Five Surprising Reads: Good & Bad

by Marissa Writes - Tuesday, March 13, 2018

Surprising books - good and bad... and worth a look

There are so many books around, and as Shakespeare said, supposedly, there are only so many stories to be told in the world. So it follows that once you start reading a ton of books in a year, year after year, you start to see patterns. The twists aren't all that surprising, usually. The author's voice, or unique characters bring to life new stories, but still you expect it.

Yet every once in a while, a story comes out of no where, and I'm completely surprised - for the better or the worse...

So today I'm putting together five books that surprised me for Top Ten Tuesday on That Artsy Reader Girl - and yeah, only five because well that's all I could think of!

Five Books that Surprised Me

Illuminae by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff - I tend to not love Sci-fi... it's way to predictable... but these books were amazing... and part of that was because of the audio... if you have some audible credits to use try these! An entire cast performs the story, with sound effects, and music... I'm telling you it's worth it.
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern - This would be one of those books I was disappointed by - it was on the best seller for a very very long time, and people rave over the concept. But the plot was just blah to me, and the characters were not inspiring to me. However, I have been surprised by how many quotes I still find from this book that I love... so it's a mixed love/hate thing I guess.
Flame in the Mist by Renee Ahdeih - I agreed to read this fora group buddy read... I wasn't sure I'd like it. The idea of a Mulan retelling didn't really seem that interesting... and then I got hooked, slowly... and if only the published hadn't gone in a new direction with the cover art I'd be overly excited about the sequel.
The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton - I literally finished this book this past weekend, and itw as so hyped as being a wonderful book to support diversity... and I was excited... but I ended up being very disappointed... the moral I was sure the author was attempting to make about beauty and respect never even happened...
The Young Elites by Marie Lu - I adored Marie Lu's Legend series so I jumped on these books when they came out... and maybe it was the darkness of the book, but I never liked Adelina - the main character. Sure she is supposed to be turning into a villain... but after the movie Malificent, we can sympathize with her... yet this book was just a disappointment because Adelina never was likeable, or even almost likeable...