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3.41 AVERAGE
3.41 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
informative
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
I will never believe that a young woman who works around good books all day would choose to read James Patterson
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
funny
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
This was fun and light
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
This isn’t bad on paper, but something about this author’s writing style makes it so hard to connect to characters and feel engaged in the story. It felt like a chore by the end, and I had to slog through it just to realize that I still didn’t care about the characters.
slow-paced
DNF at 51%
This one isn't even that bad. I've definitely read worse writing and I'm usually stingy with my one-star ratings, but here's the thing: at 30% I realized I didn't care about these characters. I gave it 20% more and, nada. I realized I was simply skimming the pages, waiting for something to happen. It hasn't been the first time a Kindle Unlimited book failed to deliver. I finished [b:Only When It's Us|51975973|Only When It's Us (Bergman Brothers, #1)|Chloe Liese|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1583101005l/51975973._SY75_.jpg|76630157] in the hopes that I would eventually develop Stockholm Syndrome and enjoy myself, but looking back, I wish I'd just DNF'd the hell out of that book.
And look, this one is miles better than Only When It's Us. I think I even enjoyed [b:The Last Juror|5346|The Last Juror|John Grisham|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1386924294l/5346._SY75_.jpg|1022242] and [b:Witch Is When It All Began|25987394|Witch Is When It All Began (A Witch P.I. Mystery, #1)|Adele Abbott|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1446035852l/25987394._SY75_.jpg|45900369] more than Only When It's Us, which is saying something. But my utter hatred for those books does nothing to endear me to this one I'm merely meh about.
Why am I whining?
For one, this is first and foremost a romance and I just don't buy the romance. Whatever chemistry, if any, exists between Aiden and Selene, it's not jumping at me through the page. Their relationship until the 51% mark is them simply having maybe three surface-level dates in which nothing interesting occurs. They simply exchange one-liners and then, presumably, the author runs out of one-liners and simply tells us that they continued to have an "amazing" time together.
The basic premise of the book was intriguing: a cursed witch living in a small town meets a skeptic who coproduces a ghost hunting show with his buddy. The premise had a lot of potential, but it fell flat. I think there where a lot of opportunities the author failed to take advantage of and the conflict was forced and convoluted.
Also, the characters weren't that likable to begin with. When she first learns that Aiden might be interested in getting close to her to get ahead in his career, Selene jumps right into slipping Aiden a potions (which accidentally nearly kills him), which is super creepy behavior. Aiden is staying over Eddie's, his buddy and fellow showrunner, family's home for Christmas and is super scornful and even ungrateful when they try to invite him to do holiday things with them. To be fair, Eddie's family is like every sitcom's Christmas special rolled into one. I swear, this family probably saves their vacation time for the holidays and only do back-to-back Christmas-related things. But even so, Aiden just comes off as a bad guest when he dismisses all these activities. Eddie does call him out a few times, but why include this? Aiden is the romantic lead and the audience is presumably supposed to like him. Unless this pays off with some kind of redemption arc, it's really counterproductive to include this.
Aiden also takes and interest in a recent crime in which Peter, Selene's would-be blind date, suffers the same fate as that of her grandmother's lover (the incident which initiated the curse). Aiden takes it upon himself to investigate it to disprove the town's superstitiousness. I just can't help but feel that it's super unethical and shitty to exploit a recent tragedy, not for a serious investigative piece, but for a ghost hunting show.
And this is just scratching the surface. I decided to learn from my experiences and DNF this. I hate DNF-ing books, but I have the feelings it's just not going to redeem itself. Like I said, this is definitely not the worst I've read, but it's boring. It had a good premise, but does absolutely nothing with it to the point that I can't even come up with a single thing that I like about this book.
This one isn't even that bad. I've definitely read worse writing and I'm usually stingy with my one-star ratings, but here's the thing: at 30% I realized I didn't care about these characters. I gave it 20% more and, nada. I realized I was simply skimming the pages, waiting for something to happen. It hasn't been the first time a Kindle Unlimited book failed to deliver. I finished [b:Only When It's Us|51975973|Only When It's Us (Bergman Brothers, #1)|Chloe Liese|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1583101005l/51975973._SY75_.jpg|76630157] in the hopes that I would eventually develop Stockholm Syndrome and enjoy myself, but looking back, I wish I'd just DNF'd the hell out of that book.
And look, this one is miles better than Only When It's Us. I think I even enjoyed [b:The Last Juror|5346|The Last Juror|John Grisham|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1386924294l/5346._SY75_.jpg|1022242] and [b:Witch Is When It All Began|25987394|Witch Is When It All Began (A Witch P.I. Mystery, #1)|Adele Abbott|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1446035852l/25987394._SY75_.jpg|45900369] more than Only When It's Us, which is saying something. But my utter hatred for those books does nothing to endear me to this one I'm merely meh about.
Why am I whining?
For one, this is first and foremost a romance and I just don't buy the romance. Whatever chemistry, if any, exists between Aiden and Selene, it's not jumping at me through the page. Their relationship until the 51% mark is them simply having maybe three surface-level dates in which nothing interesting occurs. They simply exchange one-liners and then, presumably, the author runs out of one-liners and simply tells us that they continued to have an "amazing" time together.
The basic premise of the book was intriguing: a cursed witch living in a small town meets a skeptic who coproduces a ghost hunting show with his buddy. The premise had a lot of potential, but it fell flat. I think there where a lot of opportunities the author failed to take advantage of and the conflict was forced and convoluted.
Also, the characters weren't that likable to begin with. When she first learns that Aiden might be interested in getting close to her to get ahead in his career, Selene jumps right into slipping Aiden a potions (which accidentally nearly kills him), which is super creepy behavior. Aiden is staying over Eddie's, his buddy and fellow showrunner, family's home for Christmas and is super scornful and even ungrateful when they try to invite him to do holiday things with them. To be fair, Eddie's family is like every sitcom's Christmas special rolled into one. I swear, this family probably saves their vacation time for the holidays and only do back-to-back Christmas-related things. But even so, Aiden just comes off as a bad guest when he dismisses all these activities. Eddie does call him out a few times, but why include this? Aiden is the romantic lead and the audience is presumably supposed to like him. Unless this pays off with some kind of redemption arc, it's really counterproductive to include this.
Aiden also takes and interest in a recent crime in which Peter, Selene's would-be blind date, suffers the same fate as that of her grandmother's lover (the incident which initiated the curse). Aiden takes it upon himself to investigate it to disprove the town's superstitiousness. I just can't help but feel that it's super unethical and shitty to exploit a recent tragedy, not for a serious investigative piece, but for a ghost hunting show.
And this is just scratching the surface. I decided to learn from my experiences and DNF this. I hate DNF-ing books, but I have the feelings it's just not going to redeem itself. Like I said, this is definitely not the worst I've read, but it's boring. It had a good premise, but does absolutely nothing with it to the point that I can't even come up with a single thing that I like about this book.