Tell Me Something Tuesday was hosted by Rainy Day Ramblings, but she has (temporarily?) stopped blogging. So a group of us that had been doing posts (Linda from Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell, Karen from For What It’s Worth, Roberta from Offbeat YA, Jen from That’s What I’m Talking About and me) decided to get together, come up with some more topics and keep the meme going.Michelle made us a logo and we’re off and running. For more details, check out this post where I reintroduced the meme.
I can be sporadic, but when I do join in I will always share next week’s topic at the end of the post. So, today is about…
Has a book by your favorite author ever disappointed you badly?
Definitely. I’m having a hard time thinking of an example right now… so I guess not that badly, but it’s happened. I should mention, I do not have one favorite author. That’s like naming a favorite kid. I can’t do it. Anyway… I finally thought of one.
Marie Hall – who now writes under the names RS Black and Jovee Winters instead – was one of my favorite authors when I first started blogging. And she remains the author of some of my absolute favorite books. Her Night Series is FANTASTIC (Urban Fantasy) and The Wright Brother was one of the best Contemporary Romances I’ve read; I’m also a huge fan of her Moments series. I beta read for her quite a bit with the Night series and she’s a wonderful person. But I haven’t read many of her more recent books… I started reading her backlist which are mainly fairy tale retellings, and I was underwhelmed. And most of her new books are in that same vein. I realize that authors grow so much, and it seems likely that I would enjoy this a lot more than the early books. But I’ve been hesitant. Maybe someday I’ll try them!
It’s sad that you fell out of love with an author you beta-read for! Though if an author writes in a number of different genres, it makes sense that you can’t love all of them. Like, if one of “my” authors decides to write romance/high fantasy, I will sit that one out LOL. But when the genre doesn’t change and yet the book doesn’t work for you for some reason, it feels like someone pulled the rug from under your feet.
Such a good point. I feel like if she was still writing in the Genre I fell in love with first, I would still probably love her books. Or even her contemporary romance, which I also loved of hers. But she’s not writing that anymore and what she is writing just doesn’t fit me.
I used to have more FAVORITE authors back in the day but now I tend to read all over the place so I don’t encounter as many author disappointment but they happen. How could they not if you read long enough.
Karen @For What It’s Worth
Precisely! And I totally agree, now that I read all over the place it’s much harder to say “favorite” about any author. I have several that are auto buys and I really enjoy. But favorite doesn’t really seem the right word.
Seems like there’s always 1 or 2 books in really long series for me that just aren’t as good as the other books.
Oh long series for sure – I think it’s really hard to sustain a long series and have every book be GREAT
I definitely have had situations like you described – love some of the authors work, but then it seems to change. I can think of Christina Lauren for example. I loved their stuff, but then I was “meh” about a couple of titles, even DNFing a couple, and then I was done. It wasn’t that one specific book did me in, but changes over time.
Exactly. And they’re still great writers and people, but our tastes have diverged.
Yes, I’ve got several favs and there have been books that didn’t do it for me for one reason or another. Sometimes, it is really just my taste and preference.
Yep, totally agree. What works for me may not work for another, and vice versa.
It seems only logical that we as readers won’t enjoy all the books our favorite authors publish which is sad of course but it happens.
I agree – I think it would be shocking to LOVE everything an author writes. I have authors whose books I’ve never been disappointed by but I’ve also not read EVERYTHING they wrote.