I’ve been dealing with a seeming avalanche of bad news. The kind of news that has nothing whatsoever to do with writing but definitely puts a crimp in my schedule none the less. In these circumstances, it’s a good thing I’ve got a few ebook reviews up my sleeve!

Ann Mauren is a promising novelist whose premiere ebook “Mayne Attraction: In The Spotlight” is available for $.99 on the Kindle and $19.95 in paperback. The “Mayne Attraction” series follows the romantic and physical ups and downs of one Ellery Mayne. A sweet, innocent and introspective blond who is entirely unaware of both her own beauty as well as her financial worth..

I’ve got to start this one off by saying: I loved, loved, loved, this book. Ellery’s insights into various social situations were invariable spot on. Even the lengthy treatise on Goth culture, both it’s off putting appearance and the insight that the appearance hides quite a lot of depth (though don’t think it didn’t set my teeth on edge every time Ellery thinks of her Goth friends as ‘scary’ looking.). The way that Ellery is oblivious to both her own beauty and the true value of her grandfathers legacy, was also spot on. Ann does a truly phenomenal job of putting the reader into not just Ellery’s mind but into high school and the first pangs of first love.

However there are a few things that made me take a step back from the text. First is the cover, that blond woman is both too old and too obviously aware of her own beauty to represent Ellery Mayne well at all. Second, while I enjoyed the book greatly the parts I enjoyed the most felt just a little too cerebral for a general audience which could easily have been lost, bored or simply disgusted with Ellery at several points along the way. Finally, is the fact that the mystery and dangerous tone set in the first few pages of the novel – all but disappears for the vast majority of it. By the end of the novel the mystery feels like a rather poor set up just to justify the romantic angles.

In the end I felt like several elements of the novel were held together loosely at best. Even though I thoroughly enjoyed “In The Spotlight,” I have no intentions of reading the two other books proposed in the “Mayne Attraction” series. It feels odd to say that I loved this book and still don’t want to read the next part of the series but there it is in a nutshell.