If you know me at all, you know that above writing, I am an avid reader. The indie wave has been a blessing to my mind and a curse to my poor warped bookshelf as it sets overloaded. I love the classics- many of my favorites I have read twenty times or more. Some of the indie authors are grabbing me the same way.. In that same breath, some classics I consider to be overrated rubbish that someone proclaimed to be a literary diamond and people nodded and agreed instead of opening the cover to see. I think the same thing happens in the indie world. There are some authors that have serious indie street cred, and I try- at least three times to find this ahhhhh-ha moment within the pages of their books and it is like a bad joke I do not get. I am not an official reviewer and amazon does not seem to think authors should read and review- I guess we just write blindly without looking outside of our own words. I am going to start blogging my own reviews and showing some author love but before I do this- I am going to talk about a nameless book.
It has a name, but I will leave it out. it is a great book- but I have some issues as a reader, writer and a woman….. First off, I do want to say that this author is one of my favorite indie authors and he is making a great name for himself. He is multi-genre and has a couple of wonderful series out. One series, I adore because the main female role does what I would love to do for a living. She is a M.E. She is darker, sarcastic, smart, sexy doesn’t deal with b.s. and a single mom…I can relate to all of these. LOL. 😉 This is not a romance book- the romance is back story- a side note- but it comes into play often. I highly enjoy that. A crossbred genre almost. What I don’t like is this MC, the male- is brilliant, sarcastic, and over thinker- an overall hell of a guy you want to be pals with. But…. It is like his penis leads him around dinging like a metal detector on the beach. You can tell this is not the core of this MC, come on, I write erotica, I am a firm believer that everyone thinks about sex more than they admit.. Except me. I am an A.D.I.D.A.S. chick all the way. Proud of it. It doesn’t mean I want to ride ever pogo stick in town. It means I don’t settle and I want the biggest fastest most bad ass pogo stick around and I wanna ride it all day and night. This MC, throughout the series, boings with every smart ass dominant woman in a skirt. Giggity Giggity. These recent release in the series, I am even more drawn to, as my Native American roots were thrilled to see leading roles in a novel. But this M.E., who is Native as well- another reason I love her- she is emotionally put through hell by the MC and is almost just a shadow of the book.
Basically, you know the MC adores her. You know it is where he finds his comfort, but he previously hurt her- so what does he do? He goes off her radar. Instead of swallowing his pride, he simply throws her into the realm of an ignoring silence.
Now this M.E. is sexy, strong, independent- she doesn’t NEED a man, but as hard as she tried to not,she did feel for this guy and was there for him in the first of the series- and in this book he states going four months without speaking to her- silence- because he hurt her- and honestly, used her daughter. Not something any single mom takes lightly, especially not one with a backbone and self esteem like this chick.
The MC thinks in the book of how well, he excuses himself for the silence of four months because he hurt her. He was scared, not of her, just scared. He hoped she understood that. He hoped she understood that. He hoped she understood that? How is she supposed to understand that? Not only is she the sweetest thing he ever knew, damned sexy, independent, a great mom, brilliant- but OH, she should read minds as well?
He thinks of picking up the phone to call her- but doesn’t. Just silence. Oh yeah, she gets it. How does that possibly NOT make sense? She has to feel it every time he thinks about calling her and smiles even though she is not worth just doing it.
In his defense, he does come back around. He woos her. He is smooth and sexy, as we covered so when he comes back, all is well- but…but…. he comes back because he needs her. Not her smiles or her friendship but her professional opinion. Help on a case. Is that it? He just needed to reach out her to use after so many months? So what if he did not need her? Month five- month six- forever silent?
Unlike the first in the series where he has another woman and is hot for another as well, beyond her- at least in this book, he gives other men from her past a role. One happens to be a fun loving super sweet ex….Women tend to think of that sort and may be a possible reconnect. The other is super fine. Hotter than the MC. Oh, is he sexy and strong and sigh……. but oh yeah, one of them gets killed and the other turns out to be the bad guy. This poor female…. This romance…. and she is mad, she does ignore his call, but of course gives in. He only calls when the one guy with common sense, a mutual friend verbally high-fives his face, letting him know how dumb he is being and how unworthy of such an amazing woman he really is. This middle man, a cop….. a guy that sees her worth and tells his buddy how dumb he is being. Isn’t that man talk for, “If you don’t hit that, I so will.”?????
The book ends with them together. Happy. He knows he adores her, and bless her heart, she adores his self consumed ass. She even wants to go to a coffee shop with him just because he went there with another woman that gave him one of his instant hard ons.
Awwwww.
(Gag)
Don’t get me wrong. This is a GREAT series for the genre- the romance is just a background- a heavy background- but still not the main story. Maybe I am just bitter because I can relate to the character. I know what the silence feels like and I know women cannot mind read. I know with every day, this poor fictional character thinks of this ass. She knows he is cocky and self consumed, but she isn’t mad to the point of being done- she just wants to be done right. Here this guy is, knows her daughter, been a part of her life- someone to look up to- and he just goes about life like neither exist until HE gets ready? No nice gifts, no poetry- Just here I am, lady- You’re welcome.
I hope the next book in the series she bucks up- I hope she is like, “Sure, I loved and missed you but we are in the same circles- I know you went on with your everyday- so why would I be alone and waiting by the phone?” I hope it comes out that this strong awesome chick did break down, maybe she needed him and he was not there- but the mutual friend was – and she cried on him over how badly she missed this self consumed man and I hope this mutual friend took in her smell and before he knew it, he was in her, making her forget, if even for a night that this jerk was off getting rock hard over anything in a skirt while she ached for him. I hope mutual friend makes this chick scream. I hope she marks him so badly with scratches he claims it was from a rough housing drunk arrest. Above all, I hope it comes out that she put one hell of a tension release hurting on this mutual friend, like the MC would know she could and I hope from that point the MC has his own awkward moments around them and I hope he knows he best swallow that pill he created and then his stomach turns with the thought of the word swallow because he wonders if she did that as well. And yeah. She did. Like a boss.
Okay- there is my rant on a book I truly did enjoy. I would give it 4 stars if Amazon allowed me- but only take one for the crappy way this dude handles his heart because his writing is simply wonderful. Maybe it should be 5 stars for the reality aspect of a fucked up romance, but no- it is just proof of how easy things could be if people communicated. This MC has how much education and life experience and he cannot properly communicate… Yeah. that takes a star away. Now I am ready for the next in the series and my girl better get treated properly before I take another star from my review of the un-named book. LOL.
