[ficbot]

I just finished Petite Anglaise by Catherine Sanderson. It was terrible. I finished it because it was a fast read and because I paid for it, but it was an awful book. The writing was amateur (she fastens the coat with 'an impatient finger' on on page, for example; I heard my college writing teacher's voice in my head whining 'fingers can't be impatient!' as I read) and overuses the adverbs in a way a good editor should have been able to weed out. And to top it off, she's an annoying character. She's a blogger in Paris who starts an affair with one of her readers, and some of her more annoying moments include:

- She admits she often exaggerates her stories when she posts them, and in the book she more than once narrates a true event then muses about how she will alter it when she posts

- She posts events from years ago as if they had just happened. In short, her whole blog is fake and exaggerated

- She tells her daughter's father she is leaving him, and when he is upset about not living with his daughter, she calls after him 'But what about me?'

- She complains that her partner's reaction to her leaving him is not dramatic enough and that she wishes he was more sad

- She refers to her blog name in the third person as if it were another character, separate from herself

- She chickens out on sharing key life events with friends, figuring it will be easier if they just read it on the blog

- She resents her child for interfering with her adulterous trysts by requiring being picked up from the nanny's home

In short, she is vapid and self-centered and selfish. And she can't write either! Avoid this book. Oh, and apparently she followed it up with a novel. No!

So there is my anti-recommendation. Anyone esle read an awful book lately?