Disappointing Reads of 2019

Oh boy here we go with a controversial post...my disappointing reads of 2019. I read a lot of books in 2019 and enjoyed a lot of them...but there were also some that I didn't enjoy as much as I thought I would. And today we're going to discuss them. 

Let me preface this post by saying that I don't necessarily hate these books, just that I think they fell flat in comparison to my personal expectations or the hype surrounding them. Some of these I even rated pretty high. However, all of these books were very hyped up in the bookish community and all of them fell flat for me. 

There are only four on this list, which I'd say is a pretty good number since I read over 130 books in the course of 2019. However, some of them were some of my most anticipated reads which means that them being on this list is a bit sad for me.

Up first: Lord of Shadows by Cassandra Clare. Oh my god this book was boring. I hate to say it, but it was boring. There were genuinely some really good moments, but the fact that this book was so long really did not help the story. What would have made it better for me, personally, was if it was a lot shorter and we got rid of a bunch of filler stuff so that those really good scenes were able to shine through. I will admit that I cried in this book, but it took until the ending for that to happen. This book was so hyped and Lady Midnight was so good...and I'm very sad I didn't like this one as much.

Next we have Wicked Saints by Emily A. Duncan. I was really excited going into this book and I'll admit to having high expectations that were severely let down. I almost DNF-ed this book, but since I'd been sent a copy to review I forced myself to finish it. At first, I was so in awe of the ending that I was like "alright that was a solid 3.5 or 4 stars." However, the more I thought back on it, especially now, the more I realized how much I actually disliked it and how much the ending did not make sense. I think if I were to re-rate it, I'd give it a 1 or 2 stars max. This is one instance of a book being on this list and me actually not liking it at all. I don't even care enough after the cliffhanger to even think about picking up the sequel. 

Then I have Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor. It hurts me that this book is on this list because I did enjoy it, I do plan on reading the sequel, and I have the most beautiful edition of this book. But everyone and their mother was hyping this book up to the extreme. Everyone was acting as if it was the greatest thing ever. And while I found the characters likeable and the writing to be beautiful, I finished this book and was left feeling very underwhelmed. The one redeeming thing for me, though, is that the sequel can pick up right where this one left off and hopefully more things will actually happen.

Lastly, I have another book that makes me very sad to put on this list: Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff. I genuinely do not know why I didn't like this book as much as I'd hoped. Maybe the hype got to me. Still, every time I look back on this book and what happened, I feel as if I should have enjoyed it more. It's by two of my favorite authors, the characters were all interesting, the story was compelling, and it had a lot of my favorite things in it.  Yet, for some reason, I was disappointed. Maybe I was just in a reading slump at the time. I do plan on rereading it in anticipation of the sequel, so hopefully my feelings will change for the better when that happens.

So those were my disappointing reads of 2019. I did rate books lower than these, but most of those were books I wasn't thinking I'd love anyway so they didn't actually disappoint me. I'm hoping that 2020 is a year filled with amazing books where none of them disappoint me at all, but we'll see!

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Thanks for reading!

xoxo

Lauren

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