Okay, I don't usually do these kinds of posts. You know, the ones where we point our fingers and laugh at the horribleness of a book. (Pretend horribleness is a word…) However, I can't seem to help myself today.

I have a set of books that make up a series. I've skimmed parts of the second and third books and thought, wow, that sounds like it might be fun to read. So I started reading book #1. Let's just say that book #1 has a few serious problems, namely exclamation points, a hero whose actions seem a little…girly, and an icky sexual attack  (Aside: I can't not detail the ick factor here. Bad guy sticks his thingy in the heroine's mouth, without permission of course, and within, I don't know, five minutes story time and no shower in between, hero is kissing heroine. Is it just me? Nasty…!)

My dilemma comes from the knowledge that the writing in the second book forward in the series is clearly so much better than that in the first book. Was this just the author's first attempt and she learned a few valuable lessons between this book and the next? The thing is, I would like to read the next book, but I have this hang up about reading books out of order. I can do it, but I'm usually always wondering if I've screwed up the storyline for myself.

Unfortunately, I can already tell that I'm probably going to plow my way through this book to get to the next. But even IF I like the next, how could I recommend a series that starts out so awful?

It might be better for all concerned if the first book was just burned and then the next edited to look like the first!

How reasonable is it to give an author a second chance?

I've always tried to take every book on its own, because sometimes the storyline can make a huge impact on whether or not I enjoy a book. But there are times when I read something that's so bad I just scratch the author off my list forever.

I'll let you know how this one goes…