For this discussion post, we are doing a spin off from the last Tell Me Something Tuesday challenge topic we joined (challenge is run by Jen at That’s What I’m Talking About).
What are your *least* favorite books/audiobooks that you read in 2025?
Julie:
Ooh so let’s talk about the books we just didn’t find endearing.. sorry not sorry.
- Veils of the Divine: An Enemies to Lovers Romantic Fantasy (The Black Sun Syllabi) by Nyra Silver
- Fountain’s Heir: A Shifter Sci-Fi Fantasy by Morgan Kincaid
- The Dragon’s Gift by Nyra Dain
These were my 2 star reads for the year. I’m just.. sorry not sorry. These were all ARCs and my main complaint with all 3 was there wasn’t much plot development or character development – and that the book relied on the “bond” between the characters to “flare up” and be the plot. No thanks. The writing was repetitive and sensationalist, without really being interesting. Were these written by AI?
Then I had 40 3-star reads so we’ll call those fine and just stick to these.
Lynn:
Picking out books I didn’t like is way more provocative than books I did like. In no particular order:
- Aftertaste – this is the only book I marked as DNF in 2025. I could not with the whole main character who can taste the memories of ghosts. Not the fun foodie book I was expecting.
- Puck & Prejudice: Mashing up hockey, time travel, and Austen did not work.
- Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires: Not funny. Definitely gothic. A bit scary. And really irritating characters.
- Love, Luck, and Lemon Pie: I love lemon pie. And the first one in this series (coconut cake). This one, not so much. Not great premise. Worse characters.
- Austen at Sea: Who picks a male narrator for a book with mostly female characters? I wonder if I would have liked this more if I had read it instead of listened? Probably no.
We are also linking up our discussion posts with the 2026 Book Blog Discussion Challenge hosted by Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction and Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight!
Thankfully, I have not attempted any of these, but I was curious about Aftertaste- now I am glad that I can just… let it gooo hah. I just wasn’t convinced it was for me, and now I think I can just ignore it! Glad you both didn’t have *too* many disappointments!!
I so very rarely end up giving less than 3 stars to a book since I do DNF more often. But it is interesting to see why people either DNF or mark a book lower. Thanks for sharing!