Last year was an extremely busy year for me. In June I finished my first year as a special education teacher and enjoyed a brief summer off before diving right back into the 2017/2018 school year in August. It wasn’t the best reading year for me but I was happy enough to reach by Goodreads goal of 45 books by the end of the year. I enjoyed many of the books I read in 2017 but I also read some absolute stinkers. So without further ado, let’s get into my worst reads of 2017:
Prince of Thorns was my first introduction to the dark fantasy genre and I was majorly disappointed. I had a hard time getting into the story because I absolutely detest the main character, Jorg. Jorg is very similar to Joffrey from A Song of Ice and Fire in that he commits cruel acts for the sake of being cruel. It was hard to believe that a fourteen year old could lead a group of marauders. The other characters were so bland that it was hard to care about any of them. I ended up DNF-ing this book due to boredom. I will try to read Mark Lawrence’s other series as I own Prince of Fools because I have seen good reviews for that series.
2. The Crown’s Fate by Evelyn Skye
Hey! Do you likes books about teen angst, love-triangle drama, and stupid decision-making? Then the Crown’s Fate is just the book for you!
I had a number of criticisms for the The Crown’s Game but I found it interesting enough to finish the book. The Crown’s Game would have worked well as a standalone. I think if it had been 100 pages longer and gone through more editing, plot points could have been easily resolved and resulted in the same ending from the Crown’s Fate. The Crown’s Fate is a completely unnecessary sequel and the storytelling really suffers from the amount of love-triangle drama that is included.
The relationship drama between Nikolai, Pasha and Vika is exhausting . A quarter of the way into the book I already knew that it was going to be a 2 star read for me. When I reached the climax, my interest grew and I thought for a moment of rounding up the rating to 3 stars until once again the love triangle rears its ugly head. The finale of this book is also one of the most clichéd finales I have ever read.
Long story short, this book was bad and I am so glad I didn’t waste my money on it.
3. The Two Princesses of Bamarre by Gail Carson Levine
This audiobook was only 6 hours long but my god, it felt like 20 hours. Parts of this book are SO SLOW. So much time was wasted inside the castle, in the dragon’s lair, and on the god damn stories about the mythical hero. Plus the dragon was really, really annoying. The fantasy aspects work very well when the characters aren’t reciting the entire history of the land. This isn’t ASOIAF, just get to the point.
4. One Dark Throne by Kendare Blake
This book was by far the WORST read of 2017. This book made me so, so angry. I enjoyed the first book, Three Dark Crowns, for the most part. I had issues with the first book but I was interested enough in the characters and the plot to continue. After reading One Dark Throne I really wish I hadn’t. This book burned me like no other book has before and it has joined by list of hated books alongside Allegiant and Breaking Dawn.
Rant incoming in 3…2…1
I am really disappointed with this series. The books were teased to be about these three queens who were going to battle each other over the crown but only ONE queen is even vicious enough to do anything! There is WAY too much focus on secondary characters in this series. I don’t care about Joseph and Jules. They are SO BORING. Plus you have to keep track of all these random adult figures and the drama between them all. WHO CARES. This isn’t Game of Thrones, I don’t need to know about all these people! The author really needs to decide if the main character(s) of her book are the three queens or Jules. I think she wants it to be Jules but I really don’t want it to be Jules because I can’t stand Jules. Katherine is the best character in this series; she’s the most interesting and she’s just amazingly crazy and evil. I will not be continuing this series. Also, screw Joseph, he’s terrible and I enjoyed what happened to him immensely.
Let me end this post by saying if you happened to enjoy these books or if one of the books listed above happens to be your favorite book that is perfectly alright! I am glad that you were able to enjoy them because that is what reading is all about.
See you next time and happy reading!
