FREE/BARGAIN — Romance & Discussion

[worktolive]

Just in the last few years, my tastes have changed significantly, so some books that I picked up back when Kindles first came out don't appeal to me much anymore. The problem is that my library is so huge that it's pretty difficult to cull, especially since I still have a hard time resisting the freebies.

[Atunah]

May I ask what was wrong with the Julie Miller?. I was looking at reviews to see if I could figure it out, but they are all raving about it

[library addict]

Originally Posted by Atunah

May I ask what was wrong with the Julie Miller?. I was looking at reviews to see if I could figure it out, but they are all raving about it

Really? I liked the heroine and it was thinking it was two-star (C/C-) to three-star (B-/C+) territory for the first half. But then....

Okay, massive, massive spoilers ahead!

Spoiler:

Double spoiler so no one can say they were not warned...

Spoiler:

So the blurb and book both have the hero, Prince Ivan of Lukinburg, coming to Kansas City to negotiate some contracts as their country is rich in gold and mica to make computer parts. He didn't grow up as royalty as the country's last king was murdered after World War II and since then the country has been run by a group of mafia-like folks. But they have a newly elected democratic government and have restored the monarchy to be the head of state I guess. Ivan is a distant cousin of the previous king, so he's forced into it.

The book opens in May with the prince giving a speech in his country's capital city. He says he promises to "make Lukinburg great again" which I rolled my eyes at as that phrase is forever tainted now, but I let that go. A bomb goes off. Fast forward to August...

The hero arrives at Police HQ in KC to meet privately with a captain. He wants one of the captain's officers to pose as his girlfriend so he'll have someone to watch his back as he knows there is a traitor in his inner circle.

Long story short (too late, I know ) the hero ends up being the prince's BFF who was posing as the prince all along. Because if one cuts his hair short and puts on thick glasses apparently his entire inner circle and security detail will think he's the prince. The real prince is along for the trip posing as Aleksander, the BFF. He's allowed his hair to grow out for seven weeks and still wears glasses but has different frames so no one recognizes him as the prince.

I would not care if (a) their close resemblance to one another had been mentioned earlier in the story and (b) the book had been written solely from the heroine's POV. It would make sense that she didn't know better.

But no! At least half--if not slightly more--of the book is written from the hero's POV. He thinks of himself as Prince Ivan throughout the entire book until the reveal. He's constantly referring to himself as Ivan IN HIS OWN THOUGHTS (sorry for yelling, but I cannot emphasize this enough).

I knew something hinky was up in chapter four when he referred himself in the third person. But then he blames it on the fact he's not been a prince for long and jet lag. While calling himself Ivan. Internally. IN HIS OWN BRAIN!

The reader gets a big hint in chapter 10, but the truth doesn't come out until chapter 11 (of a 13 chapter book).

Not only does the hero constantly think of himself as Ivan in his internal thoughts and monologues, he also always referred to his BFF as Aleks IN HIS OWN THOUGHTS!!! I could understand if he had only done so in his verbal communication with the heroine, etc. But we are in his POV, inside of his brain and he constantly thought of himself as Ivan and the other guy as Aleks.

So for him to actually be Aleks. No! It was wrong for the author to keep that a secret from the reader. It was author manipulation at best and crossed the line into betrayal of reader trust.

Also, the prince and Aleks faced no repercussions for having lied to all of the people they did in their own country as well as the US. He gave interviews, negotiated contracts, etc. But all is well as the heroine forgives his ruse.

Mostly I am disappointed as she's a better author than this and didn't need to resort to such a trick.

Now I have been a long-time reader of this author and I do not plan to stop buying and reading her books as I am willing to give my autobuy authors one free pass on some things. When I finished the book I felt sad and a put out, but I get more mad the more I think about it.

/rant

[library addict]

Weekly Report:

Read:

• One Summer Weekend (Cedar Street #1) by Shannon Stacey (A/5 stars)
• Bearadise Lodge (Fractured Stars #.5) by Lindsay Buroker (B+/4 stars)
• Here Be Dragons (Fractured Stars #.7) by Lindsay Buroker (B-/3 stars)
• Fractured Stars (Fractured Stars #1) by Lindsay Buroker (A-/5 stars)
• Junkyard (Fractured Stars #1.5) by Lindsay Buroker (A/5 stars)

Currently I am rereading Jessie Mihalik's Polaris Rising. I have been on a massive reread binge this summer even though my virtual TBR mountain is falling over.

Purchased:

[Atunah]

Thank you library addict for the spoiler. That is just

I like a good romantic suspense, this sounds like a good author for it. I see there is a big series with mini series inside. Goodreads thankfully lists them all in order. 33 of the. I am pretty sure I read another one of this author. Another book in a series I mean.

[Lush]

After reading all of her books, I too was very disappointed with Julie Miller's most recent release. In fact it was so bad, I'm wondering if someone else wrote it for her.
I understand that this happens regularly with aging authors such as Danielle Steele.
I hope Julie's next book is up to her usual standard.

[FizzyWater]

Did you check to see if it happened to be a reissue? HQN has a habit of reissuing its books with new covers and no real notice that it's a reissue. Maybe it's an early work?

[library addict]

Originally Posted by FizzyWater

Did you check to see if it happened to be a reissue? HQN has a habit of reissuing its books with new covers and no real notice that it's a reissue. Maybe it's an early work?

Nope. It's definitely new. Plus she talked about writing it on the Just Romantic Suspense blog in July.

Her next book for Harlequin Intrigue will be out in April. Not sure if it's part of The Precinct series or not. Either way I'll read it. I've been reading this author since 2002 and while I haven't loved every book I feel like I can give this situation a pass kind of. I am still mad, but it usually takes more than one book for me to want to break up with an author.

[FizzyWater]

Originally Posted by library addict

I've been reading this author since 2002 and while I haven't loved every book I feel like I can give this situation a pass kind of. I am still mad, but it usually takes more than one book for me to want to break up with an author.

Was listening to one of my favorite Grace Burrowes books today - Lady Louisa's Christmas Knight - and I'm reminded there's a little in this book that overlaps with the issues you had with the Miller book.

Spoiler:

The hero is a veteran of the Napoleonic War. He's adopted some English children left behind from soldiers' affairs with the local woman. It's the BIG SECRET (well, one of them - the heroine has one too) and he often thinks of himself as having numerous bastards. He fears her reaction to "his bastards". Other male characters know of them, and told their his (at least some believe so).

To make it even stranger, he's a man whose wife bore him two daughters from another man, and it's remarked on that he is fairly scrupulous about not directly calling them daughters (while implying that they are, nonetheless).

It makes no sense. It would be just as likely that he could be concerned that his has 2 daughters and home and 12 adopted children in a Children's Home that he supports - and OMG what will she think?

But other than that, I love both the hero and heroine in the story, and the take on this marriage-of-convenience. So I just roll my eyes whenever it comes up.

It always bothered me as a bit lazy, but it doesn't go as far as the one you described.

[library addict]

Weekly Report:

Read:
Just rereads again.

Purchased:

[sufue]

The Shelly Laurenston Bundle, containing The Beast In Him, The Mane Event, Big Bad Beast and Bear Meets Girl has dropped to $3.99 today as part of the US Kindle Daily Deal. It has been on sale in the past as well, so check carefully before you buy.

The Daily Deal for today (Sunday) includes 80+ science fiction books. I'm not quite sure I'd consider this science fiction, more like shifter romance, so I'm posting it here. In my quick trip through the six pages, I think I also spotted some other paranormal or shifter romance titles, but I'm not an expert on either science fiction or paranormal romance, so YMMV. But if that's your thing, you might take a quick look.

link to the Laurenston bundle: https://www.amazon.com/Shelly-Lauren...dp/B007XVV6PW/

link to the Daily Deal: https://www.amazon.com/b/ref=KCdls_b..._i=11552285011

[BuyMore]

Lake Silence (The World of the Others #1) by Anne Bishop is currently on sale at $1.99.

Amazon | Kobo

[library addict]

Because I apparently don't have enough projects I decided to add a new series column to my Calibre libraries for parent or sub series. I didn't want it to have numbers as I am happy with the way the crossover/spin-off series are numbered in the main series column. I just wanted to notate connected series (like Cindy Gerard's Bodyguards, Black Ops Inc, and One-Eyed Jacks are together, Christine Feehan's Drake Sisters, Sisters of the Heart, and Torpedo Ink are all set in Sea Haven, et.c and then conversely how Julie Miller has mini-series within her The Precinct series. Plus address multi-author series such as Fortune's Children and The Coltons where they are their gazillionth spin-off. )

Somehow this led me to me copying my entire main library and renaming it. And deleting all the books off my tablets/phone so that the new folder numbers will match. I KNOW this was totally unnecessary. But I make poorly thought out decisions at 3am when I have insomnia. And it has bothered me for the years that I didn't have any single digit numbered folders in my main Calibre library because I didn't know what I was doing when I first installed Calibre so deleted all of books multiple times wyu back when before I settled on a system I liked (I know that seems silly. Did I mention my poor decisions when I am sleep deprived?)

Anyway I know I will be happy once I finish redoing it all. And backing the new versions up in multiple spots. I am just freaking out as I love my Calibre and Calibre Companion and why did I create so much work for myself?

Isn't there a word in Japanese (or maybe it's in German) for obsessively organizing one's library?

Oh well. It could be worse. This is at least a "virtual" mess. I didn't pull off all of the print books on my shelve and literally box myself into a corner of my room. Been there, done that, have the T-shirt

[copyrite]

Sheesh that sounds like cleaning out closets!

I've gotten into genealogy since I did a DNA test last summer. When I can't fall back to sleep I ponder genealogy brick walls and what ifs. LOL

[FizzyWater]

Originally Posted by library addict

Because I apparently don't have enough projects I decided to add a new series column to my Calibre libraries for parent or sub series. I didn't want it to have numbers as I am happy with the way the crossover/spin-off series are numbered in the main series column. I just wanted to notate connected series (like Cindy Gerard's Bodyguards, Black Ops Inc, and One-Eyed Jacks are together, Christine Feehan's Drake Sisters, Sisters of the Heart, and Torpedo Ink are all set in Sea Haven, et.c and then conversely how Julie Miller has mini-series within her The Precinct series. Plus address multi-author series such as Fortune's Children and The Coltons where they are their gazillionth spin-off. )

*Fizzy covers her ears and sings "la lala lala" to not get any new, time-consuming ideas!*