There’s nothing worse than when you’re reading a book and the author has you lost in the world she’s created and her characters say, think or do something just instantly yanks you out the story.
I had this today when reading an author I hadn’t read before. Interestingly the storyline was very similar to another book I tried to read this week but the storytelling of that particular novel didn’t grab me and that book’s on the to be passed onto someone else pile, unfinished. The big difference for me was the way in which this author told the story and she had me hook line and sinker into the flow of the character’s reunion and conflict, until she made the error of insufficient research exposure by suggesting that because the hero was one of twins that explained why his ex-lover had given birth to twins–his twins.
Now, I suppose it’s a fairly common assumption that a man influences the birth of twins, and yes it can if he’s from a familial line that produces fraternal twins, and he passes that legacy onto his children. However, he doesn’t determine whether or not his wife bears twins. Even if he’s a twin himself. This is a bugbear of mine as our family learned all about twins when my dh’s sister-in-law carried twins. Twins run in her family. She released more than one egg at ovulation, therefore when two were fertilised at once, she conceived, carried and delivered two beautiful babes instead of just one. Now, identical twins are a different matter. In this, the egg splits into two after fertilisation. But again, even if the father is a twin or not it has no bearing.
Reasearching this information in lay man’s terms is really easy either using the internet or libraries, or even a call to the nearest Multiple Birth Society in your area. But when I, as a reader, am yanked out of a story because author intervention uses a twin scenario incorrectly I am really disappointed and it spoils my reading pleasure of the story.
Okay, so now I have that off my chest, I’ll finish the book because I love the way this author has set everything up and how her characters are developed and I’m thinking all the time, how is she going to resolve this?
And it leaves me curious. What is your biggest insufficient research bugbear when reading a book?
