Time for the real tea…

I read a LOT in 2020. So some books were bound to a be a flop. Luckily out of the 200ish books I read, only 13 books were below a 3 star. That’s not bad!

NOTE: I get a little brutal in this list. But just know that if I bash your favorite book of all time, it’s not a personal attack against you or your loved ones! I just didn’t like the book…..

These are my 10 least favorite books ranked from the “best” to my absolute least favorite of the year!

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10. Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

This is first on this list because in all honestly this book wasn’t terrible by any means. It was just SO not for me… I could actually see this appearing on lot of favorite lists this year. But this book was straight up difficult for me to read and I was so grossed out. I’ve never considered myself a queasy reader, but man did these descriptions make me nauseous. I just really didn’t enjoy my time reading this. I thought it had great messages, but the execution just wasn’t for me.

9. Real Men Knit by Kwana Jackson

I love this concept. But I did not enjoy the execution at all.. This adult romance was stagnant for like the first 80% and then an entire romance is crammed into the last 20%. And it has one of the worst romantic gestures ever. When I say I cringed…

8. How to Catch a Sinful Marquess by Amy Rose Bennett

I was reached out to the by publisher to participate in a blog tour for this and it was a mistake. This was the first historical romance that I really disliked. This had the premise and setup for something I’d love. But it was repetitive and extremely underdeveloped.

7. Serpent & Dove by Shelby Mahurin

I might get some hate for this one – but what is the hype for this?? I could not stand the characters or the romance. And I was left with absolutely no understanding of the world or magic system because this lacked world building entirely. I just really didn’t like this. Also the male audiobook narrator was atrocious….

6. The Vanishing Deep by Astrid Scholte

I read this one right after Serpent and Dove and boy was that a bad combo. This YA fantasy was so underwhelming. It was bland, underdeveloped, and overly convenient in all it’s twists and discoveries.

5. The Better Liar by Tanen Jones

This book was so unmemorable that I actually had to look back at my review because I forgot the plot entirely…. And I now realize it’s because I felt like this thriller had none. The 2 main characters were painfully unlikeable and the slight semblance of a plot was meandering and drawn out. Skip this one.

4. Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine

I read this for a weekend long readathon pretty early on in the year and boy was that a mistake. This read was physically painful. I tried everything – physically reading, audio listening, and finally just skimmed the last 25%. So. Boring. The world was convoluted and the characters completely lacked personality.

3. All Your Twisted Secrets by Diana Urban

This premise had so much potential! But I straight up hated the direction this YA thriller took… I thought the characters were flat and fit so perfectly into common archetypes it felt like the author was checking off a character list. In my review I described their decisions as “asinine” so clearly I had a good time 😅

2. Girls With Razor Hearts by Suzanne Young

This YA dystopian was definitely a front runner for my least favorite book for a solid portion of the year. I was so angry while skimming this book. I really enjoyed the first book but honestly this sequel just shouldn’t exist. I’m sorry, that’s harsh. It was just an unnecessary and kinda painful.

1. The Return by Rachel Harrison

My absolute least favorite book of the year. And definitely on my all-time list. What a hot mess… the entire synopsis of this book happens in the first couple pages and from there it devolves into nonsense. This book lacked any direction and was simply stream of conciseness from obnoxious characters until paranormal events were thrown in. Save yourself, don’t read this.

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What was your least favorite book of 2020??

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