When Books Surprise You (But in a Good Way)

Has this ever happened to anyone? (Because I’m sure everyone has experienced this at least once in their life.) You pick up a book and - even though you don’t know much about the author or its plot - you already don’t expect too much out of it. Maybe because you’re being forced to read it or you picked it up on a sale, so you bought it cheaply on a whim. Either way, once you start reading it, you find yourself surprised by it and discover how wrong you were about it initially.

Yeah, this is what I experienced this past week.

I chose a book from my unread tower last week, picking it deliberately because I wanted to read something that I could finish quickly. (The last book took me a month to complete. I didn’t want to dedicate so much time on another novel so soon.) This new book was slightly over 400 pages, so it wasn’t small in size at all. However, the author’s name was unfamiliar to me, despite having three other books published. I also have never seen/heard of my particular book in general out in the world, so I figured that she was more of an Indie author (which she was; my knowledge on Indie authors is limited). But the plot intrigued me, hence why I had bought it back in January during one of those Barnes & Noble online sales.

As I started reading it, I quickly fell into its charm. There were all sorts of twists throughout the story that I didn’t see coming. The parents were mentioned frequently (because parents tend to be absent in many YA novels, which is weird if you’re only a teen). There wasn’t any Insta!Love when it came to the protagonist’s love interest. And just as importantly, the writing itself was well done.

It was also a stand-alone book. I commend the author for that because, usually when I’m reading something fantasy or sci-fi, it tends to be part of a duology or trilogy. But, nope, this book was a complete story arc and I was satisfied with it by its end.

My only qualm about it is that the main antagonist started to get a little too villain-y at times. But that’s just me.

Anyway…it was nice to finish a book that surpassed my expectations of it. Too often I have picked up a novel and was disappointed by it due to its mediocrity.

Now I just have to figure out which book I want to tackle next…