I've actually read a few books more recently that have surprised me, mostly in either good or neutral ways. I think I've been jumping into a lot of books (ebooks) based on title and the first page rather than a description, so that's also ended up giving me some surprise about even what genre I'm in!
- Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer--I thought this was going to be satirical fantasy, but it turned out to be a full-blown romance, just set in a fantasy world.
- A Fellowship of Bakers & Magic by J. Penner--In the vein of much cozy fantasy, I thought this was going to be about a fantasy baking competition (which it was!) and a romance, which...it wasn't really. The romance bit started out sweet but then became very rote--BUT the friendship/fellowship part turned out to be probably the most important of all, in a surprising way, and I loved that, which brought the book up from 4 to 5 out of 5 stars for me.
- Jane Buehler's Sylvania books are all surprising or unusual in some way, and overall, a fantasy setting where there are peasant uprisings and successful democracy is not what you expect but very welcome!
- Well Met by Jen DeLuca--I was excited about this romance set at a Renaissance faire, which at first surprised me by having the most banal and inexplicable enemies to lovers storyline, and then surprised me in a good way by opening up the characters through the roles they're playing at the faire and letting their personalities actually play off of each other (and also helping fight the good fight in shutting down cockamamie Shakespeare conspiracy theories).
- Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott-Surprised me in the best way by being so much better, although less weird, than I thought it would be--the message is exactly what I needed to hear right now.
Comments