Ella Mc's book blog. Brand new 2018 - Only books read after 1st January 2018
10 hours of my life are gone. I wish I could give negative star ratings...
Rarely have I detested a character as much as I hated the main character in NEED TO KNOW. That alone doesn't make a bad book though. I've hated lots of characters in books I loved. This book is pure crap, though, and full of awful, whiny unrealistic characters. The bad ones practically twirl mustaches, they're so poorly drawn.
How did a female former CIA analyst manage to write such a simpering, naive, idiotic main character? If she'd ended up tied to railroad tracks by a dastardly cartoon criminal, it would not have surprised me. I stopped listening, jumped to the end of th physical copy (BTW, this should have warned me: both audio & hardback were available at the library,) confirmed I was correct (I got every single bad guy on my bingo card!) and felt actual anger over the hours wasted.
It is the worst book I've encountered in a long time. I think Harlequin Romances would have rejected this (even before their standards improved) as too unbelievable and poorly written. I can't believe it got published. It's not espionage, mystery, thriller or even suspenseful. It's dime-store pulp done poorly. The main character thinks, "this is Matt!" at least 500 times. She is so easily manipulated and duped that I seriously worry for our national security after this one.
This book is missing nuance and complexity at every turn. Every character is flat and unrealistic. The premise was good. Execution was horrible. I want my money and time back. A good idea got killed, but someone should have killed the book long before it got out into the public.