Hey, I accomplished something today!
4:00 and as predicted the book is typeset and the laundry is done. Well, I need to package up the files and ftp the book to the client, and I should hang the wet laundry to dry, but the laborious part of both is done.
Wow, that was a bad book. I typeset a lot of bad books (unfortunately). I try to differentiate between "inherently bad" and "I think it's bad because it's not my sort of book." I'm not sure about this one.
On the plus side, we have sentences that are grammatically correct and follow sensibly on each other. We even have a plot concept that is not bad. It's high melodrama of a particularly soap-opera-y variety that I don't like, but I can imagine it being appealing to reasonable, intelligent, literate people whose tastes are different from mine.
On the negative side, we have that common problem of the romance novels I work on: pacing. There's a lot going on in the book, but it's all rushed. The book isn't long, perhaps 80K words. But it's a story that needs 100K. We've got the complicated not-love-triangle of the heroine/hero/hero's brother; the whole parental backstory, complete with parallel love triangle; several different sorts of possession; a lot of character wangst; and of course the framing plot of the heroine being hunted down by the big bad guy.
It's a lot of stuff. I like me some complex, twisty plots and emotional turmoil. Unfortunately, when the author just sketches it in, rushing past everything with "telling" instead of "showing" (or showing a sketch, not a full picture), it's like eating bad chocolate. It kind of reminds you of the good stuff well enough to make you resent this not being it.
I'm pretty sure the author lost me for good at the moment when the hero and heroine, wanting to be "honorable" and not betray the hero's brother, who was casually dating the heroine (i.e. they weren't sleeping together) but is currently in a coma---the author lost me when the hero and heroine decide to engage in mutual masturbation because somehow that isn't betrayal of the brother. Call me old-fashioned, but I'm of the "sex isn't defined solely by penetration" school.
Here's a tip: if you have to use technicalities and rules-lawyering to say that you aren't cheating on someone, you're ipso facto cheating on them.
This made the whole emotional conflict between the hero and heroine seem entirely contrived. Then the reasons they ended up having what sexual actions they had were all even more contrived ("the ghost says you have to or he won't help you"). Oh, author, you have potential but this is just bad, and I have to believe that even people who like romance novels will want to throw this book across the room when they hit that scene.