Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme 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
Happy Tuesday y’all! This week’s topic is “The Last Ten Books I Abandoned.” I personally hate to put a book down. Quitting sucks, especially if I’ve spent a lot of time reading the book in the first place. However sometimes you have to stop. I’ve learned over the last year and a half that if a book doesn’t work for me that it is ok to stop reading it. Just because a book doesn’t work for me doesn’t mean it won’t work for someone else. There are just too many books out there to be stuck reading one I don’t enjoy. Below are the last five books I’ve set aside for one reason or another, in no particular order. Covers/Titles link to Blog/Goodreads/Amazon (aff).
Recently Abandoned Books
Assassin’s Blade by Melinda R. Cordell: I personally enjoyed this one to a point. I read it to around the 35% mark. What I liked was the storyline. This is a fantasy world based on Italy during what I would consider the Holy Wars time period. There are dragons, lots of action, political unrest, and did I mention dragons?! Despite this, I struggled with the writing style and dialect used by the characters. It was formal and attempted to mimic the time period the world is based on, however at times modern day vernacular would slip in. For me it was very distracting and I struggled to get back into the story when this would happen. Otherwise it was a very well thought out plot, the characters were intriguing. I may go back one day to finish it, but not today.
An Act of Faith by C.A. Oliver: I struggled with this one from the first page. I typically enjoy fae stories which is why I originally agreed to read an arc. However this one didn’t work for me at all. After slogging through the first 15% I skimmed to see what would happen. After skimming more than half the book, I concluded it just wasn’t for me. It’s written in a formal dialect, and I struggled keeping the characters straight.
Rising by Tamar Sloan & Heidi Catherine: I read the prequel novella to this series and was excited to dive into the first book. Maybe it was bad timing on my part when I started it, but I couldn’t focus on this one to save my life. This dystopian tale is told from the POV of multiple characters, which I typically enjoy. However a few of the characters are immature and drama seems to control their life. Yes y’all I know it’s YA and I should expect teen drama, but there’s only so much of that I can handle 😉
Before by S.K. Gregory: I have every intention of going back to this book someday. I read the first book in the series and absolutely loved it. This book is the second in the series, but acts as a prequel taking the reader back to before the zombie apocalypse occurred. It references a couple of the main characters from the first book, who are much younger here. Because some time had passed since I read the first one, I struggled remembering who was who. I’d like to go back and read book one, then immediately go into this one. I think that would help me make it through the whole story. Otherwise I was just lost.
Don’t Read the Comments by Eric Smith: I was so excited for this! I love cute contemporary romances, especially ones that have a unique meetcute. This one is based on the online gaming world, which I also love. However I really struggled with it. I couldn’t connect with the characters. And I really didn’t like the main love interest. It may have been the time and mood I was in when I picked it up, I’ll eventually give it another try (it’s getting great reviews from other reviewers). I think this was one of those cases of “it’s me not you.”
I don’t know about y’all, but I have a giant TBR – on my Kindle, Goodreads, and physical shelves. Some of those books I know I’ll never read. Some I’ve simply forgotten about. Lia @ Lost in a Story created a meme a few years back called Down the TBR Hole to help clear out your TBR shelf. It doesn’t look like she is active anymore, BUT this meme is still hanging around the blogosphere for good reason. For today’s topic I thought it would be a good idea to start going down my own TBR hole. Below are the oldest five books on my Goodreads TBR shelf (currently this shelf is sitting at 383 books). Check back the first Saturday of every month as I attempt to tame the beast 😉
Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
Blurb:
Anna can’t wait for her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a good job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. So she’s not too thrilled when her father unexpectedly ships her off to boarding school in Paris – until she meets Etienne St. Clair, the perfect boy. The only problem? He’s taken, and Anna might be, too, if anything comes of her crush back home. Will a year of romantic near-misses end in the French kiss Anna awaits?
This was one of the first books ever recommended to me on Goodreads through one of the groups I had joined. I’ve never been much of a YA contemporary reader, but I do enjoy sweet romances.
Verdict: KEEP
Blurb:
Everybody loves KJ. Especially the geeks. See, KJ Miller is super nice, smart, pretty, the stage manager of her high school’s spring musical . . . and a total geek magnet. She’s like the geek pied piper of Washington High, drawing every socially clueless guy in a five-mile radius. If only Cameron, the hottest guy in school, would follow her around and worship her the way her entourage of dorks do. Enter Tama Gold, queen of the popular crowd, and solution to all of KJ’s problems. KJ is too nice, and the nice girl never gets the guy. Tama’s ready to help KJ get cruel, ditch the dorks, and win Cameron’s heart. But is KJ?
I honestly can’t remember how this one wound up on my TBR. The cover is kinda cute, and the blurb reminds me of a reverse Can’t Buy Me Love. But again I’m not a huge contemporary reader.
Verdict: TOSS
Blurb:
In Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl, Cath is a Simon Snow fan. Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan, but for Cath, being a fan is her life-and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving.
Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.
Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.
Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words . . . And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.
For Cath, the question is: Can she do this? Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?
I went on a purchasing spree on Bookoutlet.com several years ago. At one point I had all of Rainbow Rowell’s books that were released at the time, including this one. I love the blurb for it. I no longer have the book though (we’ve moved a lot in the last few years), but I’d still like to read it…I think.
Verdict: KEEP
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Blurb:
When Death has a story to tell, you listen.
It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still.
Liesel Meminger is a foster girl living outside of Munich, who scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement.
In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak, author of I Am the Messenger, has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time.
I have a soft spot for historical fiction, and I found this book at a local used bookstore years ago. I still haven’t read it, and I’m pretty sure I loaned it out to someone and never got it back. Regardless, it sounds like a good book that I would enjoy….maybe….
Verdict: TOSS
Blurb:
They had nothing in common until love gave them everything to lose . . .
Louisa Clark is an ordinary girl living an exceedingly ordinary life—steady boyfriend, close family—who has barely been farther afield than their tiny village. She takes a badly needed job working for ex–Master of the Universe Will Traynor, who is wheelchair bound after an accident. Will has always lived a huge life—big deals, extreme sports, worldwide travel—and now he’s pretty sure he cannot live the way he is.
Will is acerbic, moody, bossy—but Lou refuses to treat him with kid gloves, and soon his happiness means more to her than she expected. When she learns that Will has shocking plans of his own, she sets out to show him that life is still worth living.
A Love Story for this generation and perfect for fans of John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars, Me Before You brings to life two people who couldn’t have less in common—a heartbreakingly romantic novel that asks, What do you do when making the person you love happy also means breaking your own heart?
Another bargain book find at the used book store 😉 I originally picked this one up and added it to the TBR because I wanted to read the book before I saw the movie (love Sam Claflin). However I never got around to it, and as a result I never saw the movie. I also no longer own the book, I traded it for a different book….y’all I have a serious problem.
Verdict: TOSS
Your Turn! What books have you abandoned recently? Why did you abandon books? Any books I’ve purged I should add back to the TBR? Share below
Good for you for knowing your limits!
Lydia recently posted…Top Ten Tuesday: The Last Ten Books I Abandoned
It took a long time for me to accept that 😅
I totally agree with you – I have too many books I want to read to waste time on one I’m not enjoying. I DNF books all the time now 🙂 It’s liberating!
Happy TTT!
Susan
http://www.blogginboutbooks.com
It really is!
Those are pretty much all new to me ones! A few are familiar though, but none were ever in my TBR pile.
Here’s my Tuesday Post
Have a GREAT day!
Old Follower 🙂
Yay for learning to DNF books! I used to always get caught up in reading right to the end, like it was a chore. Whyyyy — reading is supposed to be fun! So grats on that. 🙂
Also, yes Fangirl. I didn’t love it as much as some other folks do, but it was sweet!
Nikki @ The Bibliophibian recently posted…Top Ten Tuesday
It took a long time for me to learn that it was ok to DNF. Like you I’d stick with it like a chore until it was finished. It’s kind of a relief to sit a book down and move on to one I’ll enjoy. 😉