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I'm insanely addicted to Good Reads, but may have made the mistake of allowing people from Facebook to see my books. Considering my current erotica/romance novel addiction...
mysteries wouldn't be so bad. But people are weird about the romance/erotica genre, for admittedly good reasons.
Finished Rainshadow Road by Lisa Kleypas - which was a sweet romance. Best part was the descriptions of stained glass making and all the information on vineyards. The family drama was rather cliche. I've grown bored of dysfunctional family drama. There's little to no sex in this book, and it is admittedly better written than 50 Shades and Bared to You, yet oddly not quite as entertaining.
May be my mood.
Another problem with Good Reads? I can't remember half the books I've read or the titles, the one's I do remember I can't quite find on the site. Also, is it just me or are there a heck of a lot serial fantasy/paranormal romance novels being published? Ugh. I'm not a fan of serial novels. Unlike tv shows - where you get the next episode fairly quickly, serial novels make you wait forever for the next segment...and by the time you get it? You've pretty much forgotten the last one. I get that everyone wants to be the next Stephanie Meyer, JK Rowling - and clearly publishers love serials, because guaranteed sale. But personally? I found them poorly written and rarely evolving the characters. Often inconsistent. OR filled with plot holes. And getting more outlandish with each chapter. With few exceptions.
So not a serial novel fan. Again, with a few exceptions - Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles, Harry Potter, His Dark Materials, Chronicles of Narnia, Lord of the Rings,
and The Hunger Games come to mind - but those were short serials with a definite arc.
These paranormal romantic fantasy or plain fantasy/sci-fi serials...just look like cheesy take-offs on Twilight. Although, I'll include mystery novelists in this category as well.
With few exceptions, the paranormal mysteries and the regular mystery serials have similar problems - a lead character who barely changes, romantic entanglements that are either repetitive or drawn out too long, and repetitive mysteries...after about the fifth book, you forget which ones you've read - they all begin to blur together, and you wonder if the writer is just repeating the same set-up with slight variations. (I'm looking at you Janet Evanovich, Sara Paretsky, Patricia Cornwall, Kellerman, Robert B. Parker, Ross D. McDonald, Ian Fleming, David Baldacci, Tom Clancy, Laurelle K. Hamilton and sigh, Charlain Harris (who actually manages to get worse each book she puts out - I gave up after book 5 of the Stackhouse mysteries - making me wonder about the publishing industry).) Jim Butcher and Kim Harrison are the only two exceptions I've found to date.
mysteries wouldn't be so bad. But people are weird about the romance/erotica genre, for admittedly good reasons.
Finished Rainshadow Road by Lisa Kleypas - which was a sweet romance. Best part was the descriptions of stained glass making and all the information on vineyards. The family drama was rather cliche. I've grown bored of dysfunctional family drama. There's little to no sex in this book, and it is admittedly better written than 50 Shades and Bared to You, yet oddly not quite as entertaining.
May be my mood.
Another problem with Good Reads? I can't remember half the books I've read or the titles, the one's I do remember I can't quite find on the site. Also, is it just me or are there a heck of a lot serial fantasy/paranormal romance novels being published? Ugh. I'm not a fan of serial novels. Unlike tv shows - where you get the next episode fairly quickly, serial novels make you wait forever for the next segment...and by the time you get it? You've pretty much forgotten the last one. I get that everyone wants to be the next Stephanie Meyer, JK Rowling - and clearly publishers love serials, because guaranteed sale. But personally? I found them poorly written and rarely evolving the characters. Often inconsistent. OR filled with plot holes. And getting more outlandish with each chapter. With few exceptions.
So not a serial novel fan. Again, with a few exceptions - Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles, Harry Potter, His Dark Materials, Chronicles of Narnia, Lord of the Rings,
and The Hunger Games come to mind - but those were short serials with a definite arc.
These paranormal romantic fantasy or plain fantasy/sci-fi serials...just look like cheesy take-offs on Twilight. Although, I'll include mystery novelists in this category as well.
With few exceptions, the paranormal mysteries and the regular mystery serials have similar problems - a lead character who barely changes, romantic entanglements that are either repetitive or drawn out too long, and repetitive mysteries...after about the fifth book, you forget which ones you've read - they all begin to blur together, and you wonder if the writer is just repeating the same set-up with slight variations. (I'm looking at you Janet Evanovich, Sara Paretsky, Patricia Cornwall, Kellerman, Robert B. Parker, Ross D. McDonald, Ian Fleming, David Baldacci, Tom Clancy, Laurelle K. Hamilton and sigh, Charlain Harris (who actually manages to get worse each book she puts out - I gave up after book 5 of the Stackhouse mysteries - making me wonder about the publishing industry).) Jim Butcher and Kim Harrison are the only two exceptions I've found to date.