Welcome to the next segment of the Elite Romance series of 2023. This post is where I am going to list my TOP reads of the year, which wasn’t easy to narrow down. I have had a decent reading year and I am thrilled to be able to share all the delicious reads that I have here.
In this post, I will be sharing the books that were the biggest disappointments. And there were quite a few, unfortunately. And some of these might surprise you all. I know some of you loved these books so I just think sometimes we have different reading tastes. But honestly, these books were rough to read and just weren’t good books and I will stand by this. I normally like to be positive, but I think its important to be honest about books that don’t work for us.
This was an author I was seeing around instagram that I had certain hopes for but yeah this book was pretty much sci fi erotica. Not my cup of tea at all and just poorly written.
I loved the first book of the series so I went into this one with certain expectations and yeah this one was a bit disappointing. Not horrible but not great either.
Maggie Cole has always been an author that I have loved but to be honest she didn’t do a good job with the finale of this duo series. I just wanted so much more out of this one and wasn’t executed.
this was the worst book I have ever read from this author. I didn’t like it at all. The heroine was so toxic and a man hater (yeah I don’t care for those heroines) And just the way she abuses the hero just rubbed me the wrong way.
I have really enjoyed the series so I had high hopes for the finale of this one but yeah it didn’t quite execute. I just didn’t love this one to be honest. It dragged so much and just didn’t deliver for me like her other books have.
I had high expectations and I wasn’t sure what I was getting into and while there were some good aspects to this….the actual relationship parts of the story is what just didn’t meet up like I was hoping for. Not sure if I will keep trying this author as her writing just doesn’t feel like it used to.
So I am really confused if I read the same book that everyone else did haha or maybe its just this author’s writing style just didn’t work for me. But this book did nothing for me.
I really wanted to love this one but the actual plot was different from the blurb and I think that threw me off and plus the accents used in the audio were super heavy so this one just didn’t work for me.
I so didn’t love this one. It had so many issues in it. Its very obvious this author is NOT for me haha Her writing is so mediocre and needs some heavy polishing and the way this conflict was handled just wasn’t executed well at all.
This book was the BIGGEST disappointment to me and I wonder if I read the same book as everyone else did or if readers just didn’t see the major problems in this book. This book had nothing like Mile High or Right Move. The heroine was toxic and abusive to the hero, she had zero redemption or character growth to make it even worth it. So basically if you like a heroine that is constantly pushing the hero away and demeaning him constantly until 95% of the book, then sure you will probably love it lol
This book I feel like was too rushed getting out. It kinda felt like the author was just getting it done to move on quickly. It felt so lacking into what was built up for the hero and this book wasn’t even about his PTSD hardly, it was more about the heroine. So you build the first four books for this hero and we just get hardly anything for him so yeah I was not really a fan of this one. It just felt like a filler book to complete the series instead of finishing it off with a bang like we deserved.
The second half of the book was so preachy. It almost felt like the author was preaching her beliefs in this book instead of writing a story. So the first half was great but then it just had a unlikeable turn around that just left a bad taste in my mouth. These modernistic historicals are driving me bananas lol
This was NOT a romance lol this is women’s fiction. The marketing on this book was false advertising in a big way. I would have enjoyed it more if I had known it was women’s fiction. But since this was marketed as a romantic comedy (which I hardly laughed so yeah I am confused why it was labeled one) but I did lose some respect for this author for this.
This is a book that I unfortunately didn’t like. And it also made me realize that I shouldn’t read and review books that are written by friends. Because the guilt I have felt over this book is unreal and the first time ever I did write a not so honest review. It had promise just wasn’t executed like I was hoping for.
Yeah I didn’t care for this one and I was really excited for it when I heard it was a MC romance but it was no MC romance I have ever read before lol It was definitely not true to the lifestyle and the way the heroine was unwilling to accept the hero and his choices were so disappointing because there was little character growth in her. I will stick with Joanne Wylde style MC haha
*sigh* I am not sure what has happened to this author but I have become very disappointed in her books lately. I wanted to love this one but what we have is a hero who starts out great….but becomes a gamma lol that is not what I want when picking up a KA. Pretty sure I am just going to have to settle for her classic works.
I don’t think this series has worked for me like it has done for others. While I enjoyed reading the series, it didn’t really wow me as I expected that it would. Not saying that these were bad or anything, they just didn’t quite work for me as I was expecting.
I just really struggled with this one here. I think I just wasn’t in the mood for this one. But it just felt like it was lacking than her other books.
I am sad to see an Ivy Years book on your list. I remember those books fondly. It’s interesting to see Tomforde and Silver be on this list because you enjoyed other books by them. I know I was disappointed a few times, butI think I have blocked those books out
Oh yeah, I remember that Showalter really making me mad about the heroine, too. Yeah, sometimes its mood or expectation, but even a fav author’s book can be a blah one at times.
Sorry to see these didn’t work for you. Elsie Silver and Liz Tomforde are two authors I definitely want to try in 2024.
Sorry these didn’t work out for you. I loved Caught Up and Hopeless. I also loved The Year We Fell Down, but I read those books as they were being released. I can see them not working for you. That being said, I think her other series would be better suited for you.
Yeah they didn’t. Caught Up literally brought me to tears, I was so heartbroken over it. That was the toughest one for me personally. I liked The Year We Fell Down, but I don’t know the way ppl talk about the series like its the best NA series ever and I just don’t think it is lol Its fun to read but doesn’t have the depth I would have hoped for. And the endings are more HFN which isn’t my favorite either. I do like her other books a bit more though. Just working through her backlist.
That Bowen series builds depth as it goes a long. You might change your mind if you keep reading. I think you would like The Understatement of the Year for sure. Plus, all of the characters are around through the series.
Actually I have read most of the series. I only have the last two novellas to read. Its not just the first book I feel this way about, its the whole series. I just don’t think its her best work. I think I just went into this series being told its her best work and its epic NA and its not lol these books are fun and all, but don’t really deliver the depth and heart that I was hoping for. I am not saying I don’t like these books, but they aren’t even close to five stars for me. They are entertaining sure but haven’t wowed me at all.
Well, it’s some of her earliest works, so I guess that makes sense that her writing would get better with time. It is pretty classic NA for the time it was written.
Yeah that makes sense. I guess it was the way everyone raves about the series that I think I was expecting more than it actually was. probably just a symptom of higher expectations than I probably should have had. I still enjoy the books though, they are very fun. It is very classic NA for sure and very splice of life that we don’t see as much in NA these days.