I usually don’t write a “worst books of the year” post, sometimes I write a “most disappointing books” post, but overall I don’t spend too much time talking about the books I didn’t like. But, this year, there were a few books that I really didn’t enjoy reading or that frustrated me a lot and that’s why I decided to write this post. Only the first two books on this list got 2 stars, the rest are 3 stars that were almost 2 stars but I saw some redeeming qualities in them.
Here are my least favorite books of 2023:
1. Behold the Monster by Jillian Lauren
I disliked this book so much for so many reasons. I don’t usually read true crime books, but my library got this one and it caught my eye. Unfortunately, I didn’t know when I started to read it that it was a mix between nonfiction and fiction. The author takes the liberty of writing fictional accounts of the last few minutes of some of the victims and that didn’t work for me. When I’m reading nonfiction, I want just that, nonfiction. Also, it didn’t help that I don’t think these fictional accounts were well done, they felt exploitative towards the victims.
Moreover, the way this was structured was terrible, it jumped from one pov to another (victims, law enforcement officers, lab people, the serial killer’s family) without following a timeline or any other justification, and it jumped between years without any reason either. It felt disorganized and chaotic, and it made for a confusing reading experience.
2. The Dating Dare by Jayci Lee
This is such a big disappointment because the premise sounds right up my alley. This is not a long book but it dragged so much for me, that I couldn’t wait to be done reading it. There’s mainly one reason, the writing was not great, the dialogue was stilted and cringy, and it felt so unnatural sometimes. I have read other Jayci Lee books before and I knew I didn’t love her writing but in this book, it was worse than in any of the others. Also, the conflict at the end was really frustrating.
3. One Tough Cookie by Delise Torres
This book made me feel so deeply frustrated, but I also saw potential so I would read another book by this author. I wanted to love this, but unfortunately, I had a lot of issues with it. The main character is so unlikable, she is rude and mean to everyone around her, especially her friends. There is character growth but it happens almost 70% into the book, so it was hard to get into the story because there was no progress with the main character for so long.
Besides that, the love interest at the beginning was basically a saint because he was patient and understanding beyond normal levels, no matter how rude and hurtful the main character was. He didn’t have a personality beyond that, so I found him boring. And then, by the end, he became really pushy and, while I understand that he had been very patient before, it was annoying to see how when the main character finally started to work on herself and needed some time to grow, he wouldn’t give her the time and space to do that.
4. Run, Darling by Adriana Herrera
This is my last book of 2023 because I figured that it would be fun to read a romance by one of my favorite authors. But this ended up being more erotica than romance and it was not what I was expecting. Moreover, I had some issues with this novella. I didn’t mind the 15-year age gap too much but I did mind that the hero knew the heroine since she was a young girl and that’s always icky to me, even if they don’t get together until they are both grown-ups, also at the beginning she sounded so naive and young so that didn’t help. Sometimes the dirty talk in this was really cringy and also the amount of sexual displays in front of random people who weren’t willing participants and that a lot of time were people that were there to serve them (waiters or sellers) and couldn’t really say anything, didn’t sit right with
5. The Romance Recipe by Ruby Barrett
I saw a lot of good things in this book (read about it here), but unfortunately, I wasn’t sold on the romance beyond good sexual chemistry and good steamy scenes. Also, sometimes it was jarring the way this book went from serious topics to really steamy scenes and back again. The plot wasn’t that interesting and one of the main characters didn’t make the best first or second or third impression, she was controlling, didn’t listen to anyone but herself and she was rude. Overall, this wasn’t that memorable.
me.
6. A Deadly Inside Scoop by Abby Collette
I didn’t hate the reading experience I had with this book but there wasn’t anything particularly good about it. The first half of the book is focused on introducing the characters and showing the day-to-day life of the protagonist in a very repetitive and not that-interesting way, and the “investigation” of the crime doesn’t really start until late in the book which makes this drag. But that isn’t even my main complaint about this book, I think the main character was such a bad sleuth, she asked obvious questions, didn’t connect the dots, and was very naive. The characters around win, especially her two best friends felt like caricatures. The ending was so anti-climactic.
Bookish Wanderess 