This week's indie romance novel review is Ellen Fisher's All I Ever Wanted. Dr. Drew Cooper is a Barbie look-alike with a Ph.D. in English Literature who wants to be worshipped for her rhetoric and comp skills, not her looks. Maxfield Sinclair is a popular sci-fi writer who is worshipped for creating an imaginary world ala Gene Roddenberry. The two meet under unusual circumstances at a sci-fi convention and, as is so often true in romance novels, get off to a rocky start.
The first page of Fisher's book used so many adverbs that I began to literally groan when I flagrantly noticed the seemingly endless number of abundantly ubiquitous adverbs. By page two, though, they thinned out and the characters came into sharper focus. By page four I was hooked.
The story line is simple (I like simple sometimes): she's a gorgeous, uptight, elitist intellectual and he's a mainstream slob with cultlike fans. There's a mystery thrown in, a wedding (or two), a kidnapping, and Max has a secret about his ex-fiance that softens Drew. Overall the characters are well drawn and the romance is your standard together-conflict-tension-more tension-together pattern.
The sex scenes are interesting, as Max isn't your standard "alpha male," though he doesn't act like a man as gorgeous as he's described in the book. Not to stereotype, but stunning men tend to have the sexual experience to match the chiselled look. Fisher has departed from convention and it makes the book all the better.
Aside from the abundantly abundant adverbs, which make an unexpectedly frequent appearance here and there, All I Ever Wanted is a nice, light romp.
Available on
Amazon ($.99)
B&N ($.99)
To win a free Kindle OR Nook copy of All I Ever Wanted, just leave a comment here. The winner will be announced next Monday on the blog!
(Edited to add: I can do a Nook eBook for the winner as well!)
Thanks for the kind review! Not surprised to hear I have a bit of an adverb problem; this is one of my earlier books, and I do have a fatal love for adverbs *smiles*. I think I'll see if I can edit out some of the adverbs and republish. That's one of the joys of indie publishing!
ReplyDeleteOoh, this sounds good! I love books where one of the main characters is a writer -- especially if they're cute ;) Plus, the cover definitely draws my attention. This just goes to show that a book doesn't need an A+ review for readers to still be interested :)
ReplyDeleteSounds interesting. And it's nice to see an author taking criticism so gracefully.
ReplyDeleteAbundantly ubiquitous made me laugh. I overuse ubiquitous in my technical writing (along with commas and parentheses).
BTW, I don't want to win the Kindle version. I'm going to buy the nook edition with the gift card I just got as a belated birthday present. :-) Yay for 99 cent books!
Sandy, I can do the Nook version, so you're officially entered in the contest! If you win, I just need to learn how to gift an eBook on Nook :)
ReplyDeleteI'm interested in the nook version. Truthfully and adverbially :)
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