Dirty by Megan Hart and the new Ward/Bird series book

[jmc_bks]

Now that I've read Dirty, I get the clear divide among readers. I fall in with the readers who had a ~meh~ reaction. It's one of those books that was well-written but just didn't work for me. It all comes down to narration: Dirty is told in first person POV from the perspective of Elle Kavanaugh. She's very remote and detached, and it was hard to like her or even to care. The story was told in a monotone. Because the narrator was so detached, everything seemed grey. Even the sex seemed clinical and boring to me. Published by Hqn's Spice line, I think it was supposed to be straight erotica, not erotic romance, because the publisher said the HEA was not required for the line. (There's a nominal HEA here.) As a piece of erotica or erotic fiction, it didn't work for me -- it wasn't hot, it was like reading a sexual instruction manual. Insert Tab A into Slot B. If I didn't know the publisher, I'd've thought this was straight up women's fiction. C+ from me.

BTW, Jessica Bird (aka J.R. Ward) has a new series book out. I bought a copy (it seems to be a compulsion) and read it. Bird/Ward really seems incapable of writing a well-rounded heroine. By well-rounded, I mean a character who has flaws and strengths and who is not a complete doormat. Meet Lizzie Bond, yet another meek little woman to get walked all over by an uber-alpha Ward/Bird hero. What the hell is wrong with me? I know that I don't like Bird's series books (now that I've read three of them), but I bought this one anyway. My reader card should be revoked.