DNFing Adriana Locke's "Reputation"

I was so excited to pick up "Reputation" by Adriana Locke, I really love her writing and feel like she is an underrated romance author who excels at plotting. However, as I started reading, I realized that her latest book wasn't working for me. It's about her two main characters, Koi Bellamy, and um, I guess they have some sort of history that we don't know about. According to the book, they were like childhood best friends and lovers at the same time, part of a four-person friend group with Koi Ky's little brother, her cousin Lissa, and Lissa's friend Bingy - basically, it was like a tight-knit little friendship circle. She's always been really close with the other brother, but not so much with Koi. This is because I guess he abandoned her after they had sex one time or something like that. I mean, she's rightfully upset, but I think my problem is that there just isn't enough context for why she is so upset.

It feels like there needs to be a backup to the banter right away - maybe a quick oneliner or even a quick info dump at the beginning about why these two aren't together anymore. By the way, is he this famous country music star who's trying to lay low after having a breakup with an actress? It was like a PR relationship, but she thought it was more than that and now she's been lighting him up in the tabloids. He's trying to keep a low profile while also tutoring or helping give piano lessons to Bellamy's kid, which is how they've kind of gotten back together. Again, I think anger doesn't really feel justified to me - there just isn't enough context for why she should be so upset.

I'm not that drawn in; 30% into the book and I'm already feeling bored. That's not what you want when you're reading a romance novel - you don't want to feel like you're trudging through something. It's frustrating because I see hallmarks of my own writing in this writing, which always makes me excited to read her work. However, this time around, I'm just not feeling it.

It might be a case where it's not the book, but rather me - Adriana Locke is an author whose work has consistently resonated with me, and I've always felt like every time I read one of her books, I'll have more from her. Maybe this one just wasn't perfect for me, which is okay. Sometimes, you just need to acknowledge that a book isn't working for you and move on.

The experience also made me realize the importance of knowing when to DNF (Did Not Finish) a book. If it's not holding your attention enough to finish it, maybe it's time to leave it alone - like I know with other DNFS, where I could have just let them go without picking them up again. However, this time around, the issue seems more nuanced. Most of the time, when I'm DNFing a book, it's because there's something fundamentally wrong with the story or writing style that's not engaging me. In this case, I think I was being too generous by keeping at it for so long.

In conclusion, while I had a good time discussing what went wrong with "Reputation", I will still give Adriana Locke another chance in the future.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhello welcome back to my channel I hope yall are having a much better day than I am I am very excited to be starting off this video after I lost about half of the clips for this video I am going to be revisiting some of my dnfs often dnf books because I don't like them right but every once in a while there are books that I decide to put on pause or to put on dnf shelf because it's just not the right time for that book and that doesn't mean the book's bad or that I'm not going to like the book If I like continued on with it but it's just not the right time for the book but sometimes I feel like those books deserve to be Revisited I feel like sometimes you need to pick the books up off the dnf shelf and give him a second shot just like I'm giving this video a second shot again after my SD card corrupted lost half the clip so that's what we're going to do in this video here today I'm going to revisit some my my dnfs and see if I should have left them where they lay or if it was a good idea to pick them up I'm happy to report this first book I am glad that I picked up and I can I give you a little synopsis about this book tell you why I liked it tell you why this was a great book to start with just like Magic by Sarah Hogle is a book that I initially picked up because was told by my patrons that I would like this book I love Sarah hugle I think she's super fun and this is a very quirky Christmas Romance when I first picked up last year I don't know what it was if I was just in my B humbug era or what I just like wasn't in the mood for this I tried both the physical copy I tried the audiobook copy and nothing was really striking my fancy so I was like you know what maybe I'll just try this another time or just dnf it you know it's okay it was okay to dnf it during chis last year so this year I decided I'm going to give it the old College try and and you know try it out again and I thoroughly enjoyed this book I listened to this uh last night I finished this last night and I wish you could have seen my reaction go from this is okay to this is actually really great so I give this book four stars is about our main character Betty Who at the beginning of the book is very jaded and is very superficial shall we say she kind of reminds you of like early Piper and it happened when summer character who you kind of want to root for but you're also kind of like rolling your eyes at she has like millions of Instagram followers and her grandma is super super famous but her parents were trying to like keep their lives very normal um and just have like a very normal upbringing but I think the mom is like a television star for like the Food Network or something so they're not like totally normal right her two sisters are like kind of famous in their own right her brother is a screenwriter and or producer director Betty as this like Instagram influencer who has had some filed business ventures feels like she doesn't quite measure up to the rest of her family and she is uh bankrupt at this point basically super super poor and is kind of squatting at this dead woman's house just trying to make it by until Christmas and she's worried about Christmas CU she doesn't have nice gifts to bring her family and all these things so she gets really drunk one night and it's kind of like lamenting her fortunes when she accidentally spills wine on a record player playing all they want for Christmas is You by Mariah Carey and this summons the Christmas Spirit hall Hall e day he basically transforms Betty from this like very vapid self-absorbed person into someone that cares about others cares about Christmas cares about joy and it is so delightful I was really unsure about this book at the beginning and again I wish I had that clip so you could see how hesitant I was about this book like I enjoyed references there's a lot of like media references in this book um and kind of the quirkiness of this book like I really liked that but I wasn't really sure how I felt about this idea of like a sexualized buddy the Elf character it just doesn't really feel I don't want to say appropriate but it just didn't really feel sexy to me until I got to that 50% Mark and there was this moment the spark between the two of them and I was like maybe I like him this book really did it for me it's not very sexy like there's no sex on page with this book so if that's something that you're really looking for you're not really going to find it in this book but I really enjoyed the like romantic components of this and how this book also really focuses on the Christmas magic I feel like a lot of books are set during Christmas and it's really romance Centric and awesome there's not that like transformative aspect I feel like Christmas is all about transforming if I'm reading a Christmas book I want this vapid person to turn into someone who like has purpose and like who is having a good time and like now a contributing member of society who's like you know got a good heart and that's what this book is and maybe that's not what you're looking for in a Christmas book but for me I liked that aspect of the story and it mixed with this kind of like quirky weird off-the-wall thing I thought was personally really sweet so really like this book I'm glad that I picked this back up again four stars for this one and I just feel like if you're looking for a Christmas book this is a good one it makes me want to read more Christmas books that I have more books to recommend you next year because I feel like this would be on like a holiday romance recommendation list for me so overall a good choice let's talk about something that maybe wasn't a good choice okay and then we can Mosey on down to talk about something else that maybe also wasn't a good choice anyway the boyfriend bargain by Elsa mad Mills I was so excited about this one I was really excited to pick it back up because I had good luck with Elsa's books in the past one of my favorite books Dear Ava by her is so romantic and so charming and I really wanted this one to be too this one set in college it's about her two main characters sugar and Zach sugar is from Southern Alabama and her goal is to get into vanderbelt law school right her parents have this sort of like I don't want to say unconventional relationship Dynamic but it's one that I see often in books where the mom is like really beautiful and she gets Swept Away by this guy who's kind of a dick and uh he has like a whole family back home that's like really sophisticated and the mom's not and she gets left behind but like secretly behinds for this man his whole life for her whole life or whatever anyway shar's mom's dead and uh she's trying to get into Vanderbilt to prove to her family that abandoned her basically her dad and his dad's probably other family that she is worthy she's smart she shouldn't be abandoned or something like that I only got 30% but I'm assuming that's where it's leading right the only bad thing is that sugar has been weight listed for Vanderbilt so she's kind of looking to do anything to get in right again to prove this point rather than like I don't know pursuing dreams of her own that she actually wants who knows if she wants to be a attorney unless help of Zach because Zach is going to play for the Nashville Predators next year and the dean of the school that Miss Sugar wants to go to likes the naval predators and so she's like if he pretends to be my boyfriend maybe I'll get in to this school it's like that's a little hairbrain but okay go off Queen my issue with this book is that there is a hookup at the beginning of the book and you'all know how I feel about hookups I am not into it call me a Christian woman I'm not um don't actually call me that but I don't really like hookups at the beginning of books I think it breaks tension I think it makes things less exciting and it really gets rid of any tension that could possibly be built between two characters I say that there are exceptions for sure but oftentimes that's the case and in this book it definitely was the case so you have these characters hook up at a party before Sugar's even able to tell Zach what she needs from him uh they have sex I was like all right where's this leading so they have sex and then it's not until like way later on in the book like 30% in like right at this 30% Mark where she asks him like Hey will you be my fake boyfriend and he's like yeah because I like that kitty cat so much and I need more kitty cat from you it's sugary sweet you know what I mean pixie stick I think the the plotting and the pacing of this book is really the downfall and it's interesting I stopped this at 30% and the first time I tried to read it I stopped it at 36% so it's like obviously an issue with the plotting and the pacing of the book I wanted to like the characters I liked that in this book suffers from anxiety and it feels very realistic and I feel like we don't often see that when players have this immense pressure on them that they like crack I mean not that anxiety is cracking necessarily but I feel like we don't often see that right as like a reaction which is kind of weird since it feels like normal reaction but yeah Zach's anxious he also has someone in his life that was close to him that passed away that's causing him like panic attacks and stuff like that and I don't know it's like I wanted to root for these characters to be together I feel like they both seem 12 rounded and interesting and I think that's why I picked this book up in the first place or why I felt compelled to read past the first chapter was we saw this like panic attack that Zach has and I'm like okay cool like I feel like this is going to be a really raw and real romance and it's not that it wasn't necessarily but I do feel like we were missing something that's something what Stakes intention right it's like okay I guess you sleeping together again at some point is going to be the tension here but like it's not exciting when you've already and like fake dating I don't think is that compelling if you've already I decided to dnf this one again and I feel confident in that decision I feel good about it maybe I shouldn't feel so good about it but I feel I feel confident in that decision so going to leave it at that um I am going to go downstairs though and get us a new delicious setting uh to where we can talk about 50% thought feelings on the naked fisherman all right friends my day has been getting a little bit better bad happens and then good happens I've never had this bad of luck with shipping I've never had this bad of luck with my SD card it's just it's been quite the day I can't say that the naked fisherman by Julian has really been helping but it is interesting so I figured we could talk about it this book is about our our main character theres AKA Ree and her life is pretty interesting she has this backstory that I feel like should be playing more of a part in the story but isn't um basically her dad passed away and her mom was in prison for possession of marijuana so like nothing super major I don't even think her mom had a substance abuse problem but her mom was in prison for I want to say like 5 years and now she's out ree is 18 and now that ree's Dad has passed away I think he's been dead for about 3 years or something like that I think she was living with grandparents she decided she'd take a gap year before going to college and she's going to spend some time with her mom and kind of like reconnect with her but right when she gets there right when she gets to Colorado her mom ends up leaving for 6 weeks to kind of like renew her skills I guess in cosmetology I think her mom is a hair stylist so Reese is basically stuck with a guy who lives upstairs her mom's like renting a basement from this guy this guy's name is Fisher man so she calls him the naked fisherman cuz the first time she ever meets him he's like half naked or whatever he's 28 she's 18 she is attracted to to him he's attracted to her they're trying to fight their feelings for each other I suppose she works for him as well like I guess Reese's mom got her a job working for Fisher this book has potential to be interesting it's just not the reason I DF this book initially by the way is because the heroin of this book is homophobic she's been taught that because of her religious upbringing her dad when the mom was in prison um and I think maybe with help of the grandparents kind of indoctrinated her and got her to be very religious very Christian and uh she went to a Catholic School actually not Catholic she went to a a private Christian School I think her mom is Catholic but like you know but not like practicing or whatever and uh reys has you know religious and perhaps bigoted views which I was thinking would like change throughout the story and I'm not saying they haven't but I really thought that like religion and religious deconstruction would be more of a thing in this book and it's not at this 50% Mark basically what the book is is reys trying to dry hump Fisher and get drunk and just be a fool like she's just not very intelligent she does make very smart decisions she kind of grapples with her like religion and her religious upbringing a touch in the story like when she's in the throws of passion and like is deciding if she wants to go all the way she's like yeah I definitely shouldn't this is against my beliefs but she doesn't ever really stop and like think about things you know what I mean and I understand getting caught up in the moment I'm not expecting her to deconstruct as she's um about to get but she never like after they have these encounters really like sits there and and thinks about her religion and like maybe that wouldn't make for a super exciting read for a lot of people but I actually think that could be an interesting book and maybe that's kind of the point of the book maybe I'm like not quite there yet but I find it interesting that religion is such a big part of this book and you're making again big part of this character's religion and and like personality and you're not doing anything with it it just seems a little bit strange I also am really not loving the dynamic between fiser and Reese it just seems a little weird I mean here's the thing we just have this discussion in my hot takes video where we talk about AG gaps and I don't really have an AG Gap problem in books it doesn't bother me a ton it depends how the age Gap is handled and this book I feel like it's handled pretty poorly like the heroin says that she feels like a teenager but also like an adult and he's treating her kind of like a child but he's also attracted to her and so that feels weird like that does not feel nice and and good and right it's uh not my favorite to be honest I am not hating it and the sexual moments themselves are actually well written and not terrible um and it's like enough to keep me going cuz I like want to see where this goes I'm also like I don't understand the hype I feel like so many people hyped this book and said it was so amazing and like so romantic and I'm just not I'm just feeling to see that like I don't really get it is very sexy and smudy but there's not a lot of relationship there have been a couple of banter moments for sure between fer and REE I'm not trying to say that there's nothing there and they have no reason to like want to interact with each other Beyond sex but yeah I don't know I feel like age gaps are interesting cuz I feel like oftentimes the author is trying to prove that like oh these two should be together even though they have this age Gap and yet a lot of the verbiage between the characters just furthers the point the point that they like shouldn't be together but this is a book that I'm reading and maybe I shouldn't have given this on a second chance but my curiosity was really killing me and I haven't heard anyone else talk about the fact that she says something homophobic at the beginning of the book so like I don't know does that get resolved I I must know again curiosity killing the old Noggin but I'm going to finish this one tonight and I'll probably let youall know how it is tomorrow hopefully I like don't lose the clips for for that but you never know you really never know happy Wednesday today is a better day although my skin is so much worse so we're going to put makeup on while I talk to you about the naked fishermen um okay this one it didn't get better I'll be honest with you this book is so annoying because the characters know that they should not be together they know they they should not be engaging in sexual activity together and yet they keep doing it I understand there's like this forbidden aspect to it but just don't really get it like I don't really I don't get their attraction for each other I don't get why they felt like they needed to hide this from people I just don't get it other thing that I don't really get is that the homophobia does kind of get addressed in a sense our it's like do I want to spoil this I do I'm going to spoil this book so if you were like really sprit to read it I'm sorry the heroin's mom is a lesbian and um she find finds this out because she walks in on her mom engaging in sexual activity with her lover and she also finds out that the reason that her mom went prison in the first place was because she was growing marijuana actually for lesbian lover who had cancer and she was like trying to make sure that her lesbian lover had medical marijuana access in a state that like didn't allow for medical marijuana and I keep saying lesbian lover her because she was married at the time right uh so you know um not exactly like you know just a girl friend kind of thing but everyone finds out about this kind of gets the whole story from her mom and she doesn't like necessarily say anything home phobic she does like tell her grandparents about the situation or like not even tell them explicitly but asks them like what do you think about one samesex relationships and her grandparents are like that's you know the devil's work or some like that and our heroin just like doesn't know how she feels about it but I think she eventually decides she doesn't care that her mom's a lesbian but is mad her mom lied to her whatever the book kind of leaves off with her deciding she's going to go on a mission trip to Thailand you know she's not with the naked Fisher at this point because she doesn't want her mom to find out that she has been hooking up with this guy even though her mom has been sneaking around and lying I have the same exact complaints that I did yesterday with the fact that this book tries to have a different kind of main character and doesn't do anything with that I'm sorry but like if you were going to have a character who has homophobic views that needs to be questioned that needs to be kind of turned on its head and like sure I guess you could say subtly the heroin kind of makes decisions for herself but like not really and um I don't know I'm hoping that like maybe in the next book she has a religious deconstruction cuz it's a cliffhanger it's a duet if that wasn't clear um but like I I'm not going to stick around for that so I just had to read a book about a religious seemingly homophobic character so wasn't my favorite obviously I don't I don't get this one I don't understand the hype behind it there's also just an insane amount of like repetition in the story too which I personally found frustrating as a reader like I don't want to see these people say oh you know my mom's coming back soon we definitely need to stop this and then like 5 seconds later they're like basically boning like that's not fun for me as a reader like I want there to be well they won't they but I also want there to be development outside of that again I just feel like I'm really over stories that are just about the romance and that's crazy as someone who loves romance and like wants to read a romance novel but I also want to see development on the part of the characters and in this case it was necessary and it just didn't happen so I don't even know the what the I would read this like maybe two stars maybe one star I don't know it wasn't the worst thing I've ever read but it like definitely was not a faif so probably going to leave it like two stars hoping that the next book doesn't suck let's read pucking round who's ready to get pucked up I'm 50% into pucking round by Emily wrath and this is the second time that I am attempting to read this book I tried before try as I might physically to read this book I was just not entranced as the kid shall say here's the thing why choose novels I just don't have luck with them I I deeply want to I deeply want to be that girl that's just like I was going to say Goblin glizzies but you know what I'm saying like I want to be that person and I just simply am not I just think a little too hard about the logistics of it you know polyamorous relationships I get it everybody's kind of sharing or people are like pursuing different things but like how magical is this girl snatch that she would attract three beautiful men is it misogynistic to say I just don't think that's going to work I don't know I I don't know okay let me talk about this book okay start character Rachel she is a physician who landed her dream like internship I guess at this hockey I was going to say rank new hockey team in Jacksonville because Jacksonville is just a place everybody wants to live she's reunited with a guy that she hooked up with at her brother's wedding like I don't think that guy was at her brother's wedding but was like in the lobby of the hotel where the wedding took place and she hooks up with them and they have a magical night of passion and sure I could have listened to that Nela audio book was I going to no because the audio book for this book it's like 24 hours long and that's OB scene anyway Rachel reunites with this man his name is Jake and he has a monster uh she also gets to meet the equipment management man Caleb who apparently is like golden and has a has a really sweet dog but also gives like vampire demon Vibes um as is evidenced by the sex that I just finished reading and then we've got Mars I believe his name is he's the finished goalkeeper is uh I guess trying to hide the fact that he's injured and she's trying to help him because she's a doctor right despite the hip of violations this book is fine okay if you are willing to overlook all of the I don't want to say but if you're willing to overlook all of the unrealistic aspects of this book it's fun okay it's a fun time it's hot I like seeing people have sex well okay I like reading about people having sex I don't want to see people have sex the sex scenes in this book are hot so far Mars has not joined in the fun but I'm sure he will uh eventually emotionally at this point we're kind of just dealing with Caleb and homeg girl and Jake having fun good for what it is I like that the sex is pretty gay as well which is nice I understand sexuality is complex but I like that everybody is having a good time together and that the swords are crossing I can't talk about this book seriously I really can't um it's better the second time around okay I'm sort of invested I want to see where things go there's a a scene where they like spit into each other's mouths so you know it's a book well all's well that happy ends well I finished around and I will say this book actually pleasantly surprised me I really thought this was going to end up being like a two and a half three star read because it is egregiously long there's no reason for this book to be this long however I feel like this book sort of took my complaints and fears with uh Wu's novels and sort of got me to rethink those things and I think that's because this book is truly a polyamorous uh romance it's not just four or five different men um agreeing to the same woman uh and I liked that I liked that there was a lot of communication about who was going to have contact with who what they wanted their relationship to look like essentially I think like way that everything evolved is that the finnished guy has his like own one-on-one relationship with the heroine and then the other two guys have of like a relationship with each other and then also with the heroin so it's cute I I actually really liked how this book ended uh they they go public with their relationship our heroin does get in trouble with her job for like violating hipa basically which is you know good for that to actually have been addressed I I did appreciate thatly she ends up keeping her job and everything is hunky dory they all just like rabbits C is everywhere and that's fun you know they're going to be a happy family and it seems like most of the people in their life are accepting of their relationship which is nice really don't have much to complain about again except for the length of this book I know that a lot of these other books I have bitched about the length but there is absolutely no reason for a romance especially a smudy romance to be for 700 pages long and to be a 24-hour audio book what in God's name I'm sorry that's just obscene so this one's tough for me I had a good time with it I don't think that ultimately this is like the most me romance ever I think if you're someone who likes a traditional romance and you want something that feels like very digestible I don't know that this is going to be for you if you want something that feels intensely smudy and you do like some good communication in your stories maybe this will be for you me I think I'm going to give this a three star it was fine please count on pepper cheat his wet food while I talk about books okay this Vlog has been such an interesting experience because I feel like the books that I expected to pick up and really enjoy the books that I really put on pause rather than true dnf are the ones that I just don't want to finish uh I am actually going to be dnfing a second book for this video which I guess shouldn't be shocking since this video is like you know trying my dnfs to see if I shouldn't have dnf them reputation by Adriana lock I was so excited for I was so excited to pick it back up because I really love Adriana Lock's writing I feel like she is an underrated romance author who really is great at plotting and facing her books reputation is just not really working for me it's about her two main characters koi Bellamy and uh I guess they have some sort of history that we don't know about and I guess you don't find out about in really any of the books but um they're kind of aranged from each other I think they were like kind of childhood best friends and lovers at the same time they were like part of like a four-person friend group uh basically with koi ky's little brother her cousin Lissa and then Lissa's friend who was Bing me so like the four of them were kind of a a a little foresome a little friendship group she's always been really close with the other brother I guess I can't remember his name and she's still friends with him but not friends with koi because I guess he like abandoned her after they had sex one time or something like that I mean she's like rightfully upset I suppose but I think my problem is that like we don't really have enough context for why she is so upset yeah it's obviously really shitty to be abandoned after you have sex with someone but it just feels like her anger is not totally justified and it feels like there's a lot of like indignation that I don't think is Justified I feel like there needs to be a backup to the banter right like I feel like we could have been given a quick like oneliner or even like a quick info dump at the beginning about like why these two aren't together anymore he by the way is this like famous country music star who is kind of laying low after having a breakup with I guess an actress and he it was like a PR relationship but she thought it was more than that and so she has been like lighting him up in the tabloids he's trying to kind of keep a low profile and then he's also tutoring or like helping give piano lessons to Bellamy's kid she's nannying so that's like how they've kind of gotten back together I think the problem again is that like anger doesn't really feel that justified to me and then also the reason bringing these two together is just like him I guess like say tutoring why do I keep wanting to say tutor um teaching this kid just like I'm just not that drawn in I'm not that intrigued I'm like I got 30% into the book but I feel like it's kind of a SLO to get through and that's like not what you want when you're reading a romance like you don't want to feel bored and it's frustrating because I see Hallmarks of my own writing in this writing and I always I always feel like when I'm reading a story and the writing reminds me of my own or like something I would do I'm I'm normally like oh I'm going to keep reading this like I love this but in this case I don't know I'm not I'm just not loving it it's probably a case of it's it's me it's not the book but that's not going to like stop me from reading more from this author in the future I just feel pretty like decent about my dnf of this book but again it does like happy curious about more adrenal books I feel like every time I read one of her books I'm like damn I got more from this author like she definitely knows how to write um maybe this one just like wasn't perfect for me so um I hope y'all have enjoyed this video I hope that uh it was interesting I honestly had a good time with this because I think it's interesting to see what books dnf for different reasons I think what I'm finding is that like if I put something on pause if something is just like not holding my attention enough to finish it I should probably just leave it there like I knew that with the other dnfs the ones that like felt more permanent you know what I mean um like the naked fisherman I feel like I probably could have just like let that one lie but when it comes to things that are just like not holding my ATT attention they're not holding my attention for a reason usually like it's not normally just a oh it's it's the wrong time kind of thing I mean I guess with the exception of just like magic but yeah most of the time I think I should just let dnfs be dnfs and not pick them up again so learned important lessons I hope this is entertaining in some way uh I love you all so much and I will see you tomorrowhello welcome back to my channel I hope yall are having a much better day than I am I am very excited to be starting off this video after I lost about half of the clips for this video I am going to be revisiting some of my dnfs often dnf books because I don't like them right but every once in a while there are books that I decide to put on pause or to put on dnf shelf because it's just not the right time for that book and that doesn't mean the book's bad or that I'm not going to like the book If I like continued on with it but it's just not the right time for the book but sometimes I feel like those books deserve to be Revisited I feel like sometimes you need to pick the books up off the dnf shelf and give him a second shot just like I'm giving this video a second shot again after my SD card corrupted lost half the clip so that's what we're going to do in this video here today I'm going to revisit some my my dnfs and see if I should have left them where they lay or if it was a good idea to pick them up I'm happy to report this first book I am glad that I picked up and I can I give you a little synopsis about this book tell you why I liked it tell you why this was a great book to start with just like Magic by Sarah Hogle is a book that I initially picked up because was told by my patrons that I would like this book I love Sarah hugle I think she's super fun and this is a very quirky Christmas Romance when I first picked up last year I don't know what it was if I was just in my B humbug era or what I just like wasn't in the mood for this I tried both the physical copy I tried the audiobook copy and nothing was really striking my fancy so I was like you know what maybe I'll just try this another time or just dnf it you know it's okay it was okay to dnf it during chis last year so this year I decided I'm going to give it the old College try and and you know try it out again and I thoroughly enjoyed this book I listened to this uh last night I finished this last night and I wish you could have seen my reaction go from this is okay to this is actually really great so I give this book four stars is about our main character Betty Who at the beginning of the book is very jaded and is very superficial shall we say she kind of reminds you of like early Piper and it happened when summer character who you kind of want to root for but you're also kind of like rolling your eyes at she has like millions of Instagram followers and her grandma is super super famous but her parents were trying to like keep their lives very normal um and just have like a very normal upbringing but I think the mom is like a television star for like the Food Network or something so they're not like totally normal right her two sisters are like kind of famous in their own right her brother is a screenwriter and or producer director Betty as this like Instagram influencer who has had some filed business ventures feels like she doesn't quite measure up to the rest of her family and she is uh bankrupt at this point basically super super poor and is kind of squatting at this dead woman's house just trying to make it by until Christmas and she's worried about Christmas CU she doesn't have nice gifts to bring her family and all these things so she gets really drunk one night and it's kind of like lamenting her fortunes when she accidentally spills wine on a record player playing all they want for Christmas is You by Mariah Carey and this summons the Christmas Spirit hall Hall e day he basically transforms Betty from this like very vapid self-absorbed person into someone that cares about others cares about Christmas cares about joy and it is so delightful I was really unsure about this book at the beginning and again I wish I had that clip so you could see how hesitant I was about this book like I enjoyed references there's a lot of like media references in this book um and kind of the quirkiness of this book like I really liked that but I wasn't really sure how I felt about this idea of like a sexualized buddy the Elf character it just doesn't really feel I don't want to say appropriate but it just didn't really feel sexy to me until I got to that 50% Mark and there was this moment the spark between the two of them and I was like maybe I like him this book really did it for me it's not very sexy like there's no sex on page with this book so if that's something that you're really looking for you're not really going to find it in this book but I really enjoyed the like romantic components of this and how this book also really focuses on the Christmas magic I feel like a lot of books are set during Christmas and it's really romance Centric and awesome there's not that like transformative aspect I feel like Christmas is all about transforming if I'm reading a Christmas book I want this vapid person to turn into someone who like has purpose and like who is having a good time and like now a contributing member of society who's like you know got a good heart and that's what this book is and maybe that's not what you're looking for in a Christmas book but for me I liked that aspect of the story and it mixed with this kind of like quirky weird off-the-wall thing I thought was personally really sweet so really like this book I'm glad that I picked this back up again four stars for this one and I just feel like if you're looking for a Christmas book this is a good one it makes me want to read more Christmas books that I have more books to recommend you next year because I feel like this would be on like a holiday romance recommendation list for me so overall a good choice let's talk about something that maybe wasn't a good choice okay and then we can Mosey on down to talk about something else that maybe also wasn't a good choice anyway the boyfriend bargain by Elsa mad Mills I was so excited about this one I was really excited to pick it back up because I had good luck with Elsa's books in the past one of my favorite books Dear Ava by her is so romantic and so charming and I really wanted this one to be too this one set in college it's about her two main characters sugar and Zach sugar is from Southern Alabama and her goal is to get into vanderbelt law school right her parents have this sort of like I don't want to say unconventional relationship Dynamic but it's one that I see often in books where the mom is like really beautiful and she gets Swept Away by this guy who's kind of a dick and uh he has like a whole family back home that's like really sophisticated and the mom's not and she gets left behind but like secretly behinds for this man his whole life for her whole life or whatever anyway shar's mom's dead and uh she's trying to get into Vanderbilt to prove to her family that abandoned her basically her dad and his dad's probably other family that she is worthy she's smart she shouldn't be abandoned or something like that I only got 30% but I'm assuming that's where it's leading right the only bad thing is that sugar has been weight listed for Vanderbilt so she's kind of looking to do anything to get in right again to prove this point rather than like I don't know pursuing dreams of her own that she actually wants who knows if she wants to be a attorney unless help of Zach because Zach is going to play for the Nashville Predators next year and the dean of the school that Miss Sugar wants to go to likes the naval predators and so she's like if he pretends to be my boyfriend maybe I'll get in to this school it's like that's a little hairbrain but okay go off Queen my issue with this book is that there is a hookup at the beginning of the book and you'all know how I feel about hookups I am not into it call me a Christian woman I'm not um don't actually call me that but I don't really like hookups at the beginning of books I think it breaks tension I think it makes things less exciting and it really gets rid of any tension that could possibly be built between two characters I say that there are exceptions for sure but oftentimes that's the case and in this book it definitely was the case so you have these characters hook up at a party before Sugar's even able to tell Zach what she needs from him uh they have sex I was like all right where's this leading so they have sex and then it's not until like way later on in the book like 30% in like right at this 30% Mark where she asks him like Hey will you be my fake boyfriend and he's like yeah because I like that kitty cat so much and I need more kitty cat from you it's sugary sweet you know what I mean pixie stick I think the the plotting and the pacing of this book is really the downfall and it's interesting I stopped this at 30% and the first time I tried to read it I stopped it at 36% so it's like obviously an issue with the plotting and the pacing of the book I wanted to like the characters I liked that in this book suffers from anxiety and it feels very realistic and I feel like we don't often see that when players have this immense pressure on them that they like crack I mean not that anxiety is cracking necessarily but I feel like we don't often see that right as like a reaction which is kind of weird since it feels like normal reaction but yeah Zach's anxious he also has someone in his life that was close to him that passed away that's causing him like panic attacks and stuff like that and I don't know it's like I wanted to root for these characters to be together I feel like they both seem 12 rounded and interesting and I think that's why I picked this book up in the first place or why I felt compelled to read past the first chapter was we saw this like panic attack that Zach has and I'm like okay cool like I feel like this is going to be a really raw and real romance and it's not that it wasn't necessarily but I do feel like we were missing something that's something what Stakes intention right it's like okay I guess you sleeping together again at some point is going to be the tension here but like it's not exciting when you've already and like fake dating I don't think is that compelling if you've already I decided to dnf this one again and I feel confident in that decision I feel good about it maybe I shouldn't feel so good about it but I feel I feel confident in that decision so going to leave it at that um I am going to go downstairs though and get us a new delicious setting uh to where we can talk about 50% thought feelings on the naked fisherman all right friends my day has been getting a little bit better bad happens and then good happens I've never had this bad of luck with shipping I've never had this bad of luck with my SD card it's just it's been quite the day I can't say that the naked fisherman by Julian has really been helping but it is interesting so I figured we could talk about it this book is about our our main character theres AKA Ree and her life is pretty interesting she has this backstory that I feel like should be playing more of a part in the story but isn't um basically her dad passed away and her mom was in prison for possession of marijuana so like nothing super major I don't even think her mom had a substance abuse problem but her mom was in prison for I want to say like 5 years and now she's out ree is 18 and now that ree's Dad has passed away I think he's been dead for about 3 years or something like that I think she was living with grandparents she decided she'd take a gap year before going to college and she's going to spend some time with her mom and kind of like reconnect with her but right when she gets there right when she gets to Colorado her mom ends up leaving for 6 weeks to kind of like renew her skills I guess in cosmetology I think her mom is a hair stylist so Reese is basically stuck with a guy who lives upstairs her mom's like renting a basement from this guy this guy's name is Fisher man so she calls him the naked fisherman cuz the first time she ever meets him he's like half naked or whatever he's 28 she's 18 she is attracted to to him he's attracted to her they're trying to fight their feelings for each other I suppose she works for him as well like I guess Reese's mom got her a job working for Fisher this book has potential to be interesting it's just not the reason I DF this book initially by the way is because the heroin of this book is homophobic she's been taught that because of her religious upbringing her dad when the mom was in prison um and I think maybe with help of the grandparents kind of indoctrinated her and got her to be very religious very Christian and uh she went to a Catholic School actually not Catholic she went to a a private Christian School I think her mom is Catholic but like you know but not like practicing or whatever and uh reys has you know religious and perhaps bigoted views which I was thinking would like change throughout the story and I'm not saying they haven't but I really thought that like religion and religious deconstruction would be more of a thing in this book and it's not at this 50% Mark basically what the book is is reys trying to dry hump Fisher and get drunk and just be a fool like she's just not very intelligent she does make very smart decisions she kind of grapples with her like religion and her religious upbringing a touch in the story like when she's in the throws of passion and like is deciding if she wants to go all the way she's like yeah I definitely shouldn't this is against my beliefs but she doesn't ever really stop and like think about things you know what I mean and I understand getting caught up in the moment I'm not expecting her to deconstruct as she's um about to get but she never like after they have these encounters really like sits there and and thinks about her religion and like maybe that wouldn't make for a super exciting read for a lot of people but I actually think that could be an interesting book and maybe that's kind of the point of the book maybe I'm like not quite there yet but I find it interesting that religion is such a big part of this book and you're making again big part of this character's religion and and like personality and you're not doing anything with it it just seems a little bit strange I also am really not loving the dynamic between fiser and Reese it just seems a little weird I mean here's the thing we just have this discussion in my hot takes video where we talk about AG gaps and I don't really have an AG Gap problem in books it doesn't bother me a ton it depends how the age Gap is handled and this book I feel like it's handled pretty poorly like the heroin says that she feels like a teenager but also like an adult and he's treating her kind of like a child but he's also attracted to her and so that feels weird like that does not feel nice and and good and right it's uh not my favorite to be honest I am not hating it and the sexual moments themselves are actually well written and not terrible um and it's like enough to keep me going cuz I like want to see where this goes I'm also like I don't understand the hype I feel like so many people hyped this book and said it was so amazing and like so romantic and I'm just not I'm just feeling to see that like I don't really get it is very sexy and smudy but there's not a lot of relationship there have been a couple of banter moments for sure between fer and REE I'm not trying to say that there's nothing there and they have no reason to like want to interact with each other Beyond sex but yeah I don't know I feel like age gaps are interesting cuz I feel like oftentimes the author is trying to prove that like oh these two should be together even though they have this age Gap and yet a lot of the verbiage between the characters just furthers the point the point that they like shouldn't be together but this is a book that I'm reading and maybe I shouldn't have given this on a second chance but my curiosity was really killing me and I haven't heard anyone else talk about the fact that she says something homophobic at the beginning of the book so like I don't know does that get resolved I I must know again curiosity killing the old Noggin but I'm going to finish this one tonight and I'll probably let youall know how it is tomorrow hopefully I like don't lose the clips for for that but you never know you really never know happy Wednesday today is a better day although my skin is so much worse so we're going to put makeup on while I talk to you about the naked fishermen um okay this one it didn't get better I'll be honest with you this book is so annoying because the characters know that they should not be together they know they they should not be engaging in sexual activity together and yet they keep doing it I understand there's like this forbidden aspect to it but just don't really get it like I don't really I don't get their attraction for each other I don't get why they felt like they needed to hide this from people I just don't get it other thing that I don't really get is that the homophobia does kind of get addressed in a sense our it's like do I want to spoil this I do I'm going to spoil this book so if you were like really sprit to read it I'm sorry the heroin's mom is a lesbian and um she find finds this out because she walks in on her mom engaging in sexual activity with her lover and she also finds out that the reason that her mom went prison in the first place was because she was growing marijuana actually for lesbian lover who had cancer and she was like trying to make sure that her lesbian lover had medical marijuana access in a state that like didn't allow for medical marijuana and I keep saying lesbian lover her because she was married at the time right uh so you know um not exactly like you know just a girl friend kind of thing but everyone finds out about this kind of gets the whole story from her mom and she doesn't like necessarily say anything home phobic she does like tell her grandparents about the situation or like not even tell them explicitly but asks them like what do you think about one samesex relationships and her grandparents are like that's you know the devil's work or some like that and our heroin just like doesn't know how she feels about it but I think she eventually decides she doesn't care that her mom's a lesbian but is mad her mom lied to her whatever the book kind of leaves off with her deciding she's going to go on a mission trip to Thailand you know she's not with the naked Fisher at this point because she doesn't want her mom to find out that she has been hooking up with this guy even though her mom has been sneaking around and lying I have the same exact complaints that I did yesterday with the fact that this book tries to have a different kind of main character and doesn't do anything with that I'm sorry but like if you were going to have a character who has homophobic views that needs to be questioned that needs to be kind of turned on its head and like sure I guess you could say subtly the heroin kind of makes decisions for herself but like not really and um I don't know I'm hoping that like maybe in the next book she has a religious deconstruction cuz it's a cliffhanger it's a duet if that wasn't clear um but like I I'm not going to stick around for that so I just had to read a book about a religious seemingly homophobic character so wasn't my favorite obviously I don't I don't get this one I don't understand the hype behind it there's also just an insane amount of like repetition in the story too which I personally found frustrating as a reader like I don't want to see these people say oh you know my mom's coming back soon we definitely need to stop this and then like 5 seconds later they're like basically boning like that's not fun for me as a reader like I want there to be well they won't they but I also want there to be development outside of that again I just feel like I'm really over stories that are just about the romance and that's crazy as someone who loves romance and like wants to read a romance novel but I also want to see development on the part of the characters and in this case it was necessary and it just didn't happen so I don't even know the what the I would read this like maybe two stars maybe one star I don't know it wasn't the worst thing I've ever read but it like definitely was not a faif so probably going to leave it like two stars hoping that the next book doesn't suck let's read pucking round who's ready to get pucked up I'm 50% into pucking round by Emily wrath and this is the second time that I am attempting to read this book I tried before try as I might physically to read this book I was just not entranced as the kid shall say here's the thing why choose novels I just don't have luck with them I I deeply want to I deeply want to be that girl that's just like I was going to say Goblin glizzies but you know what I'm saying like I want to be that person and I just simply am not I just think a little too hard about the logistics of it you know polyamorous relationships I get it everybody's kind of sharing or people are like pursuing different things but like how magical is this girl snatch that she would attract three beautiful men is it misogynistic to say I just don't think that's going to work I don't know I I don't know okay let me talk about this book okay start character Rachel she is a physician who landed her dream like internship I guess at this hockey I was going to say rank new hockey team in Jacksonville because Jacksonville is just a place everybody wants to live she's reunited with a guy that she hooked up with at her brother's wedding like I don't think that guy was at her brother's wedding but was like in the lobby of the hotel where the wedding took place and she hooks up with them and they have a magical night of passion and sure I could have listened to that Nela audio book was I going to no because the audio book for this book it's like 24 hours long and that's OB scene anyway Rachel reunites with this man his name is Jake and he has a monster uh she also gets to meet the equipment management man Caleb who apparently is like golden and has a has a really sweet dog but also gives like vampire demon Vibes um as is evidenced by the sex that I just finished reading and then we've got Mars I believe his name is he's the finished goalkeeper is uh I guess trying to hide the fact that he's injured and she's trying to help him because she's a doctor right despite the hip of violations this book is fine okay if you are willing to overlook all of the I don't want to say but if you're willing to overlook all of the unrealistic aspects of this book it's fun okay it's a fun time it's hot I like seeing people have sex well okay I like reading about people having sex I don't want to see people have sex the sex scenes in this book are hot so far Mars has not joined in the fun but I'm sure he will uh eventually emotionally at this point we're kind of just dealing with Caleb and homeg girl and Jake having fun good for what it is I like that the sex is pretty gay as well which is nice I understand sexuality is complex but I like that everybody is having a good time together and that the swords are crossing I can't talk about this book seriously I really can't um it's better the second time around okay I'm sort of invested I want to see where things go there's a a scene where they like spit into each other's mouths so you know it's a book well all's well that happy ends well I finished around and I will say this book actually pleasantly surprised me I really thought this was going to end up being like a two and a half three star read because it is egregiously long there's no reason for this book to be this long however I feel like this book sort of took my complaints and fears with uh Wu's novels and sort of got me to rethink those things and I think that's because this book is truly a polyamorous uh romance it's not just four or five different men um agreeing to the same woman uh and I liked that I liked that there was a lot of communication about who was going to have contact with who what they wanted their relationship to look like essentially I think like way that everything evolved is that the finnished guy has his like own one-on-one relationship with the heroine and then the other two guys have of like a relationship with each other and then also with the heroin so it's cute I I actually really liked how this book ended uh they they go public with their relationship our heroin does get in trouble with her job for like violating hipa basically which is you know good for that to actually have been addressed I I did appreciate thatly she ends up keeping her job and everything is hunky dory they all just like rabbits C is everywhere and that's fun you know they're going to be a happy family and it seems like most of the people in their life are accepting of their relationship which is nice really don't have much to complain about again except for the length of this book I know that a lot of these other books I have bitched about the length but there is absolutely no reason for a romance especially a smudy romance to be for 700 pages long and to be a 24-hour audio book what in God's name I'm sorry that's just obscene so this one's tough for me I had a good time with it I don't think that ultimately this is like the most me romance ever I think if you're someone who likes a traditional romance and you want something that feels like very digestible I don't know that this is going to be for you if you want something that feels intensely smudy and you do like some good communication in your stories maybe this will be for you me I think I'm going to give this a three star it was fine please count on pepper cheat his wet food while I talk about books okay this Vlog has been such an interesting experience because I feel like the books that I expected to pick up and really enjoy the books that I really put on pause rather than true dnf are the ones that I just don't want to finish uh I am actually going to be dnfing a second book for this video which I guess shouldn't be shocking since this video is like you know trying my dnfs to see if I shouldn't have dnf them reputation by Adriana lock I was so excited for I was so excited to pick it back up because I really love Adriana Lock's writing I feel like she is an underrated romance author who really is great at plotting and facing her books reputation is just not really working for me it's about her two main characters koi Bellamy and uh I guess they have some sort of history that we don't know about and I guess you don't find out about in really any of the books but um they're kind of aranged from each other I think they were like kind of childhood best friends and lovers at the same time they were like part of like a four-person friend group uh basically with koi ky's little brother her cousin Lissa and then Lissa's friend who was Bing me so like the four of them were kind of a a a little foresome a little friendship group she's always been really close with the other brother I guess I can't remember his name and she's still friends with him but not friends with koi because I guess he like abandoned her after they had sex one time or something like that I mean she's like rightfully upset I suppose but I think my problem is that like we don't really have enough context for why she is so upset yeah it's obviously really shitty to be abandoned after you have sex with someone but it just feels like her anger is not totally justified and it feels like there's a lot of like indignation that I don't think is Justified I feel like there needs to be a backup to the banter right like I feel like we could have been given a quick like oneliner or even like a quick info dump at the beginning about like why these two aren't together anymore he by the way is this like famous country music star who is kind of laying low after having a breakup with I guess an actress and he it was like a PR relationship but she thought it was more than that and so she has been like lighting him up in the tabloids he's trying to kind of keep a low profile and then he's also tutoring or like helping give piano lessons to Bellamy's kid she's nannying so that's like how they've kind of gotten back together I think the problem again is that like anger doesn't really feel that justified to me and then also the reason bringing these two together is just like him I guess like say tutoring why do I keep wanting to say tutor um teaching this kid just like I'm just not that drawn in I'm not that intrigued I'm like I got 30% into the book but I feel like it's kind of a SLO to get through and that's like not what you want when you're reading a romance like you don't want to feel bored and it's frustrating because I see Hallmarks of my own writing in this writing and I always I always feel like when I'm reading a story and the writing reminds me of my own or like something I would do I'm I'm normally like oh I'm going to keep reading this like I love this but in this case I don't know I'm not I'm just not loving it it's probably a case of it's it's me it's not the book but that's not going to like stop me from reading more from this author in the future I just feel pretty like decent about my dnf of this book but again it does like happy curious about more adrenal books I feel like every time I read one of her books I'm like damn I got more from this author like she definitely knows how to write um maybe this one just like wasn't perfect for me so um I hope y'all have enjoyed this video I hope that uh it was interesting I honestly had a good time with this because I think it's interesting to see what books dnf for different reasons I think what I'm finding is that like if I put something on pause if something is just like not holding my attention enough to finish it I should probably just leave it there like I knew that with the other dnfs the ones that like felt more permanent you know what I mean um like the naked fisherman I feel like I probably could have just like let that one lie but when it comes to things that are just like not holding my ATT attention they're not holding my attention for a reason usually like it's not normally just a oh it's it's the wrong time kind of thing I mean I guess with the exception of just like magic but yeah most of the time I think I should just let dnfs be dnfs and not pick them up again so learned important lessons I hope this is entertaining in some way uh I love you all so much and I will see you tomorrow\n"