What I’m Not Reading….

Every so often I get some dud books. I got an awful one with Dear Daughter: A Novel by Elizabeth Little.

The book was AWFUL. I went back to look at in on my online library and to Amazon. I was sure this had to be juvenile fiction. Nope it wasn’t. I really-really hope that this is not the path the authors are heading down. The book was full of bad language, put downs, in appropriate sexual comments…just awful. The book is suppose to be suspense…not that I saw but then again I did quit about half way through. I am sad I wasted that much time on it. YUCK, YUCK, YUCK!

Here’s what Amazon had to say about it, “Former “It Girl” Janie Jenkins is sly, stunning, and fresh out of prison. Ten years ago, at the height of her fame, she was incarcerated for the murder of her mother, a high-society beauty known for her good works and rich husbands. Now, released on a technicality, Janie makes herself over and goes undercover, determined to chase down the one lead she has on her mother’s killer. The only problem? Janie doesn’t know if she’s the killer she’s looking for.

Janie makes her way to an isolated South Dakota town whose mysteries rival her own. Enlisting the help of some new friends (and the town’s wary police chief), Janie follows a series of clues—an old photograph, an abandoned house, a forgotten diary—and begins to piece together her mother’s seemingly improbable connection to the town. When new evidence from Janie’s own past surfaces, she’s forced to consider the possibility that she and her mother were more alike than either of them would ever have imagined.

As she digs tantalizingly deeper, and as suspicious locals begin to see through her increasingly fragile facade, Janie discovers that even the sleepiest towns hide sinister secrets—and will stop at nothing to guard them. On the run from the press, the police, and maybe even a murderer, Janie must choose between the anonymity she craves and the truth she so desperately needs.

A gripping, electrifying debut novel with an ingenious and like-it-or-not sexy protagonist, Dear Daughterfollows every twist and turn as Janie unravels the mystery of what happened the night her mother died—whatever the cost.”

Somehow Amazon readers gave the book 3.8 stars. I’m giving it a one…as zeroes aren’t allowed.

I picked up another one that I’m debating about giving up on..Ruby: A Novel by Cynthia Bond. You can guess why I picked it right…the name of the book is Ruby-just like my Ruby dog. In my defense the description sounded good…and I don’t know if it’s bad. I’m hoping one of you has read it and can tell me whether I should continue with it or not.

Here’s what Amazon has to say about it, “Ephram Jennings has never forgotten the beautiful girl with the long braids running through the piney woods of Liberty, their small East Texas town. Young Ruby, “the kind of pretty it hurt to look at,” has suffered beyond imagining, so as soon as she can, she flees suffocating Liberty for the bright pull of 1950s New York. Ruby quickly winds her way into the ripe center of the city–the darkened piano bars and hidden alleyways of the Village–all the while hoping for a glimpse of the red hair and green eyes of her mother. When a telegram from her cousin forces her to return home, thirty-year-old Ruby Bell finds herself reliving the devastating violence of her girlhood. With the terrifying realization that she might not be strong enough to fight her way back out again, Ruby struggles to survive her memories of the town’s dark past. Meanwhile, Ephram must choose between loyalty to the sister who raised him and the chance for a life with the woman he has loved since he was a boy.

Full of life, exquisitely written, and suffused with the pastoral beauty of the rural South, Ruby is a transcendent novel of passion and courage. This wondrous page-turner rushes through the red dust and gossip of Main Street, to the pit fire where men swill bootleg outside Bloom’s Juke, to Celia Jennings’s kitchen where a cake is being made, yolk by yolk, that Ephram will use to try to begin again with Ruby. Utterly transfixing, with unforgettable characters, riveting suspense, and breathtaking, luminous prose,Ruby offers an unflinching portrait of man’s dark acts and the promise of the redemptive power of love.”

Amazon says 3.7 stars…I have no comment as I didn’t even get far enough along to make a real decision….it’s not catching me though. Has anyone read it??

Hopefully I’ll get back to picking some good books.