
Heat Factor: Not even a kiss in the first third
Character Chemistry: Lust—but it’s *forbidden*
Plot: Miri gets stranded in Aspen after a meeting with her billionaire boss
Overall: DNFed this one
Other – Did Not Finish
Heat Factor: Not even a kiss in the first third
Character Chemistry: Lust—but it’s *forbidden*
Plot: Miri gets stranded in Aspen after a meeting with her billionaire boss
Overall: DNFed this one
The Laneways, Book #2
Heat Factor: In the first chunk, there’s one chaste kiss and one toe-curling kiss
Character Chemistry: Butterflies
Plot: Toxic Family + Corporate Shenanigans + Astrology + Chocolate
Overall: I struggled through the first third before giving up
Look, we are so-called “professional reviewers” in that we receive advance copies (or just copies) of books from publishers and authors in exchange for honest reviews because we have a multi-app review platform that assists with book publicity. This, as opposed to simply picking up exclusively whatever books we feel like picking up wherever we happen to (legally) obtain them and reviewing them whenever and however we feel like reviewing them. We are not “professional reviewers” in that we are paid to read and review books.
And different reviewers like us have different approaches to reviewing. Some sites only review books that they enjoy. Some sites review the whole range of 1- to 5-star reads and don’t DNF.
We review everything from rants to raves, and we do DNF.
Here’s why:
Every now and then someone might argue that authors are owed the opportunity to tell their stories to their conclusions and that DNFing books is somehow wrong. But here’s the thing – every author has the opportunity to keep us engaged with every turn of a page. When that doesn’t happen, maybe it’s because we as readers simply don’t click with the book, or maybe it’s because the author has written a story with content we find objectionable. All that tells us, though, is that every book isn’t for every reader, and we’re pretty sure we all knew that already.
The goal is to get books into the hands of the readers that want to read them, and it is possible for a DNF review to do that, because the reading experience is not only about how a book ends – it’s about the road it took to get there.
Out on the Ice, Book #2
Heat Factor: At the point I stopped reading, Maisey was thinking a lot about how women have sex, but my understanding is that it’s a slow burn (so I’m guessing at least one scene toward the end)
Character Chemistry: There were plenty of cute moments
Plot: I think this is what people are referring to when they say they want “no plot just vibes”
Overall: Once they stopped being enemies at the 25% mark, all tension driving me to read was lost, so this one’s a DNF
Third Shift, Book #2
Review of Third Shift, Book #1
Heat Factor: Blow job in a closet the first time they meet, but we don’t get a lot of explicit details.
Character Chemistry: Sexual attraction + some ineffable thing that’s breaking down the walls they’ve erected.
Plot: Elijah is trying to get information on an arms dealer, so he honeypots the guy’s girlfriend. Too bad Meghna is also an agent with her own agenda. And then Elijah kills someone he shouldn’t and shit hits the fan.
Overall: I got bored and gave up after reading the first third.