Top Ten Books That Lived Up To The Hype

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly book meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Each week, she posts an idea relating to books and encourages other book bloggers to respond with their own top ten lists.

This week’s topic is “top ten books that lived up to the hype.” I’m definitely not immune to book hype – that’s how half of my TBR has come into existence – so here are some of the ones that I enjoyed:

1. The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater
When I first started blogging, everyone seemed to be obsessed with Maggie’s writing – and with this series, in particular. I found the concept of leylines intriguing enough to pick up the first book and I quickly became obsessed. The numerous re-reads that I have done since then have done nothing to lessen my love for Blue and her boys.

2. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Before I started blogging, my way of finding out which books were “hyped” was if they were part of “Heather’s Picks” at my local Chapters/Indigo store. The Night Circus’ beautiful cover caught my attention so I bought it on a whim, but it quickly became one of my all-time favourite books (and one which I now force all of my book-loving friends to read).

3. The Hating Game by Sally Thorne
This is easily one of the more hyped books that I read since my return to blogging – I had seen people gushing about it all over Twitter, and the number of reviews that promised me a cute, quirky, hate-to-love romance gave me ridiculously high expectations for The Hating Game – and I’m so glad that it delivered on all fronts.

4. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
Eleanor & Park was a book that I had heard described as “the definition of love” and although I wasn’t much of a contemporary reader at the time, I was curious enough to give it a read. And it definitely delivered with all the feels.

5. The Wrath & the Dawn by Renée Ahdieh
I had no idea what this was about when I purchased it; I just knew that everyone was talking about it. I found The Wrath & The Dawn to be beautifully written and it put Ahdieh on my auto-read list.

6. Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor
This is an example of a book that was both hyped by the blogging community, as well as one that I hyped up for myself. I absolutely adored Daughter of Smoke and Bone (which is another book I picked up after seeing that all my blogger friends loved it) so I was ridiculously excited for any and all other Laini Taylor books that were to come. Enter Strange the Dreamer. It was just as beautifully-written and magical as I expected.

7. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
With the movie coming out soon, I knew that I needed to give The Hate U Give a try, and I’m so glad that I did. It’s such an important story and I hope that everyone is able to pick it up.

8. Cinder by Marissa Meyer
I had been disappointed by enough retellings in the past, but everyone’s love for Cinder made me give it a try – and it brought my love for fairy tale retellings back in full force.

9. everyone’s a aliebn when ur a aliebn too by jomny sun
I follow jomny on Twitter and seeing everyone post pictures of their favourite pages made me feel like I had to give it a read. It ended up being the perfect stress relief – it was beautiful and so much fun to colour (once I got over my horror at defacing a book).

10. The Assassin’s Blade by Sarah J. Maas
I picked it up The Assassin’s Blade shortly after I started book blogging because all of the reviewers I followed on Goodreads seemed to adore this series. While I stopped reading the Throne of Glass novels after book 3, I absolutely loved The Assassin’s Blade when I first gave it a read and it was the book that got me into reading novellas.

What are some of your favourite hyped up reads? Leave me a list or a link to your Top Ten Tuesday post below.