**I take a basket from my room, a lovely woven one with a strip of fabric tied around the handle, and decide to take a walk outside. We won’t have many more nice days, so I want to soak up the sun for as long as I can. I walk a few minutes and make my way towards the forest, trying to find the stream. I take a seat on a large stone and ponder, getting lost in my thoughts. I spent some time thinking about all of my surprise books, so why not consider my disappointments?**

Welcome or welcome back to bookishcore! In my last post, I discussed some of my biggest surprises in my reading, the books that I really loved even when I wasn’t expecting it. I wanted to go on the flip side of this and discuss some of my disappointments. I love seeing people discuss their favorite books, but I also find it interesting to see the books that people didn’t like or were disappointed by. There have been several books I was really hyped for that unfortunately just did not live up to the expectations I set in my head. Let me know if you have read any and what your thoughts were.

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For book #1 we have Belladonna by Adalyn Grace. I really wanted to love this one. It’s a gothic story about a girl and Death and a murder they solve. It seemed like a spooky, gothic, atmospheric read, but I just could not get into it. There were not any parts that I really enjoyed and it didn’t capture my attention. The romance was my least favorite part about this book. I could not get behind it and it made the book worse for me. The cover and naked hardback were gorgeous, but I just didn’t like this one.

Another of my disappointments is Spellbound Lies by Catherine Downen. This is another one that had a beautiful cover and naked book. The summary of this book reminded me of A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer, one of my favorites, with a cursed prince and magical kingdom. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get into this one and it really let me down. It was much too long and the plot was dragged out. I found the characters and writing immature and all of the plot twists and reveals were predictable.

Probably a controversial one, but I was really disappointed by Powerless by Lauren Roberts. I saw her talk about this book before it released and I was very interested. It had trials and people with and without powers, and it seemed like something I would enjoy. This one was still an okay read for me, but I expected a bit more. I loved the scenes with the trials, but the ones outside of that felt the same every time, with Paedyn pulling out knives on Kai and Kai thinking about nothing but Paedyn. I also felt like the characters were built on tropes instead of feeling actually developed, with Paedyn being our strong female lead and Kai being our morally grey black haired love interest. Their physical descriptions were also heavily overwritten.

Next, I would have to say Anatomy: A Love Story by Dana Schwartz. This is another case of thinking I would love it because it reminded me of something else. This kind of reminded me of Stalking Jack the Ripper, one of my favorite series, with the old setting and girl who wants to go into forensics. This one just missed the mark for me. I was kind of bored and couldn’t get into it. There was one scene that I enjoyed, but that was about it.

To end off, I want to mention Broken Things by Lauren Oliver. I read a lot of Lauren Oliver around 2016-2018, then didn’t read anything else of hers until this book, which I read in 2021. I couldn’t get into this. It’s been a few years so I can’t fully remember what was wrong with this one, but I personally just didn’t like it.

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Let me know if you have read any of these books and what you thought about them. I would love to know if you agree with me, that they didn’t hit the mark, or if you disagree and really enjoyed it. If you disagree, let me know why and what it was you liked about it. I would love to know.

xoxo,

Just another reader