Throwing in the Towel: DNF's for June

Struggle bus

I definitely had the front row on the struggle bus this week.  I've decided I just have to move on from two novels I've been trying to read the past few weeks.  So, The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge 

and Finding Fraser by KC Dyer, I'm sorry.  

I've given up on you for now.  

I'm about 100 pages from the end of The Lie Tree and I just can't put any more energy into being patient and reading it.  I read reviews on this, a Costa Book of the Year Winner and every one of them was glowing.  Awesome, I thought.  This is going to be sooo good!  I may be missing something, but I just can't get into this novel about a young woman who wants to be a scientist in 1860's England, but is constantly forced to dumb herself down in a world where ladies are to be seen and not heard.  This all involves her father, a famous scientist, a scandal, and his death.  Faith is convinced her father was murdered due to a mysterious plant (the lie tree) he has in his possession.   If you tell lies, and they are believed, the plant produces a fruit that when eaten gives you the truth about whatever you want.  It can be the way to finding the true about life's greatest mysteries--and dangerous in the wrong hands. 

I was annoyed at Faith's constant dumbing down; I was not engaged in the story, and felt the storyline was vague and not compelling enough for me.  

Finding Fraser.  Sorry Jamie, you're going to have to be lost a bit longer for me.  Emma, the main character, decides to travel to Scotland to find her very own Jamie Fraser, that wonderful hero of the Outlander series by Diane Gabaldon.  I was all on board for this book, and thought I would zip through it with a big smile on my face.

Nope.  I've made it to page 109, and I'm ready to set it aside and move onto something else.  Emma is annoying to me, and incredibly naive for a young woman of 29.  I'm not patient enough right now to finish this tale, so I'll say DNF for now, but I'll pick it up again eventually and finish it.  This is not my time to find Fraser.  

So...June is ending.  I'm working on Destiny of the Republic by Candice Millard, and that review will be up next week.  Then I'll have a new batch of books coming up for review in July.  

Look for a chance to win a copy of this novel coming up this week:

Stay cool, stay hydrated, and keep reading! Give me air conditioning, a comfy couch, and a fresh new story to start.  I'm a happy gal.  

Sue  AKA The Bookalicious Babe

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