For some reason I had a really hard time getting into books last month. I managed to finish 14, but it was a struggle. I picked up and put down so many after checking the blurb I lost count, and I started and stopped 15. The issue here isn’t the books. Some of them were quite good. I just couldn’t seem to stick with them. Kristie(j) calls this the “It’s not you, it’s me” syndrome and I had a bad case of it this month.

I still plan to share the books I did finish in our Monthly Reads post, but I thought I’d share my December DNFs with you.

1. What The Duke Desires by Jenna Petersen – The heroine’s logic annoyed me, though I’m pretty sure it was just my frame of mind at the time. Normally the revenge plot doesn’t bother me – unless it’s completely drawn out – but I stopped this one on page 62.

2. Sold to a Laird by Karen Ranney – I’ve read and liked Ranney before, but this one just didn’t grab me. The heroine is completely repressed and the hero is bringing her out of her shell. I usually enjoy that trope, but something about the way they married so quickly (after seeing each other for about 5 seconds) bothered me. I understood her reasons, but his were rather murky. I think to buy this story I have to believe in love at first site..and I’m not sure I do. Not in this context anyway. I set it aside on page 100.

3. Ceremony in Death by J.D. Robb – This was a re-read I started, but set down after only a few pages. I can’t give you a reason why I set it aside, other than to say I just wasn’t in the mood. Which is surprising b/c I’m usually ALWAYS in the mood for JDR.

4. What a Scoundrel Wants by Carrie Lofty – I set this aside for a completely neurotic reason. When I loaded it onto my e-reader it converted funny and showed up as 1000+ pages. For whatever reason, this totally freaked me out. I’d be reading and the story would be going along and I’d think, “This is pretty good” then I’d realize I was only on page 100 of 1000+ and I’d completely lock up. Totally psychosomatic. I ended up buying it in print so I can finish it..someday. I believe I was on page 483 on my e-reader when I quit, which probably translates to about page 220 in real life.

5. Ain’t Too Proud To Beg by Susan Donovan – SD is a long time favorite of mine. But when I read her last novel, The Girl Most Likely To, I was disappointed with how much she had going on. Unfortunately this book seems to be more of the same. In the 8 chapters I read we have one heroine who chases the hero down at work after a brief encounter at a pet store, one hero who has a shady past, one psychic old woman working to change the heroine’s life, one stalker-ish “friend” of the hero who wants to be more and one father bent on revenge against the hero b/c of something that happened in the past with his daughter. While I can usually trust SD to provide an entertaining and engaging read, this was just too much for me. I stopped at page 98.

6. A Knight’s Captive by Lindsay Townsend – I really struggled with this book. Something about Townsend’s writing really confuses me..the hero and heroine will be battling it out and then…the scene is over and nothing more is mentioned about it. Plus, the hero was very very very hairy. He had a beard that hung down to his waist and chest hair and tufty ear hair. While I found the basic story interesting the constant jumping around and hairy hero disturbed me. At page 98 I had to set it aside.

7. Guardian Angel by Julie Garwood – I picked this up to include in our Author Spotlight and set it aside after a couple chapters. There wasn’t necessarily anything wrong with it, I just wasn’t in the mood. I might try to re-read it again later.

8. Secret Desires of a Gentleman by Laura Lee Guhrke – Last month (or was it the month before?) I read Guhrke’s Girl Bachelor Series with the exception of this book. I decided I’d pick it up and couldn’t seem to get into it. I’d heard it wasn’t as good as her others, so I think I went into it with a sort of mental block. After 50 pages I set it aside.

9. The Sweethearts’ Knitting Club by Lori Wilde – I’ve read and enjoyed several books by Wilde in the past, but she really burned me with All For Me, book four in her Wedding Veil Wishes series. After that book I’m scared to pick up another for fear it will anger me like that (I bet Rowena’s ears are still burning from all the ranting I did). I tried to move past my irritation and read this anyway, but it didn’t work. 27 pages in I was done.

10. Good Girls Don’t by Kelley St. John – This is one I’ve had in my TBR for awhile. I was in the mood for a contemporary so I picked it up. As an added bonus, I’d read a connecting book and was excited for this couple. Then, 37 pages in, it fizzled. I don’t think it was the book, I just couldn’t seem to focus.

11. Midnight Pleasures with a Scoundrel by Lorraine Heath – I generally like Heath, but this one didn’t grab me. I think maybe because it was another heroine set on revenge. I made it through 61 pages before I set it aside.

12. The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister (oh hey, bonus! This book is on sale at Amazon for $4.93 in hardback right now…) – This book had the unfortunate luck to be the one I picked up the night before my daughter’s 13th birthday party sleepover. The only reason I set it aside was because I got caught up in the craziness of 4 (pre)teen girls. Then I misplaced it. I only just found it buried under the couch in the den yesterday (how it got there the world may never know), but I plan on finishing it soon. So far the story is lovely. 27 pages down before I lost it.

13 and 14. Crux and Crossroads by Moira Rogers – I read Crux earlier this year and really enjoyed it, so when I received Crossroads, the sequel to Crux, I was excited to read it. Then I realized a few pages in that the events of Crux weren’t fresh enough in my mind and I’d need to re-read it. So about 80 pages into Crossroads I set it aside so I could re-read Crux. Then about 60 pages into my re-read the battery on my e-reader died and I couldn’t find the power cord. Then with all the holiday madness I kind of forgot about them (I actually forgot I was reading at all for a couple weeks there). Hopefully I’ll get them read soon. Especially since Crux is out in print this month.

15. A Highlander Christmas anthology with Dawn Halliday, Cindy Miles and Sophie Renwick – Technically this isn’t a DNF. I finished 2 of the 3 stories in this collection, but stalled out on the third. I’ve only read one other book by Cindy Miles and I enjoyed it. Unfortunately something about the ghost kissing turned me off this one. I guess because the heroine actually fell through the hero at one point, so it kind of ruined the kissing/petting scenes for me. I’m stuck on page 257.

Even though I’ve labeled these as DNF’s, I plan to pick them up again sometime in the near future. Well, most of them anyway. I’m not sure I can read about the hair hero. Just not my bag.