DNF Review: The Peer and the Pupper

Title: The Peer and the Puppet 
Series: When Rivals Play #1 
Author: B.B. Reid 
Genre: New Adult, Romance, Contemporary
Publisher: Bebe's Reads LLC
Publication Date: July 22, 2018 
Source: Bought 

THE PUPPET
Borrow the bike. Win the race. Collect the cash. It should've been an easy job. Ran out of town with a broken leg and a lawsuit, my mother's latest flame swoops in like a knight in gilded armor. Blackwood Keep is a place I don't belong, and I'm not the only one who knows. To the boy across the hall, my savior's only son, I'm a stray looking for a bone.
He's lord of the manor.
King of the academy.
And number one on my shit list.
THE PEER
I have no intentions of becoming a happy family with the social climber and her wild daughter. A bottle of Jameson and a cracked skull gets my problem shipped to reform school, but I didn't bank on her returning.
Four's out to get even, and she almost had the perfect plan: expose the privileged kid moonlighting as a gangbanger. She's smart, but she'll have to be smarter. Sending her away won't be good enough this time. I'm going to have to tame the little troublemaker. To the girl across the hall, the one without a name, I'm nothing without my silver spoon.
She's lady of the trailer park.
Queen of the swamps.
And my new favorite pastime.

Goodreads | Amazon 

Well, this book was a mess. 

Honestly, I wanted so badly to love this one. It sounded right up my alley -- enemies to lovers, a strong female protagonist, and the two main characters are thrown together! I mean, that's a recipe for an entertaining read. Unfortunately, this one turned from entertaining to infuriating pretty soon after I started it. There was just so much going on that it annoyed me. It felt like the author couldn't quite balance all the different plot lines and it left me feeling confused and irritated while I was reading. I ended up DNFing it at 77%. 

Okay, so I straight up couldn't stand the main characters. First of all, their names. The girl was named Four, the boy named Ever. 

Four. Ever. 

. . . Yeah. 

They were also just both very annoying. I didn't get what was Ever's problem?? Like, I get that the author was going for the irresistible, bad-boy, jerk hero we so often see in books like this but it absolutely didn't work. Ever had the personality of a saltine cracker and all the "dangerous" things about him made me think he was just dumb. I really do hate feeling this way but I just couldn't find it in me to root for him or even like him. I didn't enjoy reading about him and it just made me sad for Four, honestly. I hated that she even gave him the time of day. He didn't treat her well at all, even in the moments when he was supposed to be like a "nice guy" but Four fell for it and it just . . . ugh. It was so frustrating. She really didn't turn out to be the strong female character I thought she would be which was sad. 

Like I previously said, the plot was really disjointed and all over the place.  It was going in too many different directions and it made it hard to follow and feel connected to the characters. What made it even harder was the fact that the author just didn't explain anything. Like, I get not wanting to spoon-feed your readers information but it got to the point that the author was keeping things so vague that I was left feeling stupid, like I was missing something I should have got but the information just wasn't there. 

I could honestly keep going on but I don't want to. In all, this book just wasn't for me. None of the elements in it sparked my interest (like I said, many of them ignited my annoyance). If you've been a fan of this author's previous work, you may have more luck with this one than I did. 

“You are the karma I deserve.” 

One out of Five Teapots

Review: The Edge of Never

Title: The Edge of Never
Series: The Edge of Never #1
Author:  J.A. Redmerski
Genre: New Adult, Romance, Contemporary
Publisher: Createspace
Publication Date: November 15, 2012
Source: Gifted.  Thank you!

Twenty-year-old Camryn Bennett had always been one to think out-of-the-box, who knew she wanted something more in life than following the same repetitive patterns and growing old with the same repetitive life story. And she thought that her life was going in the right direction until everything fell apart.
Determined not to dwell on the negative and push forward, Camryn is set to move in with her best friend and plans to start a new job. But after an unexpected night at the hottest club in downtown North Carolina, she makes the ultimate decision to leave the only life she’s ever known, far behind.
With a purse, a cell phone and a small bag with a few necessities, Camryn, with absolutely no direction or purpose boards a Greyhound bus alone and sets out to find herself. What she finds is a guy named Andrew Parrish, someone not so very different from her and who harbors his own dark secrets. But Camryn swore never to let down her walls again. And she vowed never to fall in love.
But with Andrew, Camryn finds herself doing a lot of things she never thought she’d do. He shows her what it’s really like to live out-of-the-box and to give in to her deepest, darkest desires. On their sporadic road-trip he becomes the center of her exciting and daring new life, pulling love and lust and emotion out of her in ways she never imagined possible. But will Andrew’s dark secret push them inseparably together, or tear them completely apart?

Find The Edge of Never online

Barnes & Noble | Amazon | Goodreads | Book Depository

So, I kind of feel like I'm missing something here.  I just . . . didn't like this book.  Like, at all.  And from what I've seen on Goodreads, this book has a huge following and tons of people like it (I mean, it has an overall rating of 4.27.  That's pretty damn good).  From what I've read about it, I thought this would be an easy four or even five star rating from me but I couldn't even get all the way through it.  I marked it as DNF at 58%.  

 So, my main issues stem from the characters.  Oh man, the characters.  Our lead lady, Cam, is absolutely horrible.  I'm sorry, but she is.  She's was like a cardboard cutout.  Pretty on the outside but flat and lacking depth on the outside (despite her "deep thoughts".  Seriously, look at this quote: "Instead of sitting around dreaming up new sex positions, as Natalie often does about Damon, I dream about things that really matter. What the air in other countries feels like on my skin, how the ocean smells, why the sound of rain makes me gasp."  That's an actual freaking quote.  I rolled my eyes so hard when I read that).  Besides that, she was also leading the slut shame parade.  I can't even count the number of times she called her supposed "best friend" a slut in the first chapter.  Literally every other girl in this book was called a slut at one point or another.  It's ridiculous.  

Oh, and lets not forget the best part about her: the fact that she threw a tantrum and got on a bus without telling anyone and without a destination . . . WTF is this logic.  Why would you do that?  I get wanting to be spontaneous but even after spending days riding on the bus, she still didn't see how absolutely idiotic she was.  Of course, when she meets super hot and dreamy Andrew on this bus, that's when the story really gets rolling.  

And Andrew.  Sweet little Andrew.  I hate this guy, too.  He was a walking contradiction, honestly.  It was most obvious when he said how non-violent he was when we first read from his point of view but then every single chapter after that he talks about wanting to punch something to deal with his frustrations.  Was this supposed to be hot?  This wasn't hot, it was scary and creepy.  Not a good time.  He also says things like this: "if you were to let me fuck you, you would have to let me own you" and like this “I’m so hard right now my dick can cut diamonds.”  What is this.  This is supposed to be attractive?  I honestly can't figure out why so many people like him.  I couldn't jump onto the "We Love Andrew" train with everything he did and said throughout the book.  

The final nail in the coffin of this book was the trivialization of mental illness.  Yep, along with all the violence and slut shaming, this book also had that.  Here, let me pull a quote for you: "I always thought depression was so overrated, the way people toss the word around (a lot like the L-word that I will never say to a guy again for as long as I live). I never like to see someone hurting, but I admit whenever I heard someone play the depression card, I'd roll my eyes and go about my business.
Little did I know that depression is a serious disease."  Yeah, that was pretty much when I knew I wouldn't be liking this book.  

Obviously, there's a lot of other people out there who absolutely adored this book.  I'm just not one of them.  I couldn't overlook the things that bothered me in this book enough to enjoy the story and the characters got on my nerves like nothing else.  I don't think I'll be giving this author another shot but if you end up reading this book, I hope you get more out of it than I did.

“Heart always wins out over the mind. The heart, although reckless and suicidal and a masochist all on its own, always gets its way.”

One Teapot

The Anatomical Shape of the Heart (DNF)

Title:  The Anatomical Shape of a Heart
Series:  None
Author:  Jenn Bennett
Genre:  Contemporary, Young Adult, Romance
Publisher:  Feiwel & Friends
Publication Date:  November 3, 2015
Source:  Gifted.  Thank you!

Beatrix Adams knows exactly how she’s spending the summer before her senior year. Determined to follow in Da Vinci’s footsteps, she’s ready to tackle the one thing that will give her an advantage in a museum-sponsored scholarship contest: drawing actual cadavers. But when she tries to sneak her way into the hospital’s Willed Body program and misses the last metro train home, she meets a boy who turns her summer plans upside down.
Jack is charming, wildly attractive, and possibly one of San Francisco’s most notorious graffiti artists. On midnight buses and city rooftops, Beatrix begins to see who Jack really is—and tries to uncover what he’s hiding that leaves him so wounded. But will these secrets come back to haunt him? Or will the skeletons in her family’s closet tear them apart?

Find The Anatomical Shape of a Heart online!

Barnes & Noble | Amazon | Goodreads | Book Depository

 So I just . . . didn't really like this book.  I didn't hate it, either though.  It left me wildly uninterested and a little uncomfortable and I just couldn't really muster up the interest or energy to pick it up, especially with so many other books waiting on the side line.  I got about 73% through the book before I called a quits.  There was good aspects along with the bad but for me at least, the bad outweighed the good.  Despite the interesting premise and the promising characters, I can't say I regret putting this one down.  

My issues with the book really stemmed from the characters, particularly the love interest, Jack.  While he was charismatic and fun and artsy, he also came off as really creepy to me.  I didn't like the way he and Beatrix started their relationship because it felt too much like stalking to me whenever he would just randomly pop up at places she was.  Like, if it wasn't for his pretty face, Beatrix would have been totally weirded out by him following her around and turning up, too.  I mean, this pattern isn't exactly unusual in YA novels (unfortunately) but for some reason in this one, it just really stood out for me.  I wasn't a fan of his brand of mystery.  

The overall story was initially interesting to me.  I had never really thought about the process that goes behind the scientific, body drawing you find in biology textbooks and stuff like that.  And this was the first book I'd ever heard of with a protagonist thawas an artist interested in that kind of art.  It was equal parts disturbing, interesting, and creepy.  There was quite a few sections about it, which were honestly the only interesting sections of the books for me.  The rest of Beatrix's story revolved mostly around Jack (who, we've already established, I'm not a fan of) and some family drama.  I didn't get far enough in the story to really delve into Beatrix's past and the conflict with her parents and family.  But like I said, I just wasn't interested enough in the story or invested enough in the characters to continue reading to find out.  

I'm disappointed I didn't like this story more.  Like I've said, I didn't necessarily hate it, I was just totally uninterested.  I didn't get the drive to read it like I do with other books.  Because of this, I couldn't find it in me to finish it. 

“Too weird for jocks, and not weird enough for hipsters, I was neither freak nor geek, and that left me stranded in no-man’s-land.”

 

Review: The Diviners (DNF)

Title:  The Diviners
Series:  The Diviners #1
Author:  Libba Bray (Website | Twitter)
Age Group:  Young Adult
Publisher:  Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication Date:  September 18, 2012
Source:  Gifted

Evie O’Neill has been exiled from her boring old hometown and shipped off to the bustling streets of New York City—and she is pos-i-tute-ly ecstatic. It’s 1926, and New York is filled with speakeasies, Ziegfeld girls, and rakish pickpockets. The only catch is that she has to live with her uncle Will and his unhealthy obsession with the occult.
Evie worries he’ll discover her darkest secret: a supernatural power that has only brought her trouble so far. But when the police find a murdered girl branded with a cryptic symbol and Will is called to the scene, Evie realizes her gift could help catch a serial killer.
As Evie jumps headlong into a dance with a murderer, other stories unfold in the city that never sleeps. A young man named Memphis is caught between two worlds. A chorus girl named Theta is running from her past. A student named Jericho hides a shocking secret. And unknown to all, something dark and evil has awakened.

Find The Diviners online

Barnes & Noble | Amazon | Goodreads | Book Depository

Man, I was so excited going into this book. While I had never read anything by Libba Bray before, I'd heard awesome things about her works, particularly this one.  However, I found I was pretty disappointed with this book.  I had the hardest time connecting with the characters, getting interested in the plot, and finding motivation to read it.  Eventually, I had to mark this one as DNF at about half way through.  

Connecting with characters is a must for me when I read a book.  If I don't care about the characters, I find I don't care much about the story overall.  With this one, I couldn't even bring myself to like the characters, particularly Evie, out main gal.  She was just...oh my gosh, so frustrating.  From the very beginning of the book, she cared less about the people around her and more about how she was perceived.  I grew tired of her thirst for fame very quickly, especially when she began going behind some of her loved ones backs in order to achieve it.  She was a shallow, snobby girl.  I can't say whether she improved or not toward the end of the novel since I didn't finish it but I couldn't find it in me to continue reading in order to find out.  

The other characters weren't much better but I can say that I at least liked them.  However, we didn't really get to know them much, at least not in the first half of the book.  The only character I'm honestly a bit sad that I won't get to know more about is Sam.  He was the highlight of the entire book for me.  Funny, charming, and a thief, he was exactly what I like in my book boys.  And his banter with Evie when they were together was off the charts.  I loved it!

The plot had the potential to be absolutely fabulous but I found it took a little too long to get rolling.  Nothing really major or interesting happened until about 100 pages in and by that time I was already playing with the idea of marking it as DNF.  I will admit though, once things did start happening, they were really interesting and creepy.

Another problem I had with this novel was that it was just unnecessarily long.  It's 500+ pages and it could have easily been cut down to 300, I think.  There was just way too much description.  There were entire pages of just description and I just got way too bored way too quickly with it.  

I'm sad I didn't like this book.  I really wanted to but I just could not get into it.  While it wasn't all bad, there was just too many of my bookish pet peeves rolled into these pages for me to really enjoy it.

“Your mother and I do not approve of drinking. Have you not heard of the Eighteenth Amendment?” 
“Prohibition? I drink to its health whenever I can.” 

Two Teapots

Review: The Winter People

Title:  The Winter People
Series:  None (that I can find)
Author:  Rebekah L. Purdy (Website | Twitter)
Age Group:  Young Adult
Publisher:  Entangled Teen
Publication Date:  September 2, 2014
Source:  An eARC was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.  Thank you!

An engrossing, complex, romantic fantasy perfect for fans of Kristin Cashore or Maggie Stiefvater, set in a wholly unique world.
Salome Montgomery fears winter—the cold, the snow, the ice, but most of all, the frozen pond she fell through as a child. Haunted by the voices and images of the strange beings that pulled her to safety, she hasn't forgotten their warning to "stay away." For eleven years, she has avoided the winter woods, the pond, and the darkness that lurks nearby. But when failing health takes her grandparents to Arizona, she is left in charge of maintaining their estate. This includes the "special gifts" that must be left at the back of the property.
 

Salome discovers she’s a key player in a world she’s tried for years to avoid. At the center of this world is the strange and beautiful Nevin, who she finds trespassing on her family’s property. Cursed with dark secrets and knowledge of the creatures in the woods, his interactions with Salome take her life in a new direction. A direction where she'll have to decide between her longtime crush Colton, who could cure her fear of winter. Or Nevin who, along with an appointed bodyguard, Gareth, protects her from the darkness that swirls in the snowy backdrop. An evil that, given the chance, will kill her.

Find The Winter People online

Barnes & Noble | Amazon | Goodreads

My Review:  Oh, man, this book had so much potential.  I love the cover and the synopsis but when I started reading...I just could not for the life of me get into it.  I found myself constantly distracted while reading and not engrossed in the story like I normally am when I read.  I think the biggest problem I had was that it felt like I had already read this book before.  While the overall concept sounded interesting, when I delved into the pages, I found myself surrounded by card-board cut out characters and a plot that left me skipping passages and skimming.  Because of this, I marked this book DNF at 47%.  

First of all, the main character made me want to punch a wall.  I was so frustrated with her all the time.  I didn't understand how her feelings could could transfer to different guys so fast.  This was no love triangle.  It was a freaking love square and I didn't understand.  She'd been crushing on this dude for forever and the second she gets a shot with him, she's suddenly fascinated but this other guy (who was very, very creepy the first time they met.  Like, how did she not call the police on him?).  I honestly just didn't know what she was even doing half the time.

And the boys...the boys.  Usually, I have a soft spot for fictional boys.  I mean, c'mon, who doesn't?  But these ones just...annoyed me.  They felt unoriginal and lacking in substance.  There was three of them, first of all.  And it felt like the author just took the stereotypical guy in YA and copied it three times and stuck the character in the book with three different names.  I didn't connect to any of them and I just felt irritated when Salome was swooning over one.  

What I learned about the plot held promise but it didn't grab me enough for me to want to continue.  The book felt mostly centered around the boys and I felt like it could have done better if it centered more around the external conflict.  Like, the villain was important but almost felt like an after thought (from the parts I read).  

I'm disappointed I didn't like this one more.  It had the classic elements of a YA paranormal romance but I just was not feeling it.  The characters didn't interest me and the plot, while it did sound like something I would enjoy, was pushed to the back in favor of the romance.  

One Card

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Mini Review: Mortal Danger (DNF)

Title:  Mortal Danger
Series:  Immortal Game #1
Author:  Ann Aguirre (Website | Twitter)
Age Group:  Young Adult
Publication Date:  August 5, 2014 by Feiwel & Friends
Source:  A ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Revenge is a dish best served cold.
Edie Kramer has a score to settle with the beautiful people at Blackbriar Academy. Their cruelty drove her to the brink of despair, and four months ago, she couldn't imagine being strong enough to face her senior year. But thanks to a Faustian compact with the enigmatic Kian, she has the power to make the bullies pay. She's not supposed to think about Kian once the deal is done, but devastating pain burns behind his unearthly beauty, and he's impossible to forget.
In one short summer, her entire life changes, and she sweeps through Blackbriar, prepped to take the beautiful people down from the inside. A whisper here, a look there, and suddenly... bad things are happening. It's a heady rush, seeing her tormentors get what they deserve, but things that seem too good to be true usually are, and soon, the pranks and payback turns from delicious to deadly. Edie is alone in a world teeming with secrets and fiends lurking in the shadows. In this murky morass of devil's bargains, she isn't sure who—or what--she can trust. Not even her own mind...

Find Mortal Danger online

Barnes & Noble | Amazon | Goodreads

My Mini Review:  Man, this is a serious bummer.  I was so looking forward to this book but it just didn't work at all for me.  It was not at all like how I thought it would be and, this time, that was for the worst.  

I had three big problems with this novel.  

1.  Insta Love

This is one of my biggest pet peeves in YA literature and this novel was hard core suffering from it.  Not only was Edie's love interest basically her stalker, he was in some shady business with really creepy people.  But, of course, she fell in love with him after three conversations.  I mean, it had nothing to do with his Adonis-like features at all.  

2.  The Plot was Boring

At least, up until the point that I read (which was 38% according to my phone).  Not much had happened.  Her revenge plan had barely even started, there was a lot of really confusing hints about these two rival companies that just frustrated me, and there was really no developments between Edie and Kian because, like I said, they were basically in love the moment they met.  

3.  Unrealistic Portrayals of Beauty and How it Affects Ones Mindset

Once Edie's appearance was changed for her revenge plot, every problem she had had suddenly disappeared.  Her extreme social anxiety?  Gone.  Problems with her parents?  Poof.  Lack of confidence?  Adios.  This just really angered me.  I think it's a terrible lesson to teach young adults.  Being beautiful does not solve all of your problems and that's what seemed to happen for Edie.

Over all, this novel just didn't sit well with me. 

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Mini Review: Fates (DNF)

Title:  Fates
Series:  Fates #1
Author:  Lanie Bross
Age Group:  Young Adult
Publication Date:  February 11, 2014 by Delacorte Press
Source:  An ARC was given to be by Jen over at Jenuine Cupcakes! Thank you!  

One moment. One foolish desire. One mistake. And Corinthe lost everything.
She fell from her tranquil life in Pyralis Terra and found herself exiled to the human world. Her punishment? To make sure people's fates unfold according to plan. Now, years later, Corinthe has one last assignment: kill Lucas Kaller. His death will be her ticket home.
But for the first time, Corinthe feels a tingle of doubt. It begins as a lump in her throat, then grows toward her heart, and suddenly she feels like she is falling all over again--this time for a boy she knows she can never have. Because it is written: one of them must live, and one of them must die. In a universe where every moment, every second, every fate has already been decided, where does love fit in?

My (mini) Review:  So, I didn't finish this novel.  I really hate saying that, but it's true.  I just couldn't bring myself to continue on.  While I loved the sound of it from the blurb and I actually quite liked the cover, I realized as I went into this novel that it really wasn't for me.  It felt disorganized and the world didn't feel real enough for me.  There were a lot of moments when I just sort of sat there and was like "Wait, how can this happen?  Two chapters ago you said this which would mean that this happening is impossible".  I might have been over thinking things but it made it very difficult for me to fall into this one.  

I liked the characters, but not enough to motivate me to continue on with the story to see what would happen to them.  I could see and understand and even sympathize with their struggles and problems but, over all, the characters fell flat for me.  I didn't really feel for Corinthe because she just felt so reserved and unemotional.  Lucas was nice and I really enjoyed seeing the relationships he had with other people but I couldn't quite believe the relationship he had with Corinthe because it happened too quickly.  

Now, I'm not saying there weren't many positive points in this novel.  From what I did see of the world, it was absolutely gorgeous - it could just use some work and fleshing out.  And, like I said, Corinthe and Lucas were nice enough but they didn't come alive as I read.  I just didn't feel the motivation to continue.  But that's not to say someone else won't!

One Card

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Did Not Finish

So, you've picked up a new book that has been on your shelf for a couple weeks.  You were excited to read it and all of your friends have been telling you amazing things about it.  You're one hundred pages in and you are waiting for it to hit - the excitement.  The excitement of being pulled into a new world, life, mind.  But it just isn't coming.  The protagonist is too whiny, the plot has been stuck in the same spot for the past thirty pages, and the main characters are suffering from a serious case of insta-love. 

Do you continue?  Or do you mark this novel as DNF - Did not finish?

I've heard a lot of differing opinions about this one.  Some people I've talked to finish every single book they begin - love or hate - just on principle.  Others will drop a book if it doesn't snatch their attention within the first twenty pages.  I can see the reason for doing both things.  Generally, you paid for a book one way or another whether it be by spending money or spending the time on a blog to be given a review copy from publishers (of course, you can also borrow books or win them).  Either way, you did something to get that book and you don't want to waste whatever it is that you did by not finishing the book.  No matter what, you are going to turn the last page.

On the other hand, reading is something that you are supposed to enjoy.  You love reading and you want to have a blast every second that book is in your hand.  You're not going to sit there, miserable, as you try to trudge through the hundreds of pages left.  No, you're going to drop that book and pick up the new one that has been screaming your name from its spot on your book shelf.  Hey, maybe you'll give the DNF book away to a follower or a friend that would appreciate it more.  

Personally, I've always leaned more toward the latter.  I love reading.  If I could do it everyday, all day, I would.  I sneak my books out at school, read when I'm in the car (though not when I'm behind the wheel, don't worry), even when I go on walks, I'll take a book or my eReader with me.  But when I started my blog and began to find a wider range of books, I found some that didn't sit with me as well as others had but, because I had a blog, I felt obligated to finish all those books.  This mind set did not work well with me at all.  Reading was feeling more like a job than anything else.  So I decided that I wasn't willing to ruin my love of reading in order to finish the books that I didn't enjoy just so I could post reviews on this blog.  Since deciding that, I' have marked ten books DNF.  Obviously, I enjoy most of the books I read but there are still a couple that I just couldn't stand.

Even if I do mark a book DNF, it doesn't mean I'll never come back to it.  For example, I've recently marked The House of Hades by Rick Riordan DNF.  I love this series and I loved the parts of the novel that I've read so far.  But it's a really long book and I have other things I wanted to read.  It just wasn't keeping my attention at that moment.  The second I do feel like picking it back up, I'm sure I will fall back in love with it immediately.  

If you guys want to see the books I have marked DNF, you can check out my goodreads shelf here.

 

What is your opinion of not finishing books?  Do you stick with them or put them down?  Let me know in the comments below!