Tall, Dark & Deadly by Kharma Kelley

PARANORMAL ROMANCE

Publication date: 09/30/2016
Kindle Unlimited: No
Cliffhanger: I dunno

Paranormal romance is one of my favorite categories in the whole genre. There are so, so many great reads there—books that I’ve read and reread so many times it borders on obsessive. But sadly, it’s also the category that I find it most difficult to find new reads in. For every great PNR read, there are 5 craptastic ones. I open each new-to-me series with equal parts excitement and dread. Will THIS be my next binge read? Will THIS be the next series that I pimp to my followers until they get sick of hearing me talk about it? But it’s with a heavy heart that I tell you that Tall, Dark & Deadly didn’t make it to my keeper shelf. I had LOTS of problems with this one. ​

First of all, I need to admit that I only made it to about 10% of the book before I quit reading. Some of you might feel like that makes me unqualified to review, and that’s fair. But since there were enough things that irked me in the first 10% of the story that I was able to write LOTS of words about it, I’m gonna go ahead and rant and review. (Plus it’s my blog and no one is the boss me, so...yeah. There’s that.)

Let the ranting begin…

Head hopping
Head hopping, for those of you who don’t know, is when the author hops from one character’s point of view to another within the space of a paragraph or page. Now, that’s not to be confused with a dual point of view story. Most authors who tell dual point of view stories switch points of view every chapter—and a bunch of them clearly call out which point of view each chapter is told from in the chapter headings. But head hopping is much less common, and WAY more headache inducing. Only super talented authors can pull it off successfully. (Nora Roberts can do it, for example) And in the case of THIS book, I’m not entirely sure the head hopping was an intentional stylistic choice. I think it might have been an error, which is a totally rookie writing mistake that an editor should have caught before publication. There shouldn’t be 2 different points of view represented in a single paragraph ever, and I noticed it happening several times within the first 10% of this story.

Speaking of editing…
And while I’m on the topic of editing, this one has LOTS of grammar and spelling errors. There are parts where I’m pretty sure the French text used in dialogue is wrong, too. It should be said, also, that I’m not a grammar Nazi. I only point out spelling and grammar errors when they’re egregious, so for ME to notice that the editing in this one was lacking...well, imagine what’d happen to a grammar nerd who gave this one a read. (*head exploding*)

Damsel in distress
Even in the first 10% of the story, Chloe needed Ethan to rescue her, only she never admitted it. She insisted (stubbornly) that she had everything under control, even though she CLEARLY didn’t. I have no problem with a heroine who needs help from time to time, but a good heroine admits when she needs help and THANKS the person who helps her. A craptastic heroine pouts when she’s rescued and snaps at her rescuer for daring to interrupt a situation that she wanted to handle on her own. (*cough*Chloe*cough*)

Odds and ends

1. There are multiple Buffy and other pop culture mentions, but then a made-up show, The Vampire Journals, is discussed. Why mention Buffy and Rambo and a bunch of other real pop culture icons, and dance around The Vampire Diaries?
2. Chloe “grimaced” several times in the first 6% of the story. Can we get some different facial expressions?
3. “Ethan looked less than pleased at the phone.” Is Ethan upset with the phone’s behavior? Because that’s how the sentence reads. I’m guessing the author meant he was less than pleased by something that was said on the other end of the phone, but that’s not how it read. That just seems like sloppy writing to me, and if I’m seeing sloppy writing at 6% of the story, I don’t even want to think about what I’m going to find in the middle of the book.
4. “There wasn’t a lot out there about the legendary Ethan Raines.” If he’s a legend, doesn’t that mean there would be lots of stories and info out there about him? Again...sloppy.
5. Chloe is whiny. She’s a wannabe badass, not a real badass. Kate Daniels is a REAL badass. You never hear HER whining about anything.

So, long-story-short, I couldn’t bring myself to finish this one. There was just no way I could overlook the problems I found so early on in the story. If I’d read the whole thing, I imagine the resulting review would’ve been 10 pages long and REALLY grumpy sounding. I didn’t want to subject y’all to that. You’re welcome.  
     
Full disclosure: I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Does this book contribute to or help crush the romance stigma?
It’s drowning in stigma.     

Other reading suggestions
Check out our list of the snarkiest, sassiest heroines in paranormal romance today. You’ll find something there that’s binge-worthy.

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