Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.
I amended this week’s – the actual topic is ‘Ten Most Recent Books I Did Not Finish’, but I very rarely DNF – with some books however, I struggle on, debating with myself whether I should just give up and DNF or not. I carry on often because there’s a slightly redeeming feature, or just in the hopes it’ll get better.
Ten Books I Struggled to Finish
A Duke of a Time by Tamara Gill
Format: ebook
Age: Adult
Genre: Romance
Final Rating: 3/5 Stars
I flipped back and forth too much and too quickly between “I’m enjoying this” and “Ugh should I just DNF”. Some parts were fun, but others just totally jerked me out of the story. Full details in my review to come, but this one was a struggle at points.
The Harrowing of Doom by David Annandale
Format: ebook
Age: Adult
Genre: Sci-Fi
Final Rating: 2/5 Stars
This one just wasn’t my cup of tea, though I expect fans of Doom himself would appreciate it a lot more. There was a lot of head hopping in this one, too, which isn’t something I particularly enjoy in books – I don’t mind multiple POVs, but this one switched between characters too suddenly for my tastes.
Gender Swapped Fairy Tales by Karrie Fransman, Jonathan Plackett
Format: Hardback
Age: Children’s
Genre: Fantasy
Final Rating: 1/5 Stars
An interesting enough concept that got old very quickly – a chunk of these stories could have been easily cut out, as the concept doesn’t sustain over so many, and there’s not much different between the stories themselves and how much ‘gender words’ are changed. Some of the choices come across as a bit strange, too.
The Stranger Times by C. K. McDonnell
Format: ebook
Age: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Final Rating: 3/5 Stars
I feel like I’ve seen such similar concepts done so much better, and in a much more interesting way – this one really fell flat for me. Some of it was enjoyable, but most of it just kind of dragged, and it didn’t help the arc was so poorly formatted the newspaper sections were impossible to read.
A Breath of Sunlight by Sydney Winward
Format: ebook
Age: Adult
Genre: Fantasy Romance
Final Rating: 2/5 Stars
This was one of those books that felt like it could have been much better than it was. The premise was interesting but executed poorly, the characters felt flat for the most part, and by the end it felt like there were more than a few plot holes.
Z-Town by Eden Darry
Format: ebook
Age: Adult
Genre: Horror
Final Rating: 2/5 Stars
Another one where it was executed poorly and characters felt flat. They weren’t particularly likeable or memorable – characters don’t have to be likable all the time, but you still want the reader to cheer them on. It felt a little all over the place at times, and not much different from the majority of zombie fiction out there.
How Not to Fall in Love, Actually by Catherine Bennetto
Format: Audiobook
Age: Adult
Genre: Rom-Com
Final Rating: 1/5 Stars
For a rom-com, this book just wasn’t very funny. The attempts to be ended up coming off poorly, and the whole plot felt messy. I struggled to get through this one, but really don’t like DNF’ing audiobooks if I can help it.
Everything is Beautiful by Eleanor Ray
Format: Paperback
Age: Adult
Genre: Contemporary
Final Rating: 2/5 Stars
I think I’m really fed up with the evil stepmother trope. Are there some evil women out there who become stepmothers? Absolutely yes! But the responsibility of bringing someone new into your child’s life and ignoring how totally unsuitable they are in any parental role ultimately lies with the parent. Of course, with that being the love interest here, he gets a pass. More I found frustrating with this one than not. It’s not badly written, but it was a slog to get through.
Shaken or Stirred by Georgia Beers
Format: ebook
Age: Adult
Genre: Romance
Final Rating: 2/5 Stars
Again, I wanted to like this one more than I did. Characters are so important in Romance, but I found the characters a bit flat here. And it felt like we got to spend very little time with the two main characters actually in the same room together.
Format: ebook
Age: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy Romance
Final Rating: 2/5 Stars
This is going back a fair way to when I read this, and I’m struggling to remember a whole lot about it. I do remember it being just a bit all over the place, and feeling like a book that didn’t quite know what it wanted to be. Ultimately it didn’t capture what makes some Beauty and the Beast retellings so good.
Are there any books you struggled to finish, but carried on with until the end? Or do you DNF when you start disliking a book?
Unwrapping Words 
I haven’t heard of any of these.
My TTT: https://laurieisreading.com/2023/07/25/top-ten-tuesday-ten-most-recent-books-i-did-not-finish/
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Might not be a bad thing 😉
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