Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Can't Believe I Read

Posted by Laura at Library of Clean Reads on January 30, 2018 in Top Ten Tuesday | Comments : 7

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. 10 is just a suggestion to aim for if you can hit it. You can do a list of 3 or 5 or 20, whatever you decide. And you can put a spin on the topic if you need to. Each week there is a new list to create. This week the list is:

Books I Can’t Believe I Read

Because most of the books I read are from authors whose books I also help promote through blog tours, it's not very often that I come across books that I don't want to read. I'm an eclectic reader to begin with and I like challenging myself to read out of my comfort zone. However, I came across these books that I can't believe I read.

Casanova's Secret Wife by Barbara Lynn-Davis

Because I love historical fiction and books set in Italy, I was excited to read this one. With one of the central characters being Casanova, I knew there was bound to be sex, but this went beyond that. The main character was so infatuated with Casanova that she agrees to do anything for him. Like sharing him (menage a trois) with another woman who was a bisexual nun and even going as far as poisoning someone. I wanted to throw this book against the wall and shake the main character for degrading herself over a man who used her. UGH!

Heart of the Highlands: The Beast by April Holthaus

Those of you who have been reading my blog for some time now know that I don't read books with barechested men on the cover. I like romance as a sub-genre in novels but I'm not a big fan of just the romance genre. I read enough of those books in the 80s and 90s. But this one won 2nd place in World's Best Story and Highlander men tend to be irresistible after reading or watching Outlander, so I decided to read it. And I really enjoyed it!

Sovereignty by Anjenique Hughes

Although I like the dystopian genre, I would never have picked this one up on my own. Another bare-chested male, this time with a shotgun! Nope, not really for me. But the author is a school teacher who works with ethnically and socioeconomically diverse youth and this has inspired her to write books that appeal to a broad variety of students seeking stories of bravery, perseverance, loyalty, and success. This appealed to me and I gave the book a go. And yes, I really liked this one too.

Out from the Underworld by Heather Siegel

This one is a memoir that I struggled with but admired the author for writing her story. The narrative includes tons of profanity, disturbing content and her father's sexual exploits to the point that I wanted to fling this book across the room and strangle that man for his immaturity and lack of common sense. I wanted to give up half-way through the book because of the content but I needed to know how the author would fare. Besides, it was well-written and read like a novel. I was glad to have continued reading about how she attained her success in adulthood despite what she lived through as a child.

Have any of you read these books?
What are some of the books you can't believe you read?