It’s Monday! Time for SBD!
One of my goals for the year was to SBD at least twice a month, but I’ve been slacking on that for a variety of reasons, mostly because I’ve been struggling with the reading. March is almost over and I’ve read a grand total of five books. Five! Despite having almost 2 hours of guaranteed reading time while on the train! One of those books was Brockmann’s Breaking the Rules (meh) which I wrote about last week, and another was an earlier SBD, Anna and the French Kiss. A third was good enough, River Marked, and merited a post on cover art. Which leaves two last books for discussion: I am J by Cris Beam and Why I Love Geeks by T.A. Chase.
I Am J was an impulse buy for in-flight reading. It is a YA GLBT book: its protagonist, J, is a transboy, born a girl physically but struggling with his gender identity. The book is well-written and appears to be well-researched, and it was worth the cover price. It gave me a glimpse in the the angst of a teenager whose typical adolescent issues are amped up by a factor of 1,000 because of the feelings of being in the wrong body and not fitting in. The book ends with the protagonist in a relatively safe and good place, looking forward to college and whatever might come next. But I doubt I’ll re-read it, and I’m not sure why, other than to say that I didn’t fall in love with the narrative. Solid B.
Why I Love Geeks was another impulse buy, and it was a rip off. The price ($7) was ridiculous — the word count was less than that of a Harlequin Presents ($4.50). In terms of the ebook editing or formatting, there were a variety of typos in which similarly spelled (but WRONG) words were used. The prose read like fan fiction: not particularly polished. In fact, I’ve read much more lyrical fan fiction, thx. The suspense plot was unbelievable and over-complex, involving Chinese business, Russian spies, and an improbable pharmaceutical that makes people invisible. [Don’t even get me started on the biochemistry. Even as a science idiot, I had to roll my eyes. I’m sure if The Biochemist attempted to read any of the “sciency” sections, she’d have a coronary. Because biochemistry is all about fast results and jewel-colored liquids bubbling in beakers.] One of the heroes was supposed to be a cute geek; his cuteness was exemplified by his filterless babble, which was apparently endearing. Or so readers were told repeatedly. Because there was a lot of telling and very little showing. The other hero was a cliche — a taciturn, macho cop, from a long line of cops, with a big, nosy, interfering family. Seriously, I want my money and the two hours I spent trying to read this mess back. F.
Shuffling through a book-less desert 
That’s the problem I had with T. A. Chase’s other books (I read two so far). Similar spelt but wrong words. Continuity errors and plot holes, some big enough for a stampede of elephants to gallop though. Odd characterisations. I believe in giving authors three chances, but your review pretty much confirms that there’s no point in giving Chase the third chance.
Five books in a month? Ouch. How about Tamara Allen’s latest, The Only Gold? I have been hearing some good words about it. I liked her previous book so I plan to get this even though one bloke on the cover looks very much like my old teacher, which isn’t good. 😀
Maili (FiaQ)
I feel kind of disconnected, didn’t realize Tamara Allen had a new book out. I think I still have Whistling in the Dark TBR. Somewhere on my computer’s hard drive. I should look for it.
Can’t remember if I’ve read other Chase books, but if the geek book is typical, I won’t be reading more. It felt like an early draft rather than a polished, finished product.
You should read Whistling in the Dark when you can. I didn’t know about the new release until Ann Somerville mentioned it on Twitter.
“It felt like an early draft rather than a polished, finished product.”
Exactly. It occasionally felt as if Chase wrote and submitted it in one go. I still wonder if it’s the norm for Chase, though. One more try? Hm…
I’ve found Whistling in the Dark. Which I have in PDF — I didn’t think I owned any PDF ebooks. How odd. But I’ll give it a try over the weekend.
A free book by T.A. Chase was my first m/m, I think, so I’ve given her more tries than most authors, but the work is so uneven. Not that well written and the dialogue can be pretty bad as well.
Sunita
Which are the less uneven books? Are there any that you would recommend?