What is Pepper? If I had to describe it I would say it's a book about a battle-scarred couple on the run who are trying to survive. It's also a book about cats, which a true book aficionado like you can appreciate.

What Pepper is not, is a love story. I've read love stories before. Some of my favorites are I Capture the Castle, Jane Eyre, and Pride and Prejudice. The only thing Pepper and these three have in common is the sublime narcissism of the author.

It starts out with a girl who lives her life like an orange crayon streak. This is a story about a girl being consumed. Her whole world is a ball of pepper. She drowns herself. Anyone can lose themselves to a book, a movie, a song. She loses herself to pepper.

Next to pepper, there was only one thing. Michael.

Michael was a cinder block box. He told her his only purpose on earth was to continue the legacy of men. After dealing with his issues, she falls into a deep depression that seems unending. She has no drive because she has no hope.

Then comes the storm.

A new disease. Something incurable.

Pepper.

If one simply read the title, one would think this is another romance book. But don't be fooled.

This is the kind of book makers should be writing, not erotica. There is no room for love stories anymore. Our world is too toxic.