Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Loved Less Than Everyone Else

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jamie @ The Broke and the Bookish.

This week’s theme is books we either loved less or more than everyone else, pretty self explanatory. I, being the black sheep that I am, chose to go with books I loved less since that usually seems to be the way things go for me with more popular books.

As usual I’ll link up my full reviews to the titles!

10.) Truthwitch by Susan Dennard

This book was insanely hyped last year when it came out and so my expectations were pretty high for it and….it was not that great. It lacked world building and honestly I didn’t think anything was developed at all. There were elements I enjoyed but overall it was a disappointment.

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9.) Crimson Bound by Rosamund Hodge

So a TON of people love Rosamund Hodge’s books and they do sound amazing, I mean dark fairy tale retellings? Hell yes! Unfortunately this one was confusing, I spent a lot of my time completely lost as to what was going on and the characters were really flat. Maybe I’ll like her other books more but if they’re like this one I already know I won’t.

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8.) Shadow & Bone by Leigh Bardugo

Another extremely hyped book and series that I just did not love as much as everyone. I hated the main character and I felt there was a lack of world building. However, I thought Bardugo’s writing improved vastly with “Six of Crows” which I loved.

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7.) Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

I honestly think I should turn this rating from a 3 to a 2 since I really didn’t like this book all that much. Celaena was annoying and vain and not as badass as everyone makes her seem, also a lack of world building. Definitely a black sheep with this one since EVERYONE loves this series.

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6.) Cinder by Marissa Meyer

The Lunar Chronicles is another series that is wildly popular and for me “Cinder” was a big disappointment. My main problem was how predictable the story was but I am thinking about continuing the series.

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5.) The Crown’s Games by Evelyn Skye

Another book that got super hyped and was wildly disappointing for me. It was FULL of insta-love, an awful love triangle, and lack of world building once again (see a theme here for me?). Also the magical fight to the death was just a bunch of parlor tricks and no actual fighting occurred.

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4.) Soundless by Richelle Mead

I absolutely loved Mead’s Vampire Academy series so I was expecting to love her new standalone but I did not. Once again the complete lack of world building was the biggest reason I did not like this book.

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3.) Between The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea by April Genevieve Tucholke

Seems a ton of people loved this book and while the writing is very beautiful I thought the characters were awful and idiotic, and the romance was also full of cliches.

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2.) These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly

I really wanted to like this book because EVERYONE loves it but it was just so slooooooow and boring for me. Seriously this book had no business being 500 pages….

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1.) Blackhearts by Nicole Castroman

Lots of people actually liked this book and I can see why like if you like historical fiction romances for the most part. However, for me I was expecting actual PIRATES since this is supposed to be about Blackbeard! Did I get pirates! No! I got zero pirates!

What books do you love more or less than everyone else?

Did you dislike any of these books too? Or like them?

Let me know in the comments and feel free to link up your TTT as well! 

Top 5 Wednesday: Books That Took Me The Longest To Finish

Top 5 Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Sam @ Thoughts on Tomes and created by Lainey @ Ginger Reads Lainey. You can check out the group’s Goodreads page for this month’s topics!

This week’s theme is books that took us the longest to read! I don’t know about you guys but I always feel like I read a lot slower than I actually do so here I was thinking this would be easy but apparently that was not the case. I thought I took WEEKS or even a month to finish certain books when in reality it may have been a week or a week and a half but at the time it felt like forever. So I don’t read as horrendously slow as I thought I did and that’s a relief.

I also wanted to pick some books that have been sitting on my shelves forever that I finally read and ran into a problem with that….which is I haven’t read many of the books that have been sitting there forever. Whoops.

So here are some of the most recent reads that took me longer than  usual to push through! Enjoy!

5.) These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly

This only took me a few days to actually read but it FELT like forever, honestly if you asked me how long it took me to finish this book I’d have to say a few weeks when in reality it didn’t. Usually I’m not one to complain about page number but when you’re bored out of your mind then 488 pages feels like a lot.

In the end the pacing was slow and the book was too long for me, but that’s just my opinion!

You can read my full review of “These Shallow Graves” here.

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4.) Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

Reading “Throne of Glass” was not only a slow process for me but also a bit painful, I don’t understand the hype with this book and series. BUT before anyone lynches me I’m willing to give the sequel a try to see if it gets better!

The first time I tried reading this book I got 20% in and set it down to read something else because it just wasn’t that interesting to me. So the second time I picked it back up it took me 3 weeks to finish which is a long time for me personally.

You can read my full review of “Throne of Glass” here.

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3.) Nevernight by Jay Kristoff

Firstly I’d like to say I LOVED this book, OK? So why exactly did it take me a little over a month to finish this bad boy you may ask? Well it’s a damn hard book to zip through in my opinion because: 1.) It’s long 2.) The pacing is a little slow to start off 3.) There’s A LOT of information to grasp. It’s definitely worth it to push through the beginning though, trust me it’s such an amazing book…it just might take you a while….

You can read my full review of “Nevernight” here.

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2.) A Dance With Dragons by George R. R. Martin

Do I need to even explain why this took me so long? It’s 1,125 pages and I mean come on it’s a fantasy book so there’s A LOT of stuff going on to keep track of. I picked this baby up a handful of times and kept setting it back down until I finally managed to push through it and now I have epic bragging rights!

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1.) Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Once I actually started this lovely book I could not put it down and finished it in a jiffy. So why is it #1 on this list? Because it sat unread on my Nook for about 3-4 years. YEARS. I just never got around to it and once I joined the book blogging community I saw how much love it got as well as how much everyone loved Laini Taylor period. This is a book I should have read sooner and it’s worth all the hype for sure!

You can read my full review of “Daughter of Smoke and Bone” here.

Have you read any of the books on this list?

What books did it take you forever to read?

How long did it take you to finish them?

Let me know in the comments and feel free to link up your T5W as well!

Top 5 Wednesday: Most Unlikable Characters (NOT Villains)

Top 5 Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Sam @ Thoughts on Tomes and created by Lainey @ Ginger Reads Lainey. You can check out the group’s Goodreads page for this month’s topics!

This week’s topic is unlikable characters but they can’t be villains! So basically any main characters or secondary characters you found annoying or just ya know…unlikable.

Please note that these are my own opinions and I don’t mean to offend anyone who does like the characters I mention!

5.) Celaena Sardothien (Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas)

While Celaena isn’t the most unlikable character I’ve come across she still can contend in my top 5. My biggest problem with this character is that she is made out to be the kingdom’s most badass assassin and it just does not show at all, she spends far more time concerned about her cleanliness, clothes, and boys. Where was the badass-ness I was promised? I just found her to be really…annoying.

I feel scared because this is such a popular series but…

I’m basing this only off of book one since I have not read the entire series, let me know if she gets better later in the series!

You can read my full review here.

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4.) Zoe Redbird (House of Night Series by P.C. & Kristin Cast)

How did I manage to read so many of these books? They were pretty bad in my opinion and all of the characters were pretty intolerable. Zoe Redbird is the main character and pretty much all she cares about is…you guessed it, boys. Basically you have a bunch of sex-crazed, annoying teenagers and Zoe is at their front.

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3.) Alina Starkov (Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo)

Alina is probably the most special of snowflakes and it was annoying as hell. Not to mention the fact that she spends pretty much all of her time hating how attractive all of the other Grisha are compared to herself, because she’s “so plain and boring”. Almost every decision she made felt idiotic and it irritated me. All of that, for me, made for a very unlikable character.

You can read a mini review here.

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2.) Jace Wayland (City of Bones by Cassandra Clare)

This was actually pretty much a toss up between him and Clary, I find them both equally annoying but Jace won out. I found him to be too narcissistic and he was more or less a douchebag. Sorry but this guy was way too annoying for me!

You can read a slightly rage-y review here.

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1.) Bella Swan (The Twilight Series by Stephanie Meyer)

I don’t feel like I really have to explain this one, do I? It’s Bella Swan guys.

Have you read any of these books?

What did you think of these characters?

What characters do you find the most unlikable?

Let me know in the comments and feel free to leave a link to your T5W as well!

June Wrap-Up

Well I haven’t done a monthly wrap up in a while and I figured I better start again, I’m absolutely terrible about staying organized with my posts right now but I’m trying to get better about it! It’s pretty hard to be an organized blogger in the summer for me though. I’ve got a slew of book reviews to write as well as tons of tags to do but here’s my June Wrap-Up at least!

Books Read This Month: 6

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas –

With Malice by Eileen Cook –

Stormdancer by Jay Kristoff  –

A Drop of Night by Stefan Bachmann – (3.5)

Red Queen by Christina Henry – (3.5)

Welcome to the Dark House by Laurie Faria Stolarz –

Reviews Finished This Month

The Raven Boys (The Raven Cycle #1) by Maggie Stiefvater

Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass #1) by Sarah J. Maas

With Malice by Eileen Cook

(I’m sorry I’ve been slacking so bad with these other reviews guys!)

Tags & Memes Done This Month

Top Ten Tuesday: My Version of Beach Reads

Top Ten Tuesday: 10 Reasons I Love Book Blogging

Top Ten Tuesday: 2016 Releases I’ve Read So Far This Year

Top 5 Wednesday: My Favorite Character Names

Top 5 Wednesday: Favorite Posts on The Sassy Book Geek

The TBR Book Tag

Other Posts

Hyped Books: The Good & The Bad

300 Followers! Q&A

300 Followers! Q&A Answers

What I’m Currently Reading

Nevernight by Jay Kristoff

A Study in Charlotte by Brittney Cavallaro

How was your reading month this June?

What are you currently reading?

What’s on your TBR for July?

Book Review: Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

In a land without magic, where the king rules with an iron hand, an assassin is summoned to the castle. She comes not to kill the king, but to win her freedom. If she defeats twenty-three killers, thieves, and warriors in a competition, she is released from prison to serve as the king’s champion. Her name is Celaena Sardothien.

The Crown Prince will provoke her. The Captain of the Guard will protect her. But something evil dwells in the castle of glass–and it’s there to kill. When her competitors start dying one by one, Celaena’s fight for freedom becomes a fight for survival, and a desperate quest to root out the evil before it destroys her world.

I didn’t really like this book.

I am having an immensely hard time coping with the fact that I did not think this book was that great, it was just okay. Not great, not mind blowing, not the best YA fantasy I’ve ever read. The hype surrounding this series is INSANE and that’s probably why I had such a hard time with this book because, to me, the hype just was not worth it at all.

I’m very disappointed with “Throne of Glass” but at the same time it was alright. In the end I feel like a three star rating is being very generous because I honestly could have easily gone with 2 stars or 2.5 stars as well.

I think what my biggest problem with this book is that it promises things it doesn’t deliver. Celaena is described as the best and most dangerous assassin around and she spends the better half of the book SAYING she is but not SHOWING that she is. Where’s my badass assassin who actually kills people? Where’s the action? I wanted more action! We got to read about some of the tests for the competition but only a handful, why? If we had more insight into this King’s Champion competition it could have been more action-packed and therefore a little more interesting, at least for me. There was a lot of missed out opportunities to read about something other than the love triangle and dresses.

So while I didn’t think there was ENOUGH action and too many descriptions of Celaena’s dresses, Maas did succeed in keeping the plot suspenseful and tense. I did manage to finish the book after all, right? I wanted to know what was going to happen next and that’s what kept me turning pages even when nothing else really did. I really wish I could explain more in depth what I loved about the plot but I can’t  without spoiling it, so you’ll have to find out on your own!

The pacing was pretty fast and seldom was there a time when it really slowed down. I know it took me practically forever to even finish this book but honestly that wasn’t due to a slow paced book so much as me not being very attached to the characters.

Also the world building was pretty decent, there were enough interesting tidbits to satisfy me and make me curious for more all at once. It is a little bit light on the world building for my tastes but it was still interesting and I liked the descriptions of the places, religion, and politics of Maas’s world in “Throne of Glass”.

Remember when I said my biggest problem with this book is that it doesn’t deliver? That mostly applies to these characters. They were all just very bland to me I didn’t feel any sort of connection to them and I was very underwhelmed when anything happened to them.

Celaena by far is the most disappointing overall and honestly I think it may be safe for me to say she’s the most disappointing character I have ever come across. Everyone, herself included, talks about how dangerous she is and how she’s the world’s greatest assassin but I found myself asking “how?” the entire duration of this book. As far as I could see all she did was talk about how skilled she was instead of proving it, I just have a hard time believing Celaena Sardothien is the best assassin this fantasy world has to offer.

Celaena is also extremely vain and we spend an extensive amount of time reading about her worrying about dresses and shoes. I mean for someone who is supposedly the greatest assassin ever you would think she wouldn’t covet material items so much, right? We also hear about how beautiful she is constantly with her special eyes with special rings of gold in them. All of that was definitely giving me Mary-Sue vibes.

Then we have Prince Dorian and Chaol the Captain of the Guard. Meh. That’s how I felt about both of them they weren’t particularly interesting and definitely not very swoon-inspiring.

Honestly my favorite character was Princess Nehemia and I thought her to be far more worthy of my respect. She doesn’t shy away from anyone or anything and I loved her loyalty and devotion to her people and her country. If the entire book was more about her I might have enjoyed it more.

I did not enjoy any of the “romance” one bit. We have borderline insta-love and a tedious love triangle. Count me out.

Celaena is almost instantly enamored and making moony eyes over Dorian and I feel like their “relationship” came out of nowhere, it didn’t feel developed at all since they barely spent any time together. With Chaol it was a little more believable since he was always training with Celaena. Either way I thought both options were very uninteresting and I could have cared less who she chose in the end.

I also feel like the love triangle took away from both the characters and the plot in this book.

I’m going to try my best to just quickly sum up my feelings on “Throne of Glass”:

• I strongly disliked our main character, Celaena.
• I really hated the love triangle.
• I didn’t think there was enough “world’s greatest assassin”-worthy action.
• I did enjoy the pacing and the plot itself, it was actually interesting.
• The world building was satisfying enough.

So there is both good and bad for me which is why it received a sort of neutral rating at 3 stars. I enjoyed it enough to finish but overall I wasn’t too impressed.

I will be continuing the series with “Crown of Midnight” because it seems to me everyone says it gets way better. *crosses fingers*

Eh, not really. For as crazy as the hype is I think if you want to check it out for yourself then definitely go right ahead, it’s not a terrible book but for me it just wasn’t as great as I thought it would be.

Links: Goodreads / Amazon