Top Ten Tuesday #306

Hi all! I hope you’ve all had a good week since I last did one of these, mine has as always been fairly quiet, there’s never very much to say about life under lockdown!

Anyway, as it’s Tuesday, I have another Top Ten Tuesday for you, courtesy of Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. This week our topic is a Spring Cleaning Freebie, so I’m going to be talking about Books I Added To My Goodreads TBR More Than Two Years Ago That I’m Considering Getting Rid Of. Like all of us, I add far more books to my Goodreads TBR than I will ever be able to read, and after a while, I forget about why I added them in the first place. So for this week, I’ve gone through my TBR and weeded out some of the books that I’m not sure I’m interested in anymore:

1. All My Secrets-Sophie McKenzie

I used to really love Sophie McKenzie’s books when I was a teenager, but I’ve not read any of her books in the past few years and have kind of lost interest after feeling fairly lukewarm about her adult thrillers. I added it around when it first came out, but over five years later, I’ve still not read it. I have liked her YA thrillers in the past though, so I don’t know if I should give it a chance.

2. The DUFF-Kody Keplinger

I watched the film for this and it was okay, nothing massively special, just your average teen film really. But back when I added it to my list, I read more YA contemporary than I do now, and to be honest, my interest in YA contemporary now is fairly limited, as I feel a bit old for high school drama! So I’m not sure if it’s something I’ll ever read, especially as I’ve already seen the film.

3. The Testing-Joelle Charbonneau

I added this one to my TBR when I was still in my dystopian phase in 2015, and to be honest, I’m kind of over that now especially as most YA dystopian books I’ve read have felt very same-y. If it felt like this book added something new to the genre then I might be more interested, but from the description, it sounds exactly like 10,000 other dystopian books.

4. The Next Together-Lauren James

I think I added this one after hearing about it at YALC, and it did sound cool at the time, but looking back on it, it’s basically a romance story even with the time travelling aspect and given my lack of patience for most romances in books, I’m just not sure if I would actually enjoy it.

5. Those Who Save Us-Jenna Blum

I thought this one sounded really interesting when I added it, a mother/daughter story surrounding secrets from the mother’s past in WWII but it’s been sitting on my TBR for almost five years and I haven’t yet felt the need to pick it up which make me think that maybe I’m not that interested after all.

6. Shatter Me-Tahereh Mafi

Ah another victim of my growing out of my dystopian phase. I know a lot of people like this book which is why I added it to my TBR in the first place, because I’d heard good things about it, but I’ve not really felt the need to pick it up over the last few years and I’m like 90% sure that this series has a love triangle, so that is quite off-putting to me.

7. Mechanica-Betsy Cornwell

I added this a while back when I was adding a lot of fairytale retellings to my TBR, and it sounded good at the time but now I’m not so sure. It seems basically like Cinder without the space aspects and I wasn’t a big fan of that book, and I’m also not really a massive fan of Cinderella in general, so I don’t really know if this one would be for me (Cinderella Is Dead being an exception).

8. The Winner’s Curse-Marie Rutkoski

Another victim of the end of my dystopian phase! I have heard such good things about this one, but I just don’t know if I’m interested anymore. I don’t really know how I feel about a romance that starts with a master/slave vibe and I’m just generally not massively interested in dystopian books anymore because they all started to feel very same-y.

9. The Girl of Fire and Thorns-Rae Carson

Honestly this sounds like literally every other YA fantasy book, I mean I do get that a lot of them are very same-y and I accept that, but this one doesn’t really seem to have anything particularly interesting to set it apart from all the others I read, so I’m just not that sure if I’m interested anymore.

10. Assassin’s Heart-Sarah Ahiers

I thought this sounded interesting when I first added it, but the reviews I’ve seen haven’t been great and the longer it’s on my TBR, the less interested I’ve been in it. It seems like a Romeo and Juliet kind of story, with the main characters being assassins from rival families who have been in a secret relationship. I don’t know it just seems like it probably has too much focus on romance for me and since I’ve heard fairly lukewarm reviews of it, my interest has waned.

11. Burning Midnight-Will McIntosh

I thought this sounded quite unique when I first saw it, a world where these magic spheres are used as currency, but in the years since I added it to my TBR, my interest has waned. I don’t really know why, I have a lot of other books to read I guess and this one just hasn’t really stood out as something I’m desperately excited to read.

12. Henge-Realm Lovejoy

I do love Arthurian myths, so I can see why I added it to my TBR in the first place, but it’s been several years, it’s not a book that really seems to be around anywhere in the UK, so I don’t really know if it’s worth keeping on my TBR when I’m likely to never read it.

13. Why We Broke Up-Daniel Handler

I thought this sounded like a cute story when I first added it, but again, it’s a contemporary mostly based around a romance (albeit a break-up) so I’m not actually sure how much I’d like it. I’ve also heard some not great things about Daniel Handler in recent years and I’m not sure if I want to support his work anymore (I did read A Series of Unfortunate Events when I was younger).

14. These Rebel Waves-Sara Raasch

I do love pirates, so that aspect of this book really appealed to me, but I wasn’t a big fan of Raasch’s Snow Like Ashes, so I don’t really know if I want to read anymore of her books.

15. The Hidden Memory of Objects-Danielle Mages Amato

I’m kind of torn on this one because the story does sound interesting (a girl tries to solve the mystery of her brother’s death after the police rule it a suicide) but at the same time, it’s been on my TBR for years and I’ve not picked it up or even really thought about it, so that suggests that perhaps I wasn’t as interested as I thought.

16. Bridge of Clay-Markus Zusak

I’ll be honest, I added this to my TBR because I love The Book Thief so much, but I’m not really sure if this one appeals to me, the description on Goodreads is kind of confusing and I don’t really get what it’s about!

So there we go, those are some of the books I’m considering removing from my TBR? Any that I should definitely get rid of? Any that you think I should give a chance? Basically I want to know what you thought of these books, so let me know in the comments!

Next week’s topic is our annual Spring TBR topic, so you can all hear about how much I failed on my Winter TBR and watch me still make ridiculously ambitious reading plans for the Spring!