I do a fair bit of research before I read a book; I want to make sure I'm not wasting my money. Usually I get it right, but here are four books that I didn't love as much as I hoped...
I went to university in Aberystwyth, so felt obliged to read Aberystwyth Mon Amour. I actually managed to pick up a signed edition as well. One word to describe this: weird. I don't know what I was expecting really ... Midsomer Murders but set in a location that I recognised? It's definitely a fictional Aberystwyth, with one hell of a mystery. But not my cup of tea.
The Marriage Plot makes the list for having some really annoying characters in it. I do say this about quite a lot of books that I have read and loved, but I really disliked them. Jeffrey Eugenides is an amazing writer, but I found the plot of The Marriage Plot quite contrived. I did get through this quite quickly, but found myself getting angry at the annoying protagonist. Will definitely have to stick to his other books...
Please don't hate me, but The Colour of Magic was a disappointment to me. It was almost a DNF. I can see the beauty and the craft that goes into it, I can understand why Discworld is such a huge fandom, but I just couldn't get myself through it, which a shame because I really really wanted to. I think it might be because it has one of my biggest book pet peeves: long chapters. This book is more a collection of short stories, and usually I don't have hours to spare reading (and there's no way that I'm stopping mid chapter).
Finally is The Last Empress. I bought this because I absolutely adored Empress Orchid. They're interesting books because they kind of blur the lines between fiction and biography. But The Last Empress just wasn't as captivating, and seemed to go on forever. It was still a fascinating story, but definitely a hard slog to read!
What about you? Are there any books that you have read, wanted to love, but in the end found disappointing?
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