DNF (Did Not Finish) is a strange grade. I use it if I’ve read three chapters or more of a book and I’m not feeling it. it might be that I’m not in the mood for that kind of story, or that the story features some of my unfavorite tropes, or that something isn’t working. That’s not to say it’s a bad book, which is why it’s a strange ranking. It’s often a very subjective grade, so that what didn’t work for me one day might work the next, or it might be just the book you’re looking for. So here are a few. There isn’t enough to write a whole review on, but I’ve had a run of these recently, so I thought I’d list them. When I get an ARC, I try very hard to read the book, because they’re is entitled to some kind of acknowledgement for being kind enough to send me the book. So please don’t take these as necessarily bad. Just books I didn’t finish.
Ready for Her Close-Up (Matchmakers, Inc., Book 3) by Katherine Garbera
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin Desire 1 May 12
Russell, a billionaire, signs on to a matchmaking service as a way of cleaning up his image and finding a steady date while he inks an important business deal. Gail finds her biological clock is ticking, and she joins a matchmaking company and allows their dates to be filmed.
I just couldn’t buy into this one. The tactic to join a televised dating show to improve your reputation? I don’t think so, unless Australia is very different to the UK. “The Bachelor” failed over here and is on a minor cable channel, because it was just too embarrassing to watch. Fun game shows based on dating do well, but only when the participants are young and footloose or old and footloose. Not business executives looking to settle down! Gail is boring, she never comes alive for me. There is a lot of head hopping, too, which I really don’t like, and a severe lack of chemistry between the leading couple.
Summary:
Sexy and Single…
And New Zealand billionaire Russell Holloway intends to stay that way, despite appearing on a matchmaking reality TV show. All he wants from his wholesome bachelorette is to whitewash his reputation so he can score the merger of a lifetime. Nothing more…except a few nights’ pleasurable diversion.
New York professional Gail Little goes from reserved to stunning in time for their first date. But when she meets Russell, she knows the matchmaker made a big mistake. The camera may see their instant chemistry, but will Gail allow the perpetual playboy to transform her into his very own plaything…forever?
Read an excerpt.
The Talk of Hollywood by Carole Mortimer
Contemporary Romance published by Mills & Boon 14 Aug 12
In this one, Jaxon, a Hollywood wunderkind (you name it, he’s done it superlatively, a sort of younger Clooney), wants to film at the heroine’s ancestral home in the UK. Stazy is an archaeology professor who hates the very idea of Jaxon.
I like Carole Mortimer on occasion. She’s definitely Old School, with the exclamation marks to prove it, but her books can be a fun guilty pleasure when you’re in the book. The heroine in this deserves taking down a few dozen pegs. I tired of the perfect central couple fairly early. They excel in their chosen fields, almost without trying. Stazy is a horrible person, and by the fifth chapter I wanted her to die to give Jaxon a chance to find somebody who knows what manners are and who isn’t a raging snob. I don’t believe anyone this immature could ever get as far as a doctorate or live this long without someone strangling her. Jaxon is a fun hero, but I can’t believe in him. He has everything.
Summary:
Lights…
From his latest sports car to his latest blonde, gossip surrounds infamous Hollywood actor and director Jaxon Wilder. Unnamed sources are speculating outrageously about an unknown beauty that Jaxon is determined to get to know… intimately!
Camera…
Except Stazy, infuriatingly, is nothing like Jaxon s usual conquests… To Jaxon s disgust she demands an equal stake in his project they ll have to work side by side for months!
Bedroom!
Jaxon agrees to a professional partnership… knowing that, however hard Stazy tries to resist, eventually they ll tantalize the tabloids with a scandalous affair on and off the red carpet!
No excerpt available.
Millionaire in a Stetson (Colorado Cattle Barons, Book 4) by Barbara Dunlop
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin Desire 2 Apr 13
The heroine, Niki, is on the run. Her mother is dead and has left a diary with dynamite secrets. Sawyer comes to the ranch where the heroine has found shelter with her half-siblings to find her and get the diary.
My sole reason for not carrying on with this one is that the heroine is twenty-one, and I just couldn’t read on once I realised that. The hero, who is a fair bit older, keeps lusting after the heroine, and I keep thinking “leave her alone a few years.” She has reason to be a mature twenty-one, more than reason, but I couldn’t carry on once I discovered that. It just squicks me out when the family goes swimming at a water hole and the hero turns up and lusts after her in her bikini. I think it’s just me. I’ve read and enjoyed the other books in this series, so they’re well worth looking at.
Summary:
Keep your secrets under lock and key
One woman has the power to destroy his family and Sawyer Layton is out to stop her. Even if it means the millionaire must don a Stetson and track Niki Gerard all the way to Colorado.
But he didn’t count on the gorgeous Niki having trouble of her own. She’s hiding out on her family’s ranch, desperate to find her mother’s scandalous diary-the same diary Sawyer’s after. Worse still, she’s quicker to the truth. Cover blown, there’s only one option left: work with Niki-and try to keep his hands to himself.
Read an excerpt.
