. . . read a truly awful novel? Where the characters are underdeveloped and the story lacks vitality?

I have. And I'm certain I'm not alone.

The novel I read was actually a six book series published by Love Inspired Suspense, a division of Steeple Hill. Each novel of the series was written by a different author--some of whom I've read before. They had talent.

These books didn't do those authors justice.

The series I'm hedging at is The Secrets of Stoneley series. I won't go into details about the plot here, since there are probably those who haven't read it yet, but I will say it had the potential to be a series ripe with suspense and chilling terror.

It didn't live up to that potential.

My major turn-off to the series is that each book was mediocre. It read very early-draftish to me, as though the authors didn't have the time to revise and edit the books until they shined before their deadline. Most of the writing was lackluster and the authors 'told' a lot of what should have been 'shown'. Plus, a lot of the scenes were underdeveloped and pretty corny, where the hero and the heroine fall in love at 'first sight' or trusted each other almost from the first moment they saw one another.

I mean, really. I'm all for pure love--it's why I read Christan romances, along with the messages they give--but having two people who've known each other for only about a week decide to get married is a little far-fetched, in my mind--this happens in most of the books, where the hero and heroine decide they love each other after a tiny slip of time.

I'm thinking that these authors were under a deadline that didn't allow them to revise and polish these books to their full potential. I'm thinking they were under a lot of pressure to finish the books and have them published. It's the only explanation I can think up, since other books I've read by these authors were pretty good--they also had a list of other books they'd written for Love Inspired, and I doubt the publishing company would've published so many if they didn't have some talent.

What about my fellow writers/readers? Have you read a truly awful book? Or books? If so, list them below, along with the reason why you didn't care for them--it might help budding writers from making the same mistake as them.

Amber