Hi all! I’m coming at you with a completely different post than my normal reviews. I’m sure most of you on this side of the internet are familiar with the term DNF but, if you need a refresher, it stands for Did Not Finish. You don’t necessarily have to apply it to books but it is mostly regarding books. I have some free time at this moment so I have been watching different “Book Tubers” talk about their worst or DNFs of 2023. I felt inspired. I am a bit of a completionist when it comes to books. I like to see things through to the end because a book could surprise me or it could justify any negative feelings I have while reading. I might have said this before but I go into every book I read hoping it will be my next favorite. Not everything pans out, though, and I certainly wish I had stopped reading certain books. I am making it a point now to be okay with DNF-ing a book for whatever reason. Now, I will present my most recent DNFs. If you have different thoughts or you agree, feel free to leave me a comment either way.

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon – You might have heard the hype surrounding this book and its daunting size. The book is about 1,000 pages. I was fully prepared to tackle this book and read about 25% of the book before giving up. It was so bloated and I didn’t care about the court politics of the book. I wanted dragons and was barely getting dragons. I don’t know if I will ever tackle this book again but I’m going to hold on to it, just in case. If a book is over 1,000 pages, it really needs to work double overtime to justify why it is 1,000 pages.

Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth – This is another case of a book just being too long and not losing my interest. I also didn’t care for the fourth wall-breaking narrator who kept being cheeky and omnipotent. The book goes back and forth between two groups of characters (one set in the past and one set in the present) and I was only interested in the characters from the past. I do really want to give the book another shot because I like the overall premise but the narrative voice annoyed me so much.

Rhapsodic by Lauren Thalassa – Everyone and their mother currently loves dark “romantasy” with fairies who are just hot people with wings. I thought I might give the genre a shot and I am learning that dark romance is not exactly for me. This book was a slog to get through and I was annoyed at how slow the burn was. I flipped ahead and the two main characters didn’t get together until about chapter twelve of a book that was just shy of thirty chapters. Also, the main character’s best friend was a stereotype and that bothered me throughout. I’m not bothering with Laura Thalassa again.

Court of the Vampire Queen by Katee Robert – This book had two things that I should have loved: vampires and Katee Robert. I still stand by my reviews of her other books as “guilty pleasure” books. I thought that this book would be a no-brainer, instant love for me. Let me explain what I like about the Dark Olympus series: in every book, regardless of the circumstances, the couples always have a discussion about consent and boundaries. I truly appreciate all of those conversations and how Katee Robert works those in. In Court of the Vampire Queen (spoiler/content warning) the main character literally walks into the main vampire love interest’s house and he jumps on her, then they just have sex right there. There was no “hi, how are you” nor did he even introduce himself. They get nasty right there and she brushes the whole thing off?!?! It was so icky and I gave that book away as soon as I could.

Phantom by Greer Rivers – Does all dark romance suck? This one was on me for falling for a premise. This book was advertised by the author herself as a re-telling of The Phantom of the Opera that is set in modern-day New Orleans and it had some mafia elements. I put this book down after the first sentence of the first chapter. Now, I fully understand that dark romance is meant to be a little unhinged but I don’t appreciate the male main character fantasizing about assaulting the female main character. It was a major ick and I’m mad at myself for falling for this book.

Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt – This one is simply a case of “not feeling it.” I’ve been trying for months to read this book and I’m just not super interested. I do really like the premise so I might just save this one for a different time. I’ve heard a lot of good things about Thomas Olde Heuvelt’s books so if I don’t finish this one then I might try I different book by him. The book gives me major Stephen King vibes, for better or worse. I really wanted to read it for October but I found other books that I just liked better.

Well, that is my current DNF list. If you have any suggestions for other books I might like instead then feel free to leave those in the comments. I wish you all the best!