I have the books on my Kindle all sorted into folders. There is a folder for the books I have to read, the ones I have taken on to review and a folder for the books I have finished. I also have a folder for novellas so I can find them easily when I want a quick read. However there is one last folder I have. It is called 'Meh'.
The 'Meh' folder is where all those books that I couldn't finish end up. There are lots of reasons a book can land in this folder and it isn't easy to give up and move a book there. However I thought it would be nice to share some of these 'Meh' books with you now and again and also see what you guys have to say about the books I just couldn't finish. Maybe you read one of my 'Meh' selections and want to convince me to give it another go or you may of hated it and want to sympathise.
I look forward to hearing your thoughts!
Gameboard of the Gods by Richelle Mead
I was, as I am sure all Richelle Mead fans were, very excited about this new book. It sounded different, edgy and well the author has an amazing reputation. A must read author, I have been following her work for years. Before the Vampire Academy came out and took the world by storm. The VA series is even being made into a film and has a spin-off series. So I was shocked and happy when I got the chance to review an ARC of this very highly anticipated book.
What went wrong? I have no idea but this book didn't read like a Richelle Mead story. I had to wonder if this was even written by the author. It made no sense and was all over the place. I felt a headache coming on within a few pages and by the time I managed to do a few chapters I was debating what to do. On the oneside I didn't want to give up on an author I love but on the otherside, it was sucking so much!
As I always do when I decide to give up on a book, I look at what people on Goodreads and Amazon have to say. I was surprised to see this book averaging the 4 stars mark on both sites. Sure there are a lot of people who didn't like it but it seems there were quite a few who can only praise this first in a series.
The Seduction of Phaeton Black by Jillian Stone
Paranormal Steampunk is a genre I don't know much about. The books I have read have been amazing and some authors have really impressed me with their world building and imagination where it comes to this strange funky category. So I was eager to try this series by Jillian Stone. It sounded exactly like some other stories I have enjoyed and I hoped to add a new Steampunk series to my must read list.
What was the problem? Well at first there wasn't really a problem. Despite the fact that the story started out in a brothel with Mr Black being some kind of sex coach. I thought it was a nice quirky aspect to his character and he came across as a Sherlock type of guy.
However the sex continued. The plot could have been good but this was turning into porn. I didn't really experience any Steampunk elements and while the pararnormal seemed to be there I wasn't sure what to make of it because Mr Black was otherwise occupied all the time.
Maybe the story calmed down and got down to some other business but I was already lost. I didn't have the time or energy to continue with the story and was very sad to move this one to the 'Meh' folder. I had such high hopes for it but it seems my expectations were wrong in regards to the content of the story.
Amazon has this rated with 4 stars but Goodreads only has it averaging with 3 stars. Reading some of the reviews over there I noticed a lot of people had the same problem as me.
The Shadow Reader by Sandy Williams
This book was on my wishlist for while and at some point I was given a copy by someone. Now I go through my wishlist now and again and check that I still really want the books that are on there. There is nothing like having someone gift you a book from page 10 of your wishlist only to find that when you added it 4 years ago you thought it looked good and now you can't even remember why you added it.
The Shadow Reader was one I was looking foward to. It sounded cool and the cover looked nice. Why didn't I like it? At first I was loving it. The story took off from the first page and was moving at the speed of light. Then the Fae aspect hit me hard. I am not a huge Fae fan.
I continued because I will not just give up on a book because it is about Fae. However as I carried on I realised the characters were just not growing on me. Also I was very confused about the actually abilities McKenzie had. Within a few chapters I decided that I have so many other books to read and this one wasn't keeping my interest. Adios!
Once again this is a book with great reviews on Goodreads and Amazon. 4 star average on both sites! There are even more books in this series so it must have something and obviously enough readers are impressed. Maybe once day I will try it again.
I guess I made a mistake here because this is actually the third part in the series and it could be the reason why I didn't get this book. However the theme itself, knitting etc, isn't really something I found to be very interesting. I wanted to read this one because of the ghostly twist but that came across as a second thought and was handled quite strangely.
This book sounded like it would be amazing. So maybe my high expectations were the reason why I couldn't get past the first few chapters? Maybe I needed to give it more time but the story just wasn't making much sense and the characters didn't make me want to keep reading about them. A bit of a flop all in all.
