The Gender Lie

Ive read quite a bit of this series, as well as some others by the same author. The series vary greatly in the quality of writing, though all are aimed at YA audiences and the writing is juvenile.

Why does the quality vary so much? Because Bella Forrest is a pen name for a self-publishing person that uses a variety of ghostwriters or people that dont get credit for a novel even though they are writing it.
Why would someone do this?
On the ghostwriters part, they simply make more money if they appear as one author and get a cut from the one pen-name publisher- more so than if they were cranking out one book a year themselves.
On the self-publishers part, because they can quickly amass a large amount of books under one author/brand to sell- this boosts their profits because they can run a successful marketing campaign for their brand/pen name and make bank, vice one author who turns out a book a year they turn out 10. Or 30. This self publisher has released almost 100 books in about 5.5 years….do the math. This can boost a self-publisher into a 6 figure business.
So whats the issue? Publisher makes money, ghostwriter gets a cut, and the reader is….happy. (Well, when not harassed for reviews to push the brand). The issue in Bella Forrests case is because this person actively markets themselves as sole author and single author autobiography (eg I grew up here and have had a love for reading/writing since x.) Its unethical and deceptive to the public. Not to mention this kind of writing is not that great either. (Some series better than others).
I personally know a self-publisher who also uses ghostwriters, and its a great entrepreneur opportunity- they hit it big and make six figures a year as a part-time job. I say more power to them As LONG AS YOU ARENT USING DECEPTIVE MARKETING. Bella Forrest, unfortunately does. And this series particularly just sucks (sorry ghostwriter, but your writing needs some revision). For a true connoisseur of fantasy, try something else. Some of the other series dont suck, but theyre still a quick walk in the park and not worth it knowing that the publisher is actively deceiving you.

I loved the 1st book in this series and was really excited to continue reading the series. The 2nd book was not as good as the 1st (I’d give it 4 stars), and this one was even worse. I still liked the 2nd one; I just didn’t like it as much as the 1st. This one, however, was very disappointing. I would actually give it 2 stars, if I didn’t know that the series gets better with book 4. In my opinion, the story line became very far fetched in this book. In addition, there seemed to be more of an emphasis placed on the action in the book than there was on the story line. I disliked this book so much that I was tempted to stop reading the series. Since I wanted to see what would happen, I decided to read book 4. The good news is that book 4 was way better than this one. I actually really enjoyed book 4, and I was glad that I continued to read the series. Since I’ve read several of this author’s series, I knew that this is often the case with her book series. There tends to be an inconsistency from one book to the next. With this knowledge, I took a chance that the books would get better. I would thus recommend getting through this book just so that you can move on to book 4 (knowing that book 4 will be better).

First, I keep seeing the ad for this book on Facebook and I commented that the series ( I bought all 7) was shallow and had no character development. There were gaping plot holes and it read more like a die hard movie than a deep thinking story that it started out to be. The plot completely changes as If someone else started writing it in the middle. This was my honest review. They also banned me from their Facebook page and deleted my review which was deceitful and theyre just trying to sell more books. If you read most of the reviews of this series, youll see its not that good. Book one is compelling. The other books have you skipping pages because its some sort of impossible shoot out every other page. The plot is weak and makes no sense past the first book. I did buy all 7 and read them just to see how it ended and was as disappointed as I thought I would be. If you like the shoot up kind of action books, youll probably be entertained. If youre looking for a good story line with compelling characters, dont bother.

I will start off by saying that I LOVED the first book! It was amazing. I gave it 5 stars.
The second book was good, but not as strong as the first. Still brilliantly creative and thrilling. I gave it 4 stars.

This one was beginning to severely disappoint. I stopped before I could take away anymore stars.

The main character used to be strong and a quick thinker. Now she’s bossy, whiny and self-centered. She’s even called out by another character for these same poor qualities. I don’t mind reading about flawed or villainous characters, but seeing the perspective of a selfish one just irks me.

The relationship began as something built up and exciting. Now it’s based mostly on their physical attractions since they can’t seem to get past their trust issues with each other. It doesn’t have a good feel or make me root for them.

Don’t get me wrong, the plot is on point. It’s very exciting and it’s twisting around in some interesting ways. I am just a stickler for decent character development, and these characters seem to be diminishing with each book. I don’t see any reason to follow a great story if I can’t experience it through the love of certain characters.

My hope is that I take a break from this book and later pick it up again to eventually see where the plot goes. I hope I’m not the only person with character concerns, so I’ll be checking out reviews about this aspect on the others in this series.

I started off really interested in this series, the storyline is pretty interesting, but I am finding myself bored with all the characters. Violet and Viggo are not as interesting to me as I felt in the first book. Hoping to get more interested in the characters in the next book, otherwise not sure I can keep reading the series.

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