Falling stars

‘Sold on a Monday’ is better not bought on any day

Genre: historical fiction . Stars from Goodreads: 4.12. Stars from me: 2.5

Sold on a Monday by Kristina McMorris is about a group of cliched characters dancing around a well-knit plot. The characters are a damsel in distress, two knights in shining armour; one is a loser with a good heart, another one is a winner with a hard one. Her choice is very original [Sarcasm].

There are menacing parents who “love in their own way”, strict bosses with the same tough love, and kids with shallow kid-talks.

The storylines are strikingly predictable but there are no loose ends. Most characters have a dramatic past up their sleeve to talk about while violins are playing on the background. All obstacles comfortably turn out to be from the dark side so they are subject to rightful demolition. All little Chekhov’s guns that are spread along the novel shoot at some point. It’s still awkward that the plot exists just because the main character screwed up. Initially I thought the story could make a good movie even when failing as a good book. By the end of the book, though, the characters were so cemented in cliches they looked like cardboard figures that even a movie wouldn’t revive.

As for the writing, I believe if I ever see one more “torso” with “muscles of his arms defined by shadows” my book will fly out of the window even if it’s a Kindle. Some authors seem to think the readers should be lured to the book in the same manner soap advertisers tried to lure customers in the 90s.

Also, dear Sir/Madam who teaches authors how to create realistic characters, can you please stop telling them that characters should restate their beliefs in follow-up phrases?! Phrases like “He was happy, he truly was” and “They will be all right, they both will” belong to cardboard characters. They truly do.

I’m not sure if I’m giving the book 2.5 stars because it really deserves that many or because I’m experiencing a version of Stockholm syndrome. The book is new. It was published just two days ago. I couldn’t preview the book before it appeared in my Kindle. I had preordered it and so I was stuck with it. Thus, I might have had no other option but to like it at least for 2.5 stars.

I would not suggest this book to anybody. And maybe preordering a book is also a bad idea 🙂.

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12 thoughts on “‘Sold on a Monday’ is better not bought on any day”

  1. I actually JUST added this to my TBR a day or two ago. Just from the blurb, I was feeling a little iffy about the characters, but the premise sounded so interesting I was prepared to try and get through that and see if it was better than it sounded. But sounds like it’s really not if I was already on the fence.

    1. I don’t know if you would like it. Some people do. There are many four and five star reviews on Goodreads. Although the book is very new so the ratings will be changing. I need to look into this Kindle option of passing books on. This function might be not available here where I live. But if it works here and you have Kindle I can pass my digital copy to you so you can try for yourself.

      1. I did read a couple of the reviews which was ultimately what swayed me to go ahead and add it to my TBR–but as you said the ratings might start changing soon. May wait to see if I can rent it for free/cheap somewhere in the near future so I don’t have to commit to it, haha. Although if you do figure out that you can pass it on via Kindle, I am happy to be a guinea pig for that.

        1. OK I looked into how to do this. Long story short, I can’t do this. Apparently, not all titles are eligible for lending. This book, for example, isn’t 🙁 I also learned that even those that can be lent can only be lent once. So, you give it to somebody, it can stay with the other reader for 14 days only, then it is returned to your library and then it’s forever locked. So much different from physical copies. I wish I could give it to you. That would be a good use for the book.

          1. Oh darn! 🙁 It was worth a shot at least! I think it’s a really neat idea to be able to pass titles on to others electronically like that. I haven’t used Kindle much besides for e-textbooks and didn’t even know it was a thing. Hopefully they expand the program in the near future!! Thank you for checking it out, at least. It definitely would have been a good use for it if you could have, haha.

          2. Yes, that’s really frustrating. Especially when physical copies can be just passed on and exchanged but there’s this limit on electronic copies. I think that is as far as they will get, or maybe they will restrict it even more. This exchange feature is several years old. I have never tried it so I was really surprised to see there’s this “one time” limit and that not all books can be exchanged at all.

    1. Thank you! 😊 I thought it would be more about the Great Depression, an illustration of it through a tragedy of one family, but it’s basically just romance and it’s too simplistic for my taste.

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