The Top 10 Books That Surprised Me

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s topic is Books That Surprised Me.

Any time I read a book, I want to love it. But sometimes, for whatever reason, I expect to like but maybe not love a book, but read it for one reason or another. Here are some books I hoped to like, but ended up really loving/liking more than expected!

This week’s list is in no particular order.

1. All The Crooked Saints by Maggie Stiefvater

2. A Dash of Dragon by Heidi Lang and Kati Bartkowski

3. Better Off Friends by Elizabeth Eulberg

4. Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal

5. Nora & Kettle by Lauren Nicolle Taylor

6. My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows

7. The Start of Me and You by Emery Lord

8. The Last Time We Say Goodbye by Cynthia Hand

9. Let’s All Be Brave by Annie F. Downs

10. All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill

What books have you read that exceeded your expectations?

7 Responses to The Top 10 Books That Surprised Me

  1. Yes to All Our Yesterdays! I had no idea what to expect when I went into that book but I ended up absolutely loving it. It’s too bad the sequel didn’t work out but I have major respect for the author to not force it if it wasn’t working. I really want to read her other book though.

    And gosh, I really need to read All the Crooked Saints. I’d love to read it for our book club but I just cannot give myself permission to read a book I don’t already own with this move coming up. I’m really curious if I’ll like it though. I seem to have such a hit or miss relationship with Stiefvater’s books. I hated The Wolves of Mercy Falls series, loved The Raven Boys, felt meh about The Dream Thieves, am currently somewhat liking Blue Lily, Lily Blue… I’m just all over the place with her books! It’s almost becoming a game for me where I want to read her books just to see which way they fall.

    • (PS. I’m super excited that I submitted this comment and didn’t have any errors like I used to because I forgot to copy it before submitting. Yay for sites working!)

      • Yes! My website guy installed a program that is doing a great job keeping out real spam but letting my friends comment! And I completely agree with you about All Our Yesterdays! I have read sequels that felt forced before so I would have hated if that had happened to All Our Yesterdays. When you do read All The Crooked Saints, be it sooner or later, I’ll be curious to hear your thoughts! It’s very different from other stuff I usually read/enjoy. The only other Stiefvater book I’ve read is The Scorpio Races, which I did like, but I think I liked this one more.

  2. All The Crooked Saints has been sitting on my shelf since it came out and I still haven’t made time to read it 🙁 It’s encouraging, though, that you liked it! And My Lady Jane was a great surprise. I expected to like it ok but then really, really enjoyed it.

    • I think you’ll enjoy All The Crooked Saints! It took me a little while to get into and I was reading it for book club so it wasn’t really my choice, but by the end I had been really wrapped up in it! I can’t wait for My Plain Jane; I’m hoping it as fun as My Lady Jane!

  3. I’ve only read one of these! And it was a nice surprise for me as well – All Our Yesterdays. I thought I would enjoy it because I like time travel, but it was so much more than a book about time travel. I’m still really sad that the author’s attempts at a sequel never felt right to her because I would have loved to read about what came after the ending.

    As for books that have surprised me… I can’t really think of any off the top of my head. I recently re-read Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi and it went from a four star original rating to a five star, and that surprised me a lot! Books usually go down in ratings when I re-read them because my tastes and way of reading change a lot. But there was just something about Unravel Me this time that really got to my heart. So that was a big surprise!

    • It was definitely way more than time travel! Just a well-crafted story overall. I still haven’t read the author’s second book, Here Lies Daniel Tate. I wonder if I’d like it as much.

      And I’m with you, I feel like my excitement level for a book usually goes down or stays the same upon a reread, but that’s awesome you loved it even more!

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