Wrecked

Wrecked by Priscilla West
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley for review.

Any published author deserves some praise simply for the effort it takes to write and publish a story. That said, some people just shouldn't be authors. It takes far more than a reader of romance novels to simply say "That looks easy! I bet I could write a romance novel" to tell a decent story.

Such is the case here. This book has so many problems it's hard to know where to begin.

First off, this author needs a good editor. There were punctuation mistakes, grammar mistakes and simple mistakes with regard to the way the dialogue was written. A good editor should have been able to clearly see the cliches in the plot and steer the author clear of them. A good editor would have told this author the truth.

Secondly, the characters. More than anything, they simply annoyed me. Lorrie, the main character, is an emotionally damaged girl who falls into a lake by mistake and is rescued by "the perfect guy." And then things go downhill from there. Lorrie is contrary, contradictory, deluded and at times just plain stupid. Her logic makes no sense. The dialogue she has with Hunter, the love interest, is unlike any I have ever heard (or had) and seemed uncharacteristic for your average college student. Her past experiences seemed to be painted on for effect. It is a stretch to call her one-dimensional.

Hunter, the love interest, didn't make any more sense than Lorrie did. The behaviour of these two characters was unbelievable and unrealistic, immature and silly. Their interactions were cliche and annoying. They were poorly drawn and flat, without depth or interest. For a character-driven story, it was a failure.

The plot (or lack thereof) was pretty much a joke. The passage of time was noted with info-dumps. At times the descriptions were surface observations and totally unnecessary. What could have been significant plot twists near the end were just sad attempts at making the characters more sympathetic. It was predictable and badly written; even gratuitous. I felt like I was reading a sappy story written by a starry-eyed high school sophomore girl.

I do hope this author does keep writing. But I sincerely hope that her next published work has the benefit of a great editor. I would venture a guess that she will need many, many more failed manuscripts before she has a successful story. Had I not agreed to review this book, I would have tossed it aside after I'd read about 25%. There was just no reason to care about cardboard characters in a pointless story.

Unfortunately, I cannot recommend this book. I'm rating it at one half star rounded up to one star for effort alone. I am not interested in reading the sequel. What a mess! Regretfully, this book's title is apt - it is indeed a Wreck.



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