DNF Review - All Booked Up by Melody Carlson

All Booked Up by Melody Carlson - DNF

Did Not Finish after roughly one third of the book. 

The premise is a recent widow opening her home to renters and the promise of found family and second chances is warm and appealing, but the execution left me disengaged and unwilling to continue.

What I liked:

- The setup feels like we could have some good bookish elements with the books and depth from grief of loss. The library and bookish elements add charm to it for any book lover. The characters are kind of like golden girls style ladies if you will so that's fun in general. I love a good friendship story, especially with older characters, so I really wanted to love this but it just wasn't working... see below.

Why I DNF’d:

Honestly, for me, the characters just felt too surface level. I felt like I wasn't getting to know them well enough to care. I could never really "connect" to them I guess. Too much gossip and petty conflicts for my taste. That is pretty true to the Golden Girls I guess, but I still couldn't come to care for them. The romance was awkward, just didn't connect because this guy is the center of everyone's interest.

I do like some of Melody's books, but this one just wasn't for me. I saw a review mention this would probably be great as a series for each character and I fully agree.

Content/Trigger Warning: Clean romance, no language, grief from spouse loss

Thank you to the publisher for sending me a copy to honestly read and review. All thoughts are my own. 

DNF Review: A Deeper Well by Jill Eileen Smith

 

DNF Review: A Deeper Well by Jill Eileen Smith

(No Star Rating – Content-Based DNF)

I received a review copy of A Deeper Well from the publisher. As always, my thoughts are entirely my own.

This is one of those reviews that’s hard to write. I do like a good biblical fiction with redemptive themes and Jesus shown bringing hope in their depravity. 

However, I chose to DNF this book because the content became heavier than I was personally prepared for. I want to be transparent about that so readers can make their own informed decision if this is right for them or not. Maybe at another time of my life I could read this, but as a Mom, it was just too much for me.

First, what I can say - I think Jill Eileen Smith is a skilled author. The writing is immersive and very richly detailed and you can tell she did a lot of research in writing it. 

However, this story is just sooo sad and intense. It follows Nessa, who is married off at thirteen to a much older man and then passed from one marriage to another. The themes were just too much for me. See content warnings at the bottom of the review from my friend's notes for reference of what I am talking about.

While I understand the historical context, the weight of it became overwhelming for me in this season I am in. The romance sexual scenes in this are also too detailed for my tastes.

I did not make it to the end of the book of course, where Jesus shows up, but ultimately, my decision to DNF is about content sensitivity and the season I am in right now, not writing quality or storytelling issues. I believe there will be readers who deeply appreciate this. But if you are sensitive to stories involving these themes, I strongly recommend looking into content warnings before picking this one up.

This simply was not the right book for me in this season.

Content / Trigger Warnings - pulled also from my friend Kay's review for your reference (here is her review) since she finished the book, I appreciate her content details: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8270042399

Thank you Kay, for this list. I am adding to this DNF review for clarity for my viewers as well to help others if needed to make informed reading decisions.

⚠️ Content & Trigger Warnings ⚠️
• Child marriage / pedophilia (historically contextualized, but disturbing by modern standards)
• Death on page (non-graphic, includes blood descriptions)
• Multiple stillbirths and infertility (major themes)
• Distressing situations involving young children (especially difficult for young moms)
• Cheating & polygamy
• Death of parents on page
• Grief
• Sexually, verbally, and physically abusive marriages
• Toxic family dynamics (lying, gaslighting, emotional abuse, bullying)

Honestly, just like Kay said in her review, take me with a grain of salt here. This just wasn't going to be for me unfortunately, but I definitely appreciate the publisher for sending me a copy to read for review. All thoughts are my own.

DNF Review: Even After This by Deborah Clack

 

Even After This - Deborah Clack
DNF Review
 DNF Video more in detail on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vASQX4FYnEo&t=

*UPDATED REVIEW NOTE: After sharing my feedback with Haven, they have since added the content considerations to their ebook and the description of their retailer pages and goodreads page. I am so thankful. Thank you Haven for doing this to better set reader expectations.*

Content note: Please be aware this is a heavy read. It deals with grief and loss in detail. Meredith’s husband and two small children died in a car accident 4 years ago in a tragic way where she saw it while she was driving behind them. It's important I share this upfront. This is not a spoiler. But please be aware of the subject matter. Romance is clean with kisses only, 1 small curse word "p*ssed." Destructions of embryos and miscarriage also mentioned in IVF. I wish I knew about the death of children before I picked it for review.

I want to start gently here, because I know this story will absolutely work for some readers, but it did not work for me.

The grief is not just in the background, it is the entire emotional center of the book.

I went into this expecting a light, clean, slightly fluffy celebrity-meets-ordinary-girl romance, second chance at love after losing her husband type of thing.... I knew she was a widow from the description so I knew she probably had grief but her 1 and 3 year old children killed also, I just didn't expect this being so heavy throughout. I got to 50% and had to put it down. It was really affecting me. This book was marketed as a love story and the PR box felt more like it was for a fluffy rom-com, than a tragic grief story.

Because I wasn’t prepared for that level of emotional weight, it honestly blindsided me, and I chose to DNF for my own heart. Especially as a mother myself.

The book spends a lot of time asking how do you keep living after unimaginable loss, which is a powerful question. But for me, the answers felt vague and grounded mostly in moving forward, new experiences, and new love.

As a Christian reader, that left a noticeable gap. When a story goes this deep into grief and survival, I personally kept feeling the absence of faith in the Lord. I understand this isn’t a Christian novel, and I’m not saying every book must be, but when the story wrestles with suffering at this level, I struggled with the idea of healing without any sort of spiritual anchor, aka Jesus.

Honestly, the celebrity romance itself started to feel out of place to me too. While I loved seeing Harlan want to sit in her grief with her, I just feel like it was not what her heart truly needed in that season. From my perspective, she didn’t need a famous hero to help her move forward, she needed Jesus at the center of her healing. Even if this wasn't meant to be "Christian Fiction", I think it needed some brief mention of God. Even secular shows and books sometimes reference God briefly. 

For me, it felt less like hope and more like a “keep busy and keep going” response, and I couldn’t emotionally connect to that. We also saw her going to their graves on her little girls birthday and grieving even more fervently. My heart kept asking: how do you survive something like this without the Lord being part of the healing?

I also think readers should be aware this is not a fluffy palate-cleanser romance. It reads much closer to women’s fiction about trauma and rebuilding life. If you are walking through grief or are sensitive to stories involving child loss, please know what you are getting into first.

This wasn’t a bad book, it just wasn’t the book I was expecting, and I wasn’t the right reader for it. I think this could have also been a contemporary healing story without any romance and it would have been different too. The romance was too instalove for me and just didn't make sense.

Quotes I did like:

"I'm still a mother. And I have something to give other moms. Even if my children aren't with me anymore." - Meredith 

"None of my grumbling complaints matter now......None of it matters today. It shouldn't have mattered then. Our marriage wasn't perfect. It was perfectly normal. Two flawed people deciding to do life together. Ten years that weren't always easy but held a lot of wonderful times." - Meredith 

"Your emotions don't scare me, Meredith. Neither does your story. I hate it for you, and I wished today at the zoo that I could take away some of your pain. But since I couldn't, I just decided to sit in it with you." - Harlan 

While this wasn't for me, thank you to Haven for a gifted copy of this book to honestly read and review. All thoughts are my own.