Sunday, August 10, 2014

Review: One Hot Second by Stacy Gail


Parker Radclyffe is up against a wall. Thorne Mansion, the mysterious Italianate castle she's come to Texas to restore, isn't the problem. No matter how intriguing the relic is, it's merely an ember compared to the blazing magnetism of its owner, Chandler Thorne.

When his family mansion burned down, Chandler had to watch over a hundred years of proud history go up in smoke. After more than a year, he finally has everything in place to rebuild, including a renowned conservation architect to oversee the restoration. But when he lays eyes on Parker he realizes he's gotten more than he paid for. Maybe more than he can handle.

Parker is a military brat who never sits still long enough to get burned. Chandler is her opposite, a man with deep roots and deeper family secrets. It won't be easy to find the common ground it takes to build a home together, but Chandler is a Thorne in every sense. He plans to stick with Parker until she sees that love is more than worth the risk.






Gosh. I just don't know where to start. I guess with what I first encountered. The copy that I received of this book did not state that it was an ARC. Now, if it was an ARC, I would expect some spelling errors, capitalization issues ... things like that. But this one didn't give that advisory and it was full and I mean FULL of capitalization issues. Not as many spelling or grammar problems but I'd say at least 2/3 of the book wasn't capitalized correctly and that includes names and even the beginning of sentences!! It drove me absolutely nuts. After 4 chapters of that craziness, my first thought was "Respect your reader enough to put forth some effort!!". Thinking back, that was a little harsh on the author and I took it back. At first. Hell. I don't know, maybe I'm becoming too picky with what I read these days.

Okay, moving on ... I liked the premise of the book. The feeling I got at the beginning of the book excited me because the main character (Parker) was super sassy and she had some funny moments, as did Chandler. I was about 15% into the novel and I was really enjoying it. Until ... (cue the suspenseful music) ... until I realized that this book was mostly inner dialogue.

This is how most of the book went:
24 pages of inner dialogue for Parker
2 sentences of conversation
17 pages of inner dialogue for Chandler
176 page sex scene
1 partial moan
98 page inner dialogue for Parker
5 paragraphs of conversation
And on, and on, and on....

And as Reese Witherspoon says in Sweet Home Alabama: No ... I am not shitting you. Okay, well maybe that was a bit exaggerated but it was honestly ridiculous. I would say that 3/4 of the book is inner dialogue and that isn't fudging the truth. The sad part is that I really REALLY enjoyed the conversations that Parker and Chandler would have with each other and others but there just wasn't enough of it. It was like sitting in my 7th grade Drama class, watching these people perform horrible monologues. Pure. Torture.

I don't think that I'll read anything by this author again. This was just too much for me.






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