First Ten Reviews

I saw this somewhere online (maybe it was a Top 10 Tuesday post?) and thought that it was a fun idea to talk about the first ten reviews I ever did on my blog! Once September comes I will be celebrating my 2 year blog anniversary, and what better way to lead up to that than to look at the first 10 reviews I ever posted?

Looking back through my blog I completely forgot that for the first like, two or three months of my blog I literally ONLY posted reviews, and I didn’t know anything about how to format my posts and how to really use WordPress! I also used to actually give star ratings with my reviews, which I no longer do on my blog (but I do give star ratings on Goodreads).

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The very first review I ever wrote was for Recurve by Shannon Mayer. According to my review, I rated this book 3 stars but looking back I think I should’ve rated it 2 stars because it felt like there were whole sections missing and I don’t remember much of the book!

Favorite quote from the review: “This was especially confusing when Lark lost days apparently staring at Coal?”

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The second review I ever wrote was for The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss! I didn’t realize that this was one of the first books I reviewed on my blog! My reviews back then didn’t really give you ANY information about the book itself, whereas now I at least put the synopsis in before I give my thoughts! At the time, I said that it is one of my favorite books ever, and I don’t necessarily agree with that thought now.

Favorite quote from the review: “This is one of those books that you sit down to start reading and realize that hours have gone by and you haven’t moved from the position you started the book in.”

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Then I wrote a review for a book that I DNF’ed, which was The White Queen by Phillipa Gregory. I got through 328 pages before putting this down because the writing was so dry and I didn’t like the way witchcraft was just thrown in. Also, I don’t mind leaving books unfinished now, there are far too many books to read that I will enjoy to worry about finishing something I didn’t like!

Favorite quote from the review: “I’ll probably try to finish it later because I don’t like leaving books unfinished, but it was just to hard to get through.”

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Next we have probably one of the shortest reviews I’ve ever written for Tower of Dawn by Sarah J Maas. Basically it’s just 4 sentences saying how much I loved the book. That’s it. That’s the review. I would hope that my reviews now are a little more articulate than this!

Favorite quote from the review: “That big reveal about Erawan was fantastic and I honestly did not see it coming.”

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Review #5 actually just recently popped up in my books I love that have low Goodreads ratings post! That book would be Zoo by James Patterson. Before starting my blog, I would’ve said that James Patterson was one of my favorite authors. I thought it made me look like an adult when I was a kid! This book was honestly kind of scary to me, because thinking about the “what if” aspect really got me.

Favorite quote from the review: “I’ve got a BS in Environmental Conservation, so this book was especially chilling for me”

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The next review was for yet another DNF, which was Night Film by Marisha Pessl. I know so many people love this book, but I got 75% through it and it just felt like the story was going absolutely nowhere. It’s also really funny to me that I thought the type of paper that the book was printed on had a bearing on my review.

Favorite quote from the review: “Its a nice heavy paper, and made reading the pages an enjoyable physical experience.”

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The seventh review was for The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner! I still stand by my (extremely short) review of this book. I liked it, but at the same time I didn’t like it. I don’t agree that it was because of the plot twists, I just don’t think I knew enough about what was going on to make me fall in love with this story like a lot of other people have.

Favorite quote from the review: “For me, the plot twists didn’t really make sense and seemed kind of forced.”

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Then I reviewed The Shadow Queen by C.J. Redwine. Looking back, I don’t remember many specifics about the book but I really like that it was a retelling of snow white, but with dragons. I haven’t continued on with any of Redwine’s books in this series yet, and I’m actually unhauling the ones that I do have just because I’m not interested in reading them anymore.

Favorite quote from the review: “The whole girl fighting for her rightful place as queen trope is very prominent in YA fantasy novels, but I have to admit that those are my favorite type of books to read!”

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The Bakersville Dozen by Kristina McBride was the ninth book that I reviewed. It was the first YA mystery/thriller that I reviewed on my blog, and the twist was great and I didn’t see it coming. This book is really short so it was a quick read. Also, why would I think that characters that aren’t fleshed out is okay??

Favorite quote from the review: “I really enjoyed the pacing and even though the characters weren’t really fleshed out, I think it worked just fine with the story.”

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Finally, the tenth review that I ever wrote for my blog was Final Girls by Riley Sager. It’s one of my favorite thrillers and I’ve read and reviewed all three of Sager’s books on my blog.

Favorite quote from the review: ” I find that I guess plot twists before they happen and they don’t surprise me, so I was thrilled that the plot twist in this book actually surprised me!”

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What I’ve learned from writing this post is that I was SO BAD at giving descriptions of books, I also only wrote a short paragraph about why I liked the book and it didn’t really give any real information, just generic information. My reviews have definitely improved over time, and I’m sure that they will only get better from here!