I read a MS, and now I’ve read a book! I like this vacation thing!
Book was Don’t Look Down by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer. Much fun, and they can definitely write, so I’m still thinking it’s the romance genre as a whole that doesn’t work for me. It was…well, it was like reading a Hardy Boys when I was fourteen. Quick and fun, but when you’re done you can’t really think why you were reading that book rather than another.
Or at least, I can’t. Maybe I’ll try that Elizabeth Bear book I got next time. But first I’ve got some fanfic to catch up on. (Reading. For now.)
I’m not a really big fan of romance for romance’s sake (that’s why my book formula tends to be 1 part personal + 1 part global.) And I’ve never read Jennifer Crusie (I have OPINIONS about her.) But the book you are talking about was published the same time she published a Harlequin novel, and I have this pet theory that writing Harlequins ruins you as a legitimate romance author.
Also I don’t like co-authored books. No matter how well edited they are, they always feel disjointed to me.
Hmm. I didn’t notice any of that. It certainly didn’t feel disjointed, though I’m not sure I ever did figure out what the bad guys were actually up to. Perhaps I just read way too fast…?
So maybe I went too fast to notice that, too. Though the Mageworld books were also co-written, and I re-read them and still didn’t notice an issue.
I have no idea whether my opinion is anything like yours, since I know we read widely different things, but Don’t Look Down is probably my least favorite Crusie novel, and the other one she wrote with Mayer (Agnes and the Hitman) is in my top three or four favorites of hers. So. </opinion>
The first chapter of that is at the end of Don’t Look Down. I may find it at some point–from that sample I don’t like Agnes as much as I liked Lucy–but I kind of want to give her/them another chance.
I try to stay away from co-authored books so maybe it’s getting better? Or is better in different genres? All I know is that
Tiger Burning Bright by Marion Zimmer Bradley, Andre Norton, and Mercedes Lackey left me with a bad taste in my mouth.
And it seems I’m getting way more critical of what I read over all.
I don’t remember much about Tiger Burning Bright except that only parts of it stood out to me–it wasn’t a great book over all. But then, I haven’t read a lot of “great” books, either.
Yes, me too, on being critical. They need to be able to write better than I do. Which, thankfully, many of them DO. XD