ever read a book so good or bad that its spoiled you from wanting to pick up another fearing it will suck?

yep... kinda where i am right now. I went to the library a few days ago and grabbed a few books to keep me company at night.. yes, i am a romance novel nerd. i am happily married to a healthy virile man and i still read romance novels. always have and always will.
Now one of these books sounded like a good read but Ach mein Gott!! this woman spent ONE WHOLE CHAPTER describing a scene, just ONE scene!!! it should have taken maybe five paragraphs, tops, to say "Lady Blahblahblah descended from the back of her Andalusian Stallion and ran into the house of her childhood friend in order to avoid her most persistent suitor only to collide with a big tall soldier carrying a cane. Surprised by the sudden collision the man dropped his cane, and the lady tripped over it and fell backwards, kicking him in the crotch on her way down"
and then this author proceeded to spend another four chapters describing the greeting of friends after the above mentioned scene. Five chapters to say "Well hello there Jimmy! aint seen you in many moons! sorry you got shot in the ass! oh by the way she hates you because you jilted her ten years ago! You sure she didnt kick your boys on purpose??"
i've always thought that if you're going to write a recap then you should keep it short and sweet. dont say "She walked up the lonely path to her house and met her childhood sweet heart. 'Hello James,' she said solemnly. 'How is your father doing after his ordeal?'" and then proceed to spend the next chapter describing the history of why the path was lonely and the ordeal of his father before you allow James to respond to her. after you've just enlightened me on War and Peace i've COMPLETELY forgotten about poor James!

Well.... i had to put that book down. the author was smothering me in details.. five chapters indeed! this book is as thick as two telephone books! i'm tempted to do the next reader of this book a huge favour and highlight all the USEFUL details. The other thing that annoyed me a great deal.. and then made me laugh in disbelief was the amount of times she used the word "Orbs" .... "his shiny dark orbs", "her watery orbs", "his great translucent black orbs"
and all of these orbs would appear after someone blinked their "beautiful misty green eyes" which of course was followed by about ten paragraphs of past history.

I read one other book like that and vowed i never would read another one like it again. Highland Spirits is the very same. i read it because it was supposed to be about a ghost, kidnapping, murder, intrigue, all the stuff that makes a good story. No. the ghost is .mentioned. in the first chapter. He walked across a misty moor followed by a grey deer hound and disappeared into the mists. and that was all we hear of the infamous ghost until the very end, the supposed climax, where he proved very helpful by tapping on the window of a locked bedroom, and the woman locked inside had to devise her own escape. *head desk*

So i picked up the next book sitting on my table... Julie Garwood... She did great with Saving Grace, first time i'd ever read her material and i loved it. but Shadow Music was just plain boring and ..well.. dumb. Before i read the middle of the book i half expected the leading male character to pound his chest and say "Me Tarzan!" i like a man of few words but that was ridicules.. But i believe in giving an author second chances to redeem herself. i thoroughly enjoyed Honor's Splendour. it had some cheesiness to be sure, but cant even compare it to Shadow Music. its like a totally different author!
Well i finished HS in only a matter of days then grabbed the next book. And here's the one that totally threw me out of the saddle and knocked the wind out of me.. so to speak. Virginia Henley's Undone. WOW! i'm not a huge fan of the Georgian period (same period as the aforementioned ghost story) and i nearly put it down when i read the dates. i just DONT like wigs and perfume.. it was such a filthy time period and oh so shallow.. but again, the first page grabbed me and wouldnt let go. I read it none stop, and every chance i got, until i finally got to the last page this evening. its been a long time since i've read a book that quickly unless its a Gardening or Outdoors Magazine. It made me laugh, sigh, angry, pissed off, i nearly cried, got pissed off again, then wanted to cheer, then pissed off again, then laugh and sigh at the ending.
Its more than just a romance. in fact the "romance" ends at chapter 18 and we dont get it back until chapter 36.. the final chapter. It was such a gut wrenching story. I had never read a "romance" novel like this before. It was dedicated to "every woman who has survived a bad marriage, one way or another". i admit when i read that i had my misgivings. for good reason too! the author killed off one of the better characters! and she did a great job at describing utter despair and hopelessness. It was bad in a good way. its easy to forget just how good women have it today. It wasnt THAT long ago that if a woman so much as gave her husband a dirty look then he was legally allowed to knock her senseless. they treated women like brood mares. and 1 out of 3 women died trying to give birth! Hell, animals had rights before women and children!

i usually tend to shy away from "hard knocks" books like this but i couldnt resist. it started out as a nice trip through the tunnel of love, but then it suddenly turned into the psychedelic chicken chopping part of the Willy Wonka boat road.... When i read a book i dont like being reminded of how hard life is because i'm already well aware of it. but gotta say i enjoyed the book in spite of it.

So anyhoo ... i've been ruined. i have one more book from the library and so far i'm not liking it. Romancing Mr Bridgerton..... blah... so far it sounds like Awkward girl has a crush on the most handsome boy in town... but he snubs her while she was listening behind a door. then she snubs him right back. he disappears for several years only to come back and decide the chubby pimple faced girl he snubbed is a raving beauty and he must have her!(same premise as the first book i mentioned up there actually)
I dont think i'm going to go any further with it. I just got two "new" books in the mail the other day... Johanna Lindsey's Marriage most Scandalous.. I read the excerpt for it in another of her books and liked what i saw.. so i paid a penny for it on amazon lol
the other book i got today is Breaking & Riding with military commentary by James Fillis.... i almost danced my way back to the house when i unwrapped this book I paid a penny for it also lol
The other two books i have coming are....... er.. Roman Cavalry something er other(highly recommended by my Roman soldier friends) and another King Arthur/History of Camelot type book. Reference books really. and again... cost me only pennies. I love Amazon! it makes my book addiction easier for others to cope with lol




So! having said all of that, i'm probably going to disappear again for a few days. I have a new duck pen to build, and a shelter for my goat as well as i need to get my mustang started properly with her training and keep consistent with it, not just a few minutes every other day. i need to spend at least an hour every day with her. I've also bought a home schooling book for my three year old. we're practicing lines and shapes and he'd be so good at it if he would only stop thinking about damned trains!!

Sorry to bore anyone, but i'm sure if you were truly bored you would have stopped reading long ago!


alright a wee bit of a tribute for the Virginia Henley book, Undone
Annie Lennox - [link]
Falco - [link]
The Duchess - [link]CYOzrh54qE