Worst 3 Books of 2022

Hello! Welcome back to another day of blogmas – I feel like these blogmas days are flying past, and I almost cannot believe I have managed to stay consistent! It has really highlighted how much I have missed blogging and I want to make 2023 a better blogging year for me.

Today I wanted to talk about the three books that I was disappointed by in 2022. Although I have not read too much in 2022, I have read some amazing books! It was actually hard to think of ones that I had been disappointed by, but there were definitely a few. These books are by no means terrible books, or even the worst books I have read like the title of this post might suggest. They are just the worst of what I read this year.

The Bridgertons Series by Julia Quinn

This is kind of more than one book, but I started the Bridgertons Series last July / August and then read the last three books in March and April of this year. Now this series, I find very enjoyable. However, it is only enjoyable because I enjoy the characters and honestly I love that it breaks up my other reads that may have more series themes or topics. I particularly enjoying using it to break up fantasy reads, because sometimes fantasy reads can feel heavy, particularly when learning a new world. The thing with the Bridgertons series is that there are eight books in the series and they are all pretty much the story reiterated with different names. For somebody like me, who enjoys repetition and sometimes find comfort in that, I enjoyed that aspect. However, I can definitely recognise that it is not good. The writing is also not great and a little bland and odd in some places. Bridgertons is great for entertainment, however beyond that, it does lack.

Reputation by Lex Croucher

Coming off of my Bridgertons come down in April, I decided to pick up another historical romance. Reputation is described as ‘a classic romcom with a Regency-era twist, for fans of Mean Girls and Bridgerton.’ I thought it sounded like a fun mash up between a film that dominated my childhood and a book series I had just finished (but more so adored the TV show), however it lacked for me. I found the main character really annoying and I couldn’t enjoy the story past the main character. I had hyped up the novel quite a lot and I had heard some really good things about it. It just wasn’t a memorable read for me and was overall quite disappointing.

With This Kiss by Carrie Hope Fletcher

I’ve probably saved my most disappointing read for last. I have always been a fan of Carrie Hope Fletcher. When the Curtain Falls is a novel that means a lot to me and I kind of put Carrie Hope Fletcher up on a pedestal after that, but I don’t think I have ever enjoyed a book of hers the same way that I enjoyed When the Curtain Falls. Potentially that isn’t fair when it comes to reading an author, but I had really high hopes for With This Kiss, and this was because of the synopsis rather than just purely based off of the author’s name. I had high expectations, and unfortunately they all fell flat for me. I couldn’t connect with any of the characters. The main character annoyed me and did a lot of telling rather than showing, I was not invested in the romance, and there was a weird disconnect between the main character and their mother than magically got resolved in the end. It was an odd story. I think Carrie Hope Fletcher tries to incorporate some magical elements into the romance novels and I don’t think it works. I would really love to see a novel from her that leans heavily into either magic or romance. I know she is writing children novels there, and I can imagine she is really diving deep into the magic aspect there, and it sounds like its more suited to her.

So those were my three biggest disappointments this year, and I have to say, it has been easier to pick the disappointments than it is trying to choose my top 3 books. I am still going back and forth on that list!

Let me know in the comments if you have read any of these books on my list; and let me know the biggest disappointments for you this year.

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