The Ex Effect by Dana Hawkins

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Oh my god, this book. I’m not even sure where to start. I had so many problems with it and wanted to DNF so many times. But since I’m trying to keep my NetGalley ratio high, I powered through. But I think this will be my last Dana Hawkins book. Unless someone I really, really trust reads a future release and tells me I have to try it.

Okay, let’s get to it. In no real order, because they all drove me crazy, we have an insane level of non-communication, clunky prose, almost solid telling instead of showing, ridiculous choices, and two main characters who sound exactly alike.

The non-communication was awful. So many mentions of something along the lines of “I know I should tell (Morgan or Frankie) this super important thing but… nah.” It was seriously maddening. The writing itself was rough. How the hell does someone “fold her eyes”? That’s just one example of insanity. Then we have every instance of Frankie and Morgan together erupting in a snarky, mean, nasty fight but after “a few weeks,” they’re falling in love again. But of course, they don’t actually talk about any of that. Sometimes we got a few lines of dialogue and then paragraphs of prose that tells us all the things that should be being said.

To be fair, I didn’t love Not in the Plan, but usually later books are better. I had high hopes. But I’ve got another book down for my annual goal and get to keep my NetGalley ratio close to where it should be.

So thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for helping me to determine that this author just isn’t for me.



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