Wattpad Pet Peeves

Bear in Sheep's Clothing (Rant)

Book: Bear in Sheep's Clothing | Book #1

Author: Ligia Nunes

Reads: 250k

Synopsis: Léon and Rob are superheroes. Léon works for the villains, while Rob works for the government. When the government puts Rob on a mission to go undercover and infiltrate the villains' headquarters, he is forced to confront his past lover, Léon. Rob questions which side he's truly on.

Honestly, I have no idea why I even wanted to read this story. It isn't the kind of book I would normally pick up ever, and even though it has lots of reads, it's not majorly popular. But one thing about Wattpad is that on the mobile version, when you flip between chapters, sometimes it will recommend you related stories, and on at least three different books I was reading, this story kept popping as a recommendation, so eventually I bit the bullet and decided to read it.

I will give a disclaimer, however, that I hardly remember this book at all, and that's for two reasons: one, I read it nearly two years ago, and two, I disliked this book so much that I would zone out while reading it and I just had no idea what was going on. The story's also paid now, so I can't go back and look at it to check things.

Concessions:

The writing style was okay, as in it was competent, at least. Nunes clearly proofread the book, because there are few spelling and grammar errors, which is actually a pretty big deal considering the low standards of proofreading on Wattpad.

If I remembered the story better, I would probably have more concessions, but I don't so now it's time for the rant:

Rant:

The world building was terrible. I remember the characters had superpowers, but because there was no explanation of what they were or any kind of magic system, I had no idea what the powers were, or the extent of their powers, or anything of that sort. The combination of terrible world building and me just not paying attention also made me really confused, because I couldn't figure out if my being so lost was my own fault or the author's fault.

My second point kind of elaborates on the previous point a little bit, in that there's little-to-no exposition at the beginning of scenes. This was the specific thing that made me feel so lost. I only ever knew the general location of a scene, but it was so hard to figure out the rest of the logistics of a scene (such as characters' movements and actions) because it was hardly ever described.

Léon is boring. Honestly, if you asked me to describe the character of Léon, I would draw a blank because there was literally nothing memorable about him. It's a wonder how he manages to be the main character, because it seems like his only purpose was to exist so that Rob/Bear would have an in with the villains, which leads me to my next point:

Rob is not likable. I can't remember the ending, whether or not Rob and Léon actually stayed together or broke up, but I remember while reading that I really wanted them to break up because Rob was just not a nice guy. He's your typical meathead.

There are too many characters that contribute nothing. I also want to mention that the ratio of male to female characters is absurd. There are, like, two female characters in the entire story, and the remaining 10 or so characters were all dudes, and all of the romance took place between dudes; there were no female couples, at least none that contributed to the plot. Anyway, I remember when I read the first chapter of the story, and I felt so overwhelmed because Nunes just dumped so many characters on me, and of course with the poor exposition, I just had no idea what was going on, and the bulk of the story involves only Rob and Léon, so the rest of the characters practically do nothing.

The book is way too long, leaving the main plot to just end and be stuck with the unnecessary side plots. Yeah, this book falls into the same trap as so many other Wattpad stories, in that the author just doesn't know where to end the book. I prefer sooner rather than later.

I just want to point out one more time that I barely remember this story, so if something is wrong, please comment about it!

Thank you and good evening (or whatever the heck time of day it is).