***READER/BUYER BEWARE***
Before you purchase this title, there's a few things you need to know...
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| GOODREADS |
Like many readers
when selecting a title, I choose carefully, whether it’s an Amazon purchase or
an advanced reading copy. Like some it’s
because we have busy lives outside the reading community and time can be a
precious commodity. Like others it’s because there are certain content we seek
to find or to avoid in order to optimize our reading pleasure. Also like many
readers in the romance genre, I have certain tastes and most definitely certain
expectations of romance, one of which being an HEA.
HEA, an acronym for “happily
ever after,” or more specifically short for the phrase many of us have heard
since reading stories as little girls, “they
lived happily ever after.” The key word now being they, a plural pronoun referring to the romantic lovers featured
in the story. In this day and age it certainly doesn’t have to be one man and
one woman, but they clearly implies a
romantic unit. More than one.
For this reason, I find it useful when books are listed with certain tags or
disclaimers. It helps readers find the right books while avoiding content,
plots, and tropes they wish to steer clear of. Aside from the interesting plot
description of Dirty Hacker, I was
pleased with the following statement that accompanied the review sign-up:
“Dirty Hacker is a steamy standalone alpha billionaire romance novel. It’s only recommended for audiences 18+. No cheating. No cliffhangers. Guaranteed HEA.”
And then again in the
front matter of the ARC at 2%, it reiterated before the story begins:
As the story progressed
and the plot began to unravel, I had my doubts about the favorable outcome of
this novel. But in my mind, I kept going back to the assurance at the beginning
of the book—HEA. Why would the authors lie?
To say that I felt
frustrated would be an understatement. To say that I felt cheated and deceived would be spot
on. Readers trust that book disclosures such as “No cheating. No cliffhangers.
Guaranteed HEA” given by the authors are to be true. When those statements are
no longer trustworthy, readers feel duped, and must rely even more on the book
community for honest, unbiased reviews.
Imagine my disgust
after closing the last page to find that the assurance of an HEA was not only
incredibly misleading, but now as an ARC reviewer I was being asked to withhold
my honest review:
“If you feel this story deserves less than a 4-star rating, please refrain from leaving your review on Amazon and contact me,” reads the author’s note.
Unequivocally, placing
stipulations or conditions on any review, whether it be an ARC or a verified
purchase, negates the entire purpose of reviews being honest and unbiased. It affects
the integrity of the entire review system. Readers must then be skeptical of
every review they read. Did this title have all 4 and 5 stars because it’s so
stunning? Or were all reviews rating less than 4 stars withheld? Those are both
valid question every reader is forced to ponder when statements like the one
above appear in books.
Furthermore, ARC
readers are not reading the book to “fix any issues before the book goes live.” That’s what
editors and beta readers are for. Reviewers
provide analysis and honest opinions as post-publication feedback to the author
and to assist other readers in selecting books. As a courtesy, they may bring a wording or grammatical mistake to the author's attention prior to publication; however, it is not their responsibility.
Perhaps some readers did bring to the attention of the authors the fact that this book does not contain the promised HEA. Because once live on Amazon, the new description now reads:
Dirty Hacker is a full length steamy standalone romance novel for mature audiences only. There are NO cliffhangers. NO cheating. Be prepared for a wild ride of self-discovery and not just your traditional girl meets boy love story.
Sorry, but this is still misleading. This isn't just a non-traditional love story, it's not a love story at all. This is a story about using sex, money, technology, and power to manipulate the actions of someone who is barely legal. Any readers who have ever been the victim of emotional abuse might even find this story a trigger.
So what will you really get if you read this book?
Well, Dirty Hacker is an engaging, compelling dark coming of age story that exposes
the dangers of naivety and trusting too easily, letting emotions blind you, and
thrills cloud your judgment. Told via eighteen
year old social recluse Sophie Hanson’s sole first person POV, the reader is
introduced to the radical hacking group The Alliance which Sophie becomes enthralled
with as she hones her hacking skills. Reaching
out to them, Sophie meets the attractive, alluring, and mysterious Preston Phillips, 37. She becomes immersed in
his spell, following his commands while still living largely in the dark about
the rest of the group’s members and activities.
As a coming of age
story with strong themes of naivety, innocence, and corruption as well as
finding a place to belong, this should almost
be a must read in the modern, technological, social media obsessed world for
all young adults. However, the story has a very strong erotic theme; it’s most
definitely a hot and dirty read for adults. So perhaps the new adult market
is where this fits best. More specifically though, the new adult, dark, erotic, suspense market is
what this story is really geared towards. Despite the word 'romance' in the subtitle, I hesitate strongly to classify it as romance
as ultimately that’s not what the reader gets. While the climax of the plot is certainly
jaw dropping, and most of the story is engaging enough to easily
keep readers turning pages, the ending is an epic
fail, flat and unfulfilling (to both the reader and the main characters), perhaps even leaving more questions to ponder.
As a final note on this topic–—This blog does not withhold reviews. Not only would it be misleading and unethical, but it would mean participating in a form of censorship in the book community that sacrifices the integrity of the entire review system. These authors owe a sincere apology to all of their ARC readers for deceiving them about the ending and asking them to withhold less than 4 star reviews. If they value any kind of professionalism and wish to be taken seriously as trusted authors, they need to clarify their mistake and insist that ALL reviews be posted. And they also owe an apology to every reader out there for attempting to influence the reviews for this book, which in turn impacts the authenticity and intended unbiased nature of book reviews as a whole.
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