Because in the first three chapters we're tortured with Psycho-POV more than three times longer than the hero and heroine's POVs combined. On top of that, before the story has really started, before we find out more about the heroine even (other than what we know about them from the first two books) we have to suffer through an exceedingly long, excruciatingly explicit rape and murder scene. Why in the name of all that's fucking holy was that necessary?

It wasn't. All of it just made me want to flounce this book. I might have if I weren't indisposed at the time. But I made it through the first two books so I want to know if I'm right about who the killer is. Even my hopes the heroine wouldn't be as annoying and bitchy as she was in the last book have been dashed so far. I hope it gets better.  I hate it when books make me all ragey. Especially right off the bat. 

That's a lot of angry tags for such a short book. (Just Necessary Women as a stand alone audiobook.) 

Damn train wrecky accident. I accidentally hit the "borrow" button when I was looking at this book instead of adding it to my list so I could look into it later. So, because it took up one of my borrow slots for the month I listened to it. It's 20 minutes, what's the worst that could happen? 

Welp.

Graphic enough incest, cannibalism, and an unsurprisingly fucked in the head little girl. 

Enough said.

Seriously, fuck everything. I need to take another shower. 

OA Comment: Wow. So many people who need to fuck right off. Particularly Anne Rice's unhinged ass. I don't know what Excessica is either but I'll be sure never to give them any money. Good for the authors who pulled their books. 

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The digest version, I think:

Jenny Trout speaks her mind about a racist/rapist book.  Jenny Trout encourages readers to let booksellers know how vile the book is and encourage them not to sell it.

Anne Rice puts pressure on Excessica, who is apparently (I didn't do any real research; it's late and I'm tired) a publisher, not to publish Jenny Trout's book in a boxed set, Bad Boy Next Door.

Excessica caves to Anne Rice's bullying and pulls Jenny Trout's book from the boxed set.

Jenny Trout's fellow authors stand up to Anne Rice's bullying and pull their own books from the boxed set.

I don't know who or what Excessica is, but I don't like them and I won't support them.

They're spineless worms.

With the imminent release of the movie adaptation of that Twilight fan fiction people will not shut up about it and it seems like people are suddenly falling all over themselves to defend it and its writer. 'It's not her fault if people can't see it's abusive.' 'I don't like it but I can see what others see in it.' 'Abuse is NBD, people, jeez!' 'People just hate anything that elevates female sexuality!' Oh, God, you guys, can we please not?

You know, if this were an actual book I'd maybe feel that way as well. Hell, Twilight was a steaming pile of abusive crap and I was still able to find the fun in it. This, however, is a different story. There's nothing fun about this fic. There's nothing fun about the content or what it's done in the publishing industry.

1. This is fan fiction, not a book. One that is tied heavily to the source material and takes directly from it in many places. Really. Please don't lose sight of that fact.

Long list of links about this thing, but there is a whole section for you to explore the similarities and outright instances of directly taking from the source text.

This is not okay and should not be okay with anyone. Especially real authors who spend their time writing their own characters and stories. The slew of fanfics picked up by publishers in the wake of the success of this thing is not okay. Just think about your book or the books of writers who slogged their way through their own work sitting in slush piles on editors' desks or getting rejection letters while those editors are trolling fanfiction.net and AO3 for stories written from other people's work.

Even if you're going to forgive everything else wrong with this fanfic, if you are on board with how unethical and wrong this is please don't shrug it off.

2. This fic is not a romance. It's just not.

Also, the "hero" of Fifty Shades of Grey does something at the end that is not redeemable by romance novel standards. I won't spoil the story for the three people who haven't read it yet, but bottom line: Not a romance novel, not a romance hero. And that's not because of his BDSM tendencies -- you'll see why if you keep reading. –from here

And while there are a lot of books in the romance genre labeled as romance that are not romances this one is by far the worst because (well, it's not a book) it is so popular and so many people who don't read, and especially don't read the genre, think they are well versed on it because of this fic. Don't we have enough to deal with as romance readers without having people think this is what we read? Or having a bunch of people tell us what the genre is or isn't or should be based on this one fic? We should really all be completely insulted by that.

3. The general insult to BDSM. I was sick of BDSM before this thing got popular. Like with this fic a lot of times it's thrown in as something that has to be corrected for the characters to find their HEA. Or, it's poorly researched and poorly done. So the first insult is using BDSM to make money without having any respect for it. This fic takes it much further in that every practitioner of BDSM in it is a child molester, or mentally unstable, or deeply psychologically damaged. Then they must be fixed. Insult number two. There is only the mildest of kink. Like I can imagine people reading it going, "Wait, that's BDSM? Honey, did you know what we've been doing is BDSM?!" Insult number three. All the fans of this drivel who refuse to bother to find out what BDSM actually is but will attempt to shout down actual practitioners that this IS BDSM and 'what do you know?!' Insult number four. Then there is all the abuse. They were never within the confines of a safe, consensual, and sane BDSM relationship. The story just uses that term to cover up what he was doing as okay. It's not. Insult number five.

4. Speaking of abuse. There's liking something problematic and then there's trying to insist that it's not problematic, or even worse in this case, that it's okay because it's something that you don't understand. And another reason why it's so heinous to call this a romance. We're supposed to be moving away from abuse and rape as romance. You can dig a man who rapes a woman, tortures her without permission as punishment, and leaves bite marks and bruises all over her chest to prevent her from showing skin, but dear God, don't sully an entire book genre or lifestyle with it. It's funny, I remember all the people defending the abuse in Twilight, particularly because it was more insidious and thought maybe the next thing with more overt abuse would get people to understand. And now there's this fic and people are going out of their way to say it's okay. When, exactly, will it not be okay? Yeah, I guess I'm an "asshole" because I think we should be doing better as a society and a genre.

5. People can have problems with this fic without it being a ding on female sexuality. Hell, I don't want my sexuality tied to it in any way shape or form. Do you? By all means, if you see someone applying the "all" label to the genre or to women because of this fic then take them down. (Oh, and that mommyporn thing. That's just insulting to moms. No moms I know like this crap. And, shocker, moms can like well written erotica and actual visual porn, too!) But specific criticism of this fic and stories like it isn't inherently anti-female.

6. ELJ's behavior in fandom and as a *gag* popular "author". Just, ugh.

7. "New adult". Enough said.

8. General disgust for something so poorly written being so popular is totally okay, too. It is objectively bad on every level and we should definitely not shrug that off as okay either. Do we really want people thinking that producing something this bad is fine? Is that really the direction in which we want literature and publishing to go?

I'm not sure why there is so much positively toward this thing happening now, but this is definitely not one of those times where it's deserved. It especially perplexes me seeing it from real authors. All P2P and P2Pers should be ostracized from the real book community. Or maybe it's too much to think that there should be consequences for people's actions. Of course it is. I mean, how many books have I read that should have made the bajillions this woman has made from cobbling together other people's work and calling it her own? Anyway. I'm not going to take the finger-wagging. If you want to make all of this perfectly okay, that's your business but I am certainly not going to follow and I hope I'm not alone in that.

Arc provided by Entangled Select Historical through Netgalley

Release Date: December 29 th

DNF at 40%

Anne, our modern day character sees the photograph of her grandma's first fiancé and becomes instantly smitten with it, and very determined to act as some sort of Nancy Drew wanna be.

I know this is a time travel romance, but despite that, I was expecting a little more something, to ground her sudden obsession with the guy.

She's a teacher! Logical reasoning would be in order.

Also, I would expect a little of: OH MY GOD I'M OGLING MY GRANDMOTHER'S MISSING FIANCÉ! UGH!

Not the: Oh, here is that handsome devil who went missing a few decades ago, I must kiss him at once!

Then the colloquial speech that practically invades the initial part of the book became _for me_ quite tiresome to read.

(though I have been told that it is actually correct, so the problem is mine.)

“I’ve held tea for ye, Anne, but I canna say as I’m happy ’bout it, or ’bout yer grandmother’s goin’ off like she did with nary a word t’ me.”

“What’s troubling ye then, lass?” Trudy asked, her voice gentle now. “Would ye like a cuppa? Ye look a bit queer.”

"(..)she stared into the shadows and recalled her gloried past, conscious of its stark contrast to widowed life."

Gloried? Because she was married?

 Wow, o_O

Built a pyre and throw yourself into it, why don't you?

( I know, I know...but what can I say? My sentimental bones are very hard to find these days...)

And then  I got to the part in which the grandma seems more worried with the fact that Anne will be dressed properly _yes, a big thing back then, BUT, priorities please _ than the actual: Oh MY GOD MY GRANDDAUGHTER IS GOING TO TIME TRAVEL TO THE FIFTEEN HUNDRED' JUST LIKE MY FIANCÉ!

"But you mustn’t wear jeans, or anything short-short, until you’re back in Virginia. You’ll have to find something passably appropriate for the 1500s.”

But what really made me decide to quit reading this, is that immediately after Anne "travels" to that time period the thing becomes "rapey". It doesn't even take a few minutes, or hours, no, it happens immediately.

So, Anne draws the attentions of two bastards that immediately start discussing who will be first...

She manages to escape (yay!)...but they are able to keep following her (buh!), and later on, she is kidnapped (double buh...).

Once again she manages to escape (the odds are clearly in her favour!), and eventually she meets her grandma's missing fiancé (mission accomplished).

Oh, and she even manages to save Queen Elizabeth's life with the Heimlich  maneuver.

Great!

Sorry, book its not you _well, part of it... is _ but it is mostly me!

Clearly a casting mistake on my part: Book, we just weren't meant to be together until the very end :(

I bid you farewell. 

Morgan O'Neil is the combined work of authors Cary Morgan Frates and Deborah O’Neill Cordes.