean mournful or sad, not menacing. What’s up with that?

Susurrus (page 223) Noun. Whispering, murmuring, or rustling. “the susurrus of the stream.”

Unmoor (page 259) To release the moorings of (a vessel). “The ship was ready to be unmoored” To cause to feel insecure, confused, or disconnected. “The loss of his wife has unmoored him.” I I’d heard this word before but never in an un-nautical context. In the novel the sentence is “Destroy the construct, unmoor the spirit.”

Subsumed (page 291) Sumsume (Verb) Past tense: Subsumed. To include or absorb (something) in something else. “Most of these phenomena can be subsumed under two broad categories.” Ok, I’ll admit it. I’m a little muzzy on the difference between consume and subsume.

Ending?

The ending was pretty good but I’m left wondering what happened in the following days, especially after the bombshell on the last page. I mean, really, is no one going to notice the changes in Lili? Tess, the main character, didn’t really have an arc. She’s the same person on page one as she is on the last page. Just a chapter more to give me an idea if the events of the book changed her would have been appreciated.  I think I’d preferred the book if Kyrie (her ex-husband’s girlfriend) had actually died. I was a little disappointed when she lived. (Sorry, Kyrie. C’est la vie.)

Seems like there’s room for a sequel, especially given the last page bombshell. When something that dramatic happens, I think most of the story is in the aftermath and how it impacts the participants.  There’s meat there to be explored.

-Jennifer

21 Feb 2019: Challenging Your Vocabulary

So I just finished The Next by Stephanie Gangi. I really enjoyed it. It’s one of those books I’d highly recommend to anyone who loves language or who wants to learn to write better. I love to read the way she strings words together to conjure an image in my mind. Even though the plot was a little thin, I’m still keeping this book and giving a place on my shelf.  This is high praise from me.

As is my habit, I like to write down the words I’m not familiar with on the back page of any book I’m reading along with the page number where said word is found. This book had quite a list. Sometimes it was jut the context of the word that stumped me. (See Stamp below)

Here, learn with me:

Bleat: the wavering cry made by a sheep, goat, or calf. “the distant bleat of sheep in the field”

Euphonious: of sound, especially speech, pleasing to the ear. “this successful candidate delivers a stream of fine, euphonious phrases”

Susurrus: whispering, murmuring, or rustling. “the susurrus of the stream”

Saudade: a feeling of longing, melancholy, or nostalgia that is supposedly characteristic of the Portuguese or Brazilian temperament. “her songs are based on love poems and evoke a melancholy known to the Portuguese as saudade”

Galvanic: sudden and dramatic.”hurry with awkward galvanic strides”

Parse: examine or analyze minutely. “he has always been quick to parse his own problems in public”

Chemtrails: a visible trail left in the sky by an aircraft and believed by some to consist of chemical or biological agents released as part of a covert operation. “conspiracy theorists have been going wild with speculation over the nature and purpose of chemtrails”

Supine: lying face upward. “She smiled at supine Ned.”

Splanch:  A splanch is not a ranch, and it is not a split level. Rather, it is a three-level house inside of a two-level skin.

Nattering: talk casually, especially about unimportant matters; chatter. “they nattered away for hours”

Aerie: a large nest of a bird of prey, especially an eagle, typically built high in a tree or on a cliff. “in their Meatpacking District aerie, surrounded by swag, their well-furnished heaven on earth, waiting for their little angel to arrive.”

Nascent:  just coming into existence and beginning to display signs of future potential. “the nascent space industry”

Bier: a movable frame on which a coffin or a corpse is placed before burial or cremation or on which it is carried to the grave.

Lope: run or move with a long bounding stride. “the dog was loping along by his side”  “he loped off down the corridor”

Ovoid: an ovoid body or surface.

Harridan: a strict, bossy, or belligerent old woman. “a bullying old harridan”

Aphorisms: a pithy observation that contains a general truth, such as, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”.

Stamp: walk with heavy, forceful steps. “John stamped off, muttering” OK, I’d heard of the word stamp but would have used the word stomp.  In the book the sentence is ” She watched a runner stamp through the dark, undaunted by the slick streets.”

Contrail: a trail of condensed water from an aircraft or rocket at high altitude, seen as a white streak against the sky. (In the book it’s used differently “Ned say an apparition’s contrail leading out of” the bar. I have to say this seems to be the same as chemtrails above.

Kinesthetic: relating to a person’s awareness of the position and movement of the parts of the body by means of sensory organs in the muscles and joints. “kinesthetic learning through a physical activity”

Limerence: the state of being infatuated or obsessed with another person, typically experienced involuntarily and characterized by a strong desire for reciprocation of one’s feelings but not primarily for a sexual relationship.

Whew!

-Jennifer

PS: I was reading an advanced reader copy so I’m really hoping that by the time the book went to press they fixed the typos on pages 114, 222, 272, 292 and 293. Got some laughs out of those, but only because I’ve made such mistakes myself.  Kind of nice to know Macmillan Library/St. Martin’s Press is as fallible as myself.

4 Sept 2018: The Best Worst Book I Ever Read

And the award for the Best Worst Book I Ever Read goes to ….. (insert drum roll here)

Rhode Island Blues by Fay Weldon

After I finished reading this book I came to the somewhat strange realization that it was the best worst book I’d ever read. An odd realization to come to for sure. The book had no real plot to speak of. Having no development, the characters are all pretty much the same at the end of the book as they were in the beginning. Could this have been the point? I honestly can’t say. But there is an addictiveness in the words the author uses that kept me coming back for another fix until I finally found myself at the last page.  (Note: Spellcheck is saying addictiveness isn’t a word, but I disagree.) The author has a dry sense of humor which I can appreciate and so do many other readers from the reviews this book received on Goodreads.

Plot: Grandma Felicity sells her house and moves into a retirement home. Grandma then meets a guy and ends up moving in with him. That’s it in a nutshell. Characters come and go but nothing else happens.

Grandma Felicity and granddaughter Sophia are the two central characters, and quite frankly neither are very likable. I’m not sure if one of the other qualifies as the main character except that the chapters that dealt with the daughter were in first person narrative and the chapters about grandma were in third person. This was bizarre and took a lot of getting used to.

So why did I read this book all the way until the last page?

A couple of reasons. First was because the book partly takes place in my old stomping grounds of the Rhode Island and Connecticut border area. I know this area well as I vacation there quite a bit. The author is English and I suspect as not been to this part of America. Her geography is a bit off, but this intrigued me to see just how wrong she could get it. She also never quite gets the hang of the local lingo. Here’s a for instance. Grandma finds out about the retirement home she moves to from a brochure she gets in her mailbox. However … the director of the home says something like “You got our pamphlet in your letterbox.” Yeah. This is a very UK thing to say. We get brochures in the mail here in the good old US of A. Which, by the way, made no sense to the story anyway seeing as they were SUPER cheap at this establishment and had a REALLY long waiting list and were UBER picky about who they took. No way would they spend money on a mailing to Joe Schmo old person.

Anyway … I digress.

So, yes, this book kind of sucked. But it was the language that kept me addicted. I think I might even become a better writer because of just reading it and purposefully studying the way in which the author chose her words and their imagery.

Here’s an example:

Preface: Felicity is the grandmother.  The Golden Bowl is the retirement home she moves to. Angel was the mother (died long ago) Nurse Dawn is the slightly less sadistic Nurse Ratched of the book. Sophia, who is the one doing the narrative here is a film editor, hence her use of technical jargon.

“I quite liked being described by Felicty as a relative. It made me feel warmed and safe, and not so unlike other people after all. But I also quite liked the thought of this grandmother of mine feeling obliged to do what Nurse Dawn told her. Perhaps at the Golden Bowl I would find allies; people who would understand what it was like to have Angel for a mother and Felicity for a grandmother. Then I felt disloyal, and weak for wanting to belong, and sorry for Felicity, because her life was drawing to an end, and there was nothing she could do about it, not even a rewind button to press, no way of cutting the footage together differently; the picture was locked. No way of editing out the boring bits. These had to be lived through in real time, with a body that was inexorably running down, and not all the efforts of the Golden Bowl could help her.” (Page 81)

The author used a few words I had to look up to make sure of what it really meant. I’ve taken to jotting words down I’m not quite sure of on the last page of the book so I can look them up when I’m done. In this case some of the words were: patois, fitments, perforce, aural, derisory, atavistic and susurrus. With this novel, I felt the need to write out a family tree as well. I was getting very lost when new family members were mentioned.I don’t think I’d recommend this book to any of my friends to read, but I would recommend it to fellow writers looking to expand their writing styles.  So, yes, this was the best worst book I’ve ever read.  Enjoy it … or not.

-Jennifer

 

15 Oct 2017: Vampires on Vacation

Where does the writer of vampire novels (and a genealogist) go on her vacation? To visit the vampire grave of Rhode Island, of course!

Pilgrimage complete!

While researching odd and interesting places to visit in Rhode Island and Connecticut on roadsideamerica.com, I came across the vampire grave of Simon Whipple in Union Cemetery in North Smithfield, RI.

In memory of Simon Whipple, youngest son of Col. Dexter Aldrich & Margery his wife, who died on May 6, 1841, aged 27 years.  Altho’ consumption’s vampire grasp had seized thy mortal frame, ……. mind …..

We’ll never know exactly how the epitaph ends at some point in the past, his stone was set in concrete?  Why?  Was it because the stone had been knocked over and had to be set again?  Or was it perhaps because to keep something in the ground from getting out?  We’ll never know …

Simon and his siblings … all died aged 27 years …. odd …

-Jennifer

Jennifer Geoghan, author of:

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9 July 2017: Struggling between “Linguistical Correctness” and what’s right.

It’s funny how a small comment from a prospective editor set in motion such a large debate for me. When I received  a sample edit of a few pages of a manuscript of mine, there was a notation on my usage of the word “towards.”  Yes, it had never occurred to me to not put an “s” at the end.  Why?  Because I’ve always spoken it aloud ending with an s.

American accepted usage of the word “toward” is toward without an “s” on the end.  It seems “towards” with the “s” is the editorially correct British spelling of the word.

Here in lies my dilemma. I’m American and never in my life have I said the word “toward.” I’m “towards” all the way. I’ve surveyed many people over the last few weeks and most have said they use the offending “s” as well.  So …. what’s up with that?

This wouldn’t be such an issue if it wasn’t for the fact that my novels are all written in first person and are told by women who all grew up in the same small town I did in New York.  If I use the “s,” so should they.

Now that’s all well and good. I mean, I’m a rebel.  I could honestly care less what people think …. except I’m entering literary contests now and I feel using the offending (yet correct) “s” would be a mark against me.

What’s a girl to do?

I decided that in my novel series (The Falling Series) I’m leaving the “s” in and will be adding in a note that it’s a regional “s,” which I believe it is. It’s either regional to the town in NY where I grew up or regional to the town in Rhode Island where my mother grew up.  I inherited quite a few New England speech idioms from her. Since my protagonist in The Falling Series also has a mom from Rhode Island, the “s” stays.

However, going forward I’m caving in to linguistic peer pressure and dropping the “s.”  This bothers me no end, but if I want to win contests sacrifices have to be made.  You win some, you lose some …. battles that is, hopefully not contests!

I’ll end with asking to whom does one write a letter to get this “s” issued updated? Seems an out of date rule that needs a bit more flexibility with the current use  of American English.

-Jennifer

Jennifer Geoghan, author of:

I’d love to hear from you!  Click on “Leave A Comment” below and let me know what’s on your mind. You have no idea how much you’ll brighten my day by leaving me a comment!

28 June 2017: Long Time – No See

Yep, It’s been a while since I last posted.  Sorry about that.  I’ve had a lot going on my life.  I had gastric bypass surgery on June 1st.  Before that it’s months of monitored diets, tests and poking and prodding like you’ve never experienced.  I’m almost four weeks post op now and doing …. OK.  They say it takes months to get back to 100%.  I believe them.

The annoying part is I have little to no energy to do anything.  I went back to work after a week and just the energy it takes to get up, get dressed and get to work means I have to take a five minute break once I get to my desk.

So…. that means I haven’t been doing much writing.  I had started my new novel before surgery but since my protagonist had gastric bypass as well, I wanted to wait until I was post op to write most of it.  Getting back on that horse has proven more challenging than I’d care to admit.

I did enter a literary contest yesterday with my unpublished cowboy romance novel. It’s the first book in the series.  The second being the one I’m currently not working on.  One of my goals for 2017 was to put myself out there and enter some contests.  I did enter this same book in the Florida Writers Assoc Royal Palm Literary awards for an unpublished novel.  Sadly it didn’t make the semi finals.  However, I also entered If Love is a Lie as a published novel as well as a short story I wrote.  I have yet to hear back about those entries so I’m hoping they’ll do better and at least make the finals.

I need to get my energy back soon as I purchased a ticket to go to RWA2017, the Romance Writers of America convention.  Lucky for me, it’s being held here in Orlando.  It wasn’t a cheap ticket.  $495! That’s ticket only, not hotel or travel. I’ll let you know if I think it was worth it. That’s coming up in about a month.

Anyway, that’s the state of this writer.

-Jennifer

Jennifer Geoghan, author of:

I’d love to hear from you!  Click on “Leave A Comment” below and let me know what’s on your mind. You have no idea how much you’ll brighten my day by leaving me a comment!

15 Apr 2017: A Controversial Decision

There comes a time when you have to make the hard choices in life, and for me one of those choices was to scrap the titles and covers of my book series and start again.

  • Why would I do such a thing?

Because they were never living up to their potential. My other novel, If Love is a Lie, sold rings around the series and really they’re just no reason why when you take into account the stories. So, I now introduce you to the new and improved book series:

The Falling Series

  • Falling for Death (formerly know as: The Purity of Blood)
  • Falling for Stars (formerly know as: Purity Lost)
  • Falling for a Kiss (formerly know as: The Blood that Binds)
  • Falling Head over Heart (formerly know as: Purity’s Progeny)
  • Falling Ever After (formerly know as: Blood’s Solemn Vow)

The new titles convey that, yes, these are romance novels.  They downplay the vampire aspects of the novels, which in the end are not the most important parts of the books anyway.  The titles and covers are much more cohesive now as well.

Did I make a good decision?  Only time will tell ….

So what are your thoughts of rebranding a book series or any book for that matter?

-Jennifer

Jennifer Geoghan, author of:

I’d love to hear from you!  So click on “Leave A Comment” below and let me know what’s on your mind. You have no idea how much you’ll brighten my day by leaving me a comment!

17 Mar 2017: The Reading Challenge Continues …

So as I mentioned last month, I set myself the challenge of reading 100 books in 2017. How am I doing so far? Right now I’m reading book 17.  Yes, I’m a little behind, but I’m sure I’ll come across some good and short books soon to make up the short fall.  Here are the books I’ve read since I last posted and the full reviews of them.  I do reviews on twitter as I finish each book, so if you’d like to follow my progress, follow me on twitter at @JenniferGNovels

Book 7: MEG: Nightstalkers by Steve Alten

4 stars

I’ll start by saying MEG is short of megladon, as is megladon sharks, sort of dinosaur sharks. I thought I’d take a break from my romance extravaganza to try something a little different. Nightstalkers is I think the 6th book in the MEG series and is an adventure story about scary prehistoric marine life roaming our oceans. Not my normal fare but a good read none the less.  It being late in the series I did have a little catching up, but I give Mr. Alten high marks for making the 6th book in a series also a very good stand alone novel.  Having written a 5 book series myself, I know that’s a really hard feat to accomplish. That’s not to say there weren’t a few issues.  Holy Guacamole, Batman, there were a lot of characters in this book!  You need a program to keep track of them all, and that’s my suggestion.  I’ve read books that have had one or two sentence bios of the main characters at the beginning of a book. I’d have been super happy to have had one of those for this book, especially for some of the dead characters eaten in previous books.

Most novels I read don’t have illustrations.  This one did. It had maps, which were very helpful as the ships were sailing all over: from Alaska, to Australia, to Antarctica.  There were also a few illustrations of the creatures.  Yeah … I could have used a couple more of those.  There’s only so much you can describe of a fanciful sea creature before what I’m picturing in my head looks nothing like what the author intended. It ain’t just sharks, we’re talking prehistoric whales and alligators too.

I will admit, the story lost me a bit when time travel got involved.  Quite frankly that little side story flopped for me. All they say is that’s how the one guy knew what was going to happen, that he’d gone back in time a few months and was reliving them. The book never says how that happened and why it didn’t happen again so I’d have written it out of the novel if I were the author.  Thankfully, that bit only lasted a few pages, any more and I’d have stopped reading.

Book 8: Undisputed by A.S. Teague

5 stars

This is a great read.  I finished it in two days, not that it was all that long.  It was unpredictable, funny and boy, did I cry! Yes, it’s a tear jerker, but in a good way.  It paced well and had a fabulous ending.  Honestly, my only complaint was that the male protagonist dropped the F bomb a few too many times for my taste.  Yes, it was probably in keeping with his character, but still, it’s not in keeping with me as a reader.  I highly recommend this book.  So much so that I’ve already started book 2 in the series.

Book 9: Unraveled by A.S. Teague

4 stars

Yes, the sequel dropped by a star. The protagonists in this story were very good, but not as compelling as in the first book. Plus a few things sort of annoyed me with this book. Rebecca, the female lead in this book was a side character in book one.  It was said that the male protagonist in book one was a little scared of her because she beat him up as a child.  He still seemed intimidated by her which seemed odd to me since she mostly drank wine, shopped and did her nails in book one.  Low and behold… in book two we find out that she used to me a cage fighter along with the male lead in Book one!  Well, had I known that in book one, that would have made a lot more sense.  In this book, Rebecca has two friends that are party girls, always going to clubs.  It isn’t until the end of the book that you find out the friends used to be cage fighters as well.  I think these were my main complaints about these books, that vital bits of info were neglected and tossed in a little too late for my taste.

Book 10: Nice by Jen Sacks

4 stars

This is a very funny book in a satire sort of way. Basically it’s a love story between a professional killer and your joe average woman who ends up killing her dates when she doesn’t have the heart to tell them she’s just not that into them, thus hurting their feelings. The story itself is a five-star story that I highly recommend. There were a couple of issues that kept it from that five-star overall rating. First would be the use of words you have to look up in the dictionary, like vituperously, somnambulistic and ablutions. I’m all for writing stories that make the reader stretch their mind, but come on. Who did she think was going to read this book?

The other issue I had was one that made me rethink how I write my own books. This book has two narrators.  The name of the chapter is the name of the character who narrates it.  This is what I do in my novels as well.  Problem with this book is that the first chapter is titled “Grace” and no where in the chapter do you find out that the name of the narrator to associate the chapter title as the name of the person talking. I honestly paid no attention to the chapter title, I rarely do. So when chapter two was titled “Sam,” I was wondering why the narrator was suddenly doing strange things.  Chapter two switched back to “Grace,” but I hadn’t realized we’d ever switched away from her.  I didn’t figure all this out until chapter four switched back to “Sam.”

Book 11: Moment in Time by Lisa Mondello

3 stars

This was a really short read, but still a good story.  Had Miss Mondello added an epilogue, I probably would have given in 4 stars.  As it is, the story ends awkwardly, leaving me to wonder if they live happily ever after … or happy for now??? To me, romance is all about the ending.  I get that this was a shorter novella that she put out for free to attract readers, but she does herself a disservice with this ending.  I’ve read other books of hers that were better.

Book 12: Billionaire Unknown by J.S. Scott

3 stars

I’ll start by saying I’m a big fan of this series, but the first 6 or 7 books in the series were definitely the best. Once they started branching out to the family in Colorado, I think the series started to lose me.  I was really confused when I started reading this book.  I thought I’d read it before.  So much so that I was just about to put it down when I realized that the author had put out a Christmas short story that was the beginning of this book.  Once I figured that out, the story was good.  Nothing special. Maybe I’m being a bit unfair seeing as the first books in the series were all 5 star wonders.

Books 13-14-15: The Maybe Series

Maybe Yes / Maybe Never / Maybe Always

3 stars

Since I bought this as a boxed set, I’ll review it as one book, not the three books it touts itself to be. If I was to review them individually, they’d all get 2 stars each. To be honest, book 1 was pretty good, but left you with a cliffhanger. Book 2 was a complete departure from the love story of book 1.  I’m not even sure if I’d classify Books 2 or 3 as romance.  They’re more action, suspense that romance. Personally I’m always disappointed when a writer has to bring in a Mexican Drug Cartel to spice things up.  To write that Kinsley could join a drug and smuggling cartel with any believability strains any sense of realism. I know most romance novels are escapist literature, but please … I think the author wrote herself into a corner in this story.  I get the distinct feeling that she was writing without an outline and once she’d gotten Kinsley involved with the cartel, had no idea how to resolve the story.  Most of Book 2 and 3 was her incessant interior monologue wondering if they believed her or not. For some reason she seemed to think the FBI had jurisdiction in Cancun Mexico and Paris France, because the author had them storming the Cartels facilities in both places. Not terribly realistic.

Book 16: The Education of Sebastian by Jane Harvey Berrick

4 stars

This one gets 4 stars by the skin of its teeth. Honestly, if I wasn’t on a three star streak, it would probably get 3. What’s holding it back? WORDS!  This book has wonderful characters and a good story line, but it is plagued with way too much extra prose. I found myself skipping pages upon pages of just too much detail and unnecessary information. It really is a shame as an edited version of this book would rate a good five stars. Basically the gist of this story is that Caroline, a 30-year-old military wife in a bad marriage, falls for Sebastian, the 17-year-old son of another military family. Yep, they’re breaking the law. The whole book builds up to the last couple of pages when the author answers the question, will they get caught or not. I thought the last pages were a bit of a let down as it just leads you into book 2, that is if you want to find out that happens to them. Yep, sucker that I am, I’m reading the sequel right now (but only because it was free with kindle unlimited!) From the way book two is shaping up, I’d say if both books were combined and edited, they’d make a great single novel. Still, if you don’t mind skipping pages, The Education of Sebastian is a really good read.

-Jennifer

Jennifer Geoghan, author of:

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