Books I Love That Have Low Goodreads Ratings

I saw the lovely Kristin from Kristin Kraves Books make a post about the books she loves that don’t have the best Goodreads ratings, and I thought that it would be fun to see which books I’ve loved that aren’t necessarily popular on Goodreads myself! I usually check Goodreads before I think about buying a book to see what the average rating is and if any of my friends have read it and what they thought, but I’ve only been doing that since I started really blogging. I have absolutely no idea what books will be on this list, so let’s find out together!

The first thing I want to mention is that I mainly rate based on enjoyment, so a lot of my books are rated 3+ stars. If I enjoyed it, it gets a good rating. I’m trying to be a little more critical, but it’s a slow process.

Zoo by James Patterson

My Rating: 5      Goodreads Rating: 3.45

This is a book that I read before I started blogging, and as someone with a background in conservation, I found the thought of animals evolving to finally be the alphas in the world and start to hunt humans incredibly scary and honestly, it is quite possibly something that could happen. This book has also been made into a TV show in the last few years, which is equally as scary to me.

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The Witch’s Daughter

My Rating: 5      Goodreads Rating: 3.57

I’m just now realizing that because I read this before I started blogging I don’t have a review posted. Which means I don’t really remember much about why I liked this book so much. It’s not often that I read a book about witches that feels more realistic, but from what I remember that was one of the reasons I liked this book so much.

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Markswoman

My Rating: 5      Goodreads Rating: 3.58

I loved how unique this book was with the setting being a post apocalyptic fantasy world so there is all this ancient technology around, and the idea of these Orders that are almost all women that bond to blades and are assassin/sheriff type things (it’s hard to explain, but its cool). I have an arc of the second book that I won in a Goodreads giveaway that I STILL need to read, but there are so many books on my TBR that I don’t know when I’ll get to it. #readerproblems

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Long May She Reign

My Rating: 4      Goodreads Rating: 3.63

I am so surprised that this doesn’t have a higher rating! Not only is it a fantasy standalone which is rare, but it had a strong female main character that was not the typical good with weapons kick-butt strong character. All she wants to do is be a scientist and is thrust into the role of being queen after alllllll 23 people in line for the throne in front of her die. Part fantasy part mystery, it was really fun! Not 100% unique, but highly enjoyable.

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Sea Witch

My Rating: 5     Goodreads Rating: 3.67

I read this book because I was offered an ARC of the sequel (which I never got and haven’t heard anything since). I ended up loving the characters and the way that the Little Mermaid story was retold. I don’t think I would recommend the audiobook because the accents were hard to understand what was being said. Another great thing was the atmosphere, which reminded me a lot of The Wicked Deep.

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The Written

My Rating: 5      Goodreads Rating: 3.68

I am so surprised that this self published book is rated lower on Goodreads, because it was really good! I recently read this for a blog tour and everyone else’s reviews that I read said the same thing. I loved the world and the different cultures, especially the dragons! And the mystery aspect of this book was really fun to figure out too, and I never guessed who it was until the reveal.

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They Mostly Come Out at Night

My Rating: 4      Goodreads Rating: 3.69

This is the second self published book on this list. I don’t know if that’s because self published books don’t get as much exposure and therefore fewer ratings, but I found this one to be really unique and dark! I loved the twisted fairy tale thing this book had going on, and the twists were ones that I didn’t really see coming. The magic system was also really interesting as well, being based off of what you do best in life. So if you are good at hunting, you would develop magical skills for hunting and so on.

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The Gilded Wolves

My Rating: 5      Goodreads Rating: 3.70

I’ve seen more recently people saying that they weren’t huge fans of this book, so the fact that this made it onto the list doesn’t surprise me as much as some of the others. To me, it was like Six of Crows meets Atlantis: The Lost Empire meets Indiana Jones and I loved it! I loved the setting, the characters, and the puzzles they had to solve. It could be a little confusing at times, but still super fun to read.

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Wicked Saints

My Rating: 4      Goodreads Rating: 3.74

I’m not really surprised that this has a lower rating on Goodreads, but it’s still not a bad rating. I was intrigued by this world and the characters and I want to see where everything goes! I loved the setting and atmosphere that this book had, and I did wish that the book was a little longer to really expand on some of the things that happened, but it was a debut so it makes sense that it wouldn’t be perfect.

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The Falconer

My Rating: 4      Goodreads Rating: 3.76

Again, not a bad rating from Goodreads. I read this one just before I really got into blogging so I don’t have a review for this one, but I remember that I really liked the idea of a steampunk Scotland combined with Fae that are these horrible beings. And the idea of a falconer is actually really interesting as well! Now that I’m writing this, I feel like I need to reread this first book and continue on with the trilogy.

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What are some of the books that you’ve loved that seem to have a lower Goodreads rating? Do we have any that are the same?