Perplexed about Wrong by Jana Aston

Posted November 13, 2015 by Literati Lovers in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Perplexed about Wrong by Jana AstonWrong by Jana Aston
on October 7th 2015
Genres: Fiction, Romance, General
Pages: 203
ISBN: 9781329604773
Goodreads
one-star
five-flames

I have a history of picking the wrong guy. Gay? Player? Momma’s boy? Check, check and check. Now I can’t stop fantasizing about one of the customers at the coffee shop I work at between classes. It’s just a harmless crush, right? It’s not like I ever see this guy outside of the coffee shop. It’s not like I’m going to see him while attempting to get birth control at the student clinic. While wearing a paper gown. While sitting on an exam table. Because he’s the doctor. Shoot. Me. But what if, for once, the man I’ve had the dirtiest, most scandalous fantasies about turned out to be everything but wrong? Wrong is a full-length, standalone novel by Jana Aston

I started reading Wrong by Jana Aston and I found the first two chapters hilarious.  I did find that the name of a nurse changed from Marie to Bev and contacted the author letting her know.  I asked if I came across any more problems, should I let her know and she declined my offer.  Since this is Ms. Aston’s first book and it made both the New York Times and USA Today Bestseller lists, this did not color my view of her as some Indie authors want feedback and some don’t.   She is the author and I am just the reader.  She, obviously, is sitting on cloud nine, and I am happy for her, but . . . yes, you saw the’ but’ coming, I am not happy that she has put into the marketplace a book with a major inconsistency.  I don’t know how this book became a bestseller, with hundreds of glowing reviews, considering the obvious major flaw in the story.  Then again, maybe most readers don’t pay attention to a story and don’t care about continuity. Yes, authors who have twenty books into a series at times have continuity issues, but this is Ms. Aston’s first book. She should know her characters inside and out.  Please . . . if you want to read the book, do not read beyond this point as it contains spoilers.

The book Wrong, as I said, was hilarious in the first two chapters, and I was hooked after only a few pages. It has its funny points throughout the rest of the book, but it never lives up to those first few chapters.   Something changed and it went from a really charming, funny book into the standard ‘Fifty Shades of Grey‘ fanfic. Yes, I have dubbed books that think they can rewrite Fifty Shades of Grey, Grey FanFic. This is a simple category. Hot, über rich guy hooks up with a virgin. Add some taboo sex, stir, and viola! Fifty Shades of Grey FanFic. It is a story about a senior college gal named Sophie, the product of an unwed mother, raised by her grandparents, and a sexy, rich guy named Luke.  Sophie, as the synopsis states, has lousy taste in picking men. What happened to Sophie’s mom, and her having been raised by her grandparents, has colored Sophie’s outlook on sex; the fact that she is a senior in college and still a virgin is a major plot device.

My perplexed conundrum comes because of Sophie’s mother. Why does Sophie condemn her so much? We are told Sophie’s mother was unwed and then passes when Sophie is two. Sophie does not know who her father is.  The distaste Sophie feels for her mom is evident in the text, but no reasons are given except her grandparents had to raise her.

In chapter two, Sophie is thinking about her mom,

My mom had me her freshman year in college and dies before I was two.

But in chapter seven, her mom is pregnant at sixteen.  I am confused by this part as the book has a major inconsistency that all the five-star reviews overlooked.

My mom got pregnant at sixteen. I have no idea how careful she was or wasn’t. From what I remember of her she wasn’t careful about anything. All I know is that I never want to be her.

So was Sophie’s mom sixteen when she got pregnant and seventeen when she delivered Sophie? Either way, Sophie was under two when she died, but Sophie’s perception of her mother was greatly colored by her memories as an infant.  I want you to think back and try to recall your memories prior to two…..hmmm….. not too many are there?

In chapter twenty-three, Sophie’s mom meets Sophie’s father the summer before her freshman year in college.   Sophie acts as if her mother purposely abandoned her and maybe in the author’s mind she did, but it was not established in the text I read.  Her father was married and a pedophile since the book states her mom was sixteen when she got pregnant. Yet Sophie has the gall to apologize to her half-brother, Boyd, because her mom slept with a married man!  This all makes for a very confusing read concerning why Sophie reviles her mom so much. Her mom was a kid when she got pregnant and delivered Sophie, and then she died.  Wow! Sophie is a very noncompassionate daughter which makes me wonder how this book became a bestseller. I paid for this book, purchasing it from Amazon, so I am reading the completed product.  Maybe all the five-star reviewers got different books than the one I received from Amazon, books which did not have these glaring time line errors.

In addition to my issue with consistency comes another point which I abhorred: no one in this book is called on their shitty behavior by Luke.  I was aghast at the fact that Luke did not call anyone out for being a total asshole to Sophie.  Well, obviously, he couldn’t call himself out on his rude behavior or veiled comments, but he lets most all the other characters snipe and pluck away at Sophie.  I honestly don’t expect a twenty-one-year-old girl to have the same backbone when dealing with a thirty-six-year-old man’s world and its complications, but when his parents are rude to her face, his father saying she is a ‘trophy f**k’, no one says a word, not even Sophie, and the text does not indicate he whispered.

Sophie doesn’t even confront her own boyfriend until months after his supposed behavior outside a restaurant.  She just takes Luke’s word for what she overheard.  If Sophie was serious enough about a guy to plan to give him her virginity,  I think she would have confronted him.  Nope. Nada. Zip. There is no confrontation until months later . . . not even a phone call.  I feel like I missed stuff during this event: that it was only a set up for Sophie to have sex with Luke.  I felt like the entire book was a set up for sex with Luke — nothing more.

Furthermore, as the book progresses, the world disappears. Luke and Sophie are the only inhabitants in the book? Sophie’s friend Everly disappears? Then Everly and Sophie’s job at the coffee shop pops back up in the last ten percent of the book? Sophie’s grandparents move and are never heard from again?  Eerie……maybe the book is actually an episode of the Twilight Zone? It is as if all the world the author created slowly fades away as the hilarious fleshed-out world that Sophie inhabited in the first chapters is replaced with a sex marathon with a hot doctor. Please don’t get me wrong. Aston writes very detailed hot sex, but I expected a New York Times and USA Today Bestseller to be more than an inferno of taboo sex.  Scenes that could have enriched the book are omitted and referenced in passing commentary.  I wanted to be included when Meredith and Sophie chatted at the spa; it would have given me insight into Luke beyond the anal sex obsession. Luke needed to be fleshed out as a real person, not a caricature of the rich alpha male. I want to know why he loves Sophie apart from her “shiny new p***y” as Everly called his need for Sophie. As a reader, I never got to know why these two fell in love beyond the physical. Every time they have an argument, nothing is resolved; it is either ignored or interrupted by hot sex.

I have come to the conclusion that all you need to become a bestselling author is to write hot sex and have minor story points around the hot sex.  If you read Fifty Shades of Grey only for the kinky sex and didn’t care about the story, then you will love this book.  If you want some story with your sex, then this is a definite pass.

 

 

one-star
Rating Report
Plot
one-star
Characters
one-star
Writing
one-star
Pacing
one-star
Cover
four-stars
Overall: one-star

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