The Jinx by Jennifer Johnson

Rick Braswell & Ellen Anderson's book

Book Blurb:
Talk about a house call! All Ellen wanted was to get her ring out of the bathtub drain; what she got was a rude plumber who made her clean out her closet, bled all over her bedroom carpet and fainted. Then refused to let her pay her bill! What's with this guy?

This guy - Rick Braswell - is having a midlife crisis at thirty. Ever since making a house call for that crazy Ellen Anderson, Rick's crisis has turned into crises. He's having the worst luck of his life, and every accident and injury involves Ellen. And yet there is something about her that makes Rick want to beat the jinx; so he can love the woman


The Jinx had so much more potential than what it was for me.

There was one scene that had me laughing out loud so much I had to stop to wipe my eyes. Unfortunately I wish that there was more scenes like that. I think if the author's writing style was more to my taste The Jinx would have been outstanding. 

The story itself was great! The plot was a super idea and it is fresh because I haven't read anything like that before. For that I am very grateful. It's certainly refreshing to read a new storyline.

The reason for my lower rating was that I didn't care for the writing style. It felt young. An example would be how the author would write a sentence like, 'that made her very mad.' or 'he was very upset'. I would rather read about the character's feelings by descriptive responses rather than just blatantly have it spelled out to me. I want to feel the emotions and not be told what to expect. If the author is trying to let the reader know that the character is mad, write about the red face, the blazing eyes, the shaking clentched hands. Let me feel it rather than tell me <insert here 'she is mad'>

One other interference that is a huge pet peeve for me was the formal dialogue. There were no contractions. I like to read how a character would speak in real life. For instance a person would say, "I'm coming." not "I am coming". Of course contractions aren't needed all the time, but the formal speech was everywhere.

To me, these writing hindrances interfered with my enjoyment of the book. I think if the writing style was closer to what I prefer to read, The Jinx would have been amazing.