Top Ten Tuesday - Totally Deceiving Books

So this is my list of books that completely surprised me - either because the cover didn't match the book, the summary didn't describe the story that well or because (more frequently) my bigoted opinion of the book was incorrect.

1) Pegasus by Robin McKinley

Just look at that beautiful, beautiful cover. It's all kinds of amazing. Unfortunately, the book is not. Far from it in fact.

I completely admit to buying this book purely because of the cover image. That'll teach me.

Read my review of Pegasus here.

2) Bound by Sarah Bryant

On the other hand, just look at this terrible cover! It's so generic-paranormal-YA, and the blurb doesn't help. 'Girl sees things nobody else does and meets a mysterious boy who can see them too.'

But I'm reading it now, and so far it's very, very good! From now on, I may only read books with ugly covers. 

I'll link this to a review when, you know, I actually have one.

3) Black Swan Rising by Lee Carroll

I'm not normally a fan of girl-in-the-pretty-dress covers, but the summary promised a unique fantasy story, full of folklore and swan imagery.

Not so. There's not a lot of the above, but there is a Sneaky Vampire. Click the link for my rant. It's happened before and it will happen again. I hate Sneaky Vampires.

In fact, it's so completely generic and unmemorable that I forgot what image I was looking for as I scrolled through my picture archive three times.

Click for my Black Swan Rising review.

4) Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence

This one wasn't deceiving in a good or a bad way. But it was, nevertheless.

I'm sure many of you know how Lady Chatterley was banned in the 1960s for its obscenity and how many copies have the page numbers of the illicit scenes pencilled in the back? Well, when I read it last year, it's just... not. There are two sex scenes and they're both less than a page long.

I know I sound disappointed (eh, wouldn't be completely untrue to form), but it just surprised me how tame it was. I mean, even the covers have naked women on them!

My review of Lady Chatterley's Lover is here! :) 

5) The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

I know this has made it onto a lot of lists today, but I never once thought it was about starvation or being stranded on a desert island. It's just that every time I saw the UK cover of The Hunger Games, it looked to me like some young adult spy/thriller book. As I have absolutely zero interest in those, I always ignored it until I stumbled across the fifty million reviews around the blogosphere!

I still don't understand why they chose this cover.

My review of The Hunger Games.

6) Fury (Mercy series, book four) by Rebecca Lim

Wow, a book called Fury! And look, there's a bad-ass looking girl on the front and the colours are a ferocious red and gold! This must be about a woman who doesn't take no for an answer, stands up for what she believes in and won't take crap from anyone, right!?

Uhh... no. It's not. 

7) The Magicians by Lev Grossman

I admit to not being a fan of this one anyway, but I do think the cover is misleading. It looks all dark and mysterious, hinting at an adult book filled with danger and secrets. Even the summary makes it seem darker than it really is.

Inside though, it comes across as very childlike and has the worst ending in human history. It's about students trying to find their way into childrens' books, for God's sake.

My review of The Magicians is here. 

8) Can You Keep A Secret? by Sophie Kinsella

This was the first Sophie Kinsella book I ever read and I'm so grateful for the introduction to her books.  

I grabbed it from the library on the way to a long train journey. On closer inspection after I actually boarded the train, it looked like any generic, badly-written drivel. The cover looks fluffy and the summary seems fluffy.

And it is, I suppose. But it's also hilarious and moving, and I've since devoured all of her other works. I'm not a massive chick-lit fan, but I really do like these.

Aaaaand that's it. Sorry folks, I'm out of ideas!