Every now and then we come across a book that we didn’t like, or just couldn’t get through. Recently myself, E, Has and Lou all had one book that just didn’t quite do it for us.
The Duke is Mine by Eloisa James (read by MinnChica)
Had a VERY hard time relating to both the heroine and the hero of the story. The heroine continuously pokes fun at her betrothed – a man who is a bit of the slow side. And the hero isn’t much better. So far he doesn’t seem to have much of a backbone and does everything his mother says, constantly second guesses himself, not the kind of hero that I enjoy reading about. I DNFed this book at 37%
Stark Naked by Desiree Holt (read by E)
The blurb looked intriguing, two former college roommates meeting up again. One just got out of a bad relationship and decided to relocate. She is visiting her former roommate and that evening her roommate’s brother passes out at their feet naked. The heroine’s reaction was very extreme and in fact she waiting until everyone in the house was asleep and then snuck out and left. When the hero comes to apologize she goes from one extreme utter hatred to smexytimes and then horrified goes back to hating him. While I enjoyed the conversation where he kept trying to get her to forgive him I couldn’t handle the heroine’s extremes. I DNFed at 41%.
The Traitor’s Daughter by Paula Brandon (read by Has)
Like the others – the blurb and premise of this book looked great and I am a huge fan of fantasy romance and I thought this would be an epic tale of fantasy and romance. But as I started the book, it was pretty confusing with the world-building, and it also had elements of scifi which made it more of a historical futuristic, and less emphasis on the romance which barely had any although I gave up around 15 percent into the book so I am unsure if this is developed later in the book.
Whilst I would enjoy something like that for me the writing and characterisation didn’t work as I couldn’t engage into the book and I hate not finishing a book. But If I had known this is what the book was like and I actually think the cover and blurb is misleading because it gives an impression it is something that is not I wouldn’t have chosen to read this. I do think that general fantasy or scifi readers will enjoy it more but this isn’t a book for fantasy romance/romance readers.
The Reluctant Nude by Meg Maguire (read by Lou)
I had heard good things about this book, though it took me a while to get down to reading it. I was enjoying it quite a lot, especially the dynamics between the hero and heroine. But in a scene, the heroine just casually smacks the hero across the face and feels no guilt, or remorse. Right there, I put the book down. Double standards in violence doesn’t work for me, and since this author did it in a previous book where her heroine slapped the hero across the face numerous of times, once splitting his lip, it’s safe to say I won’t be picking up any work of this author again.