It's Not You, It's Me (6)

"It's not you, it's me."  I'm sure some of us have heard those dreaded words uttered before and the same saying can be applied to books.  Some books just don't work for me, whereas other readers may have really enjoyed them.  This new feature will be showcasing books that I never finished or reviewed; you know…...the dreaded DNF.

Dead Beautiful by Yvonne Woon

Goodreads says, "On the morning of her sixteenth birthday, Renée Winters was still an ordinary girl. She spent her summers at the beach, had the perfect best friend, and had just started dating the cutest guy at school. No one she'd ever known had died. But all that changes when she finds her parents dead in the Redwood Forest, in what appears to be a strange double murder. After the funeral Renée’s wealthy grandfather sends her to Gottfried Academy, a remote and mysterious boarding school in Maine, where she finds herself studying subjects like Philosophy, Latin, and the “Crude Sciences.” It’s there that she meets Dante Berlin, a handsome and elusive boy to whom she feels inexplicably drawn. As they grow closer, unexplainable things begin to happen, but Renée can’t stop herself from falling in love. It’s only when she discovers a dark tragedy in Gottfried’s past that she begins to wonder if the Academy is everything it seems. Little does she know, Dante is the one hiding a dangerous secret, one that has him fearing for her life. Dead Beautiful is both a compelling romance and thought-provoking read, bringing shocking new meaning to life, death, love, and the nature of the soul."

My Thoughts: Ok, so originally I thought this book sounded like something RIGHT up my alley, but the more I read, the more I realized I am dealing with zombies. And I just don't do zombies. Ever. Plus, there's a really bad case of insta-love in this book and it just didn't work for me.


The Queen's Choice by Cayla Kluver

Goodreads says, "Magic was seeping out of me, black and agonizing. I could see it drifting away. The magic that would let me pass the Road to reach home again.  When sixteen-year-old Anya learns that her aunt, Queen of the Faerie Kingdom of Chrior, will soon die, her grief is equaled only by her despair for the future of the kingdom. Her young cousin, Illumina, is unfit to rule, and Anya is determined not to take up the queen's mantle herself.  Convinced that the only solution is to find Prince Zabriel, who long ago disappeared into the human realm of Warckum, and persuade him to take up his rightful crown, Anya journeys into the Warckum Territory to bring him home. But her journey is doomed to be more harrowing than she ever could have imagined."

My Thoughts: I loved Kluver's Legacy and Allegiance, so I assumed that this novel would appeal to me; however, I had to put it down.  I was having a hard time with the world-building and the faeries as a whole. I wasn't entirely sold on the believability of the novel.  When you are reading high fantasy, believability is key.  In her past novels, Kluver can be very descriptive, which I liked, but in this novel, I felt it only bogged down the slow moving plot line.  Lastly, there wasn't enough romance, at least from what I read. Maybe this novel would work better for middle grades? 

So, have you read these books? Let me know your thoughts!