Interlude - Bad Bad Buddies

Welcome, welcome - to the first flops of the century!

The Kiss of Deception by Mary Pearson

Here is all you need to know about this book - go here and read the review by Khanh, first of her name, mother of bunnies. She say's it all. 

This book, at least the little bit of it I could stomach, was absolute shit. The characters are flat and their motivations are purely plot-driven and barely make any goddamn sense. From the get-go, we have a love triangle, where a deadly assassin is disarmed by the spoiled, sheltered, but somewhere super skilled in everything she does princess, and the old-ass prince Lia was supposed to marry who turns out to be a sexy boi - AND SOMEHOW THESE TWO STUMBLE UPON EACH OTHER WITHIN THE FIRST IKE 4 PAGES. So silly. 

A Simple Favor by Darcy Bell

When I first started reading this book, I thought the writing was intentionally bad as a joke, a kind of purposefully simple prose by a particularly dense speaker. Blanket statements about moms being discriminated against, boldfaced and childlike generalizations, and even more child-like ramblings...I just figured the author was building a character through heavy use of that character's narration.

Nope.

After a chapter or so when this style was starting to get real old, I flew to the internet to see if there was an end in sight. Well, let me tell you - the answer is no, and the internet freaking HATES this book. I won't waste any more breath on this garbage, except to say this: if a book starts out with a reference from Strangers on a Train, you toss that book into the nearest body of water and never look back.

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

I just...I can't with Morgenstern, I really can't. I hated Night Circus for how utterly predictable it was, and I abandoned her newest for the opposite - I had no idea what the hell was going on or where it was all going, and I don't think Morgenstern did either.

I don't want to spend tooooo much time ripping on this book, but in general: characters are flat, motivations make little to no sense, references to pop culture are distracting, and plot is non-existent. Reddit use locksley_1989 says it all: "I thought it was a pandering, insipid, purple-verbose mess."