Top Ten Tuesday: Most Disappointing Reads of 2014

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by the Broke and the Bookish, is a Freebie! I’ve decided to go with my Top Ten Most Disappointing Reads of 2014. Click on the links for my review (if applicable) or the Good Reads page.

1. Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas. It seems like everyone in the blogosphere is obsessed with this series. I just don’t get it. I gave this book 1 star.

2. Four: A Divergent Story Collection by Veronica Roth. I was hoping that this book would in some small way make up for Allegiant. Or make me fall for Four again. It did not.

3. Just One Day by Gayle Foreman. Yet another book the blogosphere loves that I did not. I just don’t get it, guys.

4. The Dancing Master by Julie Klassen. I really enjoy Klassen’s novels, but this one was pretty bad. Especially the parts where she actually plagiarizes herself from another book!

5. All’s Fair in Love and Cupcakes by Betsy St. Amant. This book had so much potential, but just didn’t live up to it. I really wish it would’ve focused more on the reality show plotline.

6. Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge. While it started out interesting enough, it had super unlikable characters and became very confusing.

7. We Were Liars by E. Lockhart. I think this book suffered from too much hype. It had a good twist, but it did not make up for the rest of the book.

8. Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins. Don’t get me wrong, this book was cute! But it was definitely my least favorite book of the series.

9. The Fine Art of Pretending by Rachel Harris. I love the fake relationship trope and had been looking forward to this book for a long time and it just didn’t live up to my expectations.

10. The Archived by Victoria Schwab. Yet another beloved book in the blogosphere that just didn’t do it for me. I found it way too slow and pretty boring until the end.

What Top Ten Tuesday topic did you choose? What are some of your most disappointing reads of 2014?

Reviewing the Unreviewed: January – February

I read a lot of books that I don’t end up reviewing for whatever reason. Some because I wasn’t impressed. Some because I didn’t have the time. Some I just wasn’t feeling it on whatever particular day I finished. I thought I’d start doing a post once a month (or couple months) with just the couple thoughts I shared on Good Reads.

Fear the Worst by Linwood Barclay. Read January 18-20. 4 stars

Good mystery. Great twists. Great character development. But I could really use an epilogue there, Barclay!!!!   

The Madman’s Daughter by Megan Shepherd. Read Jan 24 – 26.  3 Stars

Started out intriguing, but got weird. The characters weren’t that likable, but I’ll still probably check out the 2nd book.

The Distance Between Us by Kasie West. Read January 27-28. 3 stars

Overall really cute and fun. However, the end felt really rushed and the main character’s mother and her secrets were kind of silly.

Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge. Read February 2-9. 2 stars.

The prose was pretty, but the story was a bit disjointed and confusing to me. Overall pretty disappointing.

Be with Me by J. Lynn.  Read February 17-18. 2 stars

I liked the secondary story lines – Jase’s secret and Teresa’s roommate – better than the first book in this series, but I didn’t really get Jase and Teresa as a couple. I think the background needed to be a little more developed instead of “I loved you since I met you” and a couple years later they’re hot and heavy in an instant. Also, not enough Cam and Avery.

The Archived by Victoria Schwab. Read February 13-21. 2 stars

I was a little disappointed with this book after hearing such good things about it. I did enjoy the twists towards the end, but everything leading up to it was soooo slow. And not very interesting. After the first couple of trips to the Narrows, I was pretty over reading about Mac chasing Histories.

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BOOKS I STARTED AND PUT BACK ON THE TBR SHELF

I’ve decided to step away from these for now. I’m not marking them as “Did Not Finish” because I might go back to them at another time.

Endless by Amanda Gray.

Landry Park by Bethany Hagen.

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RE-READS

Unspoken (The Lynburn Legacy #1) by Sarah Rees Brennan. I actually just read this back in January, but I loved it and it did the trick when no other books were interesting me. See my original review of it here and my review of it’s sequel here.

Monday’s Minutes

Monday’s Minutes is my weekly post where I share what I’m reading and what I’m reading next.

WHAT I’M READING

Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge. I decided to read this because I thought the cover was interesting and I heard it’s a re-telling of Beauty of Beast. So far I’m not terribly impressed. It’s Beauty and the Beast mixed with Greek Mythology where the “beast” is a demon. The writing isn’t too bad, though.

WHAT I’M READING NEXT

IGNITE ME COMES OUT TOMORROW!!!! I’m trying to be only cautiously optimistic about this book because all series enders have been terrible lately. But I realllllllly hope it’s great. Tahereh Mafi released the first 15 chapters over the weekend and you can read it here.

Also coming out tomorrow is Cress by Marissa Meyer and I’m super excited about it.

What are you reading?