In a perfect world, bacon and cake would grow from bushes, everyone would own a dragon, and books would always turn out the way we expect them to. Unfortunately, none of these are the case, although I sincerely hope someone is at least working on that dragon thing.

Over the many years of reading probably way too many books, I’ve gotten pretty good at guessing ahead of time what I’m going to like or not like, but there are times when I’m wrong. I KNOW, RIGHT? Shocking, but true. So, for this week’s Top Ten Tuesday, here are ten books that surprised me, by being either better or worse than my expectations.

Top Ten Tuesdays are hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s prompt was books that surprised me.

1. Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

Verdict: ❌

I heard so many good things about this. Too many people came up to me and said, “You have to read this! You’ll love it!” Well, I did. And I did not. I couldn’t bond with any of the characters (except Elinor, because I, too, am a cranky old lady who loves books a little too much). I thought the stakes were kind of lame, and the bad guys never really did anything bad. The story just dragged out too long for me, and I felt like if it had been cut in half, it might have actually held my attention. So this one was a big dud for me, even though I had been so excited to read it.

2. Fawkes by Nadine Brandes

Verdict: ❌

I was SO EXCITED to get an ARC copy of this, for so many reasons. DO YOU SEE THAT GORGEOUS COVER? Yes, I’m shallow, and I own it. I’ve also been following Nadine Brandes, and I think she’s a fabulous person and I’ve heard such good things about her Out of Time series. So when I saw that she wrote a historical fantasy with a dash of magic, I was all over that. My full review will be forthcoming closer to the release of this, but needless to say, it was not my cup of tea. The book was enjoyable, so this one was ALL ME. I just didn’t like the main character (which makes things hard right from the start), and I felt the allegory was forced and didn’t completely make sense in the world Brandes had built. I also didn’t feel like the magic system was fully fleshed out. That being said, it was a fun read, but I think I went in a little too excited and jumped the gun a bit.

3. Death Trilogy (Mort, Reaper Man, and Soul Music)  Terry Pratchett

Verdict: ✅

I confess, I had no idea who the heck Terry Pratchett was until he died . . . which is a little late to find out about a person, but I guess better late than never? I actually saw the final tweets made from his account with Death greeting him and I was like, huh, that is beautiful and heartwarming and bittersweet all rolled into, like, 200 characters. I don’t read a lot of high fantasy, but I bought this anyway on so many recommendations, and oh my gosh, I TOTALLY FELL IN LOVE WITH DEATH. Wait, what? Well, you know what I mean. Not just that, but this was the first book of Pratchett’s that I read, and I was immediately in love with his style and everything about Discworld. I went in having no expectations, and I found a literary love. It’s possibly the best sort of meet-cute ever.

4. The Reckoners Series/Elantris by Brandon Sanderson

Verdict: ✅

So, have I mentioned that I don’t tend to read a lot of high fantasy? Brandon Sanderson is, perhaps, one of the modern kings of high fantasy, and I, naturally, said no thank you. But then Steelheart came out and my husband just WOULD NOT SHUT UP about this awesome new series. Ugh. But finally it died down until Firefight was announced, and it started up again with a new bent. He insisted I had to read it. Begrudgingly, just to get a moment of peace, I acquiesced. AND HE WAS ABSOLUTELY RIGHT. Not that I told him that obviously. But I rushed out and preordered Calamity before he could even mention it. Which followed, of course, with Elantris in the interim. Because, my husband reasoned, I loved Reckoners so he just knew I would like Elantris. And he was right again, darn him. So this was another I went in thinking I’d hate it and was pleasantly surprised.

5. The Last Dive by Bernie Chowdhury

Verdict: ✅

I was young when I read this, back when I was fully entrenched in the fantasy YA world and certainly didn’t want to leave it for a boring biography. But my mother had bought it thinking that it would be fun to read it together (which I saw through immediately because I hated reading aloud and she was just trying to get me to practice). As we got into the story, though, I found that I really liked these people. Not characters, but people. They actually lived and died. It was fascinating, and I still re-read this book from time to time and enjoy it.

6. The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

Verdict: ✅

I joined a book club last year, because my husband thought I should, you know, be around other people sometimes, for some reason, and that was my compromise. For the first two months, though, I HATED the books we read. With a passion. They were not at all my thing. In month three, we got this, and I didn’t have very high hopes. I didn’t like racing, and it sounded silly to me to write a book from a dog’s perspective. I WAS SO WRONG, GUYS. I DON’T KNOW WHAT I WAS THINKING. This book was everything. It was funny and sweet and thoughtful and thought-provoking, and I just ugh. Actually, I’ve liked this perspective and idea so much that I’ve since sought out W. Bruce Cameron’s A Dog’s Purpose series (which has a new book coming out this year) and even Tomorrow by Damian Dibben, which releases in a week. So this one was a big win!

7. Daughters of the Dragon by William Andrews

Verdict: ✅

This one was SO CLOSE to being a DNF for me. I kept putting it down and talking myself into picking it up again, because it had so many good reviews, so I figured, darn it, there must be something here I’m missing. It happened around 40% in, I think. The character and voice shifted from the really lame opening character, who was whiny and unrelatable in my opinion, and a narrating style I hated to a character who was deep and heartfelt and earnest, and the stakes were life or death, and oh my gosh, it was horrible and wonderful and so hard to read for all the right reasons. I still stand by my conclusion that the first 30% of the book could be lost and it would only make the overall story stronger, but I’m counting this as a win, nonetheless, because I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I was going to.

8. The Wicked Years by Gregory Maguire

Verdict: ✅ → ❌

I’m not gonna lie, The Wizard of Oz freaked me out when I was a kid. I’m not sure what it was about it, but I never liked the movie and I still don’t. So when my friends kept suggesting that I just had to read this, I was like, um, no, thanks, I have enough problems as it is. Eventually, like most teenagers, I caved to peer pressure and read Wicked. And it was everything I’d ever wanted and then some. WHY HAD I WAITED FOR SO LONG? I loved the idea of the story behind the story, where the characters and their motives really came to life, and the world they were in felt real and deep and dangerous. Okay, so why did go from being a yes to being a no? Well, something happened during Son of a Lion. I’m not sure what, but I just . . . didn’t like it? It was so hard to get through, and I didn’t connect to it as much as the first two. I just downright hated the last book and the official ending. Sure, there were redeemable moments in it that I enjoyed, but by and large, I didn’t like it.

9. Outlining Your Novel (and Workbook) by K.M. Weiland

Verdict: ✅

I bought this on a whim, after reading another of K.M. Weiland’s books and finding it helpful, and because other writers kept prodding me to get it. So I did. But I thought it was quite silly. I was a pantser. Asking me to plot was like asking me to give up bacon. It’s just not happening—not in this lifetime, and not in any others. Despite that, I read the book and I tried it with the next book I wrote. You know what? IT WORKED. Who would have guessed? I mean, I didn’t fully outline the book (I probably never will be the sort to do that in-depth outlining), but I went through the workbook, asked the important questions, plotted all the major scenes, and I was so much more confident in where the book was going by the time I was ready to write it. It came as a huge surprise to me, but I’m glad I gave it a shot.

10. Wayward Children Series by Seanan McGuire

Verdict: ✅ → ❌

When I first stumbled across Every Heart A Doorway, I was so excited by the premise that I rushed to my library because I just knew I had to read it. It was fantastic and so unique and just about everything I had hoped it would be. Then I read Down Among the Sticks and Bones and I was still in love (and a bit of a fangirl over Jack, but really, who could blame me?). But I wasn’t AS in love. There were aspects of it that I found annoying and cliche, but still overall enjoyable. Then came Beneath the Sugar Sky, and I just couldn’t. The plot was cute, I thought, but the main character was unbearable, and there were so many cliches that I just got annoyed. Though I initially started out enjoying the diversity (everyone deserves representation, right?) but by the third book, it felt like a gimmick to me. Instead of being people who happened to belong to X, Y, Z groups, the characters seemed to become relegated to whatever made them diverse and that was the most important thing about them instead of well-rounded representatives of what people who belonged to that group actually are in real life. So maybe I’m just a bit too nitpicky, and I’m still for sure going to read the next two books that are slotted to come out (2019 and 2020), but at this point, I’m just not as excited about them as I thought I’d be going in.

What books surprised you, either by being better or worse than you had anticipated them to be?