Did Not Finish (DNF) Books, January - March

Rediscovering my local library has opened up a whole new world of books to me, but with no pressure. That's because I don't feel compelled to finish library books like I do review books or books I've paid for. So I thought I'd give you a glimpse at the books I started but never finished over the course of the last three months, and maybe I'll end up making this a regular feature. We'll see 🙂.

(Clicking on the book's title will take you to Amazon. If you make a purchase, I'll get a small commission. I've also linked the Goodreads page, where you can get readers' unvarnished opinions of the books—I've found that people are often much more honest about their real opinions on Goodreads than on Amazon!)

The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson (Goodreads)

I picked up The Unexpected Everything after my sister recommended Matson's Amy & Roger's Epic Detour. I was reading along and thought it was okay, if not enthralling. Then I saw that it was more than 500 pages long! I decided I wasn't into it enough to commit to 500 pages, so I quit at 15%.

Wedding Night by Sophie Kinsella (Goodreads)

My only prior exposure to Kinsella was the Confessions of a Shopaholic movie ... which I remember virtually nothing about. I ended up checking this book out because it was recommended to me when whatever book I was looking for wasn't available. 

I should've read the reviews first.

Apparently, many readers feel this is one of Kinsella's weakest books, so perhaps I should give her another chance sometime. But I simply couldn't get into this book about a woman whose boyfriend breaks up with her when she thinks he's going to propose, so when she runs into a former flame, she decides to marry him immediately. I quit after 20 or so pages.

Unmasking Juliet by Teri Wilson (Goodreads)

I really enjoyed Wilson's Unleashing Mr. Darcy, though there was one scene I wish she'd omitted. I figured Unmasking Juliet would be similar ... but I was wrong. Perhaps because of the set-up (the Romeo and Juliet-esque Leo and Juliet kiss as soon as they meet at a masquerade ball in the opening pages), the sexual content is much stronger. Practically all Leo could do was think about sleeping with Juliet, and when it became apparent that would happen somewhere around the 50% mark of the book, I decided I'd had enough. I was enjoying the story, though, and I think it would make a great (obviously cleaned up) Hallmark movie.

Labor Day by Joyce Maynard (Goodreads)

Full disclosure: The only reason I requested this audiobook through Overdrive is that it's read by Wilson Bethel, who played Wade Kinsella on Hart of Dixie. I was in the middle of a Hart of Dixie rewatch, and I looked Bethel up on IMDb, saw that his mother wrote Labor Day, looked up the book on the Overdrive app, and saw that he read the audio version.

Here's the most important thing I learned from listening—Wade's delightful southern accent is fake. The voice coming out of the speaker sounded nothing like my beloved Wade Kinsella.

Labor Day is the story of a 13-year-old boy, his mother, and the escaped convict they take in. I probably made it halfway through the book before my library loan expired. I would like to know how the story ends, but I wasn't interested enough to renew the book ...

There you have it: the books I abandoned in the first quarter of 2018. Do you think any deserve a second chance? I'd love to know what books you've abandoned recently, too!