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.
This weeks topic is Top Ten Books That Surprised Us

Paein

1 Scythe 

by Neal Shusterman

This was a slow starting book. Not quite boring but close. Then suddenly something switched and I just couldn’t put it down! This was extra surprising as I hadn’t loved the other book by Neal that I’d read.
Thinking I’ll collect the series before re-reading and finishing. I feel it will be that kind of series.

2 Battle Magic

by Tamora Pierce

Wow. Just wow. Sooo disappointing. I LOVE Tamora Pierce’s books (both worlds, though this might be my favourite), so to read THIS was just devastating. She’s been unwell it’s true, but you’d think that the publisher would have had someone checking continuity, no? Is that not their job?! NONE of the major character changing events that were mentioned in the books set after this are in here and it just baffles me – this is not what we were told happened here.
To top it off, some of the excerpts are of scenes that I’m pretty sure I never read! What?! I also thought that lots of people liked it – at the time of reading it my friend and I thought we had different copies as no one else seemed to feel the way we did – but having read some reviews I’m relieved to see many other long term fans feel the same!
If you’re yet to read this book, don’t bother.

3 Roar

by Cora Carmack

I wasn’t really expecting to like this one as much as I did. It sounded good to start off with. However I’m pretty sure there are all the usual cliches and it’s not got the most captivating writing and yet I really loved it! In fact, I’m really looking forward to book 2!

4 Meddling Kids

by Edgar Cantero

 

Really didn’t think you could go wrong with this premise. Boy was I wrong!!! Terrible book, I was so disappointing. I’m going to keep it and pretend I never read it because the cover and title are amazing!

 

5 The City of Brass

by S.A. Chakraborty

Still reading this one, but I’m really loving it! I was a little reluctant to read it as I wasn’t wholly sure I’d like it.

…

Ms4Tune

6 Jane Steele

by Lyndsay Faye

This Jane Eyre retelling was sooo good! I don’t know what I’d been expecting but whatever it was, it wasn’t this! It was dark and twisted and made Jane even more independent than the original Jane.

7 Rend the Dark / Skinshaper

by Mark Gelineau and Joe King

I don’t usually read novellas because I find them lacking but this pair have written a number of short stories all set in the same universe and this set was easily my favourite. It was so intense and gripping. Nothing like I’ve ever found before in the novella world. I just wish they’d come back with some more because I miss these characters so much!

8 Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

by Ransom Riggs

I wanted to love this series so much but I just didn’t, I don’t know why.

9 Nerve

by Jeanne Ryan

God this book was awful and it surprised me ’cause the premise was so amazing… How did it go so wrong? Seriously.

10 A Darker Shade of Magic

by V E Schwab

I got this book as an ARC but it was supposed to be an extract… lets just say I’m so glad it wasn’t just an extract. I sat down to read and review it and basically devoured the whole book in one sitting before I even realised what had happened. I’d never read anything by V E Schwab before or heard anything about this book before I picked it up but, V E Schwab is now one of my all time favourite authors.