BUYER BEWARE! BAIT-AND-SWITCH! BAIT-AND-SWITCH!
(25 May 2018: Attention, readers. Apparently Amazon did not think much of this review. If I were Amazon, I would be talking to the author and find out why the blurb did not match the book before banning me from leaving further reviews. Yep, you heard me right. I got this: "Sorry, we are unable to accept your review of this product. This product currently has limitations on submitting reviews. This may be because we detected unusual reviewing behavior on this product, or to maintain the best possible shopping experience." So they support fraud. Isn't Amazon fun?)
I read the reviews – both on Amazon and Goodreads – and I still don't believe so many people missed the BIG BOO-BOO's! (And I noticed how many ARC reads are out there with nary a verified purchase with the exception of me, but as of right now, Amazon has yet to post my review, and there may be a good reason why.)
You know that blurb? The one that tells you what the book's about? The one that gets your juices flowing so that you want to buy it in the first place? Well, I believe in truth, honesty, and integrity, and somehow, the writer totally forgot about any of these three requirements. What makes me even more incredulous is that despite all the FIVE STARS this long novella is getting, NO ONE even mentioned these problems!! Here's what I'm talking about, and it's a quote from Amazon AND Goodreads:
"She gave me her body, all I gave her was a lie.
My secrets are hurting us, and I have to tell.
I don't care if I'm her boss.
I'm making her employee of the month.
My billions buy whatever I want.
And right now I want Cassie.
If she finds out I'm her undercover boss, I could lose my company.
But maybe she's worth it.
An airline pilot and a single mom,
Her hot curves and sassy mouth drive me crazy.
We got bumped on our flight back and spent a hot night together.
Touching... tasting... submitting.
Now she's pregnant with my twins.
I have to stay away, but everything is pushing me close.
F*ck the money. I won't let my family go.
I've already marked Cassie as mine,
Now I just need to show her who's really boss.
I'd rather lose my company than lose my family."
First paragraph, third line: "I'm her boss." No, Ronan is her co-pilot, NOT her boss. His family might own lots of stock in the failing Northwest Airlines company (interesting the author would choose the name of an already bankrupt-and-dead airlines, but that's not a violation of someone's license) but not enough to take the company over. In fact, he got himself hired in because he was bored and he wanted to know why the company smelled like last week's diapers.
First paragraph, fourth line: "I'm making her Employee of the Month." Yeah, right. And he's only been employed for less than a month and has much less seniority than her, and he has the authority to do that? If this was meant to be a funny joke, I'm not laughing.
Second paragraph, third line: "If she finds out I'm her undercover boss, I could lose my company." Again, he isn't her boss. If anything, he's a spy for his family. And he's going to lose what company? He doesn't even own one. He is a beneficiary of his family's company now run by his brother who can't believe his playboy brother is actually working when he could party all night and sleep all day. And there's another problem. It's only mentioned... maybe twice... that he was a playboy and a man whore. The way this writer wrote it, nothing could be further from the truth. I don't see playboys and man whores as being the listening type, allowing the woman to take the initiative, and really wanting to have a relationship with a female... Gah!! If he's going to be is party boy toy, then the writer must make the reader believe it! Hell, the writer's gotta write it rather than just mention it despite how she represents the character. Playboys are selfish bastards. Ronan was far more selfless.
Second paragraph, fifth line: "An airline pilot and a single mom..." That she isn't. Yes. she is a pilot. No, she isn't a single mother. To be a single mother, you have to give birth first. She doesn't find out she's pregnant until towards the end of the book, and even at the end of the book, she STILL isn't officially a mother (but her water's broken!).
Second paragraph, seventh line: "We got bumped on our flight back and spent a hot night together." Uh... nope! They have sex more than just the one time... but they do only have sex once without a condom. Yep!
Second paragraph, ninth line: "Now she's pregnant with my twins." *buzz!* Wrong! She only has a singling. Where did this extra baby come from in this blurb? Maybe the ob/gyn miscounted on the real-time, 3D super-advanced ultrasound now available these days. Or maybe we have a case of "Disappearing Twin Syndrome" (a totally real medical problem).
Second paragraph, last line: "Now I just need to show her who's really boss." Did the writer actually read her own book??? The whole deal about Ronan and Cassie is that Cassie wants to call ALL the shots in any relationship! Ronan smartly picked up on that and let her do so (within reason). He never did any CAVE MAN overtures or chest beating. He allowed her to take the lead unless it would have landed both of them in really hot water, and he did so in a very subtle, subdued way to bamboozle her to accept his actions without triggering her "Ice Maiden" persona.
Third paragraph, first (and only) line: "I'd rather lose my company than lose my family." Again, he never had a company to begin with. He never found himself in the quandary of having to choose between his company or his family. Again, he never knew he even had a new family (Cassie and the twins – sorry, I meant just the one fetus).
Now you see why I am so angry? And this negatively exposes the "quality" of the ARC reviews because NO ONE even mentioned any of these contradictions! Should I trust another ARC reader after this mess? Apparently not.
Here's a good example of some of the mechanical errors I found in the text: Did this novella have an editor who knows the difference between “past” and “passed”?? ("Past" is ALWAYS a noun. Always.)
I found the author switching back and forth between “Ryan” and “Ronan”. Come on! What a rookie mistake for a book that has been published! I could see this in an ARC, but a released book?? Did the author upload the correct version?
I also saw the same word written twice in sequence which doesn’t make sense. This should had been caught by an editor, if there ever was one. Frankly, I'm inclined to think there might had been one because the writer didn't do the usual errors that I see in books published without a thorough perusal by an editor. Maybe not a very good one...
When I look back on the book blurb and then consider the actual book, it's like we're talking about two totally different books! The actual one wasn't too bad, but being a novella, it lacked "meat" on the bones of this story. The end came way too quickly with probably one of the slickest deus ex machinas I've seen in a while. (Yes, it was one, but it might not be that obvious to others.) And what about Sally, Cassie's disabled sister? Whatever happened to her? She's not even at the wedding?! (No, I'm not spoiling anything for anyone. You guys already were told there would be an HEA.) I would love to forget about Cassie's and Sally's horrible mother, but even she deserved more air time. And she's the same old character template but even more abbreviated. To be honest, there was so much more room for fleshing out this story with better detail, not to mention adding riveting subplot upon subplot, but I guess the writer and I weren't reading the same book.
This is the first time I've ever seen the book blurb and the actual story be so not on the same planet. Thus I stand by my bait-and-switch claim. I had been straddling the fence on whether to buy it or not, yet the thought of twins that was what teetered me to buy it. Shame on you, Tara Wylde! I've been fooled before but never this badly. I will not be reading any more of your material in the future.
Won't be fooled again.