Review: Bound to Remember

Bound to Remember by Lola James

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



This book was another self-publishing nightmare for me. The premise of the story is more than a little overdone, but solid. The characters were likable enough, even if the hero's proper use of English left me reading his sentences as if he were Ferris' monotone teacher calling role in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off". Still, I felt at the beginning that it could have been a very pleasant, soak-in-a-bath fluffy read, had it not been for the over abundance of grammatical, spelling, and even typographical errors.

By the end of the first chapter I was pretty firmly convinced that the author had skipped the proof-reading and beta reading part of writing a book. Then I reached the 25% mark on the book and read the same opening paragraph to a mid-chapter break twice. Sure that I was mistaken I looked up, then back. No mistake was made on my part. I was actually reading the same opening paragraph twice. Apparently "select, type over selected text" didn't quite work...and NO ONE caught this before publication. I'm not sure how that happened, as my brain tripped over it like a chunk of broken sidewalk meeting with my always clumsy feet! Oh, and in case anyone reads this who has access to editing the story you can find this huge guffaw at Location 543 of 2090.

I forced myself to finish this book, just to see where it ended up. The further along I got the more choppy and rushed the story became. New bits of plot were introduced by just flinging them out there, with no lead up or explanations given. Finally the end arrived and I found myself scratching my head, wondering what on earth possessed me to stick this story out.

Had I paid for this book, rather than snatching it as a free offering on Amazon I would be LIVID right now. Because it was free, however, I'm left with nothing but self-loathing for wasting precious hours of my existence.

A little lesson, authors, if you please. Grammar MATTERS. Proper punctuation, too. As well as spelling, editing, proof-reading, and asking people to beta your stories. On the subject of beat readers I have a small piece of advice...do NOT ask a "friend" to beta your work. They are going to be more concerned with hurting your feelings than helping you produce a quality work of fiction. That's how love works...the person matters more than their dream most of the time. Instead, ask someone who you know will be brutal. It will save you the utter embarrassment of reviews like this one.



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