Two DNFs: Bah Humbug, book edition

I don’t often psot DNF “reviews,” but my new job robbed me of some reading/listening time as I got started with it, so I’m in need of “filler” posts….. So, I’ll be as kind as I can since it’s the Christmas season.

To be fair, I “could” have finished Call of the Wrens by Jenni L. Walsh, but…. It had good potential, but checked too many pet peeve boxes. I’ve had to be nicer about including a lot historical background because people under about 35 in this country learned nothing of history. I imagine it is similar in  the UK. Still….. The big clue was when she worked in a mention of “the Peaky Blinders gang”–yep, the same ones now immortalized on a t.v. show [that my adult son is obsessing over]. I new it was going to be difficult.

Some of my problems with this book:

1. Old Wren vs New Wren (World War I and World War II)
2. A character says something profound like “the last was supposed to be the war to end all wars”‘
3. The amazing coincidence of the two main WWI characters landing in training together (maybe this was based on a real historical occurrence–it just struck me as odd)
4. I know US and UK have a different approach to training, and it is entirely possible that the author was going by real research, but I found it hard to believe that men and women training for the Royal Navy would be allowed to find dark places to …well… “pet” (in the parlance of the day)
5. If Peaky Blinders wasn’t enough, we have a female Henry Talbot {Downton Abbey} in the WWII generation.

There’s more, but those are the highlights. As I said, I could have stuck with it–I was interested enough in the characters, but someone had a hold on the e-audio at the library so I let it go back.

I was in the mood for a Christmas book and saw this one on another blog (no worries–we share some books we both love, some we don’t!). Sadly, this one also checked some pet peeve boxes–in fact it checked one of the biggest for this type fiction.

Speaking in glib or cute expression. Ugh. No one “kisses” they “mash mouths” etc. All the time with this sort of things. I couldn’t take it any longer. I liked the premise very much. I shared the sentiments expressed in the letters exchanged at the beginning. I even loved the outrageously Hallmark Christmas movie set up of the hometown boy in flannel running a hardware store and the gal coming back from the big city to renovate the old  –in Maine even. Snow Port, Maine. There was bowling, piped Christmas music and white picket fences, too. But they couldn’t talk like real people. I tossed it. Maybe next year–it’s on Kindle Unlimited.

What about you? Have you DNF-ed anything recently? Leave me a comment or a link to your post.