Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and Bookish. Today’s prompt is Ten Books I Loved Less/More Than I Thought I Would. Because I couldn’t think of ten books for either side, I decided to split it and do five of each.
Let’s just get the bad not-so-good out of the way first.
5 Books I Liked Less Than Expected
The Selection by Kiera Cass
The Selection was recommended to me buy a lot of my friends. And they praised the series so much that I stupidly brought the whole entire series (or what was the whole series at May 2015).
But joke’s on me because I DNFed the first book. (Please don’t kill me). I think it was more because I wasn’t in the best reading mood and my friends hyped it up sooo much. Maybe I’ll give it another go some other time.
Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
Please don’t kill me. Please don’t kill me. Please don’t kill me. To be fair, I gave it 4 stars in my review – I just expected to give it five…
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
I actually gave this one five stars when I first read it but then I reread it and I think I have to update my rating. I know I pretty much sort of dissed some of the biggest YA fandoms, but I really don’t have a death wish. It just wasn’t as good as I thought it would be.
Are you starting to see a trend? Maybe I should have named this section ‘Books I Thought Were Overhyped’ or ‘5 Victims of the Hype Monster’. Okay, one more victim and then the reason why the word ‘hype’ cannot be found in the section heading.
The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco
You might be wondering, The Bone Witch hasn’t even been officially published yet and it’s still an overhyped book? Well, no, I mean yes, no. Gah.
It’s overhyped in the sense that I thought I would like it more since it’s one of the most requested books on NetGalley. But not overhyped in the sense that people are screaming “read The Bone Witch!!!!!” from the top of buildings like the first three books on this list.
Nevermore by James Patterson
Okay, so I really should have seen this coming, but I did NOT enjoy reading Nevermore. And the fact it managed to make it onto this list says something given how low my expectations were going in.
I love all the Maximum Ride books up to The Final Warning and then the series started on its unfortunate downwards trajectory. I somewhat liked MAX and Fang but Angel was meh. Nevermore? NOPE. No thanks!
Happy thoughts. Happy thoughts.
5 Books That Exceeded Expectations
SO, I think it’s worth mentioning that perhaps these books had it easier since I read them with lower expectations compared to the ones mentioned above. But I’ve also picked some of my favorite books of all time, which, sadly, I cannot say about any of the first five books (even though I did enjoy some of them).
The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken
Little did I know how much my life would change the moment I downloaded the free book of the week from iBooks. I didn’t think much of it but read it because it was YA and I was bored. Oh my goodness, I cannot even begin to describe how much I love this book and the trilogy. So I’m just going to stop while I’m ahead.
If I Stay by Gayle Forman
For a book I actually DNFed the first time I read it, If I Stay has made a surprising comeback to land on my list of favorites. The fact that I purposely own two different editions of it should tell you how much love I have for this story. Needless to say, I freaked out when I got to meet Gayle Forman and get both copies signed.
Heist Society by Ally Carter
I liked Ally Carter’s Gallagher Girls so when Heist Society was published, I figured why not? I was not disappointed. It ended up beating the Gallagher Girls (which I also love) in the competition of my favorite series written by Ally Carter, which I did not see coming.
These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
These Broken Stars actually got some hype when it was first published so I put off reading it because you know my track record with hyped books and my enjoyment of them. But the covers were so beautiful I just could not resist (also Amie Kaufman was coming to town, but that’s irrelevant). I didn’t think I would like it as much as I did – it seemed like it would be full of cliches and I’m also not the biggest fan of sci-fi. But I actually liked it enough to pre-order the third book before I read the second.
The Unfinished Life of Addison Stone by Adele Griffin
The Unfinished Life of Addison Stone was FULL of surprises. I picked up on a whim because I was bored but I practically read it in one sitting. What’s not to love? It has color, wonderful artwork, beautiful writing. And most importantly, a story that seemed so true I tried to google the main character.
So that’s it for my list. What’s on yours?
What books did you like more or less than you expected?
the heist society sounds good! My TTT
Funny. I put If I Stay and These Broken Stars on my list of books I liked less than everyone else. XD
I also didn’t care for Throne of Glass, though. But Crown of Midnight was good.
I didn’t like The Fault In Our Stars either. Oh but I love Heist Society-such a fun series!
Glad to see some Heist Society love! I love it the most out of Ally’s series, so I’m excited someone else feels the same way (most people I know like it, but prefer Gallagher Girls).
REALLY want to read the “Throne of Glass” books, but I also fully expect it might not be “my” kind of story. The Heist Society series is on my must list as well. “If I Stay” was a better than expected read for me as was TFIOS – oh, and I’ll confess: I really liked “The Selection”! Bummer it was such a disappointment to you. But I do understand this feeling. 🙂