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 Surprised Me
(in a good or bad way)
Thunderhead by. Neal Shusterman
The ending left me with my jaw open – I was like, what is going on?! Also I’m always surprised when I enjoy a sci/fi book, it’s not my favorite genre. But I really like Thunderhead’s voice in this story, especially since we are now in the age of AI.
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I was surprised that this was a dark romance fantasy! I just thought it was going to be a cute romantasy. I’ve read a ya thriller, and a dark romantasy from this author just this year alone!
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Of Earthly Delights by. Goldy Moldavsky
The ending of this one surprised me!
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Filthy Rich Vampire by. Geneva Lee Albin
Surprised I even finished this one and I have book two on kindle unlimited but I don’t think I’m ever going to read it.
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Surprised with the adult Harry Potter mafia vibes – it works though and makes the spicy scenes a bit creative!
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Sunrise on the Reaping by. Suzanne Collins
Surprised that the epilogue made me shed a tear. 😢
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Surprised that reading BDSM is not my thing when I feel like I did read so much more of it when I was younger 🤔 and it didn’t phaze me – honestly I don’t think it was the sex scenes even though it’s not my cup of tea, I don’t know that I liked Lukas – he was cold and left ME cold to the story.
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Surprised I didn’t love this one – I might just read it again because maybe I wasn’t in the right headspace when I picked it up?
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Dungeons and Drama by. Kristy Boyce
Surprised I learned a few things about Dungeons and Dragons from this book. This one was cute.
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Their Monstrous Hearts by. Yiǧit Turhan
This book was too slow for me but that ending left me definitely surprised!
What’s on your TTT?
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February 25: Books Set in Another Time (These can be historical, futuristic, alternate universes, or even in a world where you’re not sure when it takes place you just know it’s not right now.)March 4: Things Characters Have Said (Maybe a character said something really profound or romantic or hilarious or heartbreaking. You could share witty one-liners, mic-drop moments, snippets of funny dialogue between multiple characters, catchphrases, quotes that have become a part of pop culture–like “May the odds be ever in your favor.”, etc.)
March 11: Books that Include/Feature [insert your favorite theme or plot device here] (for example: unreliable narrators, coming of age, darkness vs. light, time travel, metafiction, a specific romantic trope, good vs. evil. cliffhangers, flashbacks, plot twists, red herrings, loose ends, stories within stories, meet cutes, symbolism, etc.) (submitted by Alice @ The Wallflower Digest)March 18: Books on My Spring 2025 to-Read ListApril 15: My Unpopular Bookish Opinions (You can share opinions surrounding being a reader, a book reviewer, etc. OR you could share your opinions on specific books that go against what everyone else is saying. Are there any books you loved that most people didn’t, or vice versa?)
March 25: Books I Did Not Finish (DNFed) (feel free to tell us why, but please no spoilers!)
April 1: Books You’d be a Fool Not to Read (Happy April Fool’s Day! In honor of this silly holiday, share the books you think people must read for whatever reason. They could be your favorites, books you deem classics, books that you learned something important from, books you wish you’d read sooner, etc. You could even narrow it down to a specific genre and share the must-reads for that genre. Get creative!)
April 8: Books with Springy Covers (Pastel colors, flowers, baby animals, sunshine, etc.)April 22: Books that Surprised Me (in a good or bad way)April 29: Books with the Word “[Insert Word Here]” in the Title (Choose a word and find ten books with that word in the title.)
Past Midnight Book Reviews & More 
Adult Harry Potter Mafia vibes!? That sounds so weird but also amazing 😂 I haven’t heard of that book before but you’ve definitely piqued my curiosity with that description! I’ve also heard some people commenting the same thing about the MMC from Deep End. I hope that I end up liking him otherwise I can see how the whole thing would just fall flat!
Spicy harry potter! lol it was definitely interesting and entertaining. The author is Laura Steven who is the one that wrote Our Infinite Fates which I haven’t read yet but have been seeing everywhere. But I guess for this adult genre her pen name is L.K. Steven. Silvercloak comes out in July – I was just so intrigued by the premise and cover that I read the arc early. I’ve seen a lot of people say Deep End is a hit or miss, I wonder if I should have listened to the audiobook or maybe that would make it worse LOL – I don’t know if I was doing the right Swedish accent in my head when I read it and maybe that’s why I wasn’t into him. 😅
Great list! I have Filthy Rich Vampires on my shelf.. and like the first four books. Yikes! haha. I have Silvercloak coming up next week. I’m running out of time. haha. I felt the same way about Onyx Storm!! Sunrise is on so many lists this week and rightfully so.
Deep End was a positive surprise for me as well. Sunrise on the Reaping was exactly what I expected it to be and whereas I needed 2 attempts, I enjoyed Thunderhead in the end. The Toll however is a different story, so confusing!
My TTT: https://laurieisreading.com/2025/04/22/top-ten-tuesday-books-that-surprised-me/
I haven’t started on The Toll yet, hopefully sometimes this year I can get to it.
Great selection! I agree about the ending of Their Monstrous Hearts.
It was such a slow build up and then a shocking ending!
Thunderhead would definitely make my list – that ending!