top ten tuesdays! (15)

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the Broke and the Bookish. If you love lists

and wracking your brain for answers, then this is the meme for you!

Top Ten Books That Were Totally Deceiving: (in no particular order - 'r' denotes review)

pleasantly surprised:

01. Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins: For the longest time I couldn't get past the title and the cover. I love YA, but this one was screaming out 'much younger!' to me every time I looked at it on the shelf. And yet tons of friends and bloggers loved and raved about it, so one day I caved. I didn't read it until last year when trapped indoors during Hurricane Irene, and boy - fabulous! Don't wait until inclement weather comes! Read this book!

02. Vampire Academy (series) by Richelle Mead: After Twilight (which I don't care for) I was a bit hesitant for anything vaguely vampire. I couldn't deal with another simpering female MC, and, boy, was I surprised when I eventually picked this up. Rose Hathaway, simpering? She'd thunk me on the head for the mere implication. This series is YA vampires done absolutely right. 

03. Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready: Girl's with boyfriend, boyfriend dies, but girl can still see him? Intriguing, but perhaps with the chance that this premise can be handled unfortunately. In this case it isn't, and the idea of a "post-shift" society where a generation of people are able to see ghosts is incredibly interesting and done so well. (I'm reading the last book in the trilogy now, so I can't wait to see how it ends!)

04. Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater (r): Don't like werewolves? That's okay, neither do I, really, but this book was absolutely gorgeous with prose that matches the quietly haunting feel of the cover. To be fair, I've read this one as a standalone, though I do own Linger and Forever. One day I'll read them, I promise.

05. Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi: The cover and title are actually what pulled me in, but I can see how it might be off-putting to some people. And don't let that happen to you as there is so much more within this book: the world-building is extraordinary and it's a story I didn't want to end. (Its sequel will be out May 1st; the title is potentially spoilery so don't look at that first!)

(un)pleasantly surprised:

06. Outside In by Maria V. Snyder: I loved Inside Out and so getting my hands on this one was exciting. And then it wasn't. The two main characters had too much to deal with here and were difficult to digest more than they were easier to empathise with. The ending, for me, was a huge disappointment.

07. Incarceron by Catherine Fisher: Gorgeous cover, amazing idea for a story but poor execution. The characters were all over the place and there were plenty of spots where the reader was assumed to know integral plot pieces that we didn't.

08. Possession by Elana Johnson (r): Fantastic cover art. Tricky, blink-you'll-miss-it ending (loved that), but everything in-between didn't work. Having a female MC called 'babe' on a consistent basis made everything else questionable.

09. Wondrous Strange by Lesley Livingston: This was a story that I wanted very much to like, and, to be fair, the story itself was interesting. But the writing was also all over the place and that threw everything else off for me. The pace too slow in some parts, rushed in others - especially where the relationship of the main character was concerned. Taken in by the curious title and lovely cover.

10. Abandon by Meg Cabot (r): That cover. A Persephone myth. Except nothing about it worked for me aside from the premise.