DNF
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Novella, Romance
Theme: Taboo Relationship/Forbidden Romance
Archetype: Single Parent/Guardian
This RITA® Reader Challenge 2017 review was written by Jillian Boyd. This story was nominated for the RITA® in the Romance Novella category.
The summary:
The Ultimate Anti-Hero Meets His Match…
Connor Dunkle knows what he wants in a woman, and it’s the three B’s. Beauty. Body. Boobs. Other women need not apply. With his good looks and easygoing charm, he’s used to getting what he wants—and who. Until he comes face to face with the one woman who’s slowly making his life hell…and enjoying every moment…
Ella Blake is a single mom and a professor at the local Verily college who’s climbed up the ranks the hard way. Her ten-year-old son is a constant challenge, and her students are driving her crazy—namely Connor Dunkle, who’s failing her class and trying to charm his way into a better grade. Fuming at his chauvinistic tendencies, Ella teaches him the ultimate lesson by giving him a special project to help his grade. When sparks fly, neither of them are ready to face their true feelings, but will love teach them the ultimate lesson of all?
Here is Jillian Boyd's review:
Having devoured the reviews in last year’s RITA Reader Review Challenge, I was chomping at the bit to get involved this time around. What better way to discover some new authors? Hence “Searching for Mine” being my first pick, as I wasn’t familiar with Jennifer Probst before this. This book is a novella-length spin-off from Probst’s Searching for… series, which in itself is a spin-off from her earlier Marriage to a Billionaire series.
…And it’s also a book I did not manage to finish.
I know, I know! Initially, I was a bit embarrassed about considering it’s the first book I chose for this challenge and I didn’t wish to earn instant scorn from the benevolent Bitchery. But then I had a good, hard look at myself in the mirror and asked myself a very, very important question. Do I really want to spend more time between the covers of this book in the company of Connor Adam Dunkle?
At 38, Connor – the brother of Searching for Perfect’s Nate – is back in college, trying to jam a four year degree into two and on the brink of graduating and achieving his dream management position at the construction company he works for. The only class he still needs to fulfill, Composition 102, is taught by Professor Ella Blake – and Connor is convinced she has it in for him.
If he’d ever created an image of a spinster librarian, this woman would have been his inspiration. From her drab, baggy fitting clothes, to the black glasses hiding most of her features, she practically faded into the background. Her hair was twisted up into a tight bun, giving her face a bit of a pinched look. Her gray sweater and black trousers did nothing for her figure, or her skin tone. The only brightness in her entire collage was a slash of red-orange lipstick, which became so garish with her olive skin, it literally made an onlooker jerk back.
Leading to charming descriptions like this. Connor thinks he can talk himself into her good books by laying on the charm and sweet-talking Ella into giving him better grades, as he seems convinced all she needs is some attention from a dude. I, meanwhile, think that Connor could easily solve his problems by actually doing his frigging best for this class if he wants this degree so much.
Ella, meanwhile, has recently moved to the area with her ten-year-old son, Luke. Freshly divorced and unsure about the future, she has taken on the job of teaching this class, along with the good-looking headache that is Connor Adam Dunkle. If nothing else, the beginning of the book shows she’s a decent judge of character as she correctly deduces that Connor is not used to women not giving him what he wants.
Both characters don’t get much room to breathe in the way of character development. Ella’s looking for balance in her life, she’s a little burnt out from her job, and she’s dealing with mommy guilt in regards to her son. This is all spelled out in the second chapter of the book, in one swoop of exposition as Ella waits for her next set of students to come in. You get the sense that this story would have worked much better as a full novel – as it is, this is a lot of stuff to take in all at once.
The lack of breathing room sticks the most with regards to Connor. In the first couple of chapters every single thing he does and says adds up to him being the walking, talking definition of unlikable. With an added dollop of blunt sexism, not just aimed at Ella but in his general attitude to life. Yes, it’s hinted at that he’s had a rough time of it when it came to love and that he’s Not To Be Tied Down, Babe, but if this is leading to a Redeemed by Love kind of arc, those early pages do nothing to make me want to be in for the ride.
And then there’s this bit, from the first chapter.
Of course, now he ended up with a sexually frustrated teacher focused on feminist literature to make excuses for her own lack of a love life.
That. That right there is where I nearly threw my phone (which has my Kindle app on it) out of a Tube train door. Between this, the numerous needlessly bitchy references to the way Ella dresses and the whole Beauty/Body/Boobs thing, I just couldn’t carry on. I took a long, hard look at myself and deemed that, no, I did not fancy spending more time with Connor Adam Dunkle. Oh, at all.
Apologies, dear Bitchery – this one wasn’t for me. Better luck next time around?
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Meh. Life is too short to spend it with an AlphHole!
Ah Jillian, how I wish I had had the good sense to DNF the Jennifer Probst book that I reviewed. No judgment from this Smart Bitch!
I tried one of her books in the past and didn’t make it past the first chapter.
You made it through two whole chapters?! The first paragraph of the summary was a DNF for me.
Is there any chance this is could be satire? I know I have a habit of grasping at straws, but a girl can dream.
Ugh, I do not blame you one bit for not spending anymore time with a character like that!
Good review.
Having read Nate’s book, I am somehow not surprised at this review. Not only did I hate Connor in Searching for Perfect but one of the scenarios in it was so abhorrent I almost DNF’d it right there. So if this was even slightly in the same vein, then yeah, DNF!
@Rose: Definitely not a satire given the events of Searching for Perfect where Connor is well… disgusting.
I’m with Rose, a ‘hero’ that doesn’t know boobs are a subset of body? Nope.
So, what do we know about the RITA nomination process? How do books end up in this list? Because this is the only one that has gotten panned (although it might be the worst – sounds like Jillian took a bullet for us!)
NOT the only ine, sheesh!
Although even with a mature student a teacher/student relationship is just a no-go too. So double nope.
I thank you for your noble sacrifice: you have saved us all from high blood pressure and general crankypants. Crossing that one off the list…
This sounds like a terrible book on so many levels!
One day, I will write down my longstanding rant about everything that’s wrong with the depiction of (especially female) scientists and college professors in romance novels (so much rage!).
Thank you for saving my phone from being thrown at the nearest wall, which would have happened had I attempted to read this book!
“I, meanwhile, think that Connor could easily solve his problems by actually doing his frigging best for this class if he wants this degree so much.”
That right there makes it a nope for me. I spend enough time telling students (male and female) a version of that. Why would I want to read about it?
Emmy–I will join you in the rant.
And here’s yet another sexist, demeaning male character written by a woman.
It’s not that these assholes don’t exist, because Goddess knows, any female over the age of twelve knows they do, but how many of them actually reform?
I can’t think of one personally, though granted, I usually do my best to avoid as many people as possible so I may not be the best metric, but still…
Has anyone else noticed his initials spell “Cad”?
Thank you, Jillian. I was put off by the description of Connor. And then you told us he was 38! I have read Probst and enjoyed her work, but I am SICK AND TIRED of the endless series of loosely connected characters that goes on and on and on through several volumes and seems to have no end, especially as the quality of the stories told seem to degenerate the longer the series continues. Some authors can carry it off, but too many can’t. In my opinion.
Student/teacher romances squick me out, so I was going to pass on this one anyway. But being inside of Connor’s head would have made me want to throw my tablet across the room.
Thank you for sparing me a headache.
I’m gonna defer to the wonderful Dorothy Parker on this one: “This is not a book to be taken lightly… it ought to be thrown with great force.”
Seriously, how did this book even get nominated for a RITA? This dude (and what kind of a name is Dunkle, honestly?) is one of the most egregiously sexist heroes I’ve ever read in a romance novel. I’m impressed you made it as far as you did, this book would have immediately gone on my ‘Take to Desert Island To Use As Kindling’ list.
Now I’m confused. I went to Amazon and looked up the reviews, and they are almost universally positive. What am I missing? Is it possible he redeems himself spectacularly?
More than anything, it makes me sad when I read novels written by women that have such negative depictions of female characters or the thought processes inside men’s heads. I get that there’s an argument for depicting harsh reality, but why propagate what we’re working so hard to change?
@Rose I often find myself reading glowing 5 star Amazon or Goodreads reviews of books that I thought were stunningly atrocious. I chalk it up to the extreme diversity of tastes. Hell, I really wasn’t a fan of Lord of Scoundrels and that’s practically required romance reading (not that I’m comparing it to this mess, I was just meh about it).
@Lizzy I do too, and I’m always surprised! Tt’s probably more likely one would take the time and effort to write about a beloved book than a hated one, which would account for the lack of bad reviews, but I am baffled that there are this many (presumably) female readers who found something to sympathize with in the hero, even lust after.
But if we all liked the same things we’d all be married to Chris Hemsworth, so different tastes make the world go round, etc. I would love to hear some thoughts from that satisfied readership to give me an idea of what made Mr. Dunkle desirable.
I wrote the other review today and yeah…. I’m surprised I finished it. He does redeem himself a bit, but it takes the professor becoming more feminine. I wasn’t wholly convinced and the professor/student dynamic pissed me off. I only finished because I had promised a review.
As for the “How does a book get nominated for the Rita?” question:
Authors and/or publishers pay a fee and send five physical copies of the book (published in the calendar year) to RWA (which is Texas, in case you wondered). Authors are also required or at least highly encouraged to sign up to judge.
RWA members (maybe only published authors?) volunteer to judge. They can choose a couple of categories to NOT judge if there are particular things they don’t like. (this is how the Inspirational Nazi book got through a couple of years ago, IMHO, so I volunteer to judge Inspy, even though that’s not my usual choice)
Staff at RWA do some sort of magic, probably with spreadsheets, moonlight, and fairy dust and send a UPS box of 5 to 10 books to each judge. (Last year I had ten, including one novella. This year I had eight, no novellas, but mainly in the short categories. And last year I panned a book that proceeded to not only final, but win. This year the book I adored and gave a high score to didn’t final)
Judges read the books, give them a numerical score from 1 to 10 (including decimals), and answer questions as to if there is a relationship as the main focus and is there a positive ending. Scores can be mailed in or entered online.
RWA staff compiles more fairy dust, drops the top and bottom scores and determines the finalists in each category. I think there’s a percentage of total entries in the category involved, but a maximum number of books can final. (A couple of years ago, there was no max number, which meant there were fifteen or so finalists in a couple of categories and they changed it back).
Finalists are notified – with much rejoicing.
I think finalists then have to mail in more copies of their book.
Super secret judges make the final decision.
Awards are announced at the national convention.
Voila.
All of this AND MORE is on the RWA website!
Wow. Thanks for reading this so we don’t have to. Also, I love you remark about how Connor could have solved his problems by actually doing the classwork properly…
@Phyllis Laatsch
Two questions: Nazi inspirational? What book did you adore this year that didn’t final?
And a thank you for taking one for the team and reading Searching for Mine so I don’t have to.
@Susan/DC
http://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/reviews/for-such-a-time-by-kate-breslin/
Yes, that Nazi inspirational. Essentially, it comes down to the opinion of 5 randomly selected authors as to who finals. Three, once top and bottom scores are dropped. So if none of those three (and the one who gave the top score, because they liked it even better) were disturbed by the Nazi redemption arc, then we’re left with…. that. There’s not a vetting process outside that.
And we’re sworn to secrecy about which books we judge, so I can’t say. Really disappointed it didn’t final though.
@Emmy, if you want to write that rant, I would love to read it so I can compare it to my own! Though my experience is limited – adjuncting at several different colleges & universities while in grad school – I get very easily frustrated as well.
Technically you need four good scores to make it to the finals; RWA drops the top one so you need the middle three to be quite good.
For the final round, five judges are sent all the finalist books in a category (so, all the Short Contemporary finalists, for example) and then they rank them from best to worst. There is no way to indicate that, say, these three books are all very excellent, worthy of winning, but these two books were utterly unworthy of being finalists. I don’t know how RWA takes the rankings and converts them into a winning score.
I’ve judged final rounds twice (both years ago). Once the book I ranked Dead Last won the category. So I feel the final round has some voodoo in it as well.
@Chelsea – His initials do spell CAD, yeah. It gets worse though. His rocket scientist brother is named Nate Ellison Raymond Dunkle…