Book & Baking Blog Entry 19

Wow, I should really tell a little bit more about my recent baking experiences, but other than some cookies for a bake sale the pastries have been few and far between. I think I'm putting on weight. Gosh, I really love cookies.

So, it's back to books.

As I like to go on about, ad nauseum, the kindle has some great benefits including free books. The free books do tend to be either "you get what you pay for" or "beyond copyright" books. I wrote about A Woman Named Smith. This was a classic, Gothic novel. It was fun and seemed a bit out of the ordinary for the genre.

This week I read a modern mystery that was free (hmmmm....or was it 0.99?) Divorced, Desperate and Dating is truly a book that I got what I paid for. I did manage to read the entire book, which puts it above a number of other books that I have received from Amazon.

The plot of the book was pretty basic: Wildly successful woman has thing for cop that she kissed once and he (normally a promiscuous jerk) is of course really in love with her. Someone is trying to kill her and comedy ensues. Only, I don't think it's supposed to be comedy. And it's not comedy in any sense that Christie Craig (the author) intended.

At least it was entertaining and I didn't feel that I had to delete it or to have a hot shower to wipe the smut off of me.

Criticism 1: I would say that referring to a penis as a Jimmy Dean is, at best, sophomoric and at worst, crude and kind of gross. Especially when following it up with a meat grinder comment. There were a lot of junior high moments comparable to this one.

Criticism 2: The sex scenes were more gross than erotic as well. In fairness, I do not like to read sex scenes. I think that if I want to know about the gymnastics that happen in ANYONE else's bedroom, real or fiction, I'll pick up some soft-core porn magazine and really focus on it. I don't need to know all of the body fluids swapped by our main characters.

Criticism 3: In a mystery, once it's solved please head for the exit. Do not dally amongst more sex, counting condoms, and crappy emotional scenes that the heroine has alone and/or with her "best" friends.

While not horrific, I don't think that I'd pay for this one. You can get better sex and better mysteries elsewhere.

In fairness, Craig writes better than I do, and she's a published author. There are worse books.

Happy Reading!

Book & Baking Blog Entry 6

Creepy: not a bad read but not worth the emotional manipulation.


Please be aware that there may be spoilers and read at your own risk. I'll try not to give away details, but I never know what people consider a spoiler vs just reviewing. Also, please be aware that this is all my opinion. It is for fun and entertainment. Feel free to leave me your opinion.

I've recently read 3 books by author, Linda Ladd: Die Smiling, Dark Places, and Enter Evil. This is the order in which I read them.

I found the first book to be interesting. I almost didn’t buy it (my great love of Kindle is steeped in my ability to sample books—FYI, I’ve probably bought more new authors in the last year that in the previous 10). The author has 2 distinct voices. Each book uses this method of operation to tell the story of our killer and our cop. I almost didn't buy it because of the intensity of abuse described in voice 1. Oddly enough, I foudn voice 2 (the cop) to be fairly light. A real contrast.


Voice 1 is creepy. It brings detail to a level and darkness that I don’t care for. The books that I’ve read have focused on violence towards and by children. I may simply be skittish because I’m a mother of a young daughter. I found the parenting in book 1 to be extremely uncomfortable to read about. Interestingly this voice is told through flashbacks. The problem is that what voice 1 is allowed to get away with is so unbelievable without any real substance for how young children can get away with serial killing for decades. Ladd gives background and reasons, but any adult can tell you they just won't hold up. It needs something else. As I said in my title--it also feels a bit manipulative. Don't need it. Let it be organic.

Voice2 is actually fairly light. I like a little humor (dark humor is fine and but creepy is not ok.) There is violence, anger, and suspense. This voice is more what I appreciate when reading.

The 3 books were good. They are just not all-consuming great. The characters seem a bit derivative. There is an element of unbelievability of our heroine (oh, she’s had a tough life, she has a super hot super rich guy who wants her, and super criminals go after her), her super studly partner (who has a stable of hot-chicks), and her assortment of suitors, who are all super hot and have money to burn.

These books do not carry the fantasy to the extent that you can live in "angel world" (yes, a reference to Charlie's Angels Movie--it works in angel world). Now JD Robb has a great formula in her In Death series. Many of the elements that I dislike in these novels are in the Robb series, but they've been around for many years. Her romance series also contain such elements. She, however, manages to create more believability in her novels through a liberal use of fantasy/Sci-Fi futurism.

I probably won't be reading any more books by Ladd. If you don't mind over the top creepy for the sake of creepy go for it.