Just Finished

I just finished The Diva's Guide To Selling Your Soul by Kathleen O'Reilly and I decided that maybe a D+ would be a good grade. Another chick-lit, woman's fiction or just plain fiction book, whatever.

I'm really not all that sure what I liked about this book. I found that it was written well although at times I wasn't sure who was talking and with so much going on I would lose track of characters. The only other thing is that in my previous blogging I had mentioned that I thought I knew who some of the characters were. I was right except for one and for that alone, I am okay. (I thought the 'hero' was an archangel but his name was Nathaniel not Gabriel or Michael - not sure why that got caught in my head) I guess it would be wrong to admit I really only finished the book so that I could at least blog my 'meh' feelings about it. What a goal. I'm setting the bar high folks.

I keep telling myself that maybe it isn't fair for me to judge non-romance books but I think I am smart enough to know a good read from a bad read. No matter what genre. I mean, I was once an Anita fan girl (till book 10 - then I just became a fan - still reading and apparently Edward shows up in the next book so I guess I'm in for that one too and no, you should not subtract intelligence points for this! I know the series has lost the magic ... or is that gained too much magic?) which is from the horror genre, although I did skip the really gory stuff. I have also read Janet Evanovich and know that maybe her Best work is now behind her (books 4 through 6 rocked).

Just to be safe I'll mention that I have read Sharon Shinn's Archangel which I did not like although I finished it (Gah, I just started to read the blurb for it and remembered how promising it sounded but, it blew). I have read An Interview With A Vampire and I waited endlessly for the main character to just walk into the sun already. Nope, he preferred to whine and the ending smacked of the 'you must read my next book to find out what happens next' that I was appalled beyond my natural ability to be appalled. I mean, it takes a lot to get to me. Oh, last one, The Lovely Bones, ( I love the cover of this book) I really liked it even though things got a bit wonky at the end. By this I mean there was a surreal happening that stretched the boundaries of the story. That said, it was so different from anything that I had read so, well done.

So yeah, I can tell good stuff from bad and well, Diva's Guide was just boring.

It was a great premise and I even read the excerpt of the book before I bought it. Hell, that's why I bought the book as I would never have picked this up without that. Hmm, now that I think about it I must have linked to this book from someone's blog. Not placing blame or nothing.

Okay, be more precise. Let's see. V is the heroine or whatever and she has sold her soul to the devil and she is one happy chick. Now, don't get me started on the whole, what was it like, how did you decide, did it not cross your mind that you wouldn't have to sell your soul if you were already going to hell? I mean, this came up a few times. 'Well, I was going to hell anyway so may as well have a great life'. Yeah, V doesn't claim to be bright but she doesn't realize just how stupid she is.

Lucy is the Devil and what does she so for punishment? She makes people's thighs or ass get bigger. ::Groan:: C'mon your the devil! One of her scarier tricks, she makes a fire emit tormented screams for all of a few seconds. Please. That's just the sound of moisture being vapourized from the log - oops, there goes that train of thought, but you know what I'm talking about right? Lucy is the manipulative bitch you have met one too many times in your life and by the age of 38, you can see that mess coming at you in your sleep. Not so for the women of this story. There was only one character that I could understand and even then, WTF.

Finally, I'll just mention a few more things in the WTF category. Okay, so you have these levels of power and they are vague but one of these powers/levels let's V erase a memory from someone.

Permanently.

Hmm, great power, maybe you should use it to, I don't know, fix the mess your ex husband has gotten himself into. Hey, someone gets a cool (or uncool) power and the reader is going to remember it! Yeah, V would have had to do some running around to make the justice department forget the charges against her ex but, she could have done it.

Why couldn't she have done this? There was this part about the magic not lasting for more than a few minutes. In fact, this info is everywhere. Uh huh, check, information received. So, where did that spell come from that lasts forever? Yep, the writer broke one her own rules so it was definitely in the realm of possibility (at least, to the reader!). Oh, and the devil can read minds so wouldn't this mean she is all knowing? Apparently not because she still got played. Un. Cool. Would have been better if the devil had limited powers like a vampire. Dang, the more I think about it, V was a level nine by the time she had the showdown with the devil and one of V's powers is mind reading. How come she never tried on the devil? Hey trying and getting blocked would at least let the reader know that V was at least trying to use her powers to foil the devil.

Yikes, I realize I could go on so I'll stop here. The book didn't work for me and apparently I hold some residual anger towards it ::shrug::. If you pick it up, I wish you luck. You can let me know what you think and if you love it, I'll try not to subtract IQ points from ya ;)

Okay, I'm off to read a Diana Palmer. Oh, go ahead. Subtract away.