Top Ten Tuesday (3): Top Ten Books That Were Totally Deceiving

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

This weeks topic: Books that were totally deceiving. Books that were totally not what you expected due to covers, marketing, etc. etc.

My Top Ten Books That Were Totally Deceiving:

1) The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling-To be fair, I think the general public was fooled into thinking this was just a fun little kiddie series. Then the third book happened and we got suspicious and then the fourth book happened and everyone was like "wait, what?". Despite the marketing, HP is not a kid series. Actually, it's more YA then kid/middle-grade. And anyone who has read it all the way through can tell you there's a lot more to it then the summarys give you.

2) The Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer-On the flip side of HP, this series was made out to be this epic love story. I was told it was epic by fans, according to the author it was better then Elizabeth and Darcy. Then I read it and frankly I have to say: it isn't epic. Not by a long shot. At my meanest I can call it crap, at my nicest I can say average and uninspired. This is one of those series that was just pretentious and thought way too highly of itself. Sorry Twilight fans, but this series is not epic. Lord of the Rings? Epic. This? Not by a long shot.

3) The Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs-Admit it, you've heard of this series, then took one look at the covers with the skantily clad Mercy on them and thought...um no thanks. Yeah, I did it too, don't feel bad. Those covers are such a poor representation of what Mercy Thompson is as both a character and a series in general. Not to mention for a Native American girl, Mercy looks awfully white.

4) Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead-Oh, how I long to take those covers and blurbs and smash them to bits because they are such a poor representation of VA. Especially the blurb they like to put: the obvious heir to the Twilight throne. VA is miles ahead of Twilight and frankly the only thing the two have in common is that they have vampires in them. And as you can probably tell from above, I don't think Twilight was any good to begin with. This, and the poor covers make you just think it's a cheesy series. While yes, there is some cheese to be had, it is also very good and I think just lumping it in with books like Twilight and House of Night like the covers/blurbs/marketing do just don't do Mead any favors.

5) Princess Diaries series by Meg Cabot-Like probably most people, my intro to PD was actually the Disney movie with Julie Andrews and then newcomer Anne Hathaway. While I do have a fondness for the film I think it's a poor way to introduce the books to people. Same with the rather girly frilly covers. Princess Diaries actually is a solid series. For something that's frilly, it's pretty feminist, the character of Mia goes through some real growth during the books, much more so then her movie counterpart, and it's frankly hysterical sometimes. Unfortunately I'm sure there are people who get turned off by the girlyness of the marketing and never pick it up.

6) Wicked series by Gregory Maguire-Most people probably just know Wicked through the musical. I do love the musical too, but it actually is very very different from the book. Like probably most people I thought Wicked would just be lots of fun, and while I did get a kick out of it, Maguire does some great work here. He deftly fleshes out the world of Oz and uses it to comment on society, politics, feminism, nature vs nurture, propaganda, and still manages to not utterly destroy the world of Oz in Baum's original books. No easy feat. I know Maguire's books aren't everyone's cup of tea and I get it. But you have to admire what he did.

7) Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini-Due to the blurbs and description I was expecting to not like Starcrossed very much what with all the talk of starcrossed lovers and whatnot. Yes, there is a bit of a starcrossed romance in this book but that's not the only thing the series is about and all that other stuff I wound up enjoying a lot. While yes, it has its cheesy moments, there is a lot more to this book then just starcrossed romance.

8)The Kendra Chronicles: Bewitching by Alex Flinn-Recent read. I picked this up because the summary and the title led me to believe it was going to be about Kendra from Beastly who was the most interesting character to me from Beastly. However, Kendra is hardly in it! She gets some backstory explained, but the focus is mainly the dull and slightly pathetic girl she helps instead. Boring.

9)Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margeret Stohl-I picked up BC on a whim because I had heard great things. From the cover and summary I was expecting just a drippy/sappy stock southern romance. While, there is sappy romance, there is also much more to this series then meets the eye and I wound up falling in utter love with the series. I am impatiantly awaiting the fourth one now because that third book cliffhanger was evil. EVIL.

10)Sister's Grimm series by Michael Buckley-This is another series that gets shafted because it's marketed as a silly kiddie series. Yes, it is campy fun but there's also some great messages in here about family and great meta dealing with fairytales. The ORIGINAL Fairytales/books. Not the Disney versions. Plus, you just have to love the idea of Snow White being in charge of a self defense group called the bad apples. To everyone who says Once Upon a Time is just a rip-off of Fables, I say Once is actually a combination of Fables and this series.