Hello, hello, friends! Welcome back to another post for #BESpring2020! As per usual I am a day behind but since today’s post is about bujo’s and I don’t have/use one, I thought I’d answer yesterday’s prompt made by Sam @ Fictionally Sam!

A quick recap for those who don’t know, Book Ending Spring (2020) is hosted by Sam and Clo @ Cuppa Clo, and it’s one of the quarterly events running under the umbrella term “Bookend Events” that aspires to bring the book blogging community closer together! You can find more information on the announcement page and you can sign up to join as well, if you want in on the blogging fun!

Rules

• Answer the prompts
• Tag some friends
• Link back to the original post and be sure to mention the creator (Sam @ Fictionally Sam)
• Have fun!

Now without further ado let’s get to the prompt: The Cinderella Effect! For this prompt we’re naming five books that you couldn’t wait to get your hands on but turned into a pumpkin (a dud) when you got it. So for this prompt I’m looking at the books that I was so excited for but didn’t end up loving as much as I hoped. Maybe that’s not really focusing on books that were total ‘duds’ because I still rated them okay, but they were just disappointing!

mixed signals

Okay, who am I kidding? This one fell into serious dud territory for me. I think this was one of the first e-ARCs I got approved for on NetGalley and I was stoked because it sounded really good and that cover? It stoked the fire of my love for illustrated romance covers. I even started it early because you know, organised book blogger and everything? Then I read it and ended up intensely disliking it. Disappointing for sure! Read my full review for it.

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descendant of the crane

This was so disappointing I’d consider it a dud, even though I rated it 3 stars (I think). It had such great promise and I was pulled in from the start but I felt like everything was underdeveloped because there was so much trying to be included. I didn’t connect with the characters and that romance was so forced for me. There was no chemistry?! Don’t even get me started on the ending! I felt like it was such a cop-out for rush explaining what happened and it was… SIGH. I wrote a half-review on Goodreads but didn’t manage to write my full review yet for it. Thinking about this now is making me reconsider my rating 😅

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the priory of the orange tree

Okay, this one was a mixed bag for me and I ended up rating it 3 stars. I read it with a group of lovely readers (including Leelynn who also mentioned this book on her Cinderella post) and I was so ready to fall head over feet in love with this book but that never happened and I was just left confused by my lack of emotions for this. I was just confused. There’s no doubt it was well-written but I didn’t feel invested in any of the characters. I didn’t care what happened to them and don’t even get me started on the battle that was built up for 80% of the book and lasted 5 pages (not really but basically). Sorry to those who loved it but I guess this wasn’t my jam and it made me sad! I didn’t even manage to write my review for it… 😔

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the seven deaths of evelyn hardcastle

This was my second book of the year in 2019 and it was just not my jam… I heard very positive things about the book and unique premise but it just fell flat for me. I appreciated what it was trying to do but I ended up feeling confused and frustrated rather than intrigued and eager to find out whodunit. The backstory of what happened was really cool but I wanted more than a small mention of it! I can see this being a great show or movie though so I’d be keen to watch that. Read my full review for it.

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the queen’s assassin

This was an early 2020 read and I didn’t hate it or anything but I was really looking forward to it, especially about being on the blog tour for it, and felt a bit let down. For the first time in a very long time with a YA fantasy I was actually questioning whether I was really too old for it 😅 This book felt extremely young and it made it difficult to connect with the characters. It could also be that maybe the author’s style wasn’t for me? I haven’t read anything by her before so I’d have to try another book to decide. Read my full review for it.

What books were you super excited for and felt they let you down when you read them? Any of these? Gimme the tea! ☕️