I was browsing a list of inexpensive books for my Kindle, and I noticed some similarities. I mean, I noticed a lot of repetition.

The hero/heroine is either

• starting fresh
• running from the past
• encountering a vampire
• causing two worlds to collide

As they meet, the main characters choose from these options.

• inexplicably drawn to one another
• do not realize their lives are about to change
• their relationship is thrown into turmoil
• within days (weeks, hours) the body count begins to rise
• tragedy strikes
• they don’t like to like each other
• they don’t want to want each other

As the review/summary ends, the reader is drawn in by a question or dilemma that will only resolve in the book itself.

• Who can stop the terrors of a past he risks everything to forget?
• Maybe death hasn’t come to this little town by accident.
• She struggles to keep a grip on her job, her sanity, and her life.
• Thanks to the intervention, will they both learn to let go of the past?
• Judgment will be fast and furious as the clock winds down.
• She must face up to her past and become what she once was in order to save the world.

Maybe. Maybe, just maybe, it’s not the novels. Maybe it’s the people who write the summaries. They could use an original thought, a chance to overcome their past and become reviewers that cause two worlds to collide – those of readers and writers.