Review: Secret Santa – Deanna Wadsworth

Secret Santa

By Deanna Wadsworth

Published by Decadent Publishing, LLC

Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price - 1.99

Score – F

Two bought – one read – one did not finish (pretty sad for a super-short)

Blurb:It's Christmas Eve and Adam has a special gift for Paul--himself, wrapped in a big red bow.

Blindfolded and ready for a magical holiday, Adam anxiously waits for his boyfriend to come and unwrap him. Just when he thinks their date has been forgotten, the door bursts open and his lover arrives. They have the best sex of Adam's life, but afterward Paul disappears before Adam can catch his breath or remove the blindfold.

Left with only the memory of a tender kiss, a mysterious Santa hat, and a tray of half-eaten cookies, Adam soon discovers his lover was not who he thought it was...

Comment Card Read:

Ender Essie: I bought this story thinking it was for a good cause. The author seems to be doing – you buy and I get your readership. For The American Cancer Association, I'll spend a 1.99. Still, the fact this story was trash heap worthy – not so much. Next time, I'll send a check directly to the charity.

I can understand putting out a cliché story just cause...but can you give me a break. Not only was the story poorly conceived, but there was nothing new. The plot was about as old as Santa's sleigh. I won't go into the plot hole, but it was a gaping mess – editor should have caught this. Then, the author added in what I guess she thought would make it sellable—the Santa baby singing in the background sort of feel. Truthfully, it's the same old male/male with the ooh, baby – screw me good. My *woohoo* needs some attention, so, come on. My *wee-wee* is weeping for you and only you (sex scene wasn't as hot as the blurb says). I'm blindfolded and shaking my a$$ in the air. Even the twist was a let down. Poorly conceived and poorly edited (that was the bigger let-down).

Will never buy again from this author and am not sure if I'd buy from this publisher. Hey, what's with the funky formatting on your PDF? It's pretty ridiculous that you can't justify your lines. This makes the font hard to read and the story a headache to follow. What's with the cover-art too? Sick and pathetic.

Personally, I felt this story, with its heart-string tugging lure, came across as a marketing ploy to get readers

to go to this author and this publisher. If you are going to do something like this for charity, why don't you try putting out a really good story?

A flat F. Nothing new and not well edited.

The Infamous ‘Did Not Finish’ List for November 2010

Happy Saturday all,

It's that time of the month. When we dish on the stories we didn't finish. This month was a little light because of the holiday, but we can honestly say, most of these stories were so bad, we wished we'd never heard of them.

**Flaws and All by Mahalia Levey. Available from Beautiful Trouble Publishing.

Comment cards read:

Poorly written. Dumb premise.

Cliche. Poorly edited. Will never buy this author again.

**Screwing the Superhero (began conversation on this story the end of September) and Banging the Superhero by Rebecca Royce. Available from Noble Romance.

Comment cards read:

Couldn't get past the first ten pages of Screwing the Superhero. Poorly conceived.

The characters don't make sense.

Gave up in the last third of Banging a Superhero—the story was senseless. I couldn't figure out what the author was talking about.

**Ace of Spades by J. Hali Steele. Available from Ellora's Cave.

Comment cards read:

Dumb and dumber meets gratuitous sex in a story without a plot and without anything other than spread your legs. Will never buy this author again.

The 'F-fest' made no sense. Oh, here we are – let's screw. I don't ever expect much from Ellora's Cave, but this story was a whole new level of disappointment.

I can't describe the depths of poor writing in this story. Was it even edited? I don't think so.

 

There they are. The four books we couldn't finish.