Settling for the Ordinary

Just finished reading LOVE ACCORDING TO LILY by Julianne MacLean...this book was on my long-awaited book list (along with the recent disappointment IT'S IN HIS KISS by Julia Quinn...more on that later) and I was very excited when I found it about a week before it's release date at my local Waldenbooks. Let's just say that I didn't even kiss the hero of the book and I developed a slight mono-like illness after this. When I got home, I immediately sat my butt down on the couch and proceeded to devour it. What I was left with at the end of it, was intense hunger...why? Because I had been teased for months with the excerpt, the book cover, the previous books' mention of Lily's love for the incomparably HOT and rakish Whitby, that I excepted something that didn't even get close to what was dealt me. The hero believes he is dying but in reality merely has a case of mono. The book was good, don't get me wrong. This was no AN AFFAIR MOST WICKED, which has got to be the worst Maclean book I've ever read. It was good and the love scenes were intense, especially when we had Whitby questioning what he was doing the whole time because the woman he was attracted to was indeed his best friend's sister. I enjoyed the book, BUT it was not what I expected and wanted. I guess I would have preferred it had Maclean left the whole MONO issue out. I really didn't care for that aspect of the storyline and wished Maclean had perhaps shown Whitby close to marrying some other woman and then Lily finally expressing her love for him right before the wedding. Why the mono? I felt at certain points that the author was trying to be innovative in her description of the disease...if I wanted to read about it, I would have gone straight to the computer and read about it online. I just...well, it just bothered me because I thought that it took the attention away from Whitby and Lily's love. Also, it was mentioned in the book that Whitby had no interest in getting married...well, that was news to me because he fought to marry his friend's wife (Sophia from TO MARRY A DUKE) in the first book and he was trying to find an heiress himself to help repair his finances...I could have sworn that would have led to something in this book...none of that...his finances weren't as bad as was first thought and everything mentioned about him in previous books went down the toilet...voila...forgotten like yesterday's lunch. I was so upset after this book because it had so much potential but the author mucked it up with her fascination with the "kissing disease." I don't know...this book annoyed me...it was good but could have been incredible had the author only remembered one tenth of what she'd written about the hero in her previous books. I would give it a 6 1/2...I'm still angry.

I feel like lately no book is pleasing me...at least not the ones I've waited months to buy..take Quinn's book, for example. IT'S IN HIS KISS was good also, but not GREAT and after reading all of the author's previous works, I had an expectation of greatness...a lot of the avon authors today are settling for the ordinary and that's not fair, especially when they've made their readers accustomed to getting the extraordinary. I feel like authors are just going through the motions, not really caring about what their readers want, but just trying to meet their contractual obligations. It's sad. I remember when I first read Maclean and Quinn...WOW...Quinn, especially...WOW WOW and WOW.

I can only hope Kleypas' next book won't disappoint, because I don't know if I could handle reading another mediocre book. I am more and more understanding MrsGiggles' (www.mrsgiggles.com) frustration with romance novels today...I never thought I would get sick of them, but I am...I'm sick of getting teased with excerpts and then getting a book that doesn't even come close to what was promised. Right now, I'm just disillusioned and disappointed...Candace Hern's ONCE series is next. Just purchased them at a UBS...just hoping at this point for a miracle!