Books I’ve DNF’ed

Since I’m so new into my reading journey, I’ve never been one to not finish a book because I don’t want to. Up until recently. Now I will happily DNF a book if it’s not doing much for me. As much as I don’t like doing it, there are things that just get to me to a point where I can’t read anymore of it. So! Let’s get into the seven books I just couldn’t complete.

Starting off strong with my very first DNF, Swift and Saddled by Lyla Sage. I hate to say this because I wanted to love her books, I REALLY wanted to. But there were far too many em-dashes. Like, TOO many. It took me completely out of the story to the point I struggled to focus on anything other than the fact that there were so many of them. Sentence after sentence. I looked at a couple other book of hers I had and unfortunately found the same issue, otherwise I would’ve given her another try. Who knows, maybe in the future I’ll attempt another one of her books. For now, not for me.

The second book I’ve quit is Wild Love by Elsie Silver. Before starting this one, I read three of her other books, including the last of the Rose Hill series, and I absolutely loved them. This one? Fell short. I didn’t even get that far into it, but from the start, I could not feel any sort of tension or romance between the characters. I couldn’t tell if they hated each other or liked each other, there was absolutely no chemistry between them. And, I hate to say it, but there really wasn’t much of a plot to start with. It felt stunted and slow, like yeah he’s going through realizing he has a daughter, but it was just…boring. But the chemistry thing is the thing that put me completely off.

One that I was super excited for yet couldn’t get through was Daddy Issues by Kate Goldbeck. I wanted to like this one so much. The premise and storyline seemed so intriguing, and I love a good age gap. But it was…so boring. I closed it at like 50 pages in, the pandemic was mentioned multiple times, which if I’m reading a romance book, I don’t want it to take place in real-life scenarios. I read to escape, I don’t like being reminded everyone’s lives were upended 6 years ago. Other than that, the drawn out comic-book-style telling of her meeting another man was just too much. I also looked up spoilers and…yeah. No.

This one hurts me to say, but Unbound by Peyton Corinne was just not doing it for me. I so wanted to like this one, the OCD representation was so well done in the amount that I read, but there were far too many unfinished thoughts. “I just…you…” “it’s…you should…” “i’ll…at six-thirty” ITS TOO MUCH!!! Please. I understand wanting to use it as a way to show how nervous the characters are, but it’s so…annoying. Slightly realistic, yes, but messy and just not good. Another thing that took me out was the dual timeline. I’m usually good with it, I’ve read a good handful, but this one has flashbacks. So in the previous timeline of their freshman year was a flash back of something that happened, whether it was with the FMC or MMC. It was so confusing. Not to mention the FMC is entirely different than the back describes her and I did not like that.

This one also hurts because I heard such good things about it and Sleepless in Seattle is one of my comfort movies, but First-Time Caller by B.K. Borison. I hated to do this, but it was not drawing me in whatsoever. I didn’t get too far in but I just didn’t care for it. I plan on keeping this one and would love to give it another try sometime in the future, but right now I have so many books that I’d much rather get to than ones that don’t make me feel anything for a hundred pages. 

Twisted Love by Ana Huang was a toss up for me. I absolutely loved Twisted Games, and I was so hopeful for this one, but again, it just was not really keeping me interested. Maybe it was the manipulating him to show some kind of emotion or how much I dislike the character of Jules, something about it just kept me away from it after I started it. Again, I hope to give this one another try in the future, so who knows. Maybe I’ll be over whatever it is, maybe not. I’ve heard both good and bad things, but you never know.

This is a very recent one, as I was getting ready to publish this post, I decided to finally retire Keep Me by Sara Cate after 64%. I so badly wanted to push through this so I could review it, but I just couldn't. You cannot convince me that either MC likes the other enough to fuck. He calls her A COW, HE CALLS HER UGLY, HE CALLS HER A BITCH, you literally cannot convince me she'd at all be okay with being intimate with him. When they finally did fuck for the first time, it felt so...wrong. Like there was no chemistry, so many jumps in time, I hate that she's falling for him and gaining his trust only to hurt him by the time their contract ends. It just feels icky. I wanted to enjoy this, it sounded so promising, but I could not get past the name calling and the bullying. I get enemies to lovers, and hate fucking, but this was not it.