Books I have not finished 2020 #5 (Yeah, the 2020 is not a mistake. This is a carry over from last year)

How are you all doing this new year? It's a few weeks into it now, are you getting back in the swing of things? I think I've enjoyed my time off too much because I am struggling to get back into work and stuff. I'm feeling decidedly lazy and I want to do is watch movies and read books. There are worst things to be doing, right?

I'm still working through books I did not finish in 2020. There were more than I expected and I broke them up into smaller chunks so that I would not bore you with a lot of it. It's been a while since I've even looked at these books, so some of them were even a surprise for me as I was putting this together.

So without much further ado, here's some books I have not finished recently.

Review: Kitty vs Alien (Feral Alien #1) by Loki Renard
I read the blurb of this book and thought it sounded like it would be a fun story to read so I decided to give it a shot. I think this was supposed to be a funny story but it didn't catch my attention and I didn't find it funny. Since it wasn't holding my attention, I gave up on it pretty quickly. I didn't want to waste my limited reading time on it when I've got such a giant TBR. Shame though cos the blurb made it sound like it would be a funny read.

Review: Only Her by Lucy Darling
Maybe it was my mood, maybe it was the book. I'm not sure. The only thing I know is that this book had the hallmarks of all the things I love in a romance with a possessive hero but it didn't work for me. Not because I didn't love the hero but because the heroine was essentially being sold off by her father for a business deal to keep himself afloat and she was an unwilling participant in the whole thing. The opening scenes were uncomfortable because she clearly was unhappy and unwilling, but forced into something that she had no say in. It doesn't matter that she is attracted to the hero and she eventually falls madly in love with him - this a romance after all, her resistance made me uncomfortable and I do not like unwilling, resistant heroines even if they only put up a fight for a short while. Kennedy seems sweet and lovely while Gerrit is utterly besotted with her. My favorite part was the fact that he's so possessive that he put a tracker into her engagement ring. That said, I still skipped to the end which I did enjoy reading, but not enough to go back and read the whole book. I guess I just wasn't that fussed about wanting to know how their journey goes. I'm about to dive into another new to me author. Wish me luck. Or maybe I should read one of my favorite authors who's just published a new book?

Review: Bound (Wolverine MC #1) by Alexi Ferreira
When someone recommends a book, it's always hit or miss if it's something that will grab me and if I'd enjoy it. This series came highly recommended. Or rather, this author came highly recommended. Sadly, it didn't work for me even though I gave it a fair shot and powered through to 50% of the book until I finally decided I wasn't enjoying it enough to keep going and skipped to the end. There's a happy ever after but I obviously missed a few things like how the war with a rival MC was resolved, and if Dakota's stalker issue got dealt with and how. I'm assuming they were. For the most part, I didn't feel like I was connecting to the characters or the story and it all seemed rather bland. I didn't find the world building and the mate bond convincing enough, and the explanations of everything contained a little too much telling. The whole world of the MCs seemed underdeveloped and the reasons for certain things happening all seemed a little too easy and trite. Even the fact that the Wolverine MC was a front for more clandestine work didn't have a convincing ring to it. Everything was just bland and boring and eventually turned into a lot of blah, blah, blah while I was reading and I lost interest. I had high hopes of this turning into an author I'd love and a series of MC stories I'd finally found to enjoy but alas, it is not to be. Back to searching.

Review: Stranded by Piper Sullivan
I love a good mountain man story. The broody, loner mountain man works for me. What doesn't work for me is a bratty heroine with a crappy attitude and an unwillingness to be reasonable. Lena is annoyed with her dad. I get that. The thing is, that bleeds into her interactions with Rex when it doesn't look like Rex has done anything to deserve her anger and disdain other than being an unwitting player in one her dad and his mother's schemes. From what I've read, Rex actually seems like a nice, if solitary, guy who getting the short end of Lena's temper and horrible attitude even when he's being reasonable and nice to her. I have zero patience for a bratty heroine and these days I'm teaching myself not to waste my time on something I don't enjoy reading and I sure as heck am not enjoying reading about Lena's rather appalling behaviour. My TBR is way too long for me to suffer through something I'm not enjoying.

Review: Baby by Dani Wyatt
I was in the mood for a little daddy kink but this didn't work for me. There was too much waffling back story about Chloe's horrible family and how they treated her. I didn't like the inner monologue in both Ryder and Chloe's head and there was too much of it dwelling in the past. I get that it was to set up their backgrounds and characters but it dragged on for too long. Chloe's voice was crushingly timid and her self-confidence is non-existent. It didn't sit well with me that Ryder was technically Trixie, Chloe's older sister's boyfriend even though they've not had anything to do with each other for years, but Trixie still believed they were a couple. And as for Chloe's family, they are the worse kind of people. All of it just added to an unsavory mix which I did not want to indulge in.

Review: Claiming Their Nanny (Montana Ménage #1) by Lily Reynard
I enjoy a good menage so when I saw someone recommending this book I was intrigued. I mean, nanny, hunky twin brothers, menage. Some of my favorite tropes. Unfortunately, the writing didn't draw me in and I felt that the opening dragged and didn't hold my interest. I gave it a good shot though and read about 15% of the book but I kept putting it down and getting distracted. There's nothing inherently wrong with the writing. I think it's a generally well-written book, but the pacing was too slow for me and I wasn't keen on Abby's character since she's sworn off men after a bad experience. A resistant heroine is not something I enjoy reading. Maybe I should have thought through the blurb a bit more when I was reading it so that I didn't even start it? The reason I know this book wasn't working for me is because I decided to take a break from it and picked up another book. I dove into the new book instantly and I blew through 20% of the book in one sitting. I can tell now when a book is working for me with how engaged and immersed I am with it. Sadly, this book wasn't it for me.

Review: Two Stone Brothers For Tessie (Love In Stone Valley #1) by Sam Crescent
I've been seeing a lot of books by Sam Crescent recommended and when I went to look, there were a HEAP of books to choose from. I asked in my favorite book group what people thought of her books and generally, they said the books were very hit or miss. They liked some and didn't like others. Some people said try her older books, they are better, others said the same thing about her newer books. I decided to go old school with this Siren book since I do like a good menage and Siren books are known to be erotic. Sadly, I have to admit that the writing is not drawing me in and I'm kinda bored with it. I'm a few chapters in but it's not holding my attention. The writing itself is not terrible but I do not feel invested into the story. I even hung in for a few extra chapters to give it a really good shot because I have a hard time not finishing a book though I'm getting better at cutting my losses when the book turns out to be a dud. I might still try another newer book by Ms Crescent since she's got to be doing something right with such a large backlist and to still be publishing with the same publisher after all these years. Not sure when I'll do that, but I will at some point.

Review: Bad Boss by Liv Lane
I'm not usually a fan of romantic comedies because I often find the humor doesn't work for me. Even with this book, it's not crazy funny but there are some cute moments. The book is well-written and has decent pacing but the constant push pull between Matt and Emma got on my nerves, particularly because Emma was constantly second guessing herself and pulling away. Okay, I get it, she's young and she's inexperienced and fairly innocent, but she's also a judgmental twit. I was mostly enjoying the book though starting to get impatient with Emma's constant hesitation but for the most part I thought she was cute with a big dose of awkward. Then she jumps to conclusions about Matt and bolts and doesn't give Matt a chance to explain. And after he explains and they get it on, she bolts again. At that point I was done. I mean, I understand why she jumped to conclusion. Matt has a reputation, but Matt's a good guy. He's been respectful, giving her choices, and always checking her consent. He didn't deserve the way she was treating him. So when she bolted the second time I was done. I refuse to put up with more of the lack of confidence, insecurity, and generally being an idiot. When she jumps to conclusions the first time and bolts I was pissed off, but when she does it a second time, that's just plain ridiculous. She's incapable of communicating, incapable of expressing herself, and incapable of behaving like anything other than an immature twit. I don't even care if she gets her happy ever after and at that point, Matt's just too nice a guy and she doesn't deserve him. I got to 70% of the book when all this went down and I didn't have it in me to keep reading. I hate when a character in a book pisses me off so much I want to throw the book.
PS. I read a couple of reviews and it turns out it's a good thing I never bothered to finish the book because the ending would have pissed me off even more.
PPS. Matt being Emma's boss and wanting to eff her sideways is totally inappropriate, but whatevs. It's a workplace romance. I can see beyond that since I enjoy the trope. But really, in this day and age, aren't all those boss/employee romances inappropriate? I love them anyway.

Review: Her Mountain Daddy (Bearded Brothers #1) by KC Crowne
I picked up this book to read because I have a thing for mountain men and daddies. Only this is daddy is the sense of father and not "daddy". I prefer the other daddy. I like my daddy kink. That aside this story didn't pull me in right away even though I liked the dynamic and the relationship that Brad had with his brothers, sons, and mother as they ran a mountain resort together as a family. Unfortunately, I couldn't get into the storytelling and they writing. It seemed stilted to me and didn't flow well. On top of that, I felt like it covered a lot of mundane things that weren't necessary and slowed down the pace of the story making it draggy and boring. There was also a lot of telling and not enough showing. I seem to be encountering a lot of that lately. Finally, this book was riddled with editing errors, typos and the wrong words being used. It really needs a good edit and proofread. This was one particular example that jumped out at me and was a little funny: "“Down boy,” I told my d***, shaking my head. After I composted myself, I headed out." I did get a giggle out of the image of him composting his d***. There were many more examples of errors like these for the small part of the book I read. I eventually gave up after giving the book a good ol' college try. It simply wasn't engaging my interest and keeping it.

Review: Straight, No Chaser by Nikki Belaire
Okay, this is a strange one for me. I wanted to read a sweet, innocent heroine and this was recommended to me as being like another heroine in another book I loved. A lot of similarities too, the heroine, the obsessive, alpha hero. But what stopped me in my tracks was something I thought I would love. This book seems to be written entirely from the hero's point of view and well, I thought I'd be all over it since I adore the hero's point of view in a dual POV story. Only when it's entirely only his voice, it got kind of monotonous, and he comes across as a right jerk and manipulative a**hole instead of breathtaking, possessive hero. It was also weird listening to his confusion between wanting her, manipulating to have her right where he wants her, having her completely under his control, and him trying to keep her at arm's length because she's too good for him and he shouldn't have her or can't have her. I kept on reading because I wanted to love it, but I had to give up when I read this "Damn, I'm such a effing* psycho. I want her so effing* bad. To really love her and let her love me. But I can't. This is for Eli. And easy p***y. That's it. That's all it can ever be." I couldn't take it anymore. Grade A jerk. Crass too. I didn't think I would but I found myself wanting the heroines POV too, so I learned something about myself while reading this book.
* expletivies edited for Amazon's sensibilities

So there you have it. Those are some of the books carrying over from last year that I didn't enjoy much. Reading through why I didn't enjoy those books was interesting for me. I had forgotten a lot of it and it's nice being reminded of why I liked or didn't like a book.

Tell me, are there any hot buttons that don't work for you in books? Something that will make you shut the book and not keep reading? How many books have you not finished so far this year?


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