Hello everyone. Welcome back to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. This post will be Part II of the books I DNF’d in 2022. This year, love was definitely not in the air as most of these books are romance. Two of these books are even winners of a Goodreads Choice Award in romance (2018 and 2021, respectively), but they just didn’t deliver for me. Again, since I no longer own some of these books, some of the pictures that I post here are not mine. Hence, I will give credit where credit is due.
1. The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
I tried really hard to like this book because the premise sounded like something I would enjoy reading, but unfortunately I didn’t. I couldn’t connect with the main character at all, and that’s a shame because I was looking forward to reading a romance about a quirky scientist who has terrible social manners (and possibly undiagnosed Asperger’s Syndrome).But alas, I did not. And I found that Rosie had little to no personality of her own. Also, I get how the plot of Don “looking for wife” and turning it into a project might seem fun for some, but it wasn’t for me even though I thought it would be and that affected my overall enjoyment of this book. I will not read any more books by this author.
2. The Dating Plan by Sara Desai
I tried reading this book several times (I even bought it, got rid of it, and bought it again), but I just couldn’t get into it. Contemporary romance might just not be for me (given how many books of this genre I have tried reading and have not liked), but I don’t want to lose my hope on romance just yet. Unfortunately, it’s not going very well. My biggest complaint with this one is that I did not like the couple. So I put it down.
3. The Intimacy Experiment by Rosie Danan
This is another contemporary romance that I did not finish. The premise of this book seemed interesting and I wanted to like this book, but sadly it too was a no for me. Why? The writing. It was too coarse. The characters (specifically the female protagonist since I didn’t get to far into it) said the word f* too many times for my liking. Don’t get me wrong, I can read coarse language when it is warranted and it serves a purpose in the plot, but this was too much and I just couldn’t get passed it.
4. The Maidens by Alex Michaelides
When I read the synopsis of this book, I was intrigued. And I picked it up not long after. Unfortunately, the book did not deliver. It has a very slow start and it was very hard for me to engage in the story. In fact, I didn’t. I also couldn’t connect with the protagonist. She bored me. So I put it down.
5. Half Sick of Shadows by Laura Sebastian
This book is a retelling of the poem The Lady of Shalott by Lord Tennyson. I did not like this book because the author changes the myth of Arthur too much for my liking, and I couldn’t stand it. Read my full review here.
16. The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang
This book was very popular (when it first came out in 2018) and it is still very much loved by avid romance readers, but I just couldn’t get into it. Its premise is similar to that of The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion and I was willing to give this trope a second chance. Alas, it didn’t work and I stopped reading this book at 30%.
7. People We Meet On Vacation by Emily Henry
This is probably one of the most popular contemporary romances of 2021. But I couldn’t connect with the protagonists and found that they just didn’t have any chemistry between them. Sad to say, it was a little boring. I don’t think I’ll pick up any more of this author’s books.
8. The Road Trip by Beth O’Leary
I read The Flatshare by this author last year, but for some I couldn’t get into this one. This is a second chance romance, and yet it was hard for me to believe that they were attracted to each other at all. Honestly, there were more reasons for these two to stay apart than to get together…
Those are all the books I DNF’d in 2022. Next week, I will post about my most disappointing reads of the year.
