Keelan Ellis

I was given this book through the Don't Buy My Love program for an honest and unbiased review.

Misinformation is the story of Ethan Daniels, a well-known cable news station interviewer and Charlie Woods, Ethan’s daughter’s first grade teacher. The story is told in third person through both Ethan’s and Charlie’s povs.



First let me start with the cover. I love it! It’s simple and the choice to keep the title on the small side was a great idea. This has got to be one of my favorite covers I’ve seen this year.

Ethan Daniels is divorced from his ex-wife Deidre. He moved to New York from Philadelphia because when his wife moved, she took Fiona with her. Ethan saw no choice but to move in order to be near his daughter who he dearly loves. He took a job that he doesn’t like at a very conservative TV station. He has to compromise his beliefs when he interviews the right-wing guests and hide the fact he’s attracted to men. Ethan hasn’t dated anyone in over a year and his ex and boss are pushing him to move on. Ethan appears to be stuck in a rut, when what it is, is he’s afraid of change. Or rather, he’s slow to change. He’s very unhappy but believes his life will always be this way. Until he meets Charlie. From then on, Ethan starts to blossom. He makes mistakes and sometimes they are big ones, but he tries to fix them and no matter how painful, he keeps moving forward, just slowly.

Charlie likes teaching. He loves his single life and not forming attachments. He’s never dated anyone more than three times and likes to use dating apps for hookups. The one time in college he had a boyfriend turned out bad, so Charlie has decided to keep dates purely for sex and not get attached to anyone. It would seem that Charlie would be more open to changes, but that’s not true. I found Charlie to be self-centered whereas, until we get to know Ethan, it would seem that he was the one who didn’t form attachments. Ethan has a ‘heart’ whereas Charlie was into having a good time even when he and Ethan had been together awhile. I got the impression Charlie didn’t want to feel anything for Ethan, he was fighting his growing feelings. Another thing I noticed is Charlie was not very sympathetic towards Ethan and seemed to get offended with the things Ethan did and Ethan was the one often apologizing. For example, there’s something that happens towards the end of the book and Charlie is surprised with Ethan arriving early to meet him at his apartment. Here are the thoughts that go through Charlie’s mind:

…and he knew Ethan had one (conscience). He wouldn’t bother with so many justifications for his job if he didn’t. He’d (Charlie) actually been worried Ethan would be depressed at dinner, which would have been annoying. He’d never been to a restaurant as nice as the one they were going to, and he wanted to enjoy it.

Now here is where you all get to read my rant. I am flabbergasted the author had Charlie think that Ethan being depressed would be annoying because Charlie doesn’t want it to ruin the dinner at the nice restaurant they were going to. Can you say selfish, inconsiderate and unsympathetic? He placed entertainment over the emotional well-being of his boyfriend who was making a lot of changes in himself and in his life. Charlie should be understanding and willing to cancel dinner to help Ethan, not be annoyed. I can’t tell you how much Charlie’s attitude offended me. If it was the author’s intention to portray Charlie as a selfish jerk, then she did a good job. If that wasn’t the intention, then she might want to consider rephrasing the sentence and to not give the impression that a person who has depression is ‘annoying’ and ‘inconvenient.’ Mental illness already gets a bad rap and too many people don’t like to deal with people who are depressed. They prefer that their tidy lives aren’t disrupted, or it makes them uncomfortable and would rather pretend everyone is happy. We know that depression is serious and can sometimes lead to disastrous consequences. For Charlie to have that line of thought is disturbing, especially since he’s a teacher of first grade students where you’d think he’d have more empathy. To perpetuate the idea that depression is ‘annoying’ is very, very sad. I’m disappointed the author contributed to the idea that depression is a nuisance for people.

I enjoyed the side characters, Deidre the ex who thankfully wasn't the token monster female in the story. Ethan's daughter, Fiona didn't overwhelm the story and was an ordinary child, not a mini adult. Charlie's friends were good. I'd like to see what happens with his friend Josh and Roland the doorman, their relationship was just starting towards the end of the book.

Continuing on, the story had a great plot with good segues and each subplot fitting well into the others. There's an underlying tension throughout the story that I liked. I think it did a good job of conveying the anxiety that Ethan lived with in his life. I would say that Ethan’s character grew more than Charlie’s. I was really enjoying the book until about the last quarter. I wasn’t sure what was bothering me, but then I slowed my reading down or rather I had it slowed down by the writing. What happened was I was unable to figure out whose pov we were in. It seemed that sometimes there was head hopping and I think part of the problem was the last quarter of the story would’ve benefited from the use of more proper names. At times there was so many pronouns I wasn’t sure who the pronouns referred to. It’s almost like the last quarter of the story was written at another time. The difference wasn’t large so I don’t think most people would notice it. I think the only reason I did was because I wasn’t confused through most of the book about whose pov it was, but only in the last part of the book where I had to read slower to understand. Another thing relevant to the use of proper names was an error where Deidre was called Fiona.

Back to the plot. I did have a question about the cat, Gertie, and why was it included in the story? It didn’t serve a purpose. If it ended up living with Fiona, Ethan’s daughter, I can see it. Was it included to give a few sympathy points to Charlie for taking in the cat? It didn’t work for me because he just ended up pawning it off on someone else. The cat served no purpose to the story.

The ending was a condensed timeline comprised mostly of telling what happened between Ethan and Charlie. Time jumped in large increments and snippets of scenes told the reader what was happening. Only at the very end did the final event become detailed in order to conclude the story.

I enjoyed Misinformation. The plot and subplots were great, except for the cat subplot which didn’t have a point to it. Charlie thinking that depression was ‘annoying’ was disturbing. Ethan’s character growth was very good, but I didn’t like Charlie that much, he was self-centered. But despite the things I didn’t like, I’d recommend this book to others and give it 4 Stars.


… (mehr)

A well-crafted story, or should I say two stories. This covered a current day relationship and a relationship in the past and entwined them in an entertaining ghost story and two love stories.
There was something about the writing that distanced me from the couples and therefore it didn't pack the emotional punch that it should have. This story should have made me cry, it didn't, it barely made me feel. 5 stars for the story, 3 for the emotion. Overall total 4 stars.
I'll definitely check out more of this authors writing.… (mehr)