Monday, December 27, 2021

Books I have not finished 2021 #5

I'm a little surprised that I have more books I have not finished, but I keep trying new things and sometimes those things do not work. By things, I mean authors and books. I've got a few more from this year that didn't work, but I'll save them for next year. I didn't want to overload this one.

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


Married To My Stalker by Mink

Review: Married to My Stalker by Mink
I love a good stalker romance but I discovered while reading this book that I do not enjoy books where the hero and heroine are already married to each other and the hero is keeping secrets and living a hidden life behind the heroines back. Okay, so in this instance, the hero is a hitman and he's trying to protect the heroine, his wife's innocence. Still, the whole thing doesn't sit well on me and I find myself reading with this sense of doom when everything comes crashing down as she finds out what he really is and he scrambles to right all the wrongs. I didn't enjoy how I felt reading the book so I decided not to put myself through all those unpleasant feelings and decided to stop reading. I had been on a really good run with some fantastic books by a favorite author before this so maybe I need to take a break and watch some YouTube videos for a change of pace instead.


Crash Into Me by Abby Knox

Review: Crash into Me by Abby Knox
I'm always up for a good mountain man story. Unfortunately, this is not it. I mean, Eli, the hero was an awesome mountain man. He preferred his solitude but did step in and rescue the heroine, Emma when she ran into trouble, but I could not stand her. She was ungrateful and annoying, and if there's one thing to ruin a good romance, it's an annoying heroine. Throw in her being ungrateful to boot and she ruined the book for me. I did not want to keep reading about her horrible attitude. It was not cute.


How Much I Love by Marie Force

Review: How Much I Love (Miami Nights #3) by Marie Force
I've been enjoying this series so far and I was particularly interested in this book because of Wyatt and the fact that he's had a heart transplant and what that means. This book starts off with Dee wallowing in misery over her ex and how he ruined her life. It was an entire chapter of internal (drama-filled) monologue of angst and I was ready to stop reading by the end of that chapter, but I was waiting for Wyatt to appear. From everything I've read about Wyatt, I like him though I am not a fan of his reasons for not forming any lasting relationships. I understand his reasons, but yeah, not a fan of them. That said, this whole thing about Dee's ex is a huge focus in the story and it's talked about and repeated a lot. By the time it got to a section of the book and it was from the ex's point of view, that was where I drew the line. I did not want to be reading the ex’s point of view even if it meant me understanding him and his motivations a little better. am not a fan of other man or other woman drama and I tend to steer clear of those books or stop reading them when I encounter them. This book focuses far too much on Dee's ex and what he is going through to get her back, and Dee and what she is going through to get over him. I kinda feel sorry for Wyatt because he's totally the rebound guy, but at the same time, he's only in it for the short term and a good time, at least at the start. Anyway, as much as I enjoyed the first two books, this one is not for me. I'll check out the next book in the series when it comes out, but I can't deal with the drama in this book.


Baldeon by Atlas Rose and Raven Scott

Review: Baldeon (Cosa Nostra Heirs #1) by Atlas Rose and Raven Scott
***WARNING: SPOILERS AND TRIGGERS IN THE REVIEW***
It was the blurb that drew me in and intrigued me enough to download this book and give it a shot. I don't normally read dark mafia books because, well, I don't do dark. I really shouldn't have even tried to read this book. It's bloody and violent and uses drug addiction to control women who are going to be sold into slavery. All of it is very graphic too. It's really, really dark. It was dark from the very beginning and it didn't let up. Not the kind of book I would want to read and finish if I'm not wanting to be greatly disturbed and probably have nightmares about. There's nothing light or soft or redeeming about this book at all. Too dark for me. One last thing to note. It's hard to tell though. So many books say they are dark and most are but some are not, so it's a pot shot to find out if the book is too dark for my tastes or not. I never know until I actually read one to find out, but as a rule, I steer clear of anything branded dark and I know it means I probably miss out on some good books, but this one proves to me that for me, staying away from dark books as a rule is a good thing.


A Selkie's Wicked Ways by Lana Lea Short

Review: A Selkie's Wicked Ways (The Selkies Heart #2) by Lana Lea Short
I didn't get far into this book. For some reason the writing didn't grab me and I didn't want to keep going. It was a weird feeling. I felt the words from the story rattling around in my head but they came across as more of a jumble of noise rather than words that painted pictures in my head which is how I usually visualise what I read. I had read the first book in the series and I think I enjoyed it but it's hard to remember because I think that was a long time ago. (Okay, I went to check and for some reason, I've not marked the first book as read but I keep thinking I've read it. I don't know if my memory is playing tricks on me or if I've read it but never marked it as read. I'll go back and do it after this.) Anyhoo, I think this is my long way of saying the writing didn't grab me and I didn't feel compelled to keep going.


The Curvy Architect and the Gardener by Victoria Wessex

Review: The Curvy Architect and the Gardener by Victoria Wessex
I decided to revisit an author I hadn't read in a long time and read some of her books that I hadn't read yet. I've liked most of her books and the one I read yesterday was short and fun. Unfortunately, this one was not. The heroine was way too hung up on herself and how she looked that it got annoying. It's one thing for a heroine to be insecure about her looks and if she's curvy, I've read lots of heroines like that, but this particular heroine was so hung up on the fact, it was a constant litany in her inner monologue and it got too repetitive. I didn't need to be beaten over the head with her insecurities as much as I did. On top of that, she was judgmental. So on the one hand, she's insecure about her looks because she's curvy and who would want a curvy chick like her, and on the other hand, she's judgmental and critical. It's not a pretty combination even if the hero thinks she's hot and attractive. And the poor hero. He gets the brunt of her internal monologue between her finding him attractive and why would he be interested in her to how dare he treat her like a lady and be gentlemanly, there must be something wrong with him or with her to get that reaction out of him. He's just being nice, isn't he? The poor, poor hero. Yeah, I'm repeating myself. He's been nothing but nice to her and she's being a pain in the rear end. So, as much as I've enjoyed previous books by Ms Wessex, this one did not do it for me.


Prey by LV Lane

Review: Prey (Coveted Prey #1) by L V Lane
There's nothing wrong in particular with this book. What happened was I was reading this book and got a bit bored about halfway into the book. I started thinking about DNFing the book. Then one of my favorite authors released a new book and I got so excited about it, I put this aside to read it. That book was excellent and I had a book hangover for a few days. I finally picked this book back up and read another couple of chapters but found I couldn't get back into it. As much as I liked SIlas as first Alpha and Dax and Nate, I was kind of bored of the story and not particularly enamored with Belle. I mean, she's not annoying or anything like that. She's a fierce little Omega who has a naughty streak to her and a tendency for disobedience and mischief. Not my favorite kind of heroine, but I didn't hate her either. In general, I enjoyed the fact that the story was very steamy, very, very steamy and I loved the reverse harem aspect of the omegaverse but there was something about the story and the book that did not capture and hold my attention. I've always been curious about this book and I see this getting recommended a lot. Many people rave about it. A lot of people recommend it when asked for a steamy omegaverse story. It definitely is that. Anyway, I'm glad I tried it. It's okay.


Crazy Rich LA by Bo Grant

Review: Crazy RIch LA by Bo Grant
So I decided to read this book because it sounded fun and the tagline said it was a sweet romance. What the tagline didn't say is that it's a clean romance which is not something I usually read. I didn't know that going in and only found out when I went to Goodreads to rate the book. The reason I decided this book is not for me is because the book is written in third person present tense and let me tell you, that's weird as eff. The first time I encountered it in the book my brain did this little flip and I thought, okay that's weird. But I decided to keep going and not be one of those people who wouldn't read a book because it's written in a particular tense. It's weird, y'all. I tried to almost 20% of the book but I couldn't keep going. It was doing my poor brain in. I think it would have been better if the story had held my attention but it didn't and I found myself skimming the book and skipping passages. Between the weird third person present tense and the book not holding my attention, this is a miss for me.


A Baby For The Lumberjacks by Chloe Kent

Review: A Baby for the Lumberjacks (A Baby for Them #1) by Chloe Kent
What a shame about the heroine of this book. If it weren't for the fact that I could not stand her and how mouthy she was, this could have developed into a good story since I do love a good reverse harem with lots of baby making. Unfortunately, Saffron is way too sassy and feisty and not necessarily in a good way. She's belligerent and offensive, and she's intentionally brazen and bold to cover up her own softness. I assume that's what she's covering up because I couldn't stand her and decided not to waste my time sticking around to find out since I found her so unpleasant and I didn't enjoy the reading experience being in her point of view. It's too bad too. This story had a lot of potential.


Choosing Theo by Victorial Aveline

Review: Choosing Theo (Clecanian #1) by Victoria Aveline
I picked this book to read because someone was asking for recommendations of scary heroes and the one woman who is not afraid of him and is all brightness and sunshine around him. Well, Jade is not brightness and sunshine. She's giant ball of anger and tantrums. Okay, she was abducted by aliens and she can't go home. That's bound to generate some negative feelings, but the Clecanians who rescued her are kind and reasonable people so I kept thinking she should be more gracious and grateful instead of behaving like a bad tempered brat. Aside from not liking Jade, the book was too slow and too long. It was taking too long to get to the point of meeting the hero and I was not getting sucked into the story. I wanted to care more about Jade and her plight, but her personality made it difficult. That said, the writing itself is good even if this book is not for me.


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. There are no books that I dnf'd but a couple I speed read. The Chateau by Catherine Cooper was the main one. The moralising and virtue signalling set my teeth on edge. There were no likeable characters and the second part was just padding. Glad I got it for 99pence, though it wasn't worth that!

    Gill

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    1. I tend to skip to the end for books that I'm iffy about rather than speed reading through it.

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