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Five Qualities that make or break a book
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Dee
(last edited Mar 30, 2014 10:56AM)
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Mar 30, 2014 10:36AM
What do you look for in a book? what makes you put away a book and never read it again? What makes you want to read the book over and over again? Tell us about it.
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1. The storyline has to make sense. For instance one of the things I LOVE about the in death series is the police techniques are very realistic. On the other hand, I LOVED the storyline of Someone to Watch Over Me by Judith McNaught. It is about a Broadway actress, Leigh Kendall, whose husband was found murdered in a mountain piece of property that they bought. The same night on her way up to the property she has a serious car accident that almost kills her. When she receives a basket of pears from the a man, Michael Valente, (the police commissioner has a vendetta against) a task force is formed to find a way to charge Leigh and/or Michael with first degree murder. They NEVER ASKED FOR AN ALABI. I HATE THAT!!!!
2. I have to have a relationship with the characters. I could feel Dallas's loneliness, her frustration with needing to find the killer, her attraction to Roarke, and after she finished testing I could understand how she felt when she went to the (can't think of the club). Some characters are so superficial that I can't get into their soul.
3. Each character has to have their own personality. There are many authors that have cookie cutter personalities. It doesn't matter what book the author is writing about the Heroes has a personality type, the heroines have all the same characteristics, and so do the villains. I usually quit the author.
4. One thing I can't stand is when the romance is super, sugary sweet. I can't see a guy EVER saying almost every time he sees his lady something like "My true love, blah, blah blah.
5. also the characters have to grow, especially in a series. The heroines have to have a bit of intelligence. I understand not being worldly, but they have to have some kind of common sense.
Police procedures are really a sticking point for me. I am married to a man that use to be a Chief of Police. I have several friends that are/were police detectives, and I also worked for the Department of Corrections for 12 years. I can give a book a little leeway, but overall it has to make sense. J D Robb has a futuristic cop series that I dearly love. One of the reasons I fell in love with it was the cop series made sense. It also has a lot of humor.
I haven't read Tammy Hoag, although I have heard she is pretty good. I could not get into Sue Grafton's books, but I agree they were pretty spot on.
