This was a quick read romance with forced proximity, enemies to lovers tropes. Salty literary critic Mia is trapped via snowstorm with grumpy, reclusive writer Axel.

"Being around books centers me."

A homage to book reviewers, Did Not Finish by clever romance author Nicola Marsh, is a fun grumpy enemies to lovers rom com.

Mia is a renowned book reviewer whose infamous DNF (Did Not Finish) reviews destroys careers but she has a secret...she has been writing her own book.

Axel is a serious thriller author but makes quick money (sadly needed) writing bodice ripper romances under a psydenum. Mia has reviewed many of them with her deadly DNF not knowing he is the writer.

Narrators Kendra Murray and Connor Brown bring the humor, the tension, and the heart to Mia and Axel. There is also Mr. Darcy the judgemental cat. When circumstances leave them stranded at his home during a blizzard they might have to DNF the enemies part of their relationship.

I received a free copy of this audiobook from the publishers via #NetGalley for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced audiobook review copy of “Did Not Finish” by Nicola Marsh. Thoughts and opinions are my own.

I had read a previous book “The Boy Toy” by this author and thought I might try reading this one. Maybe people with no awareness of publishing will enjoy this book but I don’t know what happened because I did not.

First of all, I’m very tired of romance books trying to be “not like other romance books” and taking shots at the genre they are writing in. Just… why? This is literally a romance book why are you trying to irritate your audience? The main character in this book is secretly writing a romance but just from the way she talks about it makes it seem like this shameful secret. Romance keeps the lights on in publishing.

This book really played up the tropes which could be fun for readers. I found it really heavy handed especially when combined with how everyone was treating romance like this inferior genre but they’re also secretly writing in it for the money? What? Again, if you have any knowledge of publishing this book is going to irritate you.

The premise is that Mia reviews books but also secretly wants to be a writer. She’s writing a thriller (plus secretly starting a romance project) and is chosen for a writer’s retreat. But she shows up early and is snowed in with the reclusive writer guy hosting the retreat.

I didn’t like either character and was very annoyed about how writing and publishing was portrayed throughout the story. I don’t know how the author is in the publishing industry and wrote this story this way. The characters were just using each other and then somehow fell in love. None of it was believable. I wish I had followed the title and DNF’d this.

2/5 stars

Read/Listen if you like:
❤️ Romance
❤️ Tension
❤️ Books about Authors
❤️ Enemies to Lovers
❤️ All the Bookish talk
❤️ All the classic romance tropes

This one was so well done, fun, and well produced for the audiobook! It was so enjoyable and so glad I was able to listen to this ‘all the tropes’ in one romance as I truly do love Enemies To Lovers and this one was so well done!

I really liked the trope of stranded. A recluse author and a renowned book reviewer. She leaves a review on a book, claiming she did not finish because she didn’t like the story in itself. Come to find out this is a pseudo name of the exact author that invites her to a writing workshop. The renowned author, Axel. is having people at his home to seek advice in their writing venture. He also had an agenda to confront her on her review. What she doesn’t anticipate, is being stranded at his home, due to a blizzard, and none of the other participants will be there, which then turns into a budding romance. Axel has secrets he doesn’t want to be released to the public having to do with his sister. Although this was a romance book, I had a really hard time with how quickly their romance started. All in all I felt like the story was a bit rushed. Although I do not hate it and I was able to get through the book it just didn’t wow, me. Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

After reading the blurb for this book, I thought it sounded like a fun romance. While there were certainly good aspects to this book, I did not end up finishing this book.

It wasn't that this book was awful, but I found myself very uninterested in the story. The characters barely had any interactions before they were intimate with each other. It was very insta-lust.

Things I liked:
- the premise of the story
- reading about authors
- a good backstory that explained Axel's need for privacy

Things I disliked:
- the sexual content without much interaction between the characters
- how immature Axel's plan was for bringing Mia to his house early
- Mia's harsh reviews for fellow authors

3.5

Mia is an influential book reviewer who dreams of publishing her own stories one day. Her dreams are close to being realized when she wins a spot at a writing retreat hosted by none other than renowned suspense author - and one of Mia's favorites - Axel Lowe.

Axel Lowe is happy to be able to make a living writing. Not only for himself but for his younger sister whom he supports. When his books sell well, he can rest assured knowing they'll be taken care of. However, when his latest book gets the dreaded DNF (Did Not Finish), he agrees to host the writing retreat in order hopefully start some positive buzz about his next future release..or else.

However, Axel has ulterior motives. It turns out that Mia is the one who gave the DNF to Axel's book, and he plans to use her attendance at the retreat to get even. That is, until they meet and their chemistry is off the charts. But can their burgeoning relationship survive secrets and assumptions? They'll have plenty of time to figure it out since the weather report says there's snow in the forecast.

The story is told alternating between Mia and Axel's perspectives and, in this regard, I loved that dual narrators were used. I think it adds depth to each character because they each get their own personality which is easily conveyed through their own narrator. I thought both did a good job of narrating their respective character. And really for the majority of the story, it is Mia and Axel. I felt like the secondary characters didn't get as much identification, which I can't be too upset about because they are not the main focus of the story.

I appreciated the fact that this was a quick "listen". It went along at a good clip, but be aware that this also means that there's a lot of insta that happens. Insta-attraction, insta-love. Because it's a relatively short story, there's not much time for things to languidly develop. I didn't find anything wrong with this, I thought that Nicola Marsh handled the pacing really well, I just understand that quick-to-happen romances are not everyone's cuppa.

I loved that Nicola Marsh ran the gambit with the tropes and knew it too! Writing a book about writers you can't help but call out the various publishing quirks. I liked that it's a slight inside look, but also a bit tongue-in-cheek.

I found Mia and Axel to be interesting characters. I think was drove the story for me, mostly, was seeing them get to the point where all the cards are on the table. Readers will know the secrets before Mia does and typically I find this slows pacing down. But Nicola Marsh is clever in that there's still plenty that readers don't know about Axel, the issues that he doesn't even want to reveal to himself, that we still get that drive to learn more.

It's a sweet, quick, read (listen) and perfect for book and romace lovers.

For a good while I thought I was enjoying this book, because there’s plenty to like: a book about books, getting snowed in, a Nebraska setting (which was a pleasant surprise for me personally). But the further I got, the more I felt like this was just a sort of lazy and overly predictable story without a lot of depth, which is a shame considering it’s about romances needing depth. I also was annoyed by lack of consistency between the narrators—there was often a difference of pronunciation (including of a character’s name!) that just pointed to bad/lacking direction.

This audiobook was such a fun listen. The narrator did fantastic bringing the story to life.

I loved how Axel and Mia met and how their story unfolded. It was full forced proximity due to a blizzard that stranded the two alone together when it was suppose to a writing retreat with a few more people.

The concept of this one sounded right up my alley, but the execution was not done well. I think that everything was so rush. They hated each other and then immediately fell in love. I thought the conflict was dumb and unnecessary. I just don't think this was for me - it felt juvenile and way too short to be able to flesh out the characters and plot.

I loooooooved this book! A book about authors! The best part? They fall in love. All the right ingredients for the perfect rom com. A must read.

💭Thoughts:
This was a cute, short, and engaging audiobook. I really enjoy when the dual POV are voiced by two different characters. I feel like it adds a bit more to the character development.

This story had all the bookstagram references- DNF, TBR, book boyfriends, color coordinating book spines on the book shelf, book buying, and book reviews. Plus all the romance tropes you could ever want.

Mia and Axel make a cute couple, but the Insta-love was a bit much for me. The forced proximity had then falling madly in love in less than a week.

Overall, it’s a cute story and a quick light hearted read in between heavier books.

A light fun enemies to lovers trope. Axel has a lot going on and is doing all he can to keep the train from going off the tracks. Mia’s primary goal is to be a published author and give up her day job as a critic. When the opportunity avails itself to her she jumps at the chance to spend time with Axel, an author she is sure she can learn from. She can also, with the destroy everything for him if she finds out his secret. The chemistry between the two could have been stronger, but all in all it was a nice easy listen.

This is a dual-narrative romcom; our two narrators are snowed in together in a small town in Nebraska. Mia is a professional book reviewer, working on her first book manuscript. Axel is a well-established author.

The premise is good, and I liked that the characters were both part of the book industry. Did Not Finish utilizes both the "snowed in" and the "enemies to lovers" tropes as key story elements. This is a cute read, perfect for a snowy afternoon.

I think I might have enjoyed the story more if it had been told just from Mia's point of view. I usually enjoy a dual narrative, but this one didn't work as well for me. However, both narrators did a good job on their chapters. The enemies to lovers seemed very abrupt, I hadn't gotten fully invested in the characters yet, and it seemed like I never could once they hooked up.

I was given an audio version of the book to review. It is duality narrated and I didn’t much enjoy either the male or female narrator. Beyond that, I am not sure the author’s style works for me. I liked the bones of the story but didn’t much care for the way it was written. I didn’t buy the romance and it was too insta-love for me.

Overall:
⭐️⭐️⭐️ .5
Story:
📘📘📘
Narration:
🎙🎙🎙🎙

I enjoyed this story. I liked that our MC was a reviewer instead of some other industry insider. It gave us a look at a part of the book industry we don’t see in stories often. While this romance followed the much used Insta-love story line, there was something missing in the story that made it believable. While the story was an enjoyable read, it was missing something that would have made it great.

3.5 stars

Fun, light (ish), short, and (mostly) sweet. The premise was interesting, and the execution was fairly good; I knew it was mostly a rom-com, and I would’ve liked a bit more emphasis on the “snowed in” element of the story. Anyway, it wasn’t groundbreaking or life-changing, as stories go, and my attention did wander a bit at one point, but in general, it was fun, fluffy, and ultimately enjoyable.

At first, I thought "I'm not going to like this book, but I want to give it a shot because of the title." Well, I am glad I did because I enjoyed this listening to this book. The story is amazing and well-written. The characters are well developed; the insta-loved is not something I buy at first, because you can like someone at first sight, but not love someone right at that moment. However, I did love that insta-love story and how the dual POV made me see it. Another thing I enjoyed so much was all the book writing and publishing process references to the book writing and publishing process. because I was able to learn while reading romance.

The narrators were great; did a great job I really enjoyed them and believe they were a perfect match for these characters. I would definitely listen to any audiobook narrated by them.

Thank you NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for providing me with an arc of this audiobook for free in exchange for my honest review.

Forced proximity has to be one of my favorite tropes. I think that the Dual POV made me love it. I am not a fan of insta-love but this book was something that kept me reading. I think that I would definitely pick up a physical copy for my shelf!

It's my first book by Nicola Marsh and I'm pleasantly surprised. I enjoy reading about writers and critics relationships. And this book left a nice aftertaste. Hope to read a story about Mia's friend one day. Narrater was great too.