Top Ten Tuesdays #177: Characters

Posted April 3, 2018 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 5 Comments

Characters I Liked… From Books I Didn’t Love

Top Ten Tuesdays were started by The Broke and the Bookish and are now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, where we make lists of our top ten books (or something else!) based on that week’s prompt. The topics are provided ahead of time and can be found here. Book links bring you to Goodreads or my review.

Dang, this is a tough one! I feel like the main reasons I dislike books are because I don’t love the characters or can’t relate to them. However, there are definitely a few books that come to mind where I didn’t love the plot, premise, or writing style, but enjoyed the characters.

Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway
Character: Audrey

For whatever reason, this book didn’t fully click with me. I absolutely loved Audrey and her friends though. I said in my review that “the characters were fun and EXTREMELY well developed” but I remember thinking that the plot was slow-moving and the humor was too forced sometimes. It annoyed me that a major plot point listed in the synopsis didn’t happen until much later in the book. I hate when things are spoiled for no reason; I sat there waiting for it to happen for the entire book when it could have been a “twist” or something unexpected. However, in hindsight, I would recommend this book to people who like funny books with great characters… but this was only a 3.5 star read for me.

Just a Girl by Ellie Cahill
Character: Presley

I struggle with NA books a lot of the time because the angst and storylines bug me. I still keep reaching for them because I love reading about people my own age… even though I question their logic a lot of the time! I typically find myself liking an NA MC but disliking the drama that goes along with the inevitable jump-to-conclusions-miscommunication-breakup part of the story. I said in my review: “The biggest issue was that I just wasn’t connected to this. I didn’t really care AT ALL what happened. I’m not sure why! I think Presley and her family were REALLY fun to read about.” Here’s a definite instance where I didn’t connect with the story but liked the characters.

Miss Mayhem by Rachel Hawkins
Character: Harper

Okay, I did like this series overall. The premise was super unique because compared to other paranormal books and their “creatures” or whatever… I’d never heard of paladins before. The first book in the series made me feel disconnected from Harper because of all the Southern traditions she was taking a part of. Her uptight-ness was really frustrating and weird for me to read about because I prefer the opposite end of that scale when I read books. I didn’t connect with her as a character as much in REBEL BELLE, but those feelings changed a bit in MISS MAYHEM. I only gave that second book three stars, plot-wise, but I grew connections to Harper and her friends. The relationship dynamics changed in the second book because they were getting used to being friends with exes, plus the other side characters were getting some relationships going. It was better from a character development perspective than a story/plot perspective.

Liars and Losers Like Us by Ami Allen-Vath
Character: Bree

This book messed me up because I had no idea how to rate it. I equally liked and disliked parts of the story; if I had made a pros and cons list, each side would be equal. I ended up rating it 3 stars because it was addicting and the overall premise was good, but this isn’t a favorite for me. As for the main character and those relationships? “The entire friend group was interesting. They all definitely had their individual issues that came to light, although some felt superficial. All of them mostly felt like real people though.” I don’t remember why I liked Bree – I think she had a good redemption arc?

Heist Society (Heist Society, #1)

Heist Society series by Ally Carter
Character: Katarina

Again, this was a good series overall. Ally Carter writes great spy and/or criminal stories because I’ve loved them alllll in different ways. In this case, the #SquadGoals are suuuuper strong here. Everyone involved in the heists was so fun to read about. I loved Katarina and how she kept tricking me about what they were all up to. I think I gave this book 3.5 stars, which isn’t bad, but the characters and their whole  criminal group was really what bumped this series up in my head a bit.

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