Feature and Follow Friday #12

Feature & Follow Friday is a weekly social blog hop between book bloggers. There are two regular hosts: Parajunkee and Alison of Alison Can Read, and two special guest hosts every week. If you want to join in, click on either of their blogs to get the details. The FF question of the day is: 

Q: What is the best book you've read in the last month? What is the worst book you've read in the last month?

 

I've started a lot of books in the last month or so that I haven't and won't finish, like SHATTER ME and ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS. But I stopped reading because those books just didn't click with me, not because they were poorly executed or conceived. I've started a Pinterest board to record the books that I couldn't finish. My goal isn't to trash the books or their authors, but to record for myself the books that I didn't mesh with.

 

I've also read a number of books that were mediocre.  I read them to the end, but they failed in either plotting, characterization, pacing, ending, or any number of other aspects. Several of Laura Lippman's and Kate White's books fell into this category for me this month. So did Lauren DeStefano's FEVER.

 

It's much harder to identify a best and worst book. Of the books that I've finished, nearly all of them have been mysteries. The worst book was probably Sara Blaedel's CALL ME PRINCESS. This novel would have remained in the mediocre category without its atrocious ending. It doesn't conclude so much as stop. The title figures prominently into the solution to the mystery, but in a way that feels forced. The solution to the mystery is bare bones, and the actual conclusion feels as though several pages were missing. 

 

The best book I've read so far in March is Tess Gerritsen's THE BONE GARDEN. I'm not very enthusiastic in deeming this the "best" book of my month. It was an engaging book, and it doesn't have any glaring flaws, but it just manages to rise above the mediocre.

 Here's hoping that since the month is only at the halfway mark, I'll stumble upon some better books soon. Perhaps even via this hop!