Well, we're at the end of 2020. It's been a long year yet somehow this ending snuck up on me. I'm just glad it's over. Anyway, I'm not here to talk about my general feelings about 2020 but, rather, to dive into the first of my yearly wrap-up posts. Every year I do a few fun posts to wrap up my reading year and this year was definitely an interesting one.
Today I'm going to be chatting about my disappointing reads of 2020, but I feel like I need to give a bit of an explanation and disclaimer first. Just because these books are on this list does not mean I didn't like or enjoy them. Also, I am not trying to throw shade at any of these authors or people who like these books because, again, I did enjoy some of these. However, the books on this list are here because I had high or different expectations for the book and ended up disappointed. Let's go ahead and dive in!
The first on this list is actually the only one that I didn't like at all. In fact, I'd go as far to say that I hated it. I've mentioned this book multiple times over the year since I read it at the beginning of isolation but I just...it wasn't good. The book I'm talking about is Crave by Tracy Wolff. I had such high expectations for this book. It seemed right up my alley and I had heard nothing but positive reviews. And then I read it. And hated it. I won't get super in depth here because I have a non-spoiler rant review here but I just was severely disappointed and didn't like this book at all.
The next book is Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer. I feel like this might be a bit of a cop-out add since I technically haven't finished it yet but I think that fact warrants addition to this list on its own. I have been a die-hard Twilight fan since I was nine. I started Midnight Sun the day it came out. And I still haven't finished it. I'm over halfway and have been struggling. I'll have more thoughts once I finally finish but, for now, it's been mostly disappointing so far despite some new content I've enjoyed.
The third book I have is Losers Reap Her by Hayley Stumbo. This is the long-awaited final book in one of my favorite adult trilogies and I was so excited to finally get to reading it. I will admit that I probably hyped it up way to much in my mind and added unnecessary expectations to it. However, I also feel like this book was way different from the first two. Part of the reason I loved the trilogy so much was because I loved our main narrator, and when the POVs changed in this final book I felt a tad disconnected. Also, the ending was one of my least-favorite tropes of all time so that also didn't help. I won't say that I didn't like this book, because I did. I enjoyed finding the resolution to a trilogy I've loved for so long. However, i was a bit disappointed in it not matching my expectations.
The last book on this list is Blood & Honey by Shelby Mahurin. This one hurts probably the most out of every book on this list. The first book, Serpent & Dove, was my number one favorite book of 2019. It still remains one of my top books of all time. I was incredibly excited for the sequel. However, I felt like it let me down. I did try to make my expectations realistic in that a lot of the things I loved about the first book couldn't be replicated. However, it felt like this book dragged a bit and I was quite frustrated by many of the characters throughout a lot of the book. I do think this is a case of second-book syndrome, especially considering this was originally a duology that got stretched to a trilogy. I am still quite excited for the third book, Gods & Monsters, and I did give this book 4 stars, but it didn't live up to the first book or the early hype I'd been reading and, for that, I was disappointed.
Thankfully, those were the only books I had for this list! There were books that I rated low this year but a lot of those were also ones that I wasn't highly anticipating so they didn't really disappoint me, per se. Hopefully next year I won't even need to do this post!
What books disappointed you this year? Let me know in the comments!
Thanks for reading!
xoxo
Lauren
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