Spectra - A Review

As a part of Inkitt's Romance Review Club and got an ARC of Spectra for an honest review (I also got a copy of the published version btw). You can also find it here, on Amazon.

I really did NOT like this book. I couldn't finish it, I tried and I just couldn't.

I will go into what I had problems with and why.

This book starts with one character molesting another character and all the characters seem fine with it. Let's get this clear, silence is not consent. It just happened that in this book, the girl molested the guy, but let's also get this clear; that is still not okay. Molestation is still molestation, regardless of who's involved.

With that being said, this is a very bad first impression of Spectra. Not only is she a molester, she has a bad attitude, acts like she's all that and has a vulgar way of speaking.

Regarding the way the characters speak, I'm referring to internal dialogue here, both Bay and Spectra have the same internal voice. This just makes all the characters the same and the author seem very amateur. This story also has a lot of mid-chapter head hopping. The POV switches from Spectra to Bay in a five-page chapter. Five pages. That's hardly any space in the story, so why did the POV switch? Answer, it didn't need to. Authors need to learn commitment. Commit to a character and stick with their perspective for the entire chapter and then switch. If you don't have enough for a character to say to fill a chapter, then do you really even need that instance of that POV? Probably not.

The way this story is written is very vulgar, using grossly descriptive language that is unnecessary. Do we really need details on a handjob in the first chapter? No, especially when it doesn't add to the story. She's searching for a wire, I don't need to know how his "sacs" feel. The problem is that both characters seem very vulgar, Bay is no better than Spectra. And for either character, it is too much for the reader. Honestly, do we care how hard Bay got when he kissed Spectra? Maybe a mention to show that there's an attraction, but as much detail as the book uses, it's going more towards the erotica genre with too much smut.

Why I don't like Spectra Michaels; she's basically described like a Lisbeth Salander but far less cool and far less capable and far less likeable. Lisbeth already exists and is an awesome character, Spectra is just a cheap knock off.

Vulgarity and POV issues aside, this paranormal fantasy feels very trite. So these creatures eat humans and have some sort of council to keep them in check "Nachtwelt". Because that's never been done before. I feel like the it didn't draw me in enough to actually want to keep reading.

Here's why I stopped reading. The beginning of the book. Both characters, Bay and Spectra, were so vulgar and such deplorable characters that I honestly couldn't care less what happened to them and thought that they deserved what ever dark twist fate had to offer.