So to start off the end of the year wrap up, lets begin with the list everyone most enjoys reading (at least I know I do) - the list where I bad-mouth a bunch of books I really didn't like. Now, as a warning, I apologise to anyone that doesn't agree with my list or who is upset if their favourite book is on this list but at the end of the day - these are my opinions. Everyone can have different ones! So if you loved one of these books, you are entitled to like them! I love books people hate all the time. And sometimes I go back and re-read books and realise they weren't as bad as I thought (like Anne of Green Gables). This list is of books I read this year, not just new releases from this year, and is in no particular order really. Furthermore, while I tired to avoid adding books I DNF'd there were a few that I just genuinely disliked so much that I had to DNF them, and also had to include them on this list because I really really didn't enjoy them. Now let the controversial opinions begin!
My first 1 star read of the year. God this was bad. This was SO SO BAD, which is so upsetting because I loved Megan Shepherd’s Madaman’s Daughter series so much. But this book was just truly awful. So six teens are abducted by aliens and put into a “zoo” so to speak to study human behaviour, and part of this behaviour is too mate. It just… it just really bothered me all the teenagers sleeping together – it felt creepy and weird to read about. Maybe it was supposed to be that way but ugh, I did not enjoy. I also got super confused when everyone started going crazy and turning on each other. I just didn’t buy any of it, and I found the drama amped up way too quickly – to the point where I really didn’t buy the characters motivations. Overall I really just hated this book – I ended up skimming the last few chapters because I couldn’t be bothered to read every perspective. Also love how the pretty girl is labelled a “slut” and portrayed as the bad girl in this – like COME ON. Why does YA have to hate on females so much!
2. Nameless by Lili St. Crow
This book was literally non-sensical. WTF EVEN HAPPENED. I really just need to accept that Lilith St. Crow isn’t for me, because I wanted to love this dark and twisted re-telling of Snow White but I cant even give you a proper synopsis because I have no idea wtf happened. All I can say is that this a re-telling of Snow White set in "New Haven" where monsters live, and our main characters lives with these mafia vampires. That is about all I understood from this - I found the writing to be very convoluted and the plot secondary to description. Which meant that at the end, a major plot point happened and I’m still not entirely clear what actually occurred because the writing was way too flowery and not even flowery in a good way - it was flower in a " lets use the thesaurus on every other word to sound smart" way.
This book was literally non-sensical. WTF EVEN HAPPENED. I really just need to accept that Lilith St. Crow isn’t for me, because I wanted to love this dark and twisted re-telling of Snow White but I cant even give you a proper synopsis because I have no idea wtf happened. All I can say is that this a re-telling of Snow White set in "New Haven" where monsters live, and our main characters lives with these mafia vampires. That is about all I understood from this - I found the writing to be very convoluted and the plot secondary to description. Which meant that at the end, a major plot point happened and I’m still not entirely clear what actually occurred because the writing was way too flowery and not even flowery in a good way - it was flower in a " lets use the thesaurus on every other word to sound smart" way.
3. Blood Red by Mercedes Lackey
Mercedes Lackey's Elemental Masters series is really unique and amazingly intricate - it is a companion series of novels that are all based on fairy tales and are basically alternative historical retellings of these fairy tales, in which historical events are shaped by the "Elemental Masters" who are magicians that specialise in the four elements (earth, air, wind and fire). The premise is AMAZING but with 11+ books in the series, it is really a mixed bag quality wise. Some of the tales are amazing (the first three in particular and Unnatural Issue) while others are absolutely horrid. Unfortunately this retelling of Little Red Riding Hood, of an Earth Master who was raised to kill werewolves after her grandmother was attacked in the forests of Bavaria, was one of the bad stories.I was expecting an awesome Red Riding Hood, Werewolf Slayer Buffy-esque story and instead I got about 90% prologue and 10% plot. There was no action, no plot, there wasn't even a decent love story! This book spent so much time on setting up the main character (who was so dull I can't remember her name) that the adventure promised doesn't occur until you are about 300+ pages in and then the story wraps up before page 400. It was just dreadfully dull.
Mercedes Lackey's Elemental Masters series is really unique and amazingly intricate - it is a companion series of novels that are all based on fairy tales and are basically alternative historical retellings of these fairy tales, in which historical events are shaped by the "Elemental Masters" who are magicians that specialise in the four elements (earth, air, wind and fire). The premise is AMAZING but with 11+ books in the series, it is really a mixed bag quality wise. Some of the tales are amazing (the first three in particular and Unnatural Issue) while others are absolutely horrid. Unfortunately this retelling of Little Red Riding Hood, of an Earth Master who was raised to kill werewolves after her grandmother was attacked in the forests of Bavaria, was one of the bad stories.I was expecting an awesome Red Riding Hood, Werewolf Slayer Buffy-esque story and instead I got about 90% prologue and 10% plot. There was no action, no plot, there wasn't even a decent love story! This book spent so much time on setting up the main character (who was so dull I can't remember her name) that the adventure promised doesn't occur until you are about 300+ pages in and then the story wraps up before page 400. It was just dreadfully dull.
4. Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco
See review here. I had heard so many good things about this book, but unfortunately I think the overhype is what ultimately led me to really dislike this book. The book follows Audrey Rose, a society gal in late 19th century London, as she tries to balance her life of social propriety with her deep desire to study human anatomy with her Uncle. Her world is turned upside down when she becomes involved in the investigation in the Ripper murders, and begins to suspect everyone around her. It sounded like such a great, gruesome story but overall I really just didn't enjoy this story at all - - i found the writing to be poor and the characters not well-developed, and even contradictory of themselves at times. Audrey Rose and her romantic interest Thomas were super insta-love, and I found their relationship contrived and unbelievable. I also guessed who the ripper was about 4 chapters in and so was completely not shocked by the revelation. I did like how Kerri Maniscalco didn't shy away from gory details of the murders or their autopsies - I appreciated and wished there was more of in fact - it was a lovely gruesome setting. But definitely not a great read, and I think my disappointment with it after having it be so overhyped is what pushed it into the worst read of 2017 pile, for being completely underwhelming to me.
See review here. I had heard so many good things about this book, but unfortunately I think the overhype is what ultimately led me to really dislike this book. The book follows Audrey Rose, a society gal in late 19th century London, as she tries to balance her life of social propriety with her deep desire to study human anatomy with her Uncle. Her world is turned upside down when she becomes involved in the investigation in the Ripper murders, and begins to suspect everyone around her. It sounded like such a great, gruesome story but overall I really just didn't enjoy this story at all - - i found the writing to be poor and the characters not well-developed, and even contradictory of themselves at times. Audrey Rose and her romantic interest Thomas were super insta-love, and I found their relationship contrived and unbelievable. I also guessed who the ripper was about 4 chapters in and so was completely not shocked by the revelation. I did like how Kerri Maniscalco didn't shy away from gory details of the murders or their autopsies - I appreciated and wished there was more of in fact - it was a lovely gruesome setting. But definitely not a great read, and I think my disappointment with it after having it be so overhyped is what pushed it into the worst read of 2017 pile, for being completely underwhelming to me.
5. Spindle Fire by Lexa Hillyer
This makes me SO sad. I bought a beautiful signed copy of this because I LOVE Sleeping Beauty. It is my favourite fairy tale, and my favourite Disney movie. Give me Sleeping Beauty anything and I will BUY IT. (I know how terrible the original Grimm's brother tale is but just… don’t even get me started). But this did not deliver AT ALL. The plot follows two sisters, Isabelle and Aurora, both princesses - but Aurora is the legitimate heir and Isabelle is a bastard half-sister. At Aurora's birth the sisters were granted gifts by the faeries, gifts that are really more like curses for Isabelle lost her sight and Aurora lost her sense of touch and her voice. And then... I'm not entirely sure what happens but one of them gets trapped in a portrait or something? So yeah, the world-building was not strong in this one at all, nor did any of the story jump off the page. I really didn't even buy the relationship between the sisters - which is supposed to be the key part of the novel - but they spent so little time together it was hard to buy their deep meaningful relationship. More time was spent with both love interests (because of course both sisters had to have love interests). The best part of the book was the villain, but again not enough time was spent with the main villains to make the story compelling. Overall the writing was poor, the characters underdeveloped and the plot half-baked. It felt like the book was only half-finished, so perhaps my main criticism is that it simply wasn't long enough to make a compelling novel. And to top it all off the book ends on a cliffhanger, which really just pissed me off because you cant trick me into buying the second one when I didn't like the first. So now I have a signed copy of this book I didn't enjoy - and I leaned my lesson.
6. A Study in Scarlet Women by Sherry Thomas
I was so upset reading this because I had loved the Elementals Trilogy that Sherry Thomas had written so much and thought it was extremely under-hyped. However, while I didn’t hate this book, I definitely didn’t fall in love with it the way I expected to. I think I went in thinking Sherry Thomas could do no wrong and that’s why I had so many problems because I just didn’t click with the story or the characters. This is a female imagining of the Sherlock Holmes story. I found overall, that I just didn’t buy the “Sherlock” character, nor her reasons for “ruining” herself in the first chapter. Like come on, that was stupid and even a genius with social problems could see that. I didn’t hate the story or the main mystery, but I was quite surprised how it wasn't really the "focus" of the tale - the mystery was very secondary and months later I honestly cant recall most of the details of the story so I think that gives an indication at how "memorable' it was. I just really didn't like this one, and was very disappointed.
7. Maid Marian by Elsa Watson
I said this in my monthly wrap-up that dealt with my review of this book but WHY ARE THERE NO GOOD ROBIN HOOD RETELLINGS? MY GOD. I NEED ONE. This story is basically the tale of Maid Marian, and we follow her adventures at the court of King John, her marriage prospects and eventually her adventures with Robin Hood in Sherwood forest after she escapes from her arranged marriage. That is the literally entire plot of the novel. That is it. There were no original twists and turns to the Robin Hood story, the characters just seemed like cardboard cut outs of the original legend. This was a retelling with nothing new or unique to add to the story. It was boring, and being boring when you are a book is pretty much the cardinal sin. Personally, I would much rather go watch the Disney version of the Robin Hood story because at least making Robin Hood a fox is more original than what this book did (plus the voice actor has a sexy voice okay, and I had a childhood crush on a cartoon fox).
This makes me SO sad. I bought a beautiful signed copy of this because I LOVE Sleeping Beauty. It is my favourite fairy tale, and my favourite Disney movie. Give me Sleeping Beauty anything and I will BUY IT. (I know how terrible the original Grimm's brother tale is but just… don’t even get me started). But this did not deliver AT ALL. The plot follows two sisters, Isabelle and Aurora, both princesses - but Aurora is the legitimate heir and Isabelle is a bastard half-sister. At Aurora's birth the sisters were granted gifts by the faeries, gifts that are really more like curses for Isabelle lost her sight and Aurora lost her sense of touch and her voice. And then... I'm not entirely sure what happens but one of them gets trapped in a portrait or something? So yeah, the world-building was not strong in this one at all, nor did any of the story jump off the page. I really didn't even buy the relationship between the sisters - which is supposed to be the key part of the novel - but they spent so little time together it was hard to buy their deep meaningful relationship. More time was spent with both love interests (because of course both sisters had to have love interests). The best part of the book was the villain, but again not enough time was spent with the main villains to make the story compelling. Overall the writing was poor, the characters underdeveloped and the plot half-baked. It felt like the book was only half-finished, so perhaps my main criticism is that it simply wasn't long enough to make a compelling novel. And to top it all off the book ends on a cliffhanger, which really just pissed me off because you cant trick me into buying the second one when I didn't like the first. So now I have a signed copy of this book I didn't enjoy - and I leaned my lesson.
6. A Study in Scarlet Women by Sherry Thomas
I was so upset reading this because I had loved the Elementals Trilogy that Sherry Thomas had written so much and thought it was extremely under-hyped. However, while I didn’t hate this book, I definitely didn’t fall in love with it the way I expected to. I think I went in thinking Sherry Thomas could do no wrong and that’s why I had so many problems because I just didn’t click with the story or the characters. This is a female imagining of the Sherlock Holmes story. I found overall, that I just didn’t buy the “Sherlock” character, nor her reasons for “ruining” herself in the first chapter. Like come on, that was stupid and even a genius with social problems could see that. I didn’t hate the story or the main mystery, but I was quite surprised how it wasn't really the "focus" of the tale - the mystery was very secondary and months later I honestly cant recall most of the details of the story so I think that gives an indication at how "memorable' it was. I just really didn't like this one, and was very disappointed.
I said this in my monthly wrap-up that dealt with my review of this book but WHY ARE THERE NO GOOD ROBIN HOOD RETELLINGS? MY GOD. I NEED ONE. This story is basically the tale of Maid Marian, and we follow her adventures at the court of King John, her marriage prospects and eventually her adventures with Robin Hood in Sherwood forest after she escapes from her arranged marriage. That is the literally entire plot of the novel. That is it. There were no original twists and turns to the Robin Hood story, the characters just seemed like cardboard cut outs of the original legend. This was a retelling with nothing new or unique to add to the story. It was boring, and being boring when you are a book is pretty much the cardinal sin. Personally, I would much rather go watch the Disney version of the Robin Hood story because at least making Robin Hood a fox is more original than what this book did (plus the voice actor has a sexy voice okay, and I had a childhood crush on a cartoon fox).
8. Wicked Enchantment by Anya Bast
I think I need to give up on paranormal urban fantasy stories because it has been ages since I found a good one. This one is the definitely the worst one I read this year - and it was about faeries which are my favourite! But the plot was non-sensical - it was set in a hybrid world of our world and the faeries world, but not enough detail was really given for a clear idea of the setting, the motivations of the characters or even what was going on. Honestly I don't even know (nor does the author) because really this book was about sex as the sex scenes were 70% of the book. So yeah. I'm not even bothering to give book details because it was a book about sex and faeries, that is literally all anyone needs to know. And I don't mind me some erotica, but this wasn't even well written erotica so... yeah.
9. Roar by Cora Carmack
Well this was exactly like every YA fantasy release for the past 10 years. Girl who is a princess of a fantasy kingdom with vague world-building? Check. Princess is breathtakingly beautiful (but is shy and modest and meek)? Check. Evil (and likely misunderstood) prince suitor? Check. Rugged commoner suitor? Check. Princess escapes the castle for an adventure, and goes on a journey with one of her love interests? Check. Girl discovers SUPER SECRET, SUPER SPESHUL magical powers on said journey? Check and Check. God this was just derivative of literally everything in YA ever. Which is unfortunate because the stormlings magic idea sounded really cool - but once again it was barely explained and very sketchily laid out magic system. So yeah, I don't even need to give a synopsis of this because read any other YA fantasy in the last decade (like say Defy, or The Sin Eaters Daughter or The Orphan Queen or even Graceling - WHICH I LOVE) and you'll find the plot of this novel. It's not even that I hated it but that it was nothing new or exciting and therefore I didn't enjoy it.
I think I need to give up on paranormal urban fantasy stories because it has been ages since I found a good one. This one is the definitely the worst one I read this year - and it was about faeries which are my favourite! But the plot was non-sensical - it was set in a hybrid world of our world and the faeries world, but not enough detail was really given for a clear idea of the setting, the motivations of the characters or even what was going on. Honestly I don't even know (nor does the author) because really this book was about sex as the sex scenes were 70% of the book. So yeah. I'm not even bothering to give book details because it was a book about sex and faeries, that is literally all anyone needs to know. And I don't mind me some erotica, but this wasn't even well written erotica so... yeah.
Well this was exactly like every YA fantasy release for the past 10 years. Girl who is a princess of a fantasy kingdom with vague world-building? Check. Princess is breathtakingly beautiful (but is shy and modest and meek)? Check. Evil (and likely misunderstood) prince suitor? Check. Rugged commoner suitor? Check. Princess escapes the castle for an adventure, and goes on a journey with one of her love interests? Check. Girl discovers SUPER SECRET, SUPER SPESHUL magical powers on said journey? Check and Check. God this was just derivative of literally everything in YA ever. Which is unfortunate because the stormlings magic idea sounded really cool - but once again it was barely explained and very sketchily laid out magic system. So yeah, I don't even need to give a synopsis of this because read any other YA fantasy in the last decade (like say Defy, or The Sin Eaters Daughter or The Orphan Queen or even Graceling - WHICH I LOVE) and you'll find the plot of this novel. It's not even that I hated it but that it was nothing new or exciting and therefore I didn't enjoy it.
10. The Weight of Feathers by Anna- Marie McLemore
This book had been on my wish list for YEARS but I could never find it in stores or online for cheap. Finally, Finally, one day Bookoutlet had it for like $4 and I was so excited, but after reading it, well, let's just say I'm glad I didn't pay anymore for this book. This story sells itself as a teenage version of The Night Circus (which is amazing and beautiful and go read it now). It follows two teens whose families have some special abilities, and who use these abilities to perform in a circus like capacity to earn money. However, an accident years ago, which caused deaths on both sides, has led the families to despise each other and it is only by accident and possibly fate that a boy and a girl from the families meet - and begin to fall into a forbidden attraction. I was so sad when I read this book because I had wanted it for so long and it ended up being so boring. Seriously, it was trying so hard to be as whimsical and magical as The Night Circus with the same amazing love story, but it just wasn't. I will say that it did have wonderful writing, the kind of writing that most magical realism has - very readable but also with a touch of whimsy. However; the writing didn't save the boring plot, or the bland romance and I found myself almost DNFing this multiple times. I ended up just skimming the last 30% of the novel to see how it ended. And it ended exactly as I imagined with absolutely NOTHING happening.
11. The Star Touched Queen by Roshani Choski
I don't usually like to include DNF'd books in my "reads" of the year but I feel like I need to include this one because I TRIED. I TRIED SO HARD TO FINISH THIS and I can't. I can't like it, I can't read it and I absolutely hated every second of trying to. I had read so many rave reviews for this book on Goodreads that I was convinced I was going to like it. But after 6 months of struggling to try to read it, putting it down and going back to it and TRYING to make it through another chapter I have decide to DNF it at 40% because I just don't care anymore. The concept of the story is basically a Hades and Persephone retelling but set in an Indian-esque fantasy world. The setting sounded so beautiful and different than a lot of current YA fantasies. And yet, I can't give more detail about it because i was so bored out of my skull that I literally remember nothing from like the 40% I managed to get through. I remember hating the main character who is once again a pretty special snowflake who all the other women are jealous of. I remember the tall dark handsome stranger carrying her away. and I remember the contrived "mystery" of where he brought her that was SO OBVIOUS I skimmed chapters just to confirm that I was right. And I was. I think the worst part of this book though - and the thing that kept me from enjoying it the most - was the writing. It was so bad. It was trying way too hard to be flowery and descriptive prose and instead I found it convoluted and hard to discern (I've had similar problems with Laini Taylor books but at least the writing is good in those, if a little too metaphor-y for my tastes). I can't state enough that this book just bored me to tears and in my opinion there is little worse a book could do than be boring (and bad - god it was so bad).
This book had been on my wish list for YEARS but I could never find it in stores or online for cheap. Finally, Finally, one day Bookoutlet had it for like $4 and I was so excited, but after reading it, well, let's just say I'm glad I didn't pay anymore for this book. This story sells itself as a teenage version of The Night Circus (which is amazing and beautiful and go read it now). It follows two teens whose families have some special abilities, and who use these abilities to perform in a circus like capacity to earn money. However, an accident years ago, which caused deaths on both sides, has led the families to despise each other and it is only by accident and possibly fate that a boy and a girl from the families meet - and begin to fall into a forbidden attraction. I was so sad when I read this book because I had wanted it for so long and it ended up being so boring. Seriously, it was trying so hard to be as whimsical and magical as The Night Circus with the same amazing love story, but it just wasn't. I will say that it did have wonderful writing, the kind of writing that most magical realism has - very readable but also with a touch of whimsy. However; the writing didn't save the boring plot, or the bland romance and I found myself almost DNFing this multiple times. I ended up just skimming the last 30% of the novel to see how it ended. And it ended exactly as I imagined with absolutely NOTHING happening.
11. The Star Touched Queen by Roshani Choski
I don't usually like to include DNF'd books in my "reads" of the year but I feel like I need to include this one because I TRIED. I TRIED SO HARD TO FINISH THIS and I can't. I can't like it, I can't read it and I absolutely hated every second of trying to. I had read so many rave reviews for this book on Goodreads that I was convinced I was going to like it. But after 6 months of struggling to try to read it, putting it down and going back to it and TRYING to make it through another chapter I have decide to DNF it at 40% because I just don't care anymore. The concept of the story is basically a Hades and Persephone retelling but set in an Indian-esque fantasy world. The setting sounded so beautiful and different than a lot of current YA fantasies. And yet, I can't give more detail about it because i was so bored out of my skull that I literally remember nothing from like the 40% I managed to get through. I remember hating the main character who is once again a pretty special snowflake who all the other women are jealous of. I remember the tall dark handsome stranger carrying her away. and I remember the contrived "mystery" of where he brought her that was SO OBVIOUS I skimmed chapters just to confirm that I was right. And I was. I think the worst part of this book though - and the thing that kept me from enjoying it the most - was the writing. It was so bad. It was trying way too hard to be flowery and descriptive prose and instead I found it convoluted and hard to discern (I've had similar problems with Laini Taylor books but at least the writing is good in those, if a little too metaphor-y for my tastes). I can't state enough that this book just bored me to tears and in my opinion there is little worse a book could do than be boring (and bad - god it was so bad).
12. The Unnaturalists by Tiffany Trent
Once again, I got excited for a steampunk book only to be disappointed. This book wasn't even steampunk really! It was a weird world in which Nikola Tesla had transported a huge portion of the population of London into a secret 'otherworld' that ran on faerie energy rather than electricity, and in which everyone worships famous scientists as gods. Yeah, it was that weird. Overall, I found the plot to be slow and the main action wrapped up way to easily in the last hundred pages of the book. I also highly disliked following the perspective of a 12 yr old boy - the author just really didn't capture male thoughts (especially pre-pubescent male thoughts) that well at all. Finally, there was an unnecessary romance on top of a boring plot and a host of characters who were so dull I can't remember their names. So yeah, once again, books shouldn't bore me - this one did - ergo I did not like it.
13. Darkness Becomes Her by Kelly Keaton
A paranormal-UF story that follows Ari, a strange looking girl with silver hair and teal eyes with no answers about her past. She decides to go into New 2 - the new New Orleans- where all the paranormal creatures who have come out into the open now live. Upon her arrival though something sinister begins hunting her, and even worse, all the monsters in New 2 are absolutely horrified about what she is. Once again, this books is just badly written, and too short for any real plot substance and I just didn't care for it. I did like the reveal at the end of what Ari was (can't tell you because its a spoiler) if only because it was something completely original, and a type of paranormal creature I had never read about before. Other than that, it was a pretty trope-y story and wasn't well written.
14. Death Marked by Leah Cypress
I really enjoyed the first book in this duology, Death Sworn - in that book we follow Illeni as she decides to be a tutor to an underground school of assassins, and tries to unravel the mystery of her two predecessors who died in the school under mysterious circumstances. Death Sworn was engaging, and the love story and development was really compelling, and while the first book had its share of problems - like a completely lack of world building - the characters made up for it enough that I gave it 4 stars. However; this book I DNF'ed at 75% because the author had completely changed the characters I had liked. I understand that the author was trying to do the unexpected with the love story, but I found that the new characters and plot just paled in comparison to the first book - and what she did to the characters ultimately destroyed my ability to enjoy the first book in a re-read now. So I'm simply going to pretend that Death Sworn was a standalone and that Death Marked never happened.
15. The Architect of Song by A.G. Howard
The story follows Juliet, a deaf 19 yr old, who is drawn into a ghostly love triangle and murder mystery. The story started off really good, and I was completely hooked. And then about halfway through the book it became a dumpster fire. I actually didn't despise the love triangle - I found both sides compelling and believable, and didn't really have a prefence to who Juliet ended up with because both were real relationships. What truly bothered me about this book was the underlying myserty in the story, and the answers which the author came up with for the mystery. While I was certainly kept on my toes and didn't guess the twists and turns, that is because I found the twists and turns to, ultimately, be pretty out of left-field. They didn't seem to make a lot of sense. I didn't hate this book but I just found that the plot took a sharp decline in the second half, which is unfortunate because I had so enjoyed the first half. I also found that it read like a YA author trying really hard to write an adult novel - and not understanding that in an adult novel the stakes are raised considerably higher. 
16. A Promise of Fire by Amanda Bouchet.
I really need to stop reading amazon and Goodreads recommendations, I need to remember that most casual readers don’t notice tropes and hate them the way I do. this book sells itself as a fantasy but it is a romance. It is basically a romance with some light fantasy elements thrown in. The story begins with our main character Cat, disguised as a soothsayer and trying to hide from her destiny as the Kingmaker - a person who can divine truth from lies. However; she is discovered (within 2 chapters might I add) and take captive by Griffin, a prince in his own right - and who she obviously falls in love with in about 3 chapters. The story from there is just basically their "witty" (i use that term sarcastically) banter as they travel back to Griffin's home kingdom and eventually fall in love (none of this is spoilers by the way). Once again, this book is just all tropes. It has a special girl who falls in love with the first man she meets who just so happens to be gorgeous and crazy protective. All his super buff attractive male companions that travel with them also happen to become her friends and also crazy protective. Oh, and this girl basically has no other female interaction because most of the other women in the novel hate her for being hot and special. So yeah. I hated this book just for how much of the same it is. It is not fantasy it is ROMANCE. 
17. The Hundredth Queen by Emily R. King
My complaints about this book are basically ditto to my complaints for A Promise of Fire. It is not a fantasy novel it is a love story - only this time it is between a girl selected to be the Hundredth Queen to the Rajah, and battle all other ninety-nine queen for power. Once again our main heroine is "special" even though she is plain and she makes the mistake of falling in love with her bodyguard (if it isn't the prince, its the bodyguard). The story just had no original elements, and even when the Author tried to make some deaths happen, I was so far from caring about the characters that I didn't care when main characters died. I just found this book to be very much the same as every other popular Fantasy on Goodreads -- all romance, no fantasy. Poor world-building, and lots of fantasy cliches just affirmed my dislike, which started from pretty much the first chapter. I basically hate-read this book.
So there we have it, my worst reads of 2017! What books did you read this year that you really didn't enjoy?
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