These are the books that I decided not to finish this past month.
Christmas Eve Love Story by Ginny Baird
I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Christmas Eve Love Story by Ginny Baird Published by Sourcebooks Casablanca on October 8, 2024
Genres: Adult Holiday Romance
Pages: 416
Source: the publisher
Format: E-galley
My Rating:
Goodreads
Annie Jones is stuck repeating Christmas Eve until she finds everything she's been missing in life in this heartwarming time travel Christmas romance for fans of Miracle on 34th Street, Groundhog Day, and Josie Silver's A Winter in New York.
Annie Jones works hard designing windows for iconic New York City department store Lawson's Finest. So when her Christmas window display gets upended by some rambunctious kids on Christmas Eve, the all-too-realistic store Santa gives Annie a little decorating tip on how to start over. With help from friendly security guard Braden Tate, Annie repairs the damage and heads home. But when she wakes the next morning, she's bewildered to find that it isn't Christmas day at all, but Christmas Eve all over again.
Trapped in a time loop, Annie doesn't know how she'll ever make it back to the present. Luckily, she has an infinite number of chances to get things right. As little everyday choices bring her closer to Braden and to Christmas day, Annie starts to picture what her new life— one full of friendship, love, and community—could look like.
My Thoughts:
Technically I DNFed this in October. However I thought maybe I just needed to give it another chance since it was during that week where I kept not being able to get into any of the books I picked up. I just love Groundhog Day types of stories, but this one didn’t work for me. I think because it is in 3rd person maybe, and I had trouble really connecting or following the characters. I didn’t get far into it, only about 10%, but I just could not keep going when there were other books to be read that did end up keeping my attention.
Borrow My Heart by Kasie West
Borrow My Heart by Kasie West Narrator: Caitlin Kinnunen
Published by Listening Library on June 13, 2023
Genres: YA Contemporary Romance
Length: 07:35
Source: the library
Format: Audiobook
My Rating:
Goodreads
When a girl overhears a guy getting verbally destroyed by his friend for being catfished, she jumps in to save the day—and pretends to be his online crush. A young adult romance from the critically acclaimed author of Places We've Never Been.
Wren is used to being called a control freak. She doesn’t care; sticking to the list of rules she created for herself helps her navigate life. But when a cute guy named Asher walks through the door of her neighborhood coffee shop, the rulebook goes out the window.
Asher is cute, charming . . . and being catfished by his online crush. So Wren makes an uncharacteristically impulsive decision—she pretends to be the girl he's waiting for to save him from embarrassment. Suddenly she’s fake-dating a boy she knows nothing about. And it’s . . . amazing.
It's not long before Asher has her breaking even more of her own rules. But will he forgive her when he finds out she's not who she says she is? Wren's not so sure. . . . After all, rules exist for a reason.7 hours and 35 minutes
My thoughts:
This was another possible Gateway nominee. It wasn’t bad, I was just kind of bored and like another I recently DNFed, it was kind of predictable. So with the amount of time I had to get reading, I moved onto another on the list for the nominees. I got to about 29%.
Rez Ball by Byron Graves
Rez Ball by Byron Graves Published by Heartdrum on September 12, 2023
Genres: YA Contemporary, YA Sports Fiction
Length: 08:14
Source: the library
Format: Audiobook
My Rating:
Goodreads
This debut novel by Byron Graves tells the story of a young athlete determined to play like the hero his Ojibwe community needs him to be.
These days, Tre Brun is happiest when he is playing basketball on the Red Lake Reservation high school team—even though he can’t help but be constantly gut-punched with memories of his big brother, Jaxon, who died in an accident. When Jaxon's former teammates on the varsity team offer to take Tre under their wing, he sees this as his shot to represent his Ojibwe rez all the way to their first state championship. This is the first step toward his dream of playing in the NBA, no matter how much the odds are stacked against him. But stepping into his brother’s shoes as a star player means that Tre can’t mess up. Not on the court, not at school, and not with his new friend, gamer Khiana, who he is definitely not falling in love with. After decades of rez teams almost making it, Tre needs to take his team to state. Because if he can live up to Jaxon's dreams, their story isn’t over yet.
My thoughts:
Another Gateway possibility. While this wasn’t bad, I just wasn’t into the sports aspect of it. So I think it would be a good one for my students to read, I just knew I would struggle to get through it because I’m not a sports person really, so I DNFed at 4%, really quickly, and moved onto the next Gateway possibility that was also an indigenous story and caught my attention quickly.
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I don’t enjoy DNF ing books so I try not to choose ones where that is likely. It still happens but more often for me it is wait for a better time to read it.
I wouldn’t say I “enjoy” DNFing. I didn’t pick these because they were necessarily ones I would pick, they are ones that might be for a high school library award list next year, and I like to help with the committee, as well as be able to tell kids about them. I just don’t have the time to read books I’m not enjoying though. I have a lot that sound really good that I choose for personal reading, but then I can’t get into them or the writing doesn’t work for me. So it’s not that I’m choosing books I don’t think I’ll like in that case, I thought I would like them. As for waiting for a better time to read them, there are too many other books and once I am not interested in a book, my brain pretty much won’t let me go back most of the time. I’ve tried!
That’s too bad. I also would try a book again, but sometimes it just doesn’t work, no matter how many chances you give it.
I say I will try things again, but it rarely happens.