Sucky Books with Pretty Covers

1.     An Enchantment of Ravens

You have to admit this cover is absolutely gorgeous, the art’s just so pretty. The cover is the only reason I even bothered reading this book. An Enchantment of Ravens follows Isobel, a human painter in the faerie world. In a world where human arts like painting, cooking, and sewing are deadly to faeries (what?), Isobel’s talent is unbelievably valued. But when Isobel offends the autumn prince through her paintings (all she does is paint some sadness in his eyes), she is whisked away by Rook, the prince, to his autumn court to pay for her crime (ohhhh how scary). On the way to the autumn court strange things happen, while Isobel and Rook find themselves falling in love (of course they do).

The book already sounds like it sucks right? Correct! It was terribly boring for a book less than 300 pages. I was expecting a fast paced, adventurous novel, but everything was overshadowed by the unrealistic and dull “romance”. Isobel fell in love in like 5 minutes and the characters had 0 chemistry. Even though the action part of the story was overshadowed by the romance, the author still tried to cram in lots of “cool” action points. This caused the story and entire plotline to be extremely confusing and without a clear focus. For example, I’m still not clear exactly what the “strange” occurrences were or what the point of it was. Also, the fact that the characters never even go to the autumn court makes no sense even though that was the whole point of the novel. Or the fact that her “crime” didn’t make sense either. All Isobel did was paint mortal sadness into this dude’s eyes, why that would cost him his throne I’m not sure.  In conclusion, the book sucked. (1.5 stars/5)

2.     Hush, Hush

I’m usually not into pictures of real people on book covers, but this one can be a rare exception. Not entirely sure why I like this cover, maybe it’s the color palette or the fancy wings, but I think it looks really cool. Hush, Hush is about a “mysterious” fallen angel (*cue eyeroll*), a junior in high school, her disgustingly annoying best friend, and this psycho half-human, half-angel who wants to kill everyone.

This book was published 12 years ago so maybe that’s why it’s stuffed to the brim with stereotypes, but that’s hardly an excuse. To give you an idea: Why does the cringey cheerleader always have to be blond? Why does the love interest always have to be “brooding”, “mysterious”, and without any other personality? Why can’t the female protagonist have any personality either besides drooling over her love interest the entire book? I disliked this book with a burning passion. The characters are flat, none of them have chemistry, and the book practically didn’t have any plot save for the last 30 pages or so. Hush, Hush isn’t the worst book I’ve read, but it’s a universe away from good. (2 stars/5) Sorry if I just toasted your favorite book, but thanks for reading anyways!

-       Bridget