Dreaded DNFs (4)

[NUMBA FOUR]

Another round of crushed hopes and dreams and sad faces...

Haha kidding. K, so.

The Keep
By Veronica Wolff
The Watchers #4

--Thoughts--

Is it just me, or is the story getting more and more lacklustre? Drew is losing her kick, and her lovey-dovey-ing with Carden ain't what it once was. I mean, they're still awesome together, but I'm not feeling the heat. Maybe it's my weird reading mood lately. Anyone read this yet? Any comments?

Stopped at 14%.
Link to Goodreads

Prince of Shadows
By Rachel Caine

Blurb from Goodreads

A thrilling retelling of the star-crossed tale of Romeo and Juliet, from the New York Times bestselling author of the Morganville Vampires series.

In the Houses of Montague and Capulet, there is only one goal: power. The boys are born to fight and die for honor and—if they survive—marry for influence and money, not love. The girls are assets, to be spent wisely. Their wishes are of no import. Their fates are written on the day they are born.

Benvolio Montague, cousin to Romeo, knows all this. He expects to die for his cousin, for his house, but a spark of rebellion still lives inside him. At night, he is the Prince of Shadows, the greatest thief in Verona—and he risks all as he steals from House Capulet. In doing so, he sets eyes on convent-bound Rosaline, and a terrible curse begins that will claim the lives of many in Verona…

…And will rewrite all their fates, forever.

Stopped at 4% (haha, yeahh..)
Link to Goodreads

--Thoughts--

This was perhaps one of my most anticipated 2014 release after I read this excerpt of Benvolio meeting Rosaline! It was looking up until the pace sort of flattened out and...stayed there. The prose was also very Young-Adultish, too YA for a historical retelling. Well, at least for me. I'm going to put this down for awhile and maybe pick it up later. The literature girl in me disapproves but...a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.

Bitter Sweet Love
By Jennifer L. Armentrout
Dark Elements #0.5

Blurb from Goodreads

In a sizzling prequel novella to her new series THE DARK ELEMENTS, #1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer L. Armentrout draws readers into the extraordinary, irresistible world of Wardens and demons.
Dez wasn't just Jasmine's crush. A gargoyle Warden like Jas, he helped her come to terms with her destiny—fending off demons and maintaining balance between good and evil. He was her everything...right until the moment he disappeared without a trace. It didn't help that Jas's father had just announced that she and Dez would one day be mated. Hard not to take that personally.

And now he's back, three years older, ten times hotter, ready to pick up exactly where they left off. But Jas isn't taking that risk again. Dez has seven days to meet all her conditions and earn back her trust. Seven days filled with terrifying danger and sweet temptation. Seven days to win her heart—or shatter it all over again...

Stopped at 24%.
Link to Goodreads.

--Thoughts--

I swear to Mother Unicorn I loved WHITE HOT KISS (book 1 in series), but I'm not sure why I didn't click with Jasmine in BSL... Maybe cause the story focused more on the romance than a good ol' kicking villain ass arc. If you know me, you'd know that I don't like any form of contemporary romance (except maybe Fifty Shades. I'll always love Fifty no matter who he marries. :P Haha) But I just feel there's too little action to really amp up my excitement, so...

Remnants: Season of Wonder
By Lisa Tawn Bergren
The Remnants #1

Blurb from Goodreads

In the first book of the new futuristic dystopian series from author Lisa T. Bergren, the chosen remnants must work to redirect humanity’s course.

The year is 2095. Gifted teens known as Remnants have been chosen and trained to act as humanity’s last hope to rectify the horrors that are now part of everyday life.

The Community has trained these teens as warriors and assigned them Knights of the Last Order as protectors. Together, they are a force that will be difficult to bring down.

But the Sons of Sheol, of course, are determined to do just that. As the Remnants begin their mission to course-correct humanity by saving and protecting key individuals, their enemies move to stop them, placing the entire world in peril.

Bestselling author Lisa T. Bergren presents the first book in her new YA futuristic dystopian series—The Remnants Novels—fitting in with the current dystopian trend in the marketplace.

Stopped at 6% (this is because the book is THICK)
Link to Goodreads.

--Thoughts--

I won an ARC of it from Lisa's site and I was actually pretty into Dystopian around then (mood reader syndromes) and was quite excited to pick Remnants up. But...even though I was aware that Ms Bergren was very into religion and her books almost always has Christianity infused in her books, it has never been quite so prominent. Every other page in the first few chapters talks about the Maker. Maker this, evil people that. Ohhhhh, the Maker has brought us together (and everyone was in this primeval cave). And being a free thinker (though I am agnostic), it really got to me in a bad way. A little bit is fine, like in her River of Time series, that was cool and daisies, but if rubbing it in my face in a preachy manner kind of turns me off. Yeah, gonna put this down for awhile.

Dragonfyre
By Donna Grant
Druid's Glen #6

--Thoughts--

I bought and picked this up on a whim. Yeahh, I have never read any Donna Grant book before, and I've never touched any Druid's Glen book before and I picked up book 6. It sounded good, and come on, everyone craves a little dragon romance a little once in awhile. And Miss Grant is a big name in PNR...but I didn't really like her writing style in DRAGONFYRE. Maybe it's because it was written in 2009 (or maybe even before that), but nah, the writing was a little...disjointed.

Stopped at 12%.
Link to Goodreads.

Wicked Winds
By Sharon Kay
Solsti Prophecy #1

Blurb from Goodreads

SHE GREW UP THINKING SHE WAS HUMAN

Born with the ability to command the wind, Nicole Bonham spends her life hiding her gift. Deciding to take control of her power, she dispenses her own brand of vigilante justice in Chicago’s worst neighborhoods. Stealth and surprise are always on her side.

UNTIL A CHANCE ENCOUNTER WITH A WARRIOR DEMON

Lash demon Gunnar prowls Earth and several supernatural realms to help maintain peace among the immortal species. His chance encounter with Nicole creates a hurricane of sparks between them, and he can’t let her out of his sight until he discovers her true identity. In his two hundred years, he has never seen a creature like her.

PLUNGES THEM BOTH INTO A FIGHT FOR HER LIFE

Nicole and Gunnar race to discover who - or what - is stabbing the city's most destitute residents and stealing their blood. The fire that forged their bond explodes into white-hot passion, weaving their souls together on an unexpected level. Haunted by the past, Gunnar's fiercely protective instincts battle with her need to defeat the creatures she was born to fight. As they track the mastermind behind the attacks, will Nicole’s unique talent unwittingly send her straight into his lair?

Stopped at 6%.
Link to Goodreads.

--Thoughts--

WICKED WINDS was another whim book. I arrived at my university admission interview 2 and a half hours early (YEAHH fml) cause I read the time wrongly so I was browsing through Goodreads and saw WICKED WAVES (book 2), so I went to search up on book 1. I've always LOVED elemental stories and movies (Go Katara!) so I picked this up even though I don't read self-published books all that often (I'm not against them, I'm just...wary). I think that the entire idea of vigilante justice is cool, but a couple of girls becoming experts in martial arts and Tae Kwan Do in what, 3 years? And TWO girls defeating THREE muggers twice their size? Nope, I'm not convinced. To top it off, Nicole sounded like ME. Maybe me a few years ago when I was in my early teens. And she's supposed to be 28 yo. So no, the YA/MG writing style isn't for me.

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I've been pretty angsty lately and in a reading slump... I am eagerly awaiting for my order of Shinobi by Cole Gibsen, Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo and Oracle's Moon by Thea Harrison to come though! Hopefully those bestsellers will knock me out of this funk. :))

Any good finds or DNFs lately?

Dreaded DNFs (3)

Here it comes again... Sigh...

Jet Black and the Ninja Wind
by Leza Lowitz and Shogo Oketani

Blurb from Goodreads

Seventeen-year-old Jet Black is a ninja. There's only one problem--she doesn't know it. Others do, however, and they're scheming to capture her and uncover her secrets. When her mother dies, Jet knows only that she must go to Japan to protect a family treasure hidden in her ancestral land. She's terrified, but if Jet won't fight to protect her world, who will? Stalked by bounty hunters and desperately in love with the man who's been sent to kill her, Jet must be strong enough to protect the treasure, preserve an ancient culture, and save a sacred mountain from destruction. In Jet Black and the Ninja Wind, multiple award-winning author, poet, and translator team Leza Lowitz and Shogo Oketani make their first foray into young adult fiction with a compulsively readable tale whose teenage heroine must discover if she can put the blade above the heart--or die trying.

--Thoughts--

I have always been absolutely fascinated with ninjas and of course their love stories, but the only good ones I have very luckily stumbled upon so far are only 2. I thought Jet Black was going to join those 2 to make it 3, but no. I mean, it sounds AMAZING and it has a freaking 4.37 average rating on Goodreads. It's getting rave reviews and being recommended left and right. Dude, how can it be so bad.

Choppy paragraphs, awkward dialogues and events, slow pace, a little excessive descriptions at times, INSTANT ATTRACTION OMG, and have I mentioned weird dialogues and glacial pace?

Angelbound
Angelbound #1
by Christina Bauer

Blurb from Goodreads

Eighteen year old Myla Lewis is a girl who loves two things: kicking ass and kicking ass. She’s not your every day quasi-demon, half-demon and half-human, girl. For the past five years, Myla has lived for the days she gets to fight in Purgatory’s arena. When souls want a trial by combat for their right to enter heaven or hell, they go up against her, and she hasn’t lost a battle yet.

But as she starts her senior year at Purgatory High, the arena fights aren’t enough to keep her spirits up anymore. When the demons start to act weird, even for demons, and the King of the Demons, Armageddon, shows up at Myla’s school, she knows that things are changing and it’s not looking good for the quasi-demons. Myla starts to question everything, and doesn’t like the answers she finds. What happened seventeen years ago that turned the quasi-demons into slave labor? Why was her mom always so sad? And why won’t anyone tell her who her father is? Things heat up when Myla meets Lincoln, the High Prince of the Thrax, a super sexy half-human and half-angel demon hunter. But what’s a quasi-demon girl to do when she falls for a demon hunter? It’s a good thing that Myla’s not afraid of breaking a few rules. With a love worth fighting for, Myla’s going to shake up Purgatory.

--Thoughts--

4.20 average rating on Goodreads and on some book bloggers' Best of 2013 list. How bad can it be? Well, maybe it's because of my recent reading funk, but I found Angelbound a little boring, too colloquial for my liking, and the protagonist had this really arrogant and...shallow way of thinking and voice. I might revisit it again in the future.

I am also currently putting Kinslayer by Jay Kristoff on hold. NOT that it was bad or anything. Contrary to that, Jay has this really cool way of describing and building his amazing world, but people who've read his books knows his writing style is more poetic (in a way. I can't really describe it), so I need to be in a certain mood to read it. And currently I'm in a Fantasy/Romance-heavy YA mood. Don't judge me k, but I'm also in a love-triangle mood. Haha, yeah so I'm reading Defy by Sara B. Larson. It's also getting great reviews so I'm hopeful. :)

 

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What are you guys currently reading? Any DNFs recently? Or fantabulous reads that you'd like to recommend?

Dreaded DNFs (2)

Since I'm planning to blog about my DNF (for those who don't know what this abbreviation means, it's Did-Not-Finish) reads, I might as well make an official banner. I'm not sure if it's the books I pick up recently aren't all that interesting or is it just that I'm in a reading funk, but almost every book I pick up nowadays I DNF it. I've been so busy recently but I still try to squeeze in some reading time every morning or while I'm commuting -- I even brought a book to my teacher's wedding reception! Yes, book nerd for life for the win~.

Howwwwweva, none of the books is doing it for me. ARGH I'm so desperate to be pulled into another kickass heroine's world. A good romance. A good action sequence. A good escapade. Anything! I even try picking up huge-ass famous books but I'm still not getting anywhere. Sigh, any good recs, anybody? :(

Skulk by Rosie Best
Published: October 1st, 2013 by Strange Chemistry

Blurb from Goodreads

When Meg witnesses the dying moments of a shapeshifting fox and is given a beautiful and powerful stone, her life changes forever. She is plunged into the dark world of the Skulk, a group of shapeshifting foxes.

As she learns about the other groups of shapeshifters that lurk around London – the Rabble, the Horde, the Cluster and the Conspiracy – she becomes aware of a deadly threat against all the shapeshifters. They must put aside all their enmity and hostility and fight together to defeat it.

--Thoughts--

AWESOME cover, exciting premise, execution? Not so much. I mean, the world Meg is in is surprisingly shallow, her mom is unconvincingly tyrannical and her dad conveniently detached and unfeeling. The descriptions and action are also written in a way that is remarkably unengrossing and I just couldn't relate to Meg in any way. Poor development all the way around.

Stopped at 32%. See, I did try.

Dark Magic by Christine Feehan
Carpathian Book 4
Published: May 31st, 2007 by Piatkus Books

Blurb from Goodreads

They were masters of the darkness, searching through eternity for a mistress of the light...

Would she find magic--or madness--in his dark embrace?

Young Savannah Dubrinsky was a mistress of illusion, a world-famous magician capable of mesmerizing millions. But there was one--Gregori, the Dark One--who held her in terrifying thrall. Whose cold silver eyes and heated sensuality sent shivers of danger, of desire, down her slender spine.

With a dark magic all his own, Gregori--the implacable hunter, the legendary healer, the most powerful of Carpathian males--whispered in Savannah's mind that he was her destiny. That she had been born to save his immortal soul. And now, here in New Orleans, the hour had finally come to claim her. To make her completely his. In a ritual as old as time...and as inescapable as eternity.

--Thoughts--

K, I saw this at a Times book sale and decided to skip the first 3 books in the series. I occasionally like to read bout a dominant, intimidating hero and an independent heroine who fall irrevocably in love, but Feehan is pushing the limits of dominant in Gregori. Granted, he has moments of tenderness and care but he crosses the boundaries into arrogant jerk (and not the kind that gives you the sexy butterflies in yer tummy yummy) territory far too often. Sometimes I just want to slap him upside down for all his annoying ego and authoritarian male attitude.

And, nearly the entire plot for the first 70 pages of its 350 pages is about Gergori's arrogance and how he claimed Susannah even before her birth. Please.

Stopped at page 70.

Lover Mine by J.R. Ward
The Black Dagger Brotherhood Book 8
Published: April 27th, 2010 by NAL

Blurb from Goodreads

In the darkest corners of the night in Caldwell, New York, a conflict like no other rages. Long divided as a terrifying battleground for the vampires and their enemies, the city is home to a band of brothers born to defend their race: the warrior vampires of the Black Dagger Brotherhood.

John Matthew has come a long way since he was found living among humans, his vampire nature unknown to himself and to those around him. After he was taken in by the Brotherhood, no one could guess what his true history was- or his true identity. Indeed, the fallen Brother Darius has returned, but with a different face and a very different destiny. As a vicious personal vendetta takes John into the heart of the war, he will need to call up on both who he is now and who he once was in order to face off against evil incarnate.

Xhex, a symphath assassin, has long steeled herself against the attraction between her and John Matthew. Having already lost one lover to madness, she will not allow the male of worth to fall prey to the darkness of her twisted life. When fate intervenes, however, the two discover that love, like destiny, is inevitable between soul mates.

--Thoughts--

I knowwwww, I know, how can I not like John's book right? I stopped with this series after Zsadist's book even though I loved everyone one of the first three instalments in this series, but I couldn't summon the interest to pick up V's, Butch's, Rhev's and Phury's(?) books. I didn't want to skip so many books though, so I just didn't continue with BDB. But after reading all the reviews of the bloggers and Goodreads users whom I share similar reading tastes (see, I do my research to reduce DNFs, but this still happens. Grr) and an average 4.2 rating from ~55,000 readers? I thought this was a sure win but nothing exciting ever happens! John gets a tat, he's depressed but determined to find Xhex, and Xhex is just trapped in that room with only her thoughts. And the flashbacks to Darius' past? They're cool and morbidly fascinating but nothing beyond that.

Stopped at page 96 of 653. I still plan on revisiting John and Xhex tho, cause I have faith in this series.

 

 

 

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For the sake of kicking myself out of this reading funk, I've been careful about only picking books that are traditionally published (sorry self-pub authors! It's not that I don't have faith in your books, it's just that I'm afraid of picking up a badly edited one and there are more badly-edited books in self-pub than traditional. SORRY, but I'm hardpressed to get out of this funk that's been clinging to me like a leech), have ratings higher than a 4 and very exciting premises. But it's still not working! The only book I've finished recently is POISON DANCE by Livia Blackburne, which is a novella.

What are your most recent DNFs? Any good recs? Something like DEFY by Sara B. Larson and UNCHAINED by J. Lynn, though I havent' read DEFY, I can feel that I'll like it already. Haha, but it refuses to be released and I don't wanna request for an ARC just in case I don't like it and then I'll feel bad for writing a less than stellar review.


Anyhoo, thanks for visiting and reading! Check back for the next Christmas Countdown post later tonight (for me, morning/afternoon for those in the US I think)!