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. Please check out her website for more TTT topics!
This week’s topic is:
Books That Defied My Expectations
(books you thought you would didn’t like that you loved, books you thought you’d love but didn’t, books that were not the genres they seemed to be, or in any other way subverted your expectations!)
I loved Unholy Terrors but I was worried I wouldn’t because for one, I didn’t particularly love the cover, but I did like the synopsis so I requested it hoping it would be a dark read and wasn’t disappointed. But my worry for disappointment was because I had just finished this authors last book, Forestfall, and didn’t love it. I was hoping to love Forestfall since I loved the first book, but it fell flat for me.
I heard so many good things about Seven Percent of Ro Devereux and I went in not knowing to expect and absolutely loved it, so I’m happy about that!
I got Stealing Infinity on Kindle Unlimited. I love the cover but wasn’t sure about the time-jumping aspect of the story but one day I decided to try it, despite it having some bad reviews but you know what? It wasn’t that bad!
I got Fourth Wing I think just as the hype was building and I’m glad I’m jumped on it because it’s one of my most favorite book of 2023. Usually I avoid the hype for a good few months but there was something about this one that sounded good and it lived up to expectations.
Immortal Longings made me go through some things. I was expecting a lot because it’s Chloe Gong and I was not feeling it at all. I almost DNF’ed the book! But something told me to just push through and the second half made it up for me. So it was definitely not what I expected.
The twin trope is not my favorite so I was hesitant to read Twin Crowns but I actually enjoyed the story a lot!
I’ve read the first series by Amelie Wen Zhao and went into Song of Silver, Flame Like Night with no expectations, except I did love the cover. And I loved this story more than expected! Looking forward to book two.
The Poppy War was all over book blogs and I didn’t know what to expect when I decided to finally read it but wow, what a book! It exceeded any expectation I had!
It’s a gorgeous cover and I love her other work, but The Last Tale of the Flower Bride was sadly, a DNF for me.
Have you read any of these books? Are any of these on your TBR? What’s on your TTT?
Past Midnight Book Reviews & More 
Fourth Wing would definitely make my list!
So many good books on this list! Fourth Wong is definitely a 2023 favourite too!
yes!
Oh I ended up winning a copy of Immortal Longings from Goodreads. I haven’t read it but it’s so good to hear you enjoyed it. I will make sure to push through it. Sad to hear about The Last Tale of the Flower Bride. I feel I’ve heard mixed things about it. I was going to pick it up but then I think cause a lot of people didn’t like it has me a bit iffy.
Nice! Congrats on winning a copy – I hope you do like it.
I do hope I can get to it soon. I’m trying to stay up to date with e-arcs.
Same! I’m trying to finish up arcs.
I’ve seen a lot of disappointment for The Last Tale of the Flower Bride. I was worried about the hype for Fourth Wing, but I ended up loving it, too. I just had a book club with friends and we ended up talking about Fourth Wing the whole time instead of the book we were supposed to read. LOL!
Fourth Wing is so good! I’m so excited the sequel comes out soon!
Oof, the way I keep hearing The Last Tale is not up to par with her other work. Makes me want to yet again send it down my TBR list. Happy The Poppy War was a hit though. R. F. Kuang deserves all the praise for that series.
Yeah The Last Tale sadly wasn’t up to par. And I agree, The Poppy War deserves all the praise!