Finding Failure: A Finding Fraser Review

Finding FraserFinding Fraser by K.C. Dyer

My rating: 1 of 5 stars


THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS.


Unlike some readers here, I am no stranger to the rom-com/chick lit genre, and I knew what I was getting into when I wasted money on bought this book. I’m a big fan of “boy meets girl” predictability as a light, feel-good read, and I’ve read a lot of good books that fall under that category, but you know, I’ve read a lot of bad ones too. I’ve read some real stinking pieces of horse poop, but I could still find a silver lining in them, because that’s what I do. Because, as a writer myself, I think that every work of literature is, if nothing else, a learning experience. And do you know what I’ve learned from this book?


I’ve learned: DON’T DO THIS.


So, where do I begin? Truthfully, I don’t know. My mind is completely boggled by the sheer fact that I allowed myself to waste hours of my life reading this piece of tripe, and this bit o’ shock is managing to bog down all of my other thoughts. But let’s give it a try, shall we?


I. Hated. This. Character. Good grief. Emma is as stupid as stupid gets, and she doesn’t even have a redeeming personality to soften the blow.


First, she buys a plane ticket for two months, and sells everything she owns? Quits her job? Why the hell would she do this if she didn’t originally have the intent of relocating? Darling, you’re going on an extended vacation. You don’t rid yourself of your belongings because you’re going on a freakin’ trip.


Second, for someone so obsessed with Scotland that she’s willing to sell all of her belongings to travel there for a couple months, how the hell did she find herself unable to differentiate between a Scottish and an English accent? This right here boggled my mind. They sound absolutely nothing alike!


Third, she’s in such a horrible place in her own life and boasts herself as being such a nice person, and yet she’s awfully judgmental of…pretty much everybody. She’s better than every other Outlander fan (yet had no problem scribbling in Sharpie in the book “Herself” signed? What?). She’s better than everybody that she comes in contact with. She even spent paragraphs insulting the only constant person commenting on her blog. But! The one person she DOESN’T judge horribly is the one person she meets right away and trusts with, uh, ALL OF HER MONEY only to have it all stolen? Who does this?!


Fourth, for someone so into Outlander, she certainly misunderstood what makes Jamie so appealing outside of his appearance. Everything to her was about finding a guy that looked like a fictional character. She briefly mentions how manly Jamie is, how he’s willing to go through hell for his woman, etc. Yet, when she’s actually looking for “the man of her dreams,” she focuses entirely on the physical aspects, even to go so far as to complain about the guy she’s sort-of-with because he doesn’t look exactly like Jamie. Then she had the nerve to complain that Hamish (not Jamie, as we’re so often reminded) wants her to change her appearance. Right.


I was editing more than I was reading. I’ll be fair and say that, you know what, this might be the writer in me talking. But this is also my review. I had a very difficult time moving beyond the constant errors throughout this book. There was tons of misplaced punctuation that irked me and misplaced character names that made me cringe, but I’m talking about the far more irritating errors that made me put down the book just to keep myself from tossing it in the garbage (that Kindle was a gift, and I’d rather not destroy it).


She spelled Bob Seger’s name wrong, which was pretty horrendous to me (and also basically called him a has-been – the man is one of rock & roll’s most famed artists and still plays massive arenas like Madison Square Garden. Don’t reference an artist you clearly know zilch about, okay?), but worse than that… SHE REFERENCED A PART IN THE OUTLANDER SERIES, AND CLAIMED IT CAME FROM THE WRONG BOOK. To be more specific, she claims that the print shop scene comes from Dragonfly In Amber, when it doesn’t. It’s in Voyager. Now, if you are Joe Shmoe, this doesn’t matter, but considering this book sells itself on being homage to Outlander fans, this is a big red flag to me. Which brings me to…


I feel like I’ve been taken advantage of. Okay, perhaps this is a trifle dramatic, but hear me out. This book is geared towards Outlander fans, yes? Right. Diana Gabaldon herself has pushed this book, yes? Right. But after reading this book in its entirety, I can honestly say that I feel as though this book is below the likes of fan-fiction, because fan-fiction is at least written by someone who is clearly a fan. This, however, doesn’t strike me as being that. This struck me as a story contrived with the intentions of taking advantage of a massive fan base. This author clearly didn’t care enough about making this a solid book, because why would she? Why should she when hoards of women would buy it regardless and give it five star reviews simply for boasting the Outlander name? No, from the point of view of someone trying to make a quick buck, this was a genius plan and one that didn’t even need to be executed well to succeed. What bothers me more is that Gabaldon would be okay with signing off on something like this, or worse, slapping her name on the cover. This tells me that either she didn’t even take a second to read the darn thing, or she also doesn’t particularly care, and either way, it’s pretty F’ed up.


And even besides all this, the story just isn’t that good. I have seen some say, “Just take it for what it is,” as though that is some sort of redeeming phrase, but no. I will not be a fan girl that jumps on a bandwagon simply because it flaunts the name of something I like. What it truly is is a poorly written story in which every ridiculous and predictable thing that could possibly go wrong or right happens, and it does none of it well. The only thing it has done right is use the loyalty of an enormous fan base to make a buck.


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Published on May 08, 2017 21:02
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