Mad Madam M here…I love a good controversy…especially when it involves things that don’t matter in the end. Now I love my trashy books as much as the next girl, but some people take it a bit too far. Case in point, the bizarre Amazon review by Jody Wallace (scroll to the bottom) for Jennifer LaBrecque’s Highland Fling. This supposed aspiring writer not only disparages the book but also throws insults at the writer and publisher. Now I may not a wannabe romance writer like Crys, but still as the Smart Bitches article put it…you don’t want to bite the had you hope eventually will feed you.
I bring this up only because in a moment of weakness while attempting to move 2,000 miles in 3 days, I bought Highland Fling. As Crys always teases (but is unfortunately true), I can’t pass up a book with a kilt on the cover or ‘highland’ in the title. (I’m taking pills and receiving injections…) Of course I hadn’t read the book since like most of you…I have a large waiting-to-be-read stack and an incomplete thesis to boot! After I read about this over on Smart Bitches I immediately found my copy and read it in 3 hours. Sure this seems like a ’stare at the car crash’ scenario, but still I was interested and hey, I bought the book a full week before the review was published.
To be honest, I am now really wondering if I read the same book. I mean, no time traveling novel involving the Scottish Highlands and Culloden will ever compare with Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series (it is by far the ultimate paradigm of the genre and I will bitch slap anyone who disagrees…Crys said I could!), but I think Ms. LaBrecque wrote an enjoyable book that I didn’t find at all stomach turning as Ms. Wallace claims. I quite liked it.
But what I enjoy most about this whole incident is Ms. LaBrecque’s handling of the criticism. Instead of rising to the bait, she has patiently sat back and enjoyed the spike in book sales that accompanied the harsh critique and even offered to pay the woman back. Classy my friends…simply classy. I mean…you don’t pee in the pool you are swimming in…unless there are jelly fish! Then I guess it is permissible with a note…
