Romance Reading Quiz answers: Part Three
We asked you what the worst romance novel you’ve read this year is and, with a few exceptions, you all nominated different reads that didn’t work for you. Several of the nominated books have gotten high grades here at AAR which goes to show that in reading–as in 7th grade school photos (that is mine from 7th grade)–YMMV.
If you’d like to share, with kindness, why you disliked the book you read, do so. Let’s stick to talking about books, however, and not people. No shaming allowed!
Who Wants to Marry a Duke by Sabrina Jeffries
Wilde in Love by Eloisa James
A Beauty for the Scarred Duke by Bridget Barton, a DNF/ F- novel, kindle deal, bad choice on my part, a waste of time.
A couple of Harlequins — one western, one suspense. I’ve blanked out the titles and authors. Both DNF
A Dangerous Kind of Lady Mia Vincy
A Girl Like Her by Talia Hibbert
A Tapestry of Dreams by Roberta Gillis. I haven’t finished it yet. It’s not bad, but I’m having a difficult time getting through it (I’ve been reading it for 3 weeks now). It had been on my TBR pile for a long time and I had enjoyed the sequel without knowing the two books were related. Maybe I’ll like it more once I’ve finished.
After the Wedding by Courtney Milan
Autumn’s Child by Kathleen Giles-Seidel
Back to the Good Fortune Diner by Vicki Essex
Beautiful Beast by Roe Horvat
Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall (dnf)
Bringing Down the Duke by Evie Dunmore
Can’t say…
can’t think of one
Cold as Ice by Anne Stuart
Come Home to Deep River by Jackie Ashenden
Dance Away with Me by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Dance Away with Me by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Daring and the Duke by Sarah MacLean
Dark Breaks the Dawn by Sara B. Larson
Dear Enemy by Kristen Callihan
Dirty (Dan and Elle #1)
DNF’d a lot.
Don’t know
Duke by Default by Alyssa Cole
More than a Mistress by Balogh for historical
Everything A Lady is Not by Sawyer North
everything that Kristen Ashley has published this year. I could not finish any of it. The Rising was perhaps the worst because the book jumped POV so much among 4 or 5 different storylines (couples) in the one book. It was very confusing / disjointed.
Fix Her Up by Tess Bailey
Fortunately, I can’t remember any of them since I purposefully scrubbed my memory of any of them after I finished.
Happily Ever after by Lori Wilde
Haven’t read a really bad one yet thankfully
Her Other Secret by HelenKay Dimon
Hmm, nothing stands out in my dnfs
Husky by Jessica Kane
I DNF The Roommate— so disappointed, given the buzz surrounding it.
I don’t read bad romance. If the first chapter on Amazon doesn’t engage, I don’t buy it.
I don’t finish the book if it’s bad. Hands Down by Mariana Zapata was the most disappointing. I was hoping for less angsy woe-is-me inner monologues from the heroine.
I quit if they are bad.
I usually DNF books that aren’t working for me, but, of the books I finished, Shantel Tessier’s mafia romance, Code of Silence, was pretty damn bad.
I usually love Tessa Bailey but Reborn Yesterday was a huge disappointment.
I won’t finish it if I don’t like it
It’s a tie between Laura Lee Guhkre’s Heiress Gone Wild and The Truth About Love and Dukes. Wallbangers, both of them and from such a usually great author. ”
Let’s Get Textual by Teagan Hunter
Mariana Zapata’s Under Locke
Meet Cute by Helena Hunting “Milla Vane – tried with all three books. So many great reviews, way too much silly sex. Eye rolling.
No idea
No Offence by Meg Cabot
No Offense by Meg Cabot
No Place Like Home by Fern Michaels – Trying to clean my TBR shelf
none
none
Not going to answer this
Pounding Skin by LA Witt
I’m quick to DNF, if it is terrible.
Robin Lovett’s Toxic Desire
Rocky Mountain Haven
Serpent & Dove by Shelby Mahurin. Despite loving enemies-to-lovers, this pseudo-historical YA paranormal romance is extremely misogynistic and the hero models many of the red flag warning signs of a domestic abuser.
Show the Fire by Susan Fanetti
Some rando MC freebie
Sophie Jordan’s The Virgin and The Rogue
Sunrise Canyon by Janet Dailey
That would probably be Refuge for a Rogue by L.S. Young. I did at least finish it.
The Bittersweet Bride by Vanessa Riley
The Bookish life of Nina Hill
The Counterfeit Marriage by Joan Wolf
The Countess by Lynsay Sands
The Countess by Lynsay Sands
The Determined Duchess by Erica Monroe (which wasn’t terrible, but it was a cut below anything else I finished; if it hadn’t been a novella, I wouldn’t have bothered to finish it)”
The Happy Ever After Playlist by Abby Jimenez
The Hitman by Katrina Jackson
The Honey Don’t List by Christina Lauren
The Hunter by L J Shen
The Lost Sister by Kendra Elliot
The Master’s New Governess by Eliza Redgold
The Other Miss Bridgerton by Julia Quinn. It was a DNF for me.
The Outlaw’s Lady by Laurie Kingery
The Princess Problem by Christi Barth
The Roommate
The Surviving Trace by Calia Read
There have been a lot. But I don’t read them, I dnf them. Probably one of the Bully Romance books I’ve tried to read. They’re horrific.
To Woo a Wicked Widow by Jenna Jaxon
Twice in a Blue Moon by Christina Lauren
Uncivilized
Vanessa Riley’s A Duke, A Lady, and a Baby
I chose A Dangerous Kind of Lady by Mia Vincy as my worst book not because it was a bad book, but because I have read a lot of really great books this year.
I DNFed A Girl Like Her. I picked it up as a steals and deals because of good reviews and just didn’t like or want to know more about the hero or heroine after 100 pages.
There are books on this list that I too have read and not liked at all. There are also books that I actually liked quite a lot and everything in between. Plus several books I’d never even heard of before.
My pick for this category was Sunrise Canyon by Janet Dailey. The heroine of the book runs a horse therapy program for, I’m using the author’s words, teenagers with troubles. I had a problem with how horse therapy was depicted in the book. Also, the hero of the book is a war veteran with PTSD whose wife died in a violent accident, and the heroine’s main point of internal angst seemed to be the fact that the hero was a troubled man, and thus not relationship material. She seemed to think that him having PTSD meant that he couldn’t be trusted not matter what his intentions. At one point she mused how, because both she and the hero were broken people, any relationship between them would be doomed from the first moment. It was kind of jarring to have this therapist working with troubled teens who seemed to think that being broken, having PTSD, being troubled somehow inevitably meant that relationships were beyond a person, herself included, especially since the inconsistency was never addressed. Plus there was strangely little romance in this one for a romance novel. The first kiss, the love scene, the realization that they were in love seemed to me to come out of nowhere because there was so little interaction between the hero and the heroine.
I am well aware that if another person read this book they might feel completely differently about the stuff I had issues with. I know I am super sensitive about certain subjects and in any case this is just how I felt about the book and the themes it explores.
Speaking of PTSD and horses, have you read or heard about the recent FF historical romance, Her Lady’s Honor by Renee Dahlia (Carina Press title)? One of the heroines is a veterinarian who cared for war horses during WW1, and is now dealing with PTSD.
The premise sounds fascinating, but I am a bit worried about the negative reviews concerning her relationship with the other heroine. Quite a few commenters on Goodreads expressed concern/outrage that the second heroine, Beatrice, is constantly berating the first heroine, Nell, for her privilege and whatnot. The consensus seems to be, “Yeah, Beatrice makes some good points but she’s being mean to her love interest who’s suffering from war trauma, for Heaven’s sake!”
Just based on reviews I’ve read, I can’t help but feeling that 21st century callout culture tactics infected what could have been an interesting early 20th century story. I’m not saying Beatrice shouldn’t point out if something/someone is unfair- including the other heroine- but the reviews I’ve read so far make her sound emotionally abusive. To me, this would probably be an HR I would (reluctantly) pass on.
I have not read Her Lady’s Honor, though the premise does sound interesting indeed. Horses (and other animals but especially horses and dogs) have been integral part of my rehabilitation and life in general, and my grandfather was a war veteran who suffered from PTSD, so I’ve always been drawn to these themes in books. I am also someone who rather often finds herself liking or relating to heroines who others, at least based on reviews, seem to have found unlikeable. I’ve also found I do not have to like a character to still be interested in their story. On the other hand, I can’t and don’t want to have emotional abuse or bullying between the romantic leads. So I don’t know. I guess it’s not impossible that this could work for me, so I’ll probably check out the sample from Amazon. However it goes, thank you for bringing this book to my attention! :)
You’re welcome! I’m sorry I didn’t see your comment until now. I hope AAR takes a look Her Lady’s Honor because it is hard to find quality reviews that pinpoint issues rather than making sweeping statements that are difficult to interpret or verify without reading the whole book. Until then, I am sort of on the fence about it. Either way, hope you enjoy it!
In July I tried to read Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall, which got positive mentions here, and could not force myself to finish it. DNF books are rare for me—fewer than one book in a thousand—but the reason with BM was the same as with Shopaholic years ago: I find it extremely hard to enjoy stories with messed up narrators who show no learning or improvement.
Same, I tried reading Boyfriend Material a few weeks ago because of the stellar reviews, but I could not finish it.
DNF’d a few this year, some of them on the list, so let me add The Switch, by Beth O’Leary, to the list. I loved The Flatshare and had high hopes for O’Leary’s next offering, but it was not to be.
Someone on this list hating a book that I shared gives me crushing reviewer guilt. I’M SORRY I LED YOU ASTRAY!!!
You didn’t lead anyone astray! I don’t think any of our readers expect us to always have the same responses we do!
Oh my! I never blame reviewers for their opinions! Plus, I generally read multiple reviews for any book I buy, including several unfavorable ones. I like to know what elements caused an unfavorable review when other people love the book. It gives me insight because sometimes it’s something that could also cause me to stop reading even if it doesn’t bother other people. It’s so subjective. For example, I’m not a fan of smart-mouth kids in books. Period. It may be well written, appropriate, etc., but I don’t want to read about it, so “NEXT!”
I appreciate every single reviewer. From my stint as a reviewer for Speaking of Audiobooks and Audiogals years ago, I know it’s hard work.
Absolutely not! It’s my old ice cream analogy. Or humor. If you like vanilla and I like chocolate you’re not wrong and neither am I. I can’t stand Borat but many people thought it was the funniest thing ever. You have to shrug and allow for difference in tastes.
My ‘didn’t like it’ book was ‘Refuge for a Rogue.’ Notes in the reading journal: “Keeping score. Providential when provincial was meant. Solicitude for solitude. Hayden for Haydn. Earl Gray – sigh – fair to say this is the least good of the recent reads. Post Civil War Montana setting, one MC is the schoolteacher and the other a railway bookkeeper, but also a former con man/prostitute. Teacher is very sweet and open minded right up until he has a giant snit over the con man thing, for no reason other than 3rd Act Plot Drama, along with the requisite Villain From The Past. Suffice to say the conflict was very artificial and made the guy look like a dick. All that said, I finished the book, so.”
Wow, what a fascinating post!
I think that this reveals how much our expectations frame the reading experience. For example, if I read a self-published novel that I haven’t seen widely praised on review sites or hyped on social media and I find the story poorly written or weird, I generally think little of it and move on (i.e., Ruby Dixon’s Sworn to the Shadow God).
On the other hand, if I read a traditionally published romance that has been a bestseller and/or it’s gotten an overwhelmingly warm reception and I find it poorly written or weird, I’m much more likely to be struck by how flawed it is (I didn’t vote for it, but I think Robin Lovett’s Toxic Desire is a great example of this!).
I picked Shelby Mahurin’s Serpent & Dove. Last month, it was the second YA/NA romance I’ve read that features a hero who has killed a woman/women because the woman/women didn’t conform to his ideas of how women should behave. I can tolerate (and even appreciate!) a lot of tortured anti-hero behavior in a romance novel, but that’s one of my lines in the sand.
I agree that I am definitely expecting more from books that get a big PR push, receive a lot of accolades or are praised a lot.
One of the reasons I thought for years something was wonky at RWA was because the quality of the titles that were nominated were routinely bad or just really mediocre at best.
I didn’t love Sworn To The Shadow God either and I’m a pretty big fan of Dixon’s work also. I’m still not sure what the book was trying to be- but some people love that Aspect and Anchor series. I think light adventure and comedy is her forte. She’s genuinely funny and good at tackling some pretty touchy subjects very sensitively. Shadow God was a little too “Game of Thrones lite”.
Yes, exactly!
If a book goes through a traditional publishing network (agent, editor, publisher) and receives a warm response within the romance community and/or from mainstream media, it is getting a huge seal of approval. If I then read that book and see that it’s substantively below par in content or quality, I definitely think you’re right — like in RWA, there’s a problem with that process somewhere.
Yes, as a Ruby Dixon devotee, I was also bemused by Aspect and Anchor and I 100% see your point, re: Game of Thrones lite.
Here’s my hot take: I think the length is the issue. All of Ruby Dixon’s books – IPB, Icehome, Corsairs, & dystopian Dragons – are the same length. They’re like Harlequin categories, but alien erotic romance. Conversely, the Aspect & Anchor series are these sprawling, epic tomes. It must be difficult to write concise, sleek, substantive novella-like romances and Ruby Dixon has nailed it, but it also must be challenging to create a gigantic romance saga that doesn’t feel episodic or baggy (i.e. Milla Vane) and Ruby Dixon hasn’t quite managed it so far.
I’ll agree with your length theory. When I was reading it there were parts that left me with the same feeling I get in some of Kristen Ashley’s books, namely that a strong editor was needed. Some parts really dragged with a lot of repetitive stuff. I don’t find that in her other works, they’re pretty tight.
The fact that the majority of what she is putting out is very good when she’s averaging at least a new book month is very impressive. I also solved that mystery we were pondering before. It’s not a super famous name.
Aw, thanks! Yes, her other books are tight and Aspect & Anchor drags with a lot of repetition. I can’t wait to read Kristen Ashley — haha, I’m not even expecting to love her novels, I just want to have an opinion because her name has come up on AAR recently!
I’m so jealous and impressed you solved our mystery! :)
I’m busting to share (so we can discuss) but can’t because I’d feel like a “doxxer”. Even though I stumbled onto it just by voracious reading and not nefarious means.
Do you use Instagram or Goodreads??
Unfortunately I gave up on Goodreads a while ago and don’t even think I have a login anymore and I don’t do Instagram.
I end up reading mostly older books, since I wait for them to go on sale (Kindle) or get remaindered (catalog). One I read – can’t even remember the title – had a situation where there was a nasty nobleman as one bad guy (there was another). His wife had died and he declared that the twin sons she’d had were not his, refused to “recognize” them and thus they were considered illegitimate and not eligible to inherit his title and property. Meanwhile, the man who would inherit (barring the twin sons) has lost his two legitimate sons and so has “recognized” an illegitimate son who will then inherit. Don’t remember the title, the author – all I remember is how angry this made me. (My understanding is that an illegitimate son can’t inherit title, etc., and that a child born in a marriage – barring any circumstances making it impossible for the husband to have fathered him/her – would be legally considered legitimate.) grr
That’s a good question, I know there are places in the US even a few years ago that if a child is born in wedlock during the marriage the husband is legally responsible. He is that child’s father and legally bound to support him. This has been upheld even in cases where it was proven the husband wasn’t the biological father!
With all the legal rules and entail unless there was some reason and legal process behind it I am sure the current holder of an estate and title didn’t just get to pick and choose. They had what really amounted to a life estate in the house. (Think Mr. Bennet in Pride and Prejudice who doesn’t even have a title).
With all the information at the fingertips of authors nowadays (just by hopping online) it’s annoying when they don’t at least do a cursory check.
In the US, biological fathers are almost always financially responsible. If you put your name on the birth certificate, even if you are not the biological parent, you are usually often, in some way, responsible as well.
Oh, good grief, that would have been a total wallbanger for me! (Because you’re right, “back then” – I’m assuming this was an historical – if a man and woman were married at the time a child was born (unless there were, as you say, Reasons), the child was legitimate, regardless of who supplied the sperm! And the reason there are so many stories about distant relations inheriting titles is because an illegitimate son couldn’t inherit them.
Mine was Duke by Default by Alyssa Cole, which I felt was just a mess of a book that didn’t know what it wanted to say. The book started out being more about Portia, who was an obviously competent person who was having trouble figuring out what she wanted to do with her life. We get glimpses of some potentially great storylines here, but they all mostly fizzle out–like sword making (happens once) and her ADHD revelation, which curiously never came up again. I was disappointed when the story swiveled to a Pygmalion-esque tale about the guy. We then lose a potentially great story of self-discovery for one with a lot less impact.
I didn’t include my DNF books here because I DNF for various reason,which often have nothing to do with the quality of writing or story. They are just as often stories that I can easily understand why other people like, but they either don’t grab me or have tropes that I don’t enjoy, or both. My most recent DNF was My Christmas Number One by Leonie Mack. It’s well written and does a great job with Cara’s PTSD and disability. But at 60% of the way through the book I was still putting it down and not going back to it for a whole day at a time. I didn’t care for a couple of tropes the author used, which contributed to that, but mainly it didn’t engage me and I don’t really know why.
Another reason for DNF’s right now is my stress level. I want to read something by Gregory Ashe, for instance, but I had to put the first Hazard and Somerset book aside, not because I didn’t think it was marvelously written, but because of the subject matter–I can’t deal with white supremacy militias at the moment. I do hope to go back to the books some day. In the same vein, books with lots of manipulative friends/family members are really stressful for some reason right now (don’t know why, it’s not an issue in my life), so I avoid those as well.
I didn’t include DNFs either. Quite a few of my DNFs have been things that were objectively well-written and I just didn’t care about the characters, so I noped right outta there but wouldn’t ever say ‘oh this book was bad.’
I didn’t have any DNFs for books this year, although I had quite a few for movies and TV shows. With books, I use the Look Inside feature on Amazon or Harlequin to see if a book is remotely interesting. That way, a lot of books become more like DNS (did not start) rather than DNF. But with movies, I’ve lately made a rule of 20-30 minutes as in, “You have just 20-30 minutes to impress me because that’s the extent of my attention span right now for movies with a ‘slow start.’ If it’s slower than that, I’m probably not going to enjoy the rest of the film either.”
Yes! Looking at my DNF stack recently, I was surprised by how random and personal it is. Sometimes, I’ll stop reading a book if I begin binge-watching a tv show or I’ll suddenly get sick of a trope or subgenre that I had been enjoying up until that point.
Absolutely. What we like is always, at heart, a personal choice.
There wasn’t a single romance I read this year that I finished!! How depressing is that?
Finding them poorly written, anachronistic (I mainly read historical) and flat out boring.
Bringing Down the Duke was one of the more notable DNF – & I was incredibly disappointed: so much hype & the interesting new marketing direction for historicals…but meh.
Found the writing florid and self-conscious plus once again, just plain boring.
Felt like it was written according to some template of How To Write A Historical Romance Novel….
Meh.
Eloisa James has one out end of the month if memory serves: really looking forward to it – better not disappoint like her last one – think it was ‘say yes to the duke’ (or was it ‘say no’ lol)- another DNF because it went kersplat and became a yawn-fest.
Since so many of us don’t finish books that aren’t doing it for us, perhaps if you run the questionnaire again, Dabney, a related question might be, “What book were you anticipating but it ended up being DNF?” I’d also be interested in, “What author (or sub-genre of romance) did you used to read all the time, but have recently found not working for you any longer?”
Ooh! I like those questions a lot. And maybe, “Did a romance in a subgenre you don’t normally read pleasantly surprise you?”
That’s a good one too.
This was a difficult question for me to answer because I hadn’t suffered through any particularly horrific DNFs this year (yay?) But of the romances I read, I picked The Outlaw’s Lady, a Harlequin Love Inspired Historical, as the lowest rated of my reading this year. I’m not sure what I was expecting from this Inspirational, especially knowing I’m not partial to this subgenre of romance. Frankly, I saw an e-book copy on my library account and decided to give it a whirl. That, and I was going through a little bit of a Western kick at the time.
On the surface, the plot sounded interesting enough: From what I remember offhand, the heroine is a Texan photographer (to her traditional mother’s chagrin) in the years immediately following the Mexican-American War, and the hero is a half-Mexican, half-Anglo rancher. Heroine gets kidnapped by a vain self-proclaimed general south of the border who wants her to photograph his and his band’s exploits and… yeah. While there were some interesting moments, somewhat understandable political motives, and a few well-done action sequences, some of the racial stuff is iffy to say the least. You’ve got some well-rounded characters on both sides of the border, but a lot of it is just your stereotypical bandido stuff that wouldn’t be out of place in a 1950s Western flick. Plus, there’s some handwaving about the language barriers that would have existed. And the heavy use of Spanish words in English dialogue often felt more like info-dumping than natural speech patterns.
The Christianity, which is a requirement of the category line, isn’t shoehorned in as blatantly as some of the other Love Inspired titles, which I appreciated. And the characters’ growing faith actually has some bearing on the plot and character development. This is more than I can say for some other Inspirationals where the faith element feels really forced onto the characters rather than an organic process.
In my own private book rating list, I gave The Outlaw’s Lady 1.5 out of 5 stars. It was just interesting enough in parts to keep me reading until the end, but definitely not a book I’d read again or recommend.
It’s always been true that we each read a different book, even when the words on the page are the same. Add to that, it’s been a difficult year. Fortunately, I’ve found enough good books this year to go with some favorite rereads. But there have been days when I just could not “settle” and I’d never have thought I would tell you that I could go a whole day in which I just “couldn’t read” at least something. But there have a been a few this year. So while the list is interesting, because even the best books don’t work from some people, the general state of things this year may have something to do with it too.
I was the person who selected Shantel Tessier’s CODE OF SILENCE. I’m always on the lookout for new-to-me authors with big blacklists (like my tbr isn’t already an unscalable mountain), and it’s no secret around here that I read quite a lot of dark/crime/mafia/mob romance, so when I saw CODE OF SILENCE was on KU, I gave it a try. Oh God, it was awful! I was trying to give her the benefit of the doubt because I’d never read her before and was hoping the book would get better, but no such luck: the violence was unbelievably gory (one scene involved bear traps and razors—and that wasn’t the worst one!) and I never read anything in the book that gave me a reason to root for the h&h to get the HEA. Plus Tessier’s writing style was pedestrian at best. I gave it the old college try, but when it comes to dark/crime, I’ll stick with Skye Warren, Natasha Knight, or Cora Reilly.
Kindle Unlimited is such a mixed bag. It’s fantastic to be able to consume as many books as you can handle in a month and they have some really fabulous authors to choose from, both well known and less well known. I’ve discovered a lot of great stuff. I’ve also stumbled into some real dross, books that seem to be entirely copies of better authors works and cliches galore.
Sometimes you find a real hidden gem and sometimes it’s just a dud.
As the late John Denver sang, “Sometimes a diamond/Sometimes a stone.”
Lol, I was thinking of the old “Mystery Date” game. Will he be a dream? Or will be be a dud?
YES! Kindle Unlimited has also scrambled all my shallow impulses to judge books by their covers. I’ve enjoyed KU books with terrible covers and disliked KU books with good covers. Hahaha, the world doesn’t make sense to me anymore!
KU also makes it so easy to read “guilty pleasures” that you wouldn’t dream of spending money on in any way other than through your membership fee. I can’t tell you the million kinds of wrong that is Jessa Kane’s MY HUSBAND, MY STALKER, but I gulped it down like a glass of cold lemonade on a hot day. Could I recommend it? No, not really. But did I find it compulsively readable? Oh, yes!
YES YES YES. I love how KU allows for exploration and “guilty pleasure” reading without the price tag. Not going to lie, My Husband, My Stalker sounds way up my alley for when I’m in that mood. I’ve also been surprised by the books I’ve discovered through KU that are as silly, sexy, or fun as all get out and I catch myself thinking, “Wow, I’d love to own this!”.
There are several books on this list I loved including A Dangerous Kind of Lady, A Girl Like Her, and Bringing Down the Duke. And there are others on the list I too disliked.
We are a diverse bunch!
I’ll second Fix Her Up byTessa Bailey as a bad read – it had some truly disturbing faults – but I’m shocked to find The Bookish Life of Nina Hill on the list. :-0 I know A LOT of people who loved that novel.