Adrianna's Worst Reads from 2010

Read my review of Under Man's Spell by J. K. Muta: Men = Evil.

The concept was there. Unfortunately, the story and characters were not.

This book is about women in Tanzania and all the hardships they face while fighting for equal gender rights, both in rural and city areas of the country. I was expecting a writing style and similar themes like those found in novels by literary giants Chinua Achebe and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Perhaps my expectations were too high, but when an author can't inspire any type of emotion in the reader, then there's a connection problem. The scope was too large for one story, and all the characters were flat. There were no honorable or "good" male characters, and the setting/plot were boring. I couldn't even admire any of the female characters that were obviously the focus and heroines of the piece. It felt like J. K. Muta was writing about topics she knew very little about. Her writing read more like a business textbook than a creative fictional story.

The only silver lining from this book is that I discovered websites like The Policy on Women in Development in Tanzania. In the end, Under Man's Spell is amateur writing that most readers will dislike.
See the full review, "Men = Evil".

Read my review of Nothing Personal by Elisa Adams: A second-rate romance, Nothing Personal.

This is a romance novel about an older woman and a younger man. It's a contemporary romance, so I hoped the author would tackle certain social stigmas, to name a few:

• Women's aging
• Career women versus homemakers
• The attraction of self-confident and beautiful older women

Unfortunately, the book was your typical fluff romance: no depth and it maintained all stereotypes, both about women and romance novels. 

While the situation was mildly amusing and caught my attention, the characters and plot were boring. Even the intimate scenes left the reader yawning. Nothing Personal also contained a pet peeve of mine: editing errors. It's simple laziness when publishers and editors leave these types of mistakes in final copies that make their way to bookstores across the world.
See the full review, "A second-rate romance, Nothing Personal".

Read my review of Night World No. 1: Secret Vampire; Daughters of Darkness; Spellbinder by L.J. Smith: Only Slightly Better than the Twilight Saga.

And there you have it in a nutshell: This book is only slightly better than the first book of the Twilight Saga.

This collection includes three stories by L.J. Smith: Secret Vampire (book 1), Daughters of Darkness (book 2), and Spellbinder (book 3). Each book focuses on different aspects of the Night World be it vampires, witches, or werewolves. Although none of the stories are connected, some of the characters make appearances in books 2 and 3. 

The entire concept of the Night World is fascinating because Smith creates a "dark" world for teens and mature children. I like that she tries to be unique in her approaches to these timeless legends. However, the key word is "tries." The first book, Secret Vampire, is by far the weakest being almost an exact copy of Twilight. It's predictable, and I couldn't stand the female protagonist Poppy. Smith's strongest book in the collection is Daughters of Darkness, mainly because it contains a coven of witches. I'm a sucker for strong women that stick together. Spellbinder was perhaps the most interesting read, but I didn't enjoy the relationship between the two cousins. 

Overall, I have a feeling that a lot of younger readers will enjoy this collection, especially fans of Stephanie Meyer. Don't let the huge number of pages fool you either. It's a relatively fast read if you can get into the stories. It wasn't for me, though. I've been finding most YA reads lacking either in style, content, or character development.
See the full review, "Only Slightly Better than the Twilight Saga".