The 400 page barrier

22. The Stolen Bride, Brenda Joyce

I loved this book until I hated it. It was 550 pages long; and while i have nothing against long books, I think it takes a very talented person to carry of a plotline that runs that long. With only two main characters. Who are stuck in a house for a long amount of time. I found the perfect novel is about 400 pages long. Shorter than that you don't feel like the relationship is developed enough. 150 pages longer, you feel like you want to shoot both the characters and yourself. Which is not how you should feel when you are finishing a novel. Clearly.

It just dragged on so long for the last part. And it was really miserable. Like the characters were in a really miserable position; it was very much a no-win situation. And the guy was being such a wimp. Soooo EMO. If he lived now he would be outfitted in skinny jeans and thick hipster glasses. I hate dramatic guys (other than P.C. because i absolutely love/adore him -- he's fantastic). Even at the end of the book she's like this was a hard character to write because it's a divergence from her strong "alpha" males. And I'm not saying you have to have an alpha male in ever romance novel -- i even really like him for the first 400 pages -- but when he just becomes annoying -- you need to do more cutting. The scary thing is in her acknowledgements in the begining was to her editor who "cut like mad." EEK. can't imagine it going longer.

Also the epilogue was horrendous. I don't feel like romance novels need epilogues -- spoiler alert here -- they all pretty much end up living happily ever after even if it took them a while to get there. So when you stick on an epilogue it's kind of superfluous. This one was beyond unnecessary -- it was cheesy. Horrendously so.

Anyway if she had just edited herself (although this book was copy edited nicely -- it feels like someone familiar with AP was her editor) down just a bit, it would have been a really good book. Unfortunately I just wanted to get through it. Which is never good.

Like I said, I'm all for long books. I think it's weird when people are intimidated by page numbers, or impressed with someone who finishes a 1,000 page novel. I am not. But again like I said it takes a certain skill set to be able to carry a plot for that many pages. Very, very few people can do it succesfully -- at least in my experience.

anyway I have soooo many books to read!! I'm excited. Mamacita brought janet evanovich's fifteenth (YAY, thanks mutti!) and the next book in this series (de warrenne -- it's one of two of the series that i've actually read before and the only reread for the next like month i think.) I got three Celeste Bradly's at B&N because I used to read her, then I just kind of stopped. Nothing to do with her, but her new one's were taking a while to come out so I just kind of forgot about her. So hopefully those are good. Then i have a suzanne brockmann little guy that I picked up at target along with HER NEW ONE which I am soooo ridiculously stoked about (for those of you who don't know she is MY FAVORITE WRITER EVER IN THE ENTIRE WORLD i love her books so much and she's son wonderful and when i grow up I want to be just like her ;p -- but more on that when i read her new ones.) and i have a julia quinn coming -- i haven't read that one either; it's the one before What Happens in London. Oh and I have another de warrenne i ordered from amazon. Hopefully it won't be 550 pages long lol. So, exciting! yay.

In addition to that psych and monk are starting! whoot. Plus, believe it or not, I actually have a social life/do other things than read ... so hopefully those will last me through some of august at least. :)

til next time, happy readings :)