March 13, 2018

Top Ten Tuesday: Books That Surprised Me

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

Topic: Books That Surprised Me 

So I'm gonna do both good and bad. 5 good, 5 bad.

5 That Surprised Me In A Good Way

1. Half-Blood (Covenant #1) by Jennifer L. Armentrout - I genuinely wasn't expecting to love this like I do. I thought at the time it was being over hyped and like one of those books I'd pick up and be let down by thanks solely to the hype. Boy was I wrong. I finally picked it up based on recommendations from my close blogging buddies and gave it a chance. I genuinely fell in love with this story!! 

2. Article 5 (Article 5, #1) by Kristen Simmons - So I was very iffy on reading this one because I had seen mixed reviews when it came out. Some people loved it and some people hated it. I love dystopians and didn't wanna hate it with my love for the genre. So I ended up getting it from the library in case it did go south. Fortunately it didn't. I ended up really loving this book and the entire series. So much so that I now own the entire series and got to meet Kristen Simmons this past week and get them signed!!! :D

3. Unknown (Unknown #1) by Wendy Higgins - I know it came out in 2016 and a lot of people loved it but I shied away from it for a few reasons. First being it was New Adult and I hadn't really ventured into NA yet. Second being I didn't wanna be disappointed. When I found it on sale at the end of last year I decided to give it a try. And it was such a good decision! Go read this series if you haven't. 

4. Unearthly (Unearthly #1) by Cynthia Hand - I genuinely was not interested in this book for a while. The idea of the book didn't pull me in, the cover didn't pull me in. Eventually after having seen it around on blogs a bunch I picked it up when I saw it at the library. I was genuinely surprised by it. I was really not expecting to like it. I am however disappointed about who Clara ended up with in the end though. 

5. Nightshade (Nightshade #1) by Andrea Cremer - I was a little worried about this book at first. After everything with Twilight, I'm iffy with Vampire and Werewolf books. But I gave it a chance after seeing so many people getting excited about the second one. I was glad I did. This is one of the best werewolf books I've read. That surprised me in a very good way.

5 That Surprised Me In A Bad Way

1. Uses For Boys by Erica Lorraine Scheidt - This was just bad. The overall premise for this book sounded good. But it wasn't. The character just constantly made bad decisions, never seemed to learn from any of it and just seemed to use her past as an excuse for her behavior. Also, for a YA book, it was 90% sex. I have no issues with sex. But there was WAY too much in this book. It also felt incredibly rushed. I was surprised at how much I disliked this book. 

2. Fifty Shades of Grey (Fifty Shades #1) by EL James - I really feel like this one is completely self explanatory. Its another that some love and some hate. I was surprised at some of the stuff in this book that people seem to think is ok. Things that would not fly in normal everyday relationships. And I'm not even talking about the sex/BDSM. There are just things that seemed abusive and bad in this book. That's why its on the bad list. 

3. The Shade of the Moon (Last Survivors #4) by Susan Beth Pfeffer - So I loved the first 3 books, Life As We Knew It, The Dead & The Gone, & This World We Live In. They were awesome books. They are some of my favorite books. I was excited seeing there was a fourth book. I was very sad and disappointed upon reading it. It felt like this book wasn't even in the world the previous 3 built up. Not to mention instead of using Miranda or Alex, the main characters in the other books, they used Miranda's little brother Jon and he was by far, the worst choice for the main character/point of view. This series should have stayed ended with This World We Live In. 

4. Shadowland (The Immortals #3) by Alyson Noel - I loved Evermore & Blue Moon. I thought they were good. Then Shadowland and the subsequent books after came and the story flopped. I went from being hooked in the first two to being bored all the time in the next ones. I was surprised at how it went downhill all of a sudden. :(

5. Awakened (House of Night #8) by P.C. & Kristin Cast - This book was what did in the series for me. I really started going downhill starting with Tempted, but after pushing on through it, Burned and then Awakened. I just couldn't anymore. I LOVED this series before. So I was surprised and how drastically it went downhill and how much I came to dislike anything after book 5. I even tried to read the book after this and couldn't. I really wanted to love and read the entire HoN series but I can't. I'm surprised at that, I really am. But I can't finish this series. I'm surprised I gave up after reading this book. I'm surprised I got so bored with this series. I'm surprised that I pushed through the disappointment in this book for me. :(