Thursday, October 14, 2021

Books I have not finished 2021 #4

Time for another books I did not finish. I'm slowing right down on these because I'm intentionally picking books I know I will enjoy reading or I'm sticking to favorite authors and playing it safe.

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


After His Banana by Penelope Bloom

Review: After His Banana by Penelope Bloom
This was supposed to be a funny romcom and yes, it was kinda funny. It's zany and bizarre and it had a strange rhythm to the writing that bounced around in my head in a really odd way. I didn't dislike it, but I wasn't completely invested in it. The humor and I were out of sync. This happens quite often for me which is why I generally don't read romcoms because a lot of the times the humor in a romcom isn't my kind of humor. I was attracted to this book because I read the blurb and it said something about the hero throwing a banana at the heroine and seeing how she'd react. I thought it sounded funny. In reality, he didn't actually throw it at her. He gave it to her. While I didn't dislike the book, I felt strangely out of step with it. And I also got kinda impatient with the way Miles and Rey danced around each other so I ended up skipping to the end and reading the epilogues. I liked Miles a lot. He's actually quite mad. But despite liking him a great deal I didn't feel compelled enough to sit through the entire book. I've got one more supposedly funny book that I've downloaded that I'm gonna try. We shall see how I go with that one.


Loner by Jamie Schlosser

Review: Loner (The Good Guys #6) by Jamie Schlosser
Okay, this book was not supposed to be dark. It was supposed to be about a good guy saving a girl who had been abducted and held prisoner in her so-called home for the better part of her life. I thought it would be light and romantic. It's not. It's dark and heavy, and I found it very disturbing. Rosalie has a dark past and upbringing. Preston has an equally dark and traumatic upbringing even though he's made something of himself and turned his life around. But both their pasts are tragic and while they are both inherently good people, they are burdened with tragedy and damaged. It was difficult to read and left me feeling extremely distressed. I kept thinking this is not supposed to be a dark book. Why am I feeling so uncomfortable reading it? I ended up describing the entire plot of the book and discussing with my Steve and his response was, "gee, that's a dark book!" So yeah, it's not branded as a dark book, but I found it unsettling enough that I couldn't read the whole thing. I ended up skipping to the end and reading the epilogue so I know Preston and Rosalie get their happy ever after. I'm content with that. This is a very well written book, the content just wasn't for me. In case anyone is wondering, some of the topics include drug use, drug abuse, drug addiction, drugging someone without them knowing, teenage suicide, kidnapping, isolation, mental abuse, to name a few.

Matthis by Pandora Snow

Review: Matthis (M.E.D.I.C.S. #1) by Pandora Snow
I was really hoping this story and author would work out for me since I have been looking for some good doctor or medical romances. Unfortunately, this didn't hit the spot since the writing style was very factual. I felt like the book was talking at me instead of me reading it and being immersed in the story. I didn't like the way the relationship between Matthis and Christine built up even though I knew it would be fast since it was a short book. I don't mind fast since I read a lot of instalove stories but this one didn't work for me. Alas, another no. 


Mountain Man Next Door by Ava Grace

Review: Mountain Man Next Door (Mountain Men #1) by Ava Grace
Dang it! I was so excited when I discovered Ms Grace and the fact that she had an entire mountain men series. Y'all I love mountain men. Sadly, I did not love this book. The writing is a little rough going for me and didn't flow the way I'd like it to. And I had trouble connecting with the characters. Mason and Libby spent too much time avoiding each other and being lost in their own heads and their own dark pasts and that wasn't working for me. I gave the book 25% but I felt like I was struggling through the reading experience rather than sailing through it so I finally decided it was time to call it quits. I'm really bummed about that because I wanted to have found a new favorite mountain man author.


Omega's Gambit by Flora Quincy

Review: Omega's Gambit (The Hartwell Sisters Saga #1) by Flora Quincy
I was somewhat hesitant about reading this book even though it's an omegaverse which I enjoy. Hesitant because it's historical and I haven't read a historical romance in a very long time. The tone and the setting hasn't appealed to me for a while. Anyway, I decided to give it a try anyway because... omegaverse! Alas, it's not for me. I couldn't get into the story, I didn't particularly like Viola and her rather radical ways, and I didn't connect with the writing style. I think Ms Quincy tried to hard to mimic Jane Austen's writing style and fell flat. It also took a long time to build up to the point of meeting Syon, the hero. I never got that far. It was just too much and too long of an introduction of Viola railing against her designation and the way things worked against her. I do not like it when omegas fight against their dynamic and do not embrace it. It's a huge turn off for me in the omegaverse trope. Sadly, this book is not for me.


My Coach, My Stalker by Jessa Kane

Review: My Coach, My Stalker by Jessa Kane
I'm a huge fan of Ms Kane's books and most of her books tend to push my boundaries somewhat since they tend to be intense and often taboo. They are also hot as heck. This book is no different. Taboo, intense, sexy. And I guess the whole Olympic theme is aimed at people who are hooked on watching the Olympics which is on right now and want to read some kind of coach/student romance. I have always struggled with a coach/student or teacher/student romance because there's such an unequal power distribution. I decided to give this one a shot anyway because it's Ms Kane and I like her books, and even though Margot is legally of age at eighteen, there's such a disparity between her innocence and Everett's maturity. I love the stalker aspect of the story because I do love a good stalker romance but aside from that, I got to a scene between Everett and Margot that left me feeling somewhat uncomfortable about what was happening between them. I stopped reading before that scene got too far, but I read enough to know that both Everett and Margot have strong desires for each other, but at the same time, this pushed the boundaries of taboo, and right and wrong a little too far outside of my comfort zone so I didn't feel like I could finish reading the book in good conscience. It's still a typical Jessa Kane book, hot and fast, and it's a short book, so it's over real quick, but this was a little too taboo for me. Plus I still remember the kerfuffle from another coach/student book series that got a lot of air time and those books got banned from public outcry for a while. I'm believe that authors should write whatever they feel creatively led to write and readers can read whatever they want. Whatever floats all their boats, eh? As for me, this one made me feel somewhat uncomfortable so I'm going to pass on it.


High-Sticked by Lily Harlem

Review: High-Sticked (Hot Ice #5) by Lily Harlem
I gave this book a shot because, one, it was part of a series I'm reading and I'm a bit obsessive about reading in order, and two, it was Ms Harlem and I love her books. Sadly, this book is not for me. I got far enough into the book where Matthew and Todd were getting into a heated confrontation over a shirt Matthew was wearing and I’m a wuss. I can’t handle much confrontation. this one was getting pretty heated and physical which left me feeling rather uncomfortable. I stopped to think about powering through or not reading on, then I read a little more and decided, nope, not for me. At no point am I saying that this book is not well written. It's Lily Harlem. I love her writing and this is a well written book. I really should have done the sensible thing and skipped this book in the series instead of indulging my obsessive need to read everything in order, but I wanted to give it a shot and well, now I know. I will continue on to the next book in the series though. And one final thing, if youre not a wuss like me, it'd be a fantastic read. I know I've loved most all of Ms Harlem's books.


Her Dirty Mountain Men by Mika Lane

Review: Her Dirty Mountain Men (Men At Work #8) by Mika Lane
So I'm reading this book and I get to the end of the first chapter. Then I blink, put the book down and say, "holy moly, this heroine is so stupid, I can't read this!" Of course, Steve who is lying next to me in bed laughs. He has zero sympathy for my pain. I lament, "I think I lost brain cells reading this much!" That's it. I don't have it in me to keep going. I blame the heroine.


Never Ever by Isabel Wroth

Review: Never Ever (Perdition MC #1) by Isabel Wroth
I think I am going to have to give up on ever finding an MC romance that I would love. This one was recommended in a book group and it came with the a whole bunch of caveats that made me think I would enjoy it. No open sex, no club women drama, no men sleeping around openly, no cheating, no other woman or other man drama, no on page sleeping around. It sounded like it hit all the main points for me, but alas, I didn't enjoy it. If I want to pinpoint what it is, I think it's just the whole MC lifestyle, attitude, culture, and morals. I'm reading the book and seeing the way the hero and heroine interact and there's a lot of "being in the lifestyle" and the rules of the life stuff being thrown around which dictates the hero's behavior and the heroine's reactions. Even though I enjoyed the whole hero getting all possessive about find out there's an oopsie baby the heroine was keeping from him, and he stepped up immediately to claim both the woman and the baby, there was just something about the interactions and the expectations that didn't work for me. On top of that, there's a preconceived notion of what the hero is like and what his reputation was before she met him and the implications do not sit well with me. It's quite definitely me and not the book but I couldn't keep reading with all the sniping at each other that the hero and heroine were doing. Well, to be fair, it was the heroine sniping at the hero and he was trying to lock her down and show his commitment. None of that stuff worked for me. It was a complete turn off. Don't hold it against me, but I think I'm going to give up trying to find an MC romance I like. That said, I did enjoy the one book from Christine Feehan's Torpedo Ink series and maybe I just need to go back to reading that series since I enjoyed the first book.


Colton by Nhys Glover

Review: Colton (Scorpio Sons #1) by Nhys Glover
I tried with this book. I really, really tried. I even got as far at 60% but I finally gave up. I had thought about giving up many times along the way but tried to push through because I was intrigued by the concept of genetically engineered clones who had animal DNA in them. Unfortunately, the writing was too clinical and didn't have enough emotion in it. Plus there's a lot of world building since this is the first book in the series, but it's a huge info dump and read like an info dump. Again very clinical and unemotional. It didn't draw me in. I was hoping that when Colton finally met up with Alyssa again and they were on their way to building a relationship with each other that it would be better but it was not. So I finally had to give up.


DNF

So there you have it. That's what I've not liked recently.

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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2 comments:

  1. That is a comprehensive review of all your DNF's! Great idea. I tend to just shut those and forget about them, but realistically I'd probably have read and reviewed a hundred or more books extra a year - except most are probably only half-read. (I also only review 3 stars or better).

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    1. I think that if I DNF a book, it's only fair to say why constructively. In the early days, when I was inexperienced and naive, I tended to be a bit harsher but age, time, and experience have tempered that. Some DNFs are 3 stars too because they are really well written but the content just wasn't for me.

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