Reading is such a subjective pass time, what’s my love is often Hollis‘ meh or hate and vice versa. That said, we’re still entitled to dislike books. If we liked them all, it would be great…but would we really appreciate other books as much?
In this feature we wanted to just give a flavour of those books we’ve unfriended, then you can get to know more about our tastes and what doesn’t float our boats. If you’re a blogger or bookstagrammer, we’d love you to use the tag and have a go #unfriendingbooks.
Micky here with some of the books I’ve unfriended and why…
Whitney My Love by Judith McNaught. There is no book I hate more than this one because abuse is written as love and I hated the hero beyond my wildest nightmares. If you want to know more my GR review is here.
His & Hers by Alice Feeney and this is a strange one. There’s nothing really wrong with this book, other than I should never have picked it up, it definitely wasn’t for me. I’m a scaredy cat, this scared my inner cat, especially as it was on audio and the serial killer had a pov using a voice distorter. Nightmare territory.
Dark Notes by Pam Godwin. Again, abuse written as love, power over a minor. You can probably see I have a problem with these themes and shouldn’t read them but the blurb didn’t tell me what this was going to be like. Also, it had a piano on the cover which renders me helpless. My GR review is here.
My Oxford Year by Julia Whelan and this viewpoint is a really unpopular opinion but one that I stand by with gusto. The palliative care situation was butchered in this book, in a most unrealistic way. I have clinical expertise in this area so I know this needed much better research and a direction change in the writing.
While we’re here, lets mention that’s why I hated The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary. A side story delved into children’s pallitative care (my job for 15 years, I have a PhD in the subject) and it was painfully unrealistic. I understand that these books are completely enjoyable without this insight so please just go ahead and enjoy them; I just can’t.
Adding a note for the same old reason (sorry) about Full Tilt by Emma Scott. The weeks running up to a characters death were completely unrealistic but the death itself was beautifully written. Even so, it’s still a thumbs down for me.
Another unpopular opinion about This Is How We Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. I love sci-fi but I just didn’t get this one, I’ll quote my own review by saying it was a love story between robot-horse-wolf-seeds in shades of red and blue through letters…
Now that’s enough spouting from me, let’s hand over to Hollis.
Whiteout by Adriana Anders was a book I picked up earlier this year because Micky had such a good time reading it but alas.. we did not get along. You can see our double review here and decide for yourself! This suspense thriller adventure is set in the Yukon and.. that’s about all that recommends it for me. So, not at all, really.
Infinity Son was, like I think for many of us, a total disappointment. What should’ve been exciting queer fantasy just was.. well, queer fantasy, but not particularly exciting and definitely not enjoyable. A one star should make it obvious that I’m disinclined to continue the series but I’ve yet to decide if I might read on or not..
The Fantasyland series by Kristen Ashley. Yes, this was a five book series, yes I read them all (reviews can be found on GR if you’re curious enough to hunt for them), yes it was quite the adventure. I liked some, hated others, even sorta hated the ones I did like. But it was a series I thought had the best chance of winning me over considering I was already dubious about the author’s others works (later, Micky and I tried to read the Honey series.. elle oh elle to that disaster) and ultimately I’m just unfriending the author as a whole. But at least I saw this series through to the end!
Swear On This Life by Renée Carlino is memorable to me because Micky and I were reading this at the same time back in 2016 and ended up on opposite ends of the spectrum. She with a five star, me with a one star. This had flashbacks, reunion with childhood friends, a story-within-a-story.. all things that should’ve worked, and none that did.
The Duke’s Perfect Wife by Jennifer Ashley is book four in the Mackenzies and McBrides series, a historical romance series I thought would be a new favourite and was excited to binge (I think there are currently eleven books, as well as novellas? not sure if it’s even complete yet..), but which pretty tanked any momentum to continue on back in 2017. I ranted quite a bit in my one star review on GR. Granted, my enjoyment was steadily decreasing after book one so maybe it was just inevitable.
The Lost Girls of Paris by Pam Jenoff was yet another disappointment considering it should’ve once again been something right up my alley. Historical, women-centric, some action, some romance.. but no. Poorly drawn characters, ridiculous circumstances and events, forced love stories.. and more. You can check out my thoughts here.
Last but not least (for this round, at any rate!) is The Binding by Bridget Collins. Another that appealed to me on almost every level, the concept of magic, the vibe, the cover!, but yet failed, because the elements that were featured in the marketing of this book just didn’t seem to live up to the reality. This one didn’t net itself a one star but it wasn’t far off. This read also pre-dates the blog, like most of this list, but I have a review on GR here.
What have been some memorable book unfriendings for you? Or maybe some recent ones? We’d love to know!
A Take from Two Cities 