Top 5 Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Thoughts on Tomes. If you want to join or find out more information about the weekly themes check out the Goodreads page! May is going to be Top 5 Wednesday Rewind month, so the topics are open to any that we’ve missed out on in the past. This week, I decided to choose the top five books I marked as DNF (Did Not Finish). 

THE CROWN – This book is a mess. I enjoyed the original books in The Selection series and I liked The Heir, but then this book happened. I honestly have no idea what the author was thinking when she wrote it. I was already bored with it because the plot was moving really slow, and then I started to notice a weird shift that seemed out of place. I decided to read spoilers about the ending, and after that I just couldn’t force myself to finish. The romance takes a complete one-eighty and Eadyln’s choice at the end makes zero sense; they have no chemistry and they’ve had less than a handful of conversations, none of which were deep or meaningful. It seemed like Kiera Cass wanted to avoid the predictability with that ‘twist’, but overall The Crown was a huge disappointment and a terrible waste of time.  DNF @ 58%  [review]

ROAR – I was really excited to receive an ARC for this, and I’ll admit that the stunning cover is what first intrigued me. The plot and concept are really compelling and interesting, and there’s a lot of unique elements in the story that should have made it a great read. Unfortunately, the romance ruined it. This book features the epitome of the bad and unnecessary love triangle. Love Interest #1 is introduced almost immediately, and Love Interest #2 enters the story only a handful of chapters later. After I had read about 15% of the book, I skimmed ahead and read other reviews. I didn’t find much to my liking. Although both the love interests were only briefly featured in the small amount I read, enough was revealed about their characters for me to determine I wouldn’t find much to like about either of them; they were both domineering, possessive, and controlling. Those are not cute or romantic qualities. No thanks.  DNF @ 15%  [review]

SPINDLE FIRE – I love retellings of mythology and fairytales. The concept and synopsis of this book was unique and interesting, but unfortunately the writing and execution was poorly done, and ultimately caused the story to fall flat. I forced myself to read to the halfway mark before calling it quits. When I read fairytale retellings, I want to be mesmerized and enchanted by the story. The writing was choppy and it felt like someone was just explaining the events of the story to me, instead of being able to read about them happening. This book tried too hard to be like other Young Adult fantasies for it to be enjoyable: instalove, no world-building, info-dumps, and a plot that become a little too far-fetched and ridiculous.  DNF @ 50%  [review]

THE LOOSE ENDS LIST – It really seems like everyone except me like this book. The plot was interesting, but I was so bored while reading. I probably would have kept reading if that was my only issue, but it wasn’t. The main character was selfish, immature, and bitchy. She was completely unpleasant to read about, and therefore I couldn’t bring myself to care enough about her or her story. I was really disappointed by this as I had been looking forward to reading this book.  DNF @ 34% [review]

CROOKED KINGDOM – *dodges tomatoes* Okay, look. It’s not that I didn’t finish this book because I didn’t like it. Leigh Bardugo is the Boss Ass Queen of Writing and I love all her books, including this one. However, I was in a bit of a slump while reading it, and so it was taking me awhile to get through. On top of that, I accidently stumbled upon the spoiler of all spoilers regarding a certain character death at the end, a character who also happened to be my favorite in the series. Needless to say, I was so upset about both the (unnecessary) death and being spoiled, that I couldn’t bring myself to continue reading it for a couple days. Those days turned into weeks, which turned into months, and here we are. I technically still have it marked as hiatus instead of DNF. Will I ever finish it? I want to say yes with all my heart, but honestly – I don’t know.  DNF @ 65%