Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books I Thought I'd Like More/Less Than I Did

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. I'd love to hear what made it on your list, just leave me a comment and I'll visit and find out!

This week was an interesting topic, it's often the case that you get really excited about a book and then finally get your hands on it and it turns out to be a bit of a let down. Not necessarily a bad read, but just not quite what you expected. On the flip side, sometimes you get given a book or recommended a read and you don't expect to like it but it turns out to be a really good read! I've tried to pick a nice balance of books here, not too many let down and not too many that I want to rave about. Hope it's worked...

1. I know I've mentioned One Day by David Nicolls in just about every Top Ten Tuesday I've don't so far, but I just love it-what can I say? I picked this up because it had been in the charts for so long, I had some money built up on my waterstones card and I was in the mood for something different. What I found was an amazing read which gripped me from start to finish and filled me with more emotion than, perhaps any, book has done before.

2. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. This book was given to me by a fiend and I wasn't sure if I would like it because It dealt with death and teenagers and cancer, not really my thing. But it was a really beautifully written book and I ended up really enjoying it, you can tell by my recent review of this fab YA novel!

3. Another book dealing with death that I wasn't very sure about was Me Without You by Jojo Moyes. I wasn't sure whether I could deal with the issues in this book but it turned out to be dealt with so well by this fab author that I really enjoyed this book and it too was beautifully written!

4. Anything by Bill Bryson! I so wasn't expecting to love Bill Bryson's writing as much as I did. When I first picked up Notes from a Big Country in the library I was just under the impression that I might learn something about America by reading this but I ended up having to read everything he had written he writes in such a funny way and has a great relationship with his audience! I now recommend his books to anyone who fancies trying a bit of non-fiction/travel writing!

5. The School Gates by Nicola May. I download this one after seeing several tweets about it and I really really loved it. It then led me to read everything else by Nicola May. I now have an interview with this great author coming up in a couple of weeks and a review of her new book coming up after that. A really surprising find!

6. Now onto the books that I didn't enjoy so much... The first of which being Girl Friday by Jane Green. I was given this book by a friend because I had really enjoyed other novels by Jane Green. unfortunately the way domestic abuse is dealt with in this novel proved to be too much for me and I couldn't finish it...

7. Caliente by Chris Hilton. I was sent this book for review by Books on the Underground and I was quite excited about reading it because I love a travel book. This was another one I really couldn't finish though... It was the first slightly negative review I ever had to write and it was really difficult. I wanted to like this but I really just couldn't!

8. The Mystery of Mercy Close by Marian Keyes. I was really excited about the release of this novel and went to pick it up the day it was released. I liked one half of the novel, the bit where Helen and her feelings we being described but the mystery part of the novel just didn't seem to connect with this part and I found it disappointing compared to what I expected.

9. The London Train by Tessa Hadley. I loved the concept of this book, people's lives being connected by a train into London and I was excited about reading it last Easter but unfortunately I really couldn't follow what was going on through most of the book. I managed to finish it and enjoyed the ending but was really disappointed in the storyline overall.

10. Wedding Tiers by Trisha Ashley. I read this author's Christmas books and so when this was on offer I picked it up. I found it really difficult to get into but kept going with it in the hope that it would get better but it really didn't. I managed to finish it, but was really disappointing having enjoyed other books by this author!

Books are such personal things so I would be interested to find out what made it onto other people's lists...