I know, I know, another romance novel review. Well, the thing is that I haven’t gotten a lot of time to actually read lately. So I’m recycling books that I read before and writing reviews on them. And besides, this is not your typical romance novel: it has vampires! And besides this being another romance review, it’s also again a review of a book that I didn’t like. I haven’t found a book that I’m really super excited about lately either.
Anyway, back to the review! I got an e-book copy of Wander This World by author duo G. L. Thomas for review from NetGalley. And if I could rate it less than one star, I would because I really did not like this book!
Let’s start with the writing style, which is utterly ridiculous. It sounds like the book has been written by a 16-year-old. Or by that 16-year-olds dad who is trying to be cool by copying his kids language. Some examples:
“He was light skinned, but clearly black, with serious style, not much different than my own. We shared dap out of mutual respect…”
Serious style? Sharing dap? Nobody over 18 talks like that! I had to look up what dap means – just say fist-bump already! (or am I really that old?)
“He gave off the hippie vibe, and smelled like weed, so I could roll with that. The other one, total dude bro.”
I can’t even. This entire quote offends me!
“I wasn’t nerdy, but there was just something about a nerdy girl…”
What? Why do you need to be nerdy to be interested in nerdy girls? Also, this is the male lead thinking about the female lead. I don’t really like him since all he thinks about is how hit the female character is. A female character who is constantly and quite furiously described as a fierce woman who won’t let anyone mess with her and who is – at the same time – tortured by the fact that she kills people. Because you know, she has been alive for centuries and has killed hundreds of people. But she likes Doctor Who cuase she can identify with him. And she is back in school, studying for her fifth MBA-title. I mean, how many inconsistencies can you fit into one character?
It’s obvious I don’t like the female character because of all that. She acts like a 16-year-old with a crush one minute, then she’s an old soul tortured by her past and then she is a 25-year-old nerd who likes Doctor Who and is principally against social media. Way too many inconsistencies! I felt like each of the authors just thought up a bunch of characteristics that they felt would be interesting and randomly threw them together. And if that’s not enough, they go and make it worse!
This entire book is about the relationship between the human and the vampire, right? But then they decide to throw in a serial killer that is obsessed with the female lead. Why? To make things even more ‘interesting’, I guess? The fact that she is a vampire, has lived for hundreds of years and kills people all the time (including once in front of her boyfriend) all the while keeping a low profile is clearly not enough. So a serial killer gets a hold of her and the boyfriend, which prompts her to move into full vamp-mode. Which is probably what ended up bothering me most about the book. Not that she kills him (and quite brutally with loads of blood, too), but what she says to the serial killer. She is like:
“Yeah, you enjoy pain and blood. I’m like that too. If only you had come to me.”
If only he had come to you, what? You would have gone on a killing spree together? You would have cured him of his lust for blood, or satisfied it? What exactly would you have done, you stupid vampire?
Anyway, after all that, the boy is still in love with her (of course, or it wouldn’t really be a very good romance novel). When they meet up again a little while later, they are in love again. Period. Even though he wanted her to be good, even though she will live forever and he won’t… They aren’t looking beyond the next time they end up in bed again, basically. And this is supposed to be New Adult? Yeah, right!
Suffice it to say, I did not like this book. It was silly with just a bunch of things thrown together, not well thought out and it made no sense at all. I was mad at having wasted my time when I put it down, since I kept on hoping it would get better. It did not. I would not recommend you read it. But that’s just my opinion, what is yours?
Happy reading,
Loes M.