Most Disappointing Reads of 2021

Also known as the books that received 1 star ratings from me. Here’s the list:

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His Risk to Take (A Line of Duty Book 2) by Tessa Bailey – I embarked on an adventure called reading all of Tessa Bailey’s books earlier this year. Upon reading a couple of the A Line of Duty series books, I quickly realized I prefer her more recent writing i.e. The Bellinger series or Hot & Hammered. I’ll stick to these going forward.

The Luminaries: A Novel (Man Booker Prize) by Eleanor Catton – the one on this list that I had the highest hopes for. I don’t even know what this was other than very long, confusing and did it really need that many POVs? It’s still on my shelves as I bought my copy on a trip as a souvenir…but who know if it’ll survive the next round of unhauls?

Vinegar Girl: William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew Retold: A Novel (Hogarth Shakespeare) by Anne Tyler – I want to say I don’t like retelling but I like Neil Gaiman’s writing so that point is moot. The retellings I don’t like are Tyler’s. Not her writing, her characters, plot. None of it. I unhauled my copy right away. Sorry… not sorry.

Autumn: A Novel (Seasonal Quartet) by Ali Smith – nope. Just nope. I wanted to be one of those readers who read and loved the Seasonal Quartet. Alas! It wasn’t meant to be. I found the writing rather dull, had 0 interest in the characters and did not anticipate nor care for any of the politics it includes. I do understand why the UK audience appreciates it though.

Beginning Of World In Middle Of Night by Jen Campbell – I’ve been watching Jen’s channel on Youtube since 2014. I’m very sad to have to include this here. The stories are very dark indeed and I only really cared for one of them. I’ll stick to her video reviews rather than writing from now on.

Lock Every Door: A Novel by Riley Sager – someone explain the hype to me please! What even was this? It was badly written with a lot of plot holes and the characters are so annoying. Even the setting (which I’d typically love) was meh.

Fortuna Sworn by K.J. Sutton – too weird, too much going on at the same time etc. Definitely not one for me.

You Deserve Each Other by Sarah Hogle – Another overhyped one. You can read my full review here.

The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood And Ash Series Book 3) by Jennifer L. Armentrout – I went from loving the first book to hating the 3rd (cause what a mess!) and being unsure if I’ll read the next one or the related series.

The Princess Trap by Talia Hibbert – I do not care for royalty romances. I thought I could let it slide this time around because come on! It’s Talia Hibbert we’re talking about. But, no. Not a fan of the characters, how quickly things developed nor the sex scenes. And don’t even get me started on their unhealthy obsession of I-cannot-live-nor-breathe without you thing. The Brown sisters trilogy is so much better in comparison.

All opinions are my own and obviously everyone’s taste is different. You don’t have to agree nor disagree with me.

Let me know what’s your most disappointing read of the year in the comments.