What books did you read in 2019 that didn’t live up to the hype or just weren’t what you thought it would be?
For me, my two biggest disappointments of 2019 have been A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles and The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin!
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Too bad about The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin. I have a copy I found at a free little library but have not read it yet.
Strangely I was disappointed by The Dance of Thieves by Mary E. Pearson, it was a 3 star read but I LOVED Vow of Thieves, the second in the series I also read this year, lol, so a good thing I decided to still read it.
I was also disappointed with two of my favorite series, Five Dark Fates (Three Dark Crowns #4)by Kendare Blake and Call Down the Hawk by Maggie Stiefvater.
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Some people loved The Immortalists so I encourage you to read it still!
It’s so strange when I think a book is going to be great and then it turns out to be a disappointment. It takes a lot out of me sometimes. Lol. That sounds ridiculous but it’s just such a let down!
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I feel the same and I also have a hard time dnfing favorite authors. I just dnfed, Sleeping Beauties by Stephen King, after giving his 2019 book 5 stars and it was hard to give up on a book because it was putting me into a reading slump.
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I was also disappointed by The Immortalists. I haven’t finished it yet. I plan to finish it later because I never DNF books, but I do not recommend listening to this one as an audiobook. I was not at all expecting the sex scene to come out of nowhere while I was cooking dinner for the family… (Also, the narrator has a very monotonous voice, so my attention had drifted, and then suddenly there is a mouth on someone’s nether regions and I’m jumping to pause the book 
)
Other disappointing titles (in my opinion) include Winterwood and The Beautiful.
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Omg that’s too funny!!
I have yet to read Winterwood but it’s on my TBR list and I’ve requested it at the library. I was really disappointed by The Hazelwood though. I think they’re similar in style.
There’s one book I read about a witch and a winery but I can’t for the life of me think of the name but it was really good! It’s also similar in style to those books…the fantasy YA kind
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I remember the book I was talking about! The Vine Witch. I really enjoyed it and it’s similar in style to the others we talked about. I love a good fantasy YA book.
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I got a copy of that book from Amazon First Reads! It’s still on my TBR. I’ve been looking forward to it
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You’re on Edelweiss+, right? I just joined but it’s such a bizarre layout and a bit confusing. I’ve requested some books. What’s the rate of approval on there? Is there anything I can do to increase approval chances?
When you go to request a book, in the top right of that pop-up box, it will tell you your profile strength. Aim to get it to excellent (which means sharing links to social media/blogs). My approval rating has been better on NetGalley overall, but sometimes I get approved for things on Edelweiss+ that I don’t get approved for on NetGalley. I’ve found some gems in their downloadable section (not needing request). They don’t hover over you with review percentages like NetGalley, but your profile does reflect your downloaded vs reviewed ratio.
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Thanks for the tips. My profile strength is low because I just joined so hopefully I’ll get something to get me going. I’ll check out the download now section too. I didn’t look through it much.
I recently dnfed The Beautiful at 100 pages just could not get into it.
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I may be the only person, but I just didn’t care for The Silent Patient. I know it’s up for some end of the year awards, but it just didn’t do it for me.
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I’ve never heard of “dnf” before but I’m guessing it means “did not finish”, right?
What does it mean when someone says they dnf an author?
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I agree, Winterwood was disappointing.
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I signed up too. I feel like I’m in over my head though 
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It just means you didn’t finish reading the book 
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Reincarnation Blues by Michael Poore was hands down the worst book I read this year. I was so disappointed too because the premise of a character being in love with Death had SUCH potential, but the logic of the book was terrible and so many things just didn’t make sense. I wished I hadn’t spent money on it.
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I’m used to the DNF term as I hear it a lot when watching/following NASCAR. It is indeed “did not finish”. Which I hate to do to a book. I will finish it, but note in the review that it was a chore or difficult finish.
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Thank you for letting me know! It’s very rare for me to not finish a book. The book has to be a real chore to read and even then I try to power through. I can’t read more than one book at a time so I tend to skim when I’m not into a certain novel.
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