How Do Some Books Get Published?

Throughout my years as a reviewer, I've often asked myself how some really flawed books get published while some really good ones are left to die on the wayside.  I've read friends' novels and novels entered in large and small contests that easily outstrip books that commercial publishers have rejected.

Take Brainy and the Beast by J. M. Cartwright, for example.  Where was the editor for this book?  Let's pretend that someone at Loose ID saw something he/she liked about the book.  Didn't he/she also see the flaws and want to make the book better?  Or, God forbid, is this the edited version of the manuscript and it was much worse before it was revised?

None of the answers will tell me what I ultimately want, however.  How do these books get published?

Horrible Title, Good Book

Who in her right mind thinks Frat Boy and Toppy is a good title for a book?  Evidently Anne Tenino.  Frankly, I resisted reading this book, but finally gave it a shot because I had the galley and nothing else to read at the time.

Unlike some books that I put off for a while, this one proved to be a pleasant surprise.  In fact, I enjoyed reading it and even went on to read the sequel, Love Hypothetically, which I'm also reviewing for All About Romance (AAR).

I've got my eye on Tenino's third in the Theta Alpha Gamma series, Sweet Young Thang, coming out in July, a book with another unfortunate title I'm willing to bet.  But we'll see.  Perhaps, "thang" is actually what one of the protagonists turns out to be.

Another A for Thomas

As far as I'm concerned author Jodi Thomas just keeps getting better and better as a writer.  Her Harmony, Texas, novels are particularly intricate and engrossing.  Take Can't Stop Believing the latest book I've read and reviewed.

Cord and Nevada are two of the most unlikely lovers on the planet, but Thomas not only makes their paths to love believable but sympathetic.  Both desperately need someone to love and to love them, but both are so resilient and strong-willed that they need someone with a pickax and dynamite to break through the walls they've erected around them.

In addition to their tumultuous journey to love, Thomas pits the strange, oddly satisfying liaison between a mousy postal worker and a dying man of the world.  Again, these are unlikely lovers who manage to find a time out of time moment for love.  Theirs, unlike the love of Cord and Nevada, isn't physical, which is a bit jarring in this age of sex scenes on every page.

And finally, there is the burgeoning love of the busy-body rooming house owner and the dying man's manservant.  Talk about unlikely lovers!  But Thomas makes the reader see that there is a definite possibility that these two might make a match of it also.

Altogether, the interweaving of these stories makes for a deep and satisfying romance novel, the kind of book that stays with readers for days, weeks, and months after the last page is read.

Finding Love along the California Coast

Z. A. Maxfield's St. Nacho community has quickly become one of my favorite fictional places.  Unlike Daniel, in The Book of Daniel, I think I'd really enjoy living there.  I know I enjoy reading about the fictional people who populate it.

But I can understand Daniel's point of view.  Since his life is in turmoil, he doesn't see St. Nacho as a safe, relaxing, laid back place to grow roots, but another anchor trying to tie him to a lifestyle he hasn't chosen.

Cam, Daniel's love interest, has been a favorite of mine in previous St. N books, so it was wonderful to see him paired up with someone who will not be intimidated by his larger-than-life body.  He definitely needs someone who will stand up to him and who doesn't mind pushing, something Cam hasn't seen much in his life.

Also, I'm beginning to think that I'm a sucker for Maxfield and anything she writes.  I'm very happy I stumbled onto this great writer.