Top Ten Tuesday

TTT – Books I Was Surprised I Loved

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Top Ten Tuesday used to be a weekly post hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, but was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl. “It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.” This is definitely something I can understand and want to participate in.

This week’s prompt was a freebie, and something in me decided to get creative. The topic that I decided to go with is books I was surprised I loved. We’ve all had those disappointing experiences where there was a book that we were convinced we would love and ended up DNFing them, but what about the opposite? 

[Steve Carell in The Office Shouting I LOVE IT! I LOVE IT!]

However, I tend to find more books that I think sound good, but end up really loving them way more than I ever expected to. I’m not complaining about it, because this works out very well for me. Here are ten of my favorite books that surprised me with how much I loved them:

  1. That Time I Got Drunk and Yeeted a Love Potion at a Werewolf by Kimberly Lemming. The title made me laugh out loud, but it also caught my attention and made me want to read the book, which was fantastic!
  2. The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon. A beautifully-done historical fiction involving a brilliant woman who fought against misogyny in her attempts to solve a crime.
  3. The Mask of Mirrors by M.A. Carrick. This was a buddy read for me, and I enjoyed this book so much more than I thought it would, with a magic system built around something like tarot cards and a wholly different magic system, schemers at all levels of society, and a cast of characters I couldn’t help but flip-flip on how I felt about some of them, and loved fully from start to finish.
  4. American Wolf: From Nazi Refugee to American Spy by Audrey Birnbaum. Holocaust memoirs are really difficult for me with my family history, but this was told so wonderfully and involved Wolf’s experiences before the Holocaust really started to escalate, and in his post-war endeavors.
  5. The Combat Codes by Alexander Darwin. I wasn’t expecting to love a story about hand-to-hand combat as much as I did, but this book is done so well.
  6. Jade City by Fonda Lee. For a book that is kind of like The Godfather combined with the best of Bruce Lee, two things I’ve never been particularly interested in, I ate this story up, and it still takes up space in my head even years later.
  7. Unorthodox Love by Heidi Shertok. I’m not usually much of a romance fan, but for one involving an Orthodox Jewish woman struggling with infertility, Shertok knocked it out of the park, because I love this book with a passion.
  8. The Will of the Many by James Islington. This one surprised me, because it was such a complex storyline, involving sci-fi elements, a brewing rebellion, a strictly divided society, and a school with some really dark secrets, and I wasn’t sure I was going to like it at all, because sometimes I get lost when books are too complex.
  9. Dark Rise by C.S. Pacat. Another buddy read that caused some serious emotional damage, but at least I enjoyed it immensely.
  10. The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart. One last buddy read that was incredibly engaging and that I fell in love with instantly.

What are some books that surprised you with how much you loved them?

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44 replies »

  1. It’s the best kind of experience when we read something that turns out to be the best reading. 🙂 Those are some of the most memorable books and I wish I would discover them more often too because I do love a good surprise favorite. 🙂

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    • Thank you! I had a lot of fun with this topic, and I kind of feel like I want to make this a regular feature, maybe twice a year. It let me revisit some books that surprised me – and I can’t help but include That Time I Got Drunk and Yeeted a Love Potion at a Werewolf on every list I possibly can because I got such a kick out of the title and the story.

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  12. I haven’t read any of these on your list just yet but I’m so happy that you found so many books that you’ve enjoyed! You know, I’ve just watched The Godfather for the first time so Jade City will now be on my list! Thanks for sharing!

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    • Ooooh! If you enjoyed The Godfather, you’re probably going to really enjoy Jade City. It’s like the coolest mix between The Godfather and like, Bruce Lee with magically enhanced powers. It’s so cool.

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    • Oh no! That’s always kind of a letdown when a book isn’t as good as you were expecting it to be, but at least you enjoyed it. There’s nothing worse than when you think you’re going to love a book and discover that you actually don’t enjoy it at all.

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    • I’m so not surprised that we both loved both of those series, they were out of this world! The Frozen River blew me away too, and I hope you find some new great reads from here!

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