did not finish

Book Review: Rest in Pieces (DNF)

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Did Not Finish: Rest in Pieces
Mrs. Murphy #2
by Rita Mae Brown

My rating: DNF, no rating
Genre: Cozy mystery

I’ve heard about this series for a while, seeing books at thrift stores often and knowing that my mom seemed to enjoy the series. I also watched a movie based on one of the books once, though I don’t remember much about it, other than that Ricki Lake plays the MC and the animals talk to each other. Still, I’ve enjoyed another series of cozy mysteries with animals (particularly a cat) in prominent roles, so I had good reason to think I might like this series.

The fault here may have been with those preconceptions, but I just don’t think I’m a good fit for the style of this book. It’s weird enough to me that the animals talk to each other (especially considering that the cat hunts mice…which it can talk to), but the animals cussing at each other, sometimes harshly, really threw me off. The inclusion of some very harsh language overall and talk of who likes to sleep around led me to start thinking I might not have it in me to keep going. Still, I plugged ahead, because I already owned 5-6 books in the series (picked up over the years from thrift stores, thankfully), and my mom did like the books, after all…for goodness sake, my parents’ dog is named Mrs. Murphy after the main cat in the series. But then when we’re introduced to Mrs. Murphy’s ex-husband (a cat, don’t forget), and we’re told about how he tends to sleep around…with other cats…I decided it was just too ridiculous for me to invest any more time into it. Maybe the series smooths out later, but I don’t care enough to find out.

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Book Review: Blood Rites (DNF)

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Did Not Finish: Blood Rites
The Dresden Files #6
by Jim Butcher
Read by james Marsters

My rating: DNF, no rating
Genre: Paranormal mystery

I’ve never DNF’d a book this far into a series, but I had to. I’m also calling it quits on the series, which I’ve rarely done this far into a series either. Though I mostly enjoyed the previous books, I commented about the amount of sexual content in each of my reviews. Jim Butcher’s main use for female characters seems to be as sexual objects, and their body parts are described often and in far too much detail. This makes me uncomfortable both as a woman and as a Christian.

So you can imagine my discomfort and frustration with this book that has a main setting of a porn movie set. At the 26% mark, I realized that just wasn’t worth it. I have enjoyed James Marsters’s narration, which might be the only reason I continued as long in the series as I did, but that’s it for me.

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Book Review: Dying to Meet You (DNF)

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Did Not Finish: Dying to Meet You
by Rich Amooi

My rating: DNF, no rating
Genre: Romantic comedy

By all appearances this book should be a light, fun read, and it has many reviews to that affect. However, I was ready to quit at about 30%, gave it a few more chances, and finally called it at 50%. I’m always a bit uncertain about the modern rom-com genre going into it, and this book had a lot of things I really don’t like, starting with a romance that is much more based on physical attraction than I prefer. Add to that some tropes that make me groan, like the embarrassing “Oops, did I say that out loud?” moments that had already occurred twice by the time I was at 30%. The main character is 10 years older than me, but acts at least 15 years younger than me, making it almost impossible for me to imagine her at the correct age. And what first made me consider quitting on the book was the incredible number of amazing circumstances or rare chances happenings that happen around this woman, including her getting a rare form of an already rare disease, such that the doctor says he’s never heard of before, and the difference in this form? She doesn’t have the debilitating symptoms that would make the plot of this book unable to happen. What a coinkydink!

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Book Review: Spark (DNF)

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Did Not Finish: Spark
Swipe #4
by Evan Angler

My rating: DNF, no rating
Genre: YA dystopian, Christian

The decision to set aside a book that I most likely won’t finish is never easy, which is why I’ve only done it twice before. But this one was even harder, because it was book #4 in a series. Unfortunately, the series apparently doesn’t have an end at this time, and book #4 is a major departure from the 3 before it. The author always seemed a bit eccentric, but it went way too weird for me in this book.

One of the biggest issues I saw in other reviews was that the author left behind the characters that we spent so much time with in the first three books in favor of some new people. I don’t think I would have minded that so much on its own. However, the main character of this book had this strange way of referring to herself. She was “Ali Without a Name,” but there was no explanation of that (considering that she clearly did have a name, I’d have liked to know the story behind this). Then sometimes she or someone else would refer to her in other ways like “Hungry Ali” or “Naughty Ali.”

This, amongst other things, caused me to get that “just hang in there until things make sense” feeling. And then I cheated a little. My son has read all 4 of these books, though it’s been several years. But still, I asked him if any of these things that were making no sense would eventually be explained. He said pretty much no. I decided to call it then, about 1/4 of the way in.

Still, I liked the previous 3 books enough that, even though it’s been 7 years since this book was published, I hold out the tiniest bit of hope that the author will continue the series. If that were to happen, I’d come back and finish this book in preparation of the next. Unless that happens, though, I have no desire to find out what’s going on with Ali and the Tinchers.

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Book Review: Claiming T-Mo (DNF)

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Did Not Finish: Claiming T-Mo
by Eugen Bacon

My rating: DNF, no rating
Genre: Sci-fi

This book was really not for me. Based on other reviews, I think I can safely say that it was personal preference that led to me deciding not to continue reading this book. The style of prose is not my preference, and up to chapter 9, I was having a difficult time caring about the characters or understanding what I was even reading half the time. I also didn’t care for the child-bride angle, and even moreso, the description from her perspective of physical contact with her husband (it wasn’t exactly graphic, but still uncomfortable for me). I have decided not to continue, but perhaps someday I will try it again.

I won this book from a Goodreads giveaway.

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Book Review: Wonderblood (DNF)

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Did Not Finish: Wonderblood
by Julia Whicker

My rating: DNF, no rating
Genre: Post-apocalyptic, dystopian

Wonderblood

I read 1 chapter of Wonderblood and had to put it down. In my defense, it was quite a long chapter, so I gave it a decent chance. But in the end, it proved to be too dark, gritty, and disturbing for my taste. I’m sure that’s understandable for a post-apocalyptic, dystopian setting, but I couldn’t handle it. My main issues were the over-abundance of decapitated heads, excessive blood-shedding (“Wonderblood” refers to a belief that the world will be saved when the earth has been given enough human blood) and pedophilia/incest, and this was just in the 1st chapter.  I skimmed ahead to get an idea of whether or not all of this calmed down, and it may have to a degree, but what I saw when skimming didn’t interest me.

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