TTT – Books I Loved But Never Reviewed

Happy Top Ten Tuesday everyone! I’m excited because I’m eating Korean BBQ tonight. I’m going to miss the variety of foods when I leave this place… Anyway, let’s to some Top Ten Tuesday things!

reviewed

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, and you can find all prompts, past and future, on her blog!

This week’s prompt is: books I loved, but never reviewed. This honestly happens to me quite a lot. Especially solid five star reads often remain unreviewed. You’d think I have a lot to say about these books, but it usually is just something like this:

“ASFJAJAJFAJASFK”

Which isn’t very helpful to readers who want to know about this book, is it? Anyway, here are ten books that I loved but never reviewed!

1 – House of Earth and Blood

House of Earth and Blood

By Sarah J. Maas

I finished this book in late March, and I thought “I’ll just review it later when I have more coherent thoughts.” Well, that obviously never happened. I really should get into the habit of at least taking notes, if not do an entire review of never books, because I also always forget important details. Like I know I loved this book, but I don’t even remember that much from it. And considering we often wait for at least one year to read sequels, this might be a problem.

2 – The Empire of Gold

The Empire of Gold

By S.A. Chakraborty

I feel about this book exactly the way I did about House of Earth and Blood. Both these books were pretty chunky, and yet I couldn’t really find anything that I wanted to address as a flaw. Reviewing flawed books is so much easier, but this book was perfection. Although now that I think about it, I definitely could’ve written an essay about everyone’s character arcs. Those were pretty darn amazing and were probably my favorite part of the series. I mean, who doesn’t want to see their favorite characters grow and learn?

3 – Serpent & Dove

Serpent & Dove

By Shelby Mahurin

This is one of those books that I definitely could’ve reviewed at the time. I could’ve talked about how I put it aside for three months because I thought it was incredibly slow. I could’ve talked about how suddenly I started to enjoy the blooming romance between Lou and Reid, and the thrilling ending. But I never did and I don’t really know why. Maybe I can still whip up a review, even though it’s been so long since I’ve read it, because Blood & Honey is coming out soon!

4 – Starsight

Starsight

By Brandon Sanderson

Uhm, so I haven’t reviewed Starsight because I also didn’t review Skyward, and I want to have the set complete. So you can probably expect me to not review book three and four either. Unless… I somehow manage to write a short review of both Skyward and Starsight? I feel like I remember enough from it, and they both make some appearances in other posts to the point that I think I can write a decent review. Maybe. Also side-note: I didn’t even know there were gonna be four books until literally just now when I wrote this post.

5 – The Gilded Wolves

The Gilded Wolves

By Roshani Chokshi

Okay, this one wasn’t a five star read for me, but it was still very enjoyable. And the reason I’m now regretting not having written a review is because I have an ARC of The Silvered Serpents… Which I am totally going to review because it came from NetGalley so I kind of have to. Anyway, in short I loved the mystery and intrigue of this book, even though I thought (and still kinds of think) that the magic system is a little confusing. I love that The Silvered Serpents will take place in Russia, though.

6 – House of Salt and Sorrows

House of Salt and Sorrows

By Erin A. Craig

I don’t know why I never reviewed this book because it was one of my favorite reads of 2019. I remember recommending it to people every chance I got. It was atmospheric, spooky, and totally enthralling. It was like I was there with the characters the entire time! At one point during the book I genuinely did not know what was real, and what wasn’t, making my head spin a little. If you haven’t read this book yet, I’d say you should pick it up this Fall! It’s a perfect Halloween-time read.

7 – The Priory of the Orange Tree

The Priory of the Orange Tree

By Samantha Shannon

Making this list makes me realize I’m bad at reviews. I still remember most of this book, because I still talk about it often. And really, I could probably write a whole essay based on that beautiful cover alone. Yet somehow I never wrote a review. I didn’t even read it that long after it came out. There were many things I enjoyed in this book: the dragons of course, the romance, the magic, the politics. But there were also things that could’ve been executed better, like the ending. But it’s still a very solid stand-alone!

8 – King of Scars

King of Scars

By Leigh Bardugo

Now that I think of it, I haven’t ever written a single review for any Leigh Bardugo book, with the exception of Ninth House. I all honestly, I definitely could’ve reviewed this at the time. On Goodreads I rated it five stars, though looking back I don’t think I would rate it the same way now. Definitely a four star, though. The beginning I thought was kind of slow, but I enjoyed reading about Nikolai, Zoya, and Nina. I’m excited for book two, whenever it may come out.

9 – The Shadow Cipher

The Shadow Cipher

By Laura Ruby

The Shadow Cipher was actually recommended to me at Barnes & Noble at one time. I feel like this is one of those middle grade books that’s completely slept on. It takes place in a steampunk version of New York, like hello!? Anyway, I loved this book. It’s exciting, adventurous, and has that trope I like: treasure hunting. Book two and even book three are out already, and I haven’t read them yet, unfortunately. But I hope to get them soon!

10 – The Forever War

The Forever War

By Joe Haldeman

This book deviates from the list a little because it’s a lot older than all other books here. Like it was first published in 1974, soooo. Quite old. Anyway, I should’ve reviewed this book because it deals with some very complex issues. You could see it as a critique on the Vietnam war. The war in this book is also immensely unpopular. But in this case it’s set in space. And because of relative time, whenever troops come back, decades have passed on earth. This makes coming home not better than being at war. It’s a short book, so if military sci-fi is your thing, I recommend picking it up!

That’s it for today’s Top Ten Tuesday! What are books you enjoyed but never reviewd?

You can find more of my past Top Ten Tuesday posts here!