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 Popular Books that Lived Up to the Hype
Paein
1 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
by J K Rowling
Avg Goodreads Rating: 4.54 stars
Ah, my favourite of the Harry Potter books. I received the first 3 for my birthday after the third came out and I never looked back!
This is my favourite because we learn something more about Harry’s parents.
2 The Wrath and the Dawn
by Renee Ahdieh
Avg Goodreads Rating: 4.17 stars
I received this for my birthday too! But I waited for book two before reading it, which was a great move because I loved it and needed to read book two right away.
I loved the way this story was told and what’s more there was no love triangle!
3 A Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue
by Mackenzi Lee
Avg Goodreads Rating: 4.16 stars
I listened to this as an audio book recently, having spent forever thinking it wasn’t going to be my kind of book (I wasn’t sure I would like Monty).
The narrator though was superb and really brought Monty to live in the most fantastic way.
4 Thunderhead
by Neal Shusterman
Avg Goodreads Rating: 4.54 stars
Another audio book with a fantastic narrator and, more surprisingly, not a disappointing book 2!
This is such a clever world and we learn so much more in book 2. I’m eagerly anticipating book 3.
5 Outlander
by Diana Gabaldon
Avg Goodreads Rating: 4.22 stars
I don’t think I decided to read this until the show was out. Yes! I’d watched the first half and I wanted to know what happened next because there was a break in the series so I read the ebook.
I later also listened to the audio book for a recap. I think that a physical book or the audio book would be better than an ebook as it’s so large.
I loved reading a book set in Scotland that talked about the clans and gave some history with the romance.
…
Ms4Tune
6 The Diviners
by Libba Bray
Avg Goodreads Rating : 3.97 Stars
Pretty sure it was higher than that when I read it… hmm
Does anyone else get put off by massive books? I do! and even though I loved the sound of this book, I’d been avoiding it because of its 578 pages.
That was until I started to read the really amazing reviews going up. Reviews gushing about how atmospheric it was and how the story was gripping and spooky and, well, I gave in and I have to say it has to be one of my all time favourite books. It’s definitely worth the hype and the 578 pages!
7 Station Eleven
by Emily St John Mandel
Avg Goodreads Rating : 4.03 Stars
Nearly everyone I knew on Goodreads at the time had read this and given it 4 or 5 stars and I was really intrigued to see why.
I loved it so much I devoured it in 2 days – (it would have been quicker if I didn’t have to work) – great apocalypse novel.
8 Daughter of Smoke and Bone
by Laini Taylor
Avg Goodreads Rating : 4.03 Stars
When I first joined goodreads in 2012, this book was everywhere and everyone was ranting about it.
So of course I ordered it immediately and thankfully loved every second of it.
That’s what I love about Goodreads, you find so many books you would never have heard of otherwise.
It took years for this to become popular here in the UK.
9 Me Before You
by Jojo Moyes
Avg Goodreads Rating : 4.27 Stars
Now I think everyone at least knows about this book even if they haven’t read it or (heaven forbid) just watched the film…
but I have loved Jojo Moyes ever since I found her book Ship of Brides in a discount bin at Sainsburys way back in 2006… (My love is strong).
I had read a lot of her other books, mainly the historical ones, but hadn’t got round to this one and I knew I had too as soon as I saw all the fangirling reviews going up. It really is an amazing book that stomps all over your heart.
10 And I Darken
by Kiersten White
Avg Goodreads Rating : 3.90 Stars
I really loved this dark fantasy with an anti-hero for the main character. I only found it because of all the hype. I really want to finish the series now that its complete. Will have to have a re-read of it I think.
