Top 5 Wednesday- Hate to Love

Top 5 Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Lainey at GingerReads and Samantha at Thoughts on Tomes.  You can find the group on Goodreads. 

This Week’s Topic:

Books You Thought You’d Hate But Ended Up Loving
— The saying for March is “in like a lion, out like a lamb” so while it doesn’t have to be as extreme as hate and love, discuss books that you weren’t loving in the beginning but then ended up enjoying in the end. 

This was a really tough one, I’m not one to pick up a book that I don’t think I will like.  Then there is the problem that if I end up loving the book, I don’t remember that I started out not liking it very much.  So it was really hard to come up with a list, but after a lot of thinking I did finally come up with these five.  

A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavalero

Even though I love Sherlock Holmes, I really hesitated to pick this one up. Mostly because after a few bad Holmes retellings I wasn’t sure I could do another one.  But a friend convinced me that this one was worth reading.  I was very glad that I did finally pick this one up.  This is my favorite of the series so far and I am eagerly awaiting the finale book.  My local library seems to be really slow lately in getting their books ordered.  Hopefully soon! 

A Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzie Lee

I pretty much had zero interest in reading this book, as you know historical fiction is just not my thing.  But I kept seeing it everywhere and everyone just loved it.  Endless talk about what fun the characters were, especially Percy.  Then I saw a review about how good the audiobook was and I decided why not?  I have an easier time dnfing audiobooks so I took a chance.  And while I won’t say that I loved the book, I did enjoy it a lot more than I thought I would.  

The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton

This was another one that I had zero interest in until I saw an interview with Scott Westerfeld and the author.  The comparison to the Uglies series is what finally got me going on it.  I fell in love with the world of the Belles, more than the characters and the plot.  But I did end up enjoying it more than I thought I would.  The audiobook was also well done and one I would recommend it.

Ace Of Shades by Amanda Foody

This is one that kept popping up on my dashboard on Netgalley and for some reason I kept passing up on.  I’m not sure why, because eventually I did pick it up and just loved it.  I just finished the second book in the series and it will be a very long wait for the final one next year.  I love the 1930’s feel of the setting, the magical system, the characters, all the double dealing, my list could go on for a long time. Great book and stunning series.

Ship of Smoke and Steel by Django Wexler

I just finished this one and I have to be honest I almost DNF’d it.  I was really struggling with the violence and the narrator was not at all likable and I just couldn’t connect to her.  But I finally sat down one morning determined to give it one more shot, and pretty soon a couple of hours had passed and I just couldn’t put it down till it was done.  I should have my full review up by next week where I will go into more detail about the change of heart.  But this is a good example of why I try really hard to not DNF books.  

So those are my choices for this week.  It will be very interesting to see what other people have chosen and why.  What books have you started out not liking and then ended up loving?  Let me know in the comments.