November Fails

I've called it quits on two books I was reading for this month. Er, last month. Whatever.
The first is, as I'm sure you are all surprised to discover, The Amber Wizard. I was just about 100 pages from the end of the novel, the great battle had just started...and I really couldn't muster up anything close to caring about the characters or the fate of the kingdom. Even now, having just called it quits, I can't remember the name of the kingdom or even the great amber wizard. A slightly forgettable book, which is very unfortunate because I think there is true promise to the story. The writing was tiresome and felt overdone or perhaps, just under edited. There were a lot of details that were fleshed out (as if describing set design) that might have aided the story if they were used in a more descriptive way. Perhaps, I will find the time in the future to finish it. I shall not, however, read the rest of the series. 

The second book I quit is called Secret Smile by Nicci French. I will confess that I first heard about this because of a miniseries where one, David Tennant, plays the main character Brendan. I rented both the DVD and the book from the public library, but returned both before I finished them. The miniseries was a bit haunting, but not in the good way. In the, "wow, that was really really creepy" kind of way. Brendan dates Miranda, or "dates" her, for a mere 14 days. She finds him in her home (uninvited) one day reading through her diary. She kicks him out, breaks up with him and thinks no more of him...until her sister introduces him as her new boyfriend. Miranda is confused when she finds that Brendan has told her sister that he (Brendan) had broken up with her (Miranda) and hoped that there would be no hard feelings between them. No matter how many times Miranda tries to correct this, Brendan always seems to "win" to the point where he is driving Miranda absolutely crazy. 
I only saw the first half of the miniseries and I was starting to stress out about it. I was completely unnerved by how much control Brendan had in the situation and how he was able to manipulate everyone around him, except of course Miranda, though no one would believe her. 

In other, happier news, I am almost to my Goodreads goal of 35 books! I hate to prematurely congratulate myself, but so far I think I've only had 4 really bad books this year. Two things: (1) the year isn't out, so that number could go up and (2) four really isn't huge in the scheme of things. Oh well. 
How I will finish those three AND season 5 of Mad Men? No idea. I'll think of something. I always do...