Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Thought I’d Like More/Less

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish.

Each week they will post a new Top Ten list that one of their bloggers over at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone is welcome to join.

This week’s topic is: Top Ten Books I Thought I’d Like More/Less

As much as I try not too – expectations get the better of me. When I hear/see people RAVING about a book/series/author, I admit that the hype sometimes gets the best of me. And I realize it’s not the book’s fault – but I often can’t help but feel a little disappointed when a decent book didn’t blow me away like I was anticipating.

(Links will take you to my reviews. Clicking on the book cover will take you to the book’s page on goodreads)

Books I Though I’d Like More (and wound up a little disappointed):

Obsidian (Lux, #1)

Obsidian (Lux #1) by Jennifer L. Armentrout – This isn’t a bad book. I did enjoy it but I wanted more. Daemon is great but it’d take someone even better than him for me not to resent him for blowing up my computer.

Beautiful Disaster (Beautiful, #1)

Beautiful Disaster (Beautiful #1) by Jamie Maguire – I love love. But I don’t love over the top jealousy and people who keep trying the same thing over and over but expecting different results.

Shatter Me (Shatter Me, #1)

Shatter Me (Shatter Me #1) by Tahereh Mafi – There’s a lot I liked about this book. And a lot that left me feeling wanting. This was one of the most talked about books of 2012. It seemed that people everywhere were praising this one. And whilst I thought it was clever I think I spent most of the time I was reading it waiting. Waiting for it to live up to my (possibly unrealistic) expectations.

Marked (House of Night, #1)

Marked by P.C. and Kristin Cast – A friend told me this book was absolutely fantastic – the best Vampire Teen series around. I think I got my hopes up and just missed things I would have liked had it not been off the back of such high praise.

Beautiful Creatures (Caster Chronicles, #1)

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. – This one I think was my own fault that I didn’t enjoy it as much as I had hoped. The trailer for the movie ruined the book and that in itself frustrated me. Also I listened to this one on audiobook and the fact that the narrator’s voice had an accent but his thoughts didn’t – it really took me out of the story.

On the other hand are books that I went in not expecting too much and being blown away. These are the best kinds of books! To quote one of my all time favourite movies… A Diamond in the Rough.

(and since I couldn’t find any appropriate gifs – here’s one from Aladdin just cause I love that movie!)

Books I Thought I’d Like Less (and ended up loving!):

Anna and the French Kiss (Anna and the French Kiss, #1)Lola and the Boy Next Door (Anna and the French Kiss, #2)

Anna and the French Kiss & Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins – There is the saying “Don’t Judge a Book By It’s Cover” but perhaps I should not judge a book on its title. These books have names similar to those I’d bring home for homework in primary school. But these books are far from simple. They’re beautiful stories about love, friendship, family problems and the complexities of growing up. These are two of my favourite teen contemporary romance novels and I’m so glad I picked them up because I very nearly didn’t..

Vampire Academy (Vampire Academy, #1)Bloodlines (Bloodlines, #1)

Vampire Academy/Bloodlines by Richelle Mead – It probably wouldn’t be a TTT without a Richelle Mead series featuring somewhere on my list. These are both series that feature some kind if paranormal creature in a boarding school but they are both so much more than that. There’s depth and consequences and the gorgeous leading men don’t hurt things either. I had read Mead’s Georgina Kincaid series before starting VA but I didn’t expect for the series to have such a profound effect on my views regarding YA paranormal novels.

Cinder (Lunar Chronicles, #1)

Cinder by Marissa Meyer – A sci-fi futuristic cyborg version of Cinderella? This isn’t something I ever thought I’d read let alone like. But somehow Meyer wrote a novel that’s well thought out and the fairytale links are crafted in a way that feels so right for the story.

The Fault in Our Stars

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green – I thought I’d try to see if I could somehow beat the system. I’d heard so much about this book. The Best Book EVER! is a line that many of my friends and reviews had thrown around. Not having read any John Green and having nothing to compare his work to I though I’d go in expecting the worse. I’m a big enough person to admit I’m wrong because I ADORED this book. It’s beautiful and the characters are almost ridiculously perfect in their own way. I cried. So if you haven’t read this book and you’re intending to – try to ignore the hype. Make up your own mind. But this is a book that I recommend for everyone to read. Even if it’s just to be on the bandwagon and know what people are talking about when they’re talking about TFiOS and John Green.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone (Daughter of Smoke and Bone, #1)Days of Blood and Starlight (Daughter of Smoke and Bone, #2)

Daughter of Smoke and Bone / Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor – These books are beautifully written. And the covers are gorgeous. And I have no idea why I didn’t think I’d like them but I very nearly passed on the opportunity to read them.

That’s my list for another week. I love reading other people’s TTT’s and blogs in general so please leave me a comment with a link so I can visit back. All comments are welcome and very much appreciated. Thanks!

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30 Comments

  1. Daughter of Smoke and Bones ini on my list too and is one of my favourite series ever. So beautifully written. I felt the same about TFIOS too, and ended up loving it even though i read it at a really bad time.

    I keep hearing awesome things about Cinder so i definitely have to check it out. Great List!

    My Top Ten

    • I recommend Cinder to everyone – I’m not sure my friends and family appreciated getting a copy for Christmas. But the book store did like me purchasing 12 copies… 😛

      I think the reason why I liked it so much is because I wasn’t expecting to like it. So I hope by raving about Cinder I haven’t unrealistically heightened your expectations.

      Thanks for visiting!

  2. I didn’t think I’d like The Fault In Our Stars, and now it’s one of my favorite books in the world. Beautiful Disaster is a book I will forever have extremely mixed feelings about. Nice list. 🙂

    • Thank you 🙂 I think The Fault in Our Stars is just so lovely. I bought Will Grayson, will grayson the other day. I think I need to discover more that is the world of John Green’s books.

      Thanks for visiting!

    • I have found that for everyone that didn’t like BD there are three people who adored it. I think I’d have enjoyed it more had I not been expecting something epically amazing as people had told me it would be. Thanks for visiting!

  3. Hey Kate, it’s Jeann from PTA Live, good to see your Top Ten Tuesday! I loved Cinder, it was one of my Top 5’s last year and I can’t wait to read The Fault in Our Stars cos everyone raves about it. I have to agree with you about Obsidian too, I found it way too similar to Twilight unfortunately!

    Would love if you could check out/follow my blog too! http://happyindulgence.wordpress.com

    • Hi Jeann! Thanks for visiting and following. I appreciate it.

      I have that Twilight issue quite a bit. I read books (like Fallen by Lauren Kate) and because I’m reading them after Twilight I can’t help but compare them. I think I’d enjoy them more had they not been so similar in many regards.

      And I already follow your blog. I was on there the other day reading your Rapture by JR Ward review but wordpress went down and wouldn’t let me comment,

      • Cool, thanks so much for following me back! Blog buddies hehe. Seems like we read a lot of the same books as well which is great.

        I know, I read Fallen and Hush, Hush when I was looking for my next fix (and before I discovered Goodreads) and they just didn’t match up in my books.

    • I think that’s my problem – these books are all good books but when you’re expecting a masterpiece I think I judge the book way too harshly though no fault of it’s own.

      Thanks for stopping by 🙂

  4. Great list! I’ve only read Beautiful Creatures and The Fault in Our Stars of this list, and I agree with your opinions on both. I actually read the whole Beautiful Creatures series and just got more disappointed as I went. Oh, and I’m with you on the Perkins books. I haven’t read them even though everyone keeps saying I should, just because I have a hard time getting over those titles and covers. I fix that… eventually.

    My TTT

    • That’s sad about the Beautiful Creatures series – but I’d already decided there are so many fantastic books out there and not enough time to read books I’m not enjoying.

      Thanks so much for commenting. I hope if you ever get around to reading the Perkins books that you enjoy them as much as I did.

    • Whilst I didn’t like Marked after listening to my friend passionately describe the story, the characters and the world – I can see why she likes them so much. They’re just no my cup of tea.

      The world would be pretty boring if everyone though the same I suppose 🙂

      Thanks for visiting.

    • There are times when I think I could never get sick of all the awesome supernaturals out there – but after a while a lot of them seem to run together of I’ve read so many lately I can’t keep track of the special qualities each particular authors brand of vampires possess or similar.

      Thanks for visiting! And yay for another VA fan 😀

    • The sequel was less surprising in terms of since I adored the first book I was already expecting a lot from the second. Also, being the second book it’s a bit more of a groundwork book setting things up for what hopefully promises to be an outstanding third book. But that said – it’s still fantastic.

    • Poor dust gathering books – I know I have a fair few of those too. Maybe one day we’ll put them out of their misery and enjoy their stories! Thanks for commenting. I appreciate it.

  5. Seriously, Beautiful Disaster is crazy! Well, Travis and Abby are crazy. Don’t get me wrong, I couldn’t put the book down, but the whole time I was like Travis is nuts and Abby gets on my nerves.

    Cinder made my list, too!! Still can’t believe how much I love that book and the series.

    • Some books are just like car accidents. You know they’re horrible and awful but you just CAN’T LOOK AWAY! I’m like that a lot. There are times when I’m not enjoying the characters but for some perverse reason I just have to know how things are going to end for them.

      How great are the Lunar Chronicles! I loved Scarlet. Now I’m trying (and failing) to wait patiently for book 3.

      Thanks for commenting 🙂

    • Don’t be scared! I’m just one person and there are a lot of things I didn’t like that other people absolutely love. Like I don’t like lasagne… Apparently that’s really weird.

      Maybe the books on my not so liked list will become your new favourites! Just try to go in with no/low expectations.

      Thanks for visiting 🙂

    • So glad you agree! Seriously – I almost feel like it’s my personal mission to help pimp these books out so everyone can see past the title and the cover and see what a lovely writer Stephanie Perkins is. Thanks for visiting

  6. I enjoyed Obsidian but like you I was a tad disappointed, it was hyped up a lot and once I got to reading it I noticed things like the fact we hardly ever got to see what the world looked like so I always felt like I was envisioning a plain nearly white back drop for the world. I’ve noticed this in all of JLA’s books that I’ve read so far (Okay so I’ve only read this and Half-Blood but it was so bad in Half-Blood that it feels like it’s a trend).

    I too picked up the house of night series because someone said it was the most amazing vampire series around. I got to book 4 before I gave up. Such a mediocre written series in my opinion. Bad, bad, bad 🙁

    Shatter Me wasn’t as good as I expected either! I liked the writing style, I liked Warner as a villain but the plot was bare and boring, Juliet and Adam felt unrealistic to me and not a lot happened until the end. The end kept me reading and makes me want to read book 2, I had to force myself through the beginning and middle though.

    “There’s depth and consequences and the gorgeous leading men don’t hurt things either” <— I laughed while reading that. Isn't it sad when you feel like that's a point that needs to be made? I loved, loved, loved the VA series! It definitely has a lot of depth I feel, the world's real, the consequences are real to the characters. I loved it. I still have to get to Bloodlines though. So excited to get to them!

    Ah. One that we don't agree on. I really did not like Daughter of Smoke and Bone. I liked the first half of the book but the second half of the book ruined it for me :/

    Miss J @ Miss Book Reviews

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