The inconsistent, contradictory ramblings of Scarlett the Harlot

I have a  new obsession. It's this great little blog by two girls who embrace their love of the romance novel. They write really intelligent, spot on reviews and I've yet to pick up a book that they gave a grade of "B" or higher and not been impressed.

On the flipside, when they dis a book that's also usually completely spot on and the two books (so far) that I've read because they said they sucked are so horrible that it borders on the laughable.

Case in point, Maverick by Lora Leigh. Sarah got maybe fifty pages into it and quite because it was so bad. I didn't believe ANY book could be that bad, so I bought it. And I just finished it. And I gotta tell ya--she was right. I mean, don't get me wrong, I know there are a LOT of horrible romance novels, but I've never read a published work (with the notable exception of anything written by Stephanie Meyers) that read like bad fanfiction.

Until I read Maverick by Lora Leigh. Lora Leigh is apparently a very prolific writer who's been published numerous times before this. Also, apparently her books are like crack to some people. And yet certain passages of this book were so horrendously, awesomely shit-tastic that I had to put the book down and laugh in stunned disbelief (and actual mirth at the unintentional humor) before I could pick it back up again.

Now, a wise man on the interwebs once said that a book shouldn't be judged by how "good" it is, but by how it makes you feel. So in all fairness it couldn't have been that bad because I did keep reading it and it did make my stomach do the jumpsies in a few places, but make no mistake--it was poorly written, it used every bad romance cliche out there, and quite a few stereotypes to boot. 

So rather than write a regular review, I'm writing a helpful Top Ten for anyone interested in writing a decent piece of romantic fiction so hopefully they can learn from Miss Leigh's mistakes and this tripe will never be recreated in fiction again.

( Scarlett the Harlot's Top Ten List of Crap to Stay Away From )</div>