Top Ten Tuesday: My picks for 'Books I'm Not Sure I Want To Read'.

1) 'Half Bad' by Sally Green.

This book, in theory, looks like an amazing read! Definitely the kind of thing I would usually be interested in! But the thing is, I've seen this book all over the blogosphere and the reviews have been pretty mixed. Most of my favourite bloggers haven't rated it very highly and even the ones who have recommended it say there were some parts they definitely did not enjoy. I have it sitting on my shelf, but I'm a little unsure...

2) Any books by Nicholas Sparks.

Now I have been told that this guy is a great author, and that is clear from the amount of success he has had and the huge number of his books that have been made into films. The problem is, I have a huge phobia of sad endings. And Nicholas Sparks is famous for sad endings. 'The Notebook', 'Dear John', 'Safe Haven', they all have the kind of endings that would leave me a hysterical mess. As well as this, romance books generally don't tend to grip me like other genres do (I'm too much of a fantasist) and I'm concerned I would just be wasting my time here. I know I've read and enjoyed 'The Fault In Our Stars' and 'Before I Die', both fantastic books and very sad. It took me a long time to recover from those though and I don't like putting myself through that.

3) Books by J.K. Rowling that aren't from her 'Harry Potter' series.

It wasn't until this Top Ten Tuesday topic came up that it dawned on me that I've been actively avoiding these! Be it 'The Casual Vacancy' or books written under her Robert Galbraith persona ('The Cuckoo's Calling', or 'The Silkworm'), none of these plot-lines sound particularly like my cup of tea. I think it's great that Rowling is breaking away from her Harry Potter ties and exploring new genres, but I'm genuinely terrified I'm not going to like her new work and have to give one of my favourite authors a low rating.

4) The next books in the 'Divergent' series.

Now I adored this first book, but I'm mildly concerned about 'Insurgent' and 'Allegiant'. I've seen huge rants about both in reviews that I've read. Particularly for the end of the series, 'Allegiant'. My sister, Bev, has also read these books and while she quite liked 'Insurgent' (which put my mind at ease) she really did not enjoy 'Allegiant'. I don't like to not finish a series but part of me wants to finish while I'm still enjoying it.



5) 'Anna And The French Kiss' by Stephanie Perkins.

I have seen this book (the first in a highly rated series) so many times around the blogosphere, and a big part of me wants to read it. But despite the nice covers, the synopsis just really doesn't sound like my cup of tea. Romance books have bored me so much in the past, there are very few that I get into because I just find them too predictable. I much prefer when they have a little something extra to add to the story!



6) 'Shatter Me' by Tahereh Mafi.

So when I fist joined up to Goodreads, got involved in the Blogosphere and eyeing up my next reads, this book (and indeed, series) did catch my eye. The covers were beautiful! At first I heard nothing but good, but then suddenly a lot of bloggers hated it and I read some extracts and I think I'll be giving the series a miss. Do I really need to read a book that has every other line crossed out? Constant terrible metaphor attempts that get in the way of the story-building? No thanks.


7) Books by Jennifer L. Armentrout.

So the first time I saw this Author's name, it was in relation to 'Don't Look Back'. It had a gorgeous cover, a fairly intriguing synopsis, and I really liked the look of it. Then I decided to have a look at what else the Author wrote, and suddenly wasn't so sure. It's no great secret that I don't like New Adult as a genre, and I've definitely mentioned that book covers including shirtless men or half-naked couples feel tacky to me. I feel like this book might be a bit different from her usual books, but I'm not sure to be honest.


8) 'Beautiful Creatures' by Kami Garcia.

I've seen this series around a fair bit, especially since the Movie came out. To be honest, I thought it looked pretty good but the more I've heard about it, the more I've become a bit unsure. To try and get a feel for what the movie could be like, I decided to watch the film and that's just thrown me into an even bigger state of confusion because I didn't think it was all that good. Everything about the nice covers and the synopsis that I would usually enjoy screams "Read Me!!" but I'm just not sure...


9) 'Stitching Snow' by R.C. Lewis.

So when I first saw this book pop into existence, I was pretty excited.I love Fairy-tale retellings! It seemed as well that the entire blogging community was hugely looking forward to this book. Then the ARC reviews started coming, and suddenly my excitement turned to confusion. I ignored the people claiming it was a rip-off of Marissa Meyer's 'Lunar Chronicles' series because retellings are like that in their very nature. But I found a lot of other worrying ratings and comments and now I'm a bit unsure to say the least.


10) 'Dorothy Must Die' by Danielle Paige.

I am a huge fan of The Wizard Of Oz and this looks like an amazing idea for a book. It has received such mixed reviews though, and the last retelling for L. Frank Baum's original that I read, 'Wicked' I didn't enjoy nearly as much as I thought I would. I've seen some great reviews for it and I've seen some poor ones so I don't know whether to bother picking it up or not. I probably will at some point, it's just one of those books I'll keep putting off for a while.