The last few reads and DNFs of 2012

Between work and the holiday, not much reading was done in the last couple weeks of December, and the few books I attempted were…less than edifying.

1.  Wish List by K.A. Mitchell.  Holiday novella that I liked well enough, although the underlying premise didn’t thrill me.  B-/C+

2.  O Come All Ye Kinky anthology, edited by Sarah Frantz.  BDSM themed, really enjoyed most of the stories (and I expect to post a review of sorts tonight!)  B+/B.

3.  Secret Light by Z.A. Maxfield.  A Hannukah novella set not long after WWII, I liked the setting of this book but was not engaged by the characters or the romance.  C

4.  The Boys and the Bees by Mari Donne.  DNF

5.  Rentboy by Fyn Alexander.  Weird POV shifts, creepy narrator, unbelievable plot, and so many other things wrong with this train wreck.  Unprotected sex with someone believed to be a sex worker because of True Love was the cherry on top of the ridiculousness sundae.  D

6.  Ethan, Who Loved Carter by Ryan Loveless.  Liked the idea of this book, bored by the execution.  DNF

7.  The Triathlete by Ascher Halden.  I’m trying to figure out if the publisher is a new e-press or just a vanity publisher.  This book could have been good…but it read (what I read of it, at least) like the very rough first draft.  If an editor of any sort was involved in its production, I would be shocked.  The pacing was horrendous, as were the POV and POV shifts.  Punctuation was misused pretty egregiously.  Let’s and lets are not interchangeable, nor are won’t and wont, but both were misused indiscriminately in the portion I read.  In the end, I gave up.  DNF

 

I think I’m going on an m/m hiatus for a while, because the stretched-thin plots, the overdone sex, the clumsy issue-handling, and the lack of editorial polish that I’m seeing in what’s out there are boring to me as a reader and offensive as a consumer.