Instruct: Classify a given review into positive or negative sentiment.
Query: Life is too short to read bad books!

This is my first read of a Carol O'Connell novel so I don't know what the previous in the series were like. However, I'll never find out. I just couldn't follow this story; it was all over the place. Events were jumbled. Had I not read the end flap, I basically would have had no idea whatsoever what the plot was supposed to be about. O'Connell assumes the reader knows more than they do, I think. The writing was neither smooth nor particularily compelling. I cannot comment on the effectiveness of the ending as I never got there; I was too hopelessly lost in the poorly executed plot. Any book that it so poorly written that I cannot finish it gets one star from me. Unfortunately, I purchased this book new. Wish I could get my money back. Life is too short to read bad books!