Surprises in books? My fave! Nothing is a faster turn off
than an author giving me what I expected. Can you relate? I can think
of a few books that have surprised me. I enjoyed The Spellman Files,
by Lisa Lutz because I was expecting kind of chick lit mystery. Did I get that?
Nope. Heroine is a 28 year old toughie with a soft spot for her sister and a
penchant for disastrous relationships who works for her private investigator
parents. What’s more, the book shifts in time from the present (where someone
important has disappeared) to the past, where the seeds of the situation were
born. Lutz surprised me at every turn. How wonderful, no?
The last book that surprised the beejeebers out of me was
Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn. Can’t say I always liked all the surprises (a few
I thought were over done and it was hard to find characters to root for) but
boy that book had more twists than a bag of licorice! Seriously!
So what books have surprised you in a good way?
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I agree, Dana. Stories with a twist in them are always more interesting. The most recent book I read with a terrific twist was Laurie Alice Eakes' A Moonlight Promise, a novella in the collection Sincerely Yours. Eakes never fails to deliver surprises and adventures.
ReplyDeleteI liked the fast-paced opening of The Spellman Files and the surprise ending of that first scene. Harlan Coben is another one who never fails to surprise me.
ReplyDeleteThe only novel I've read four times is Janette Oke's A Gown of Spanish Lace. There was a twist in the book i didn't see coming, and when it did, it was such a shocker that I wanted to throw the book against the wall and stop reading. Soooo glad I didn't. It remains one of my favorite books.
ReplyDeleteI love twists that I don't see coming. My all-time favorite is the ending of The Kitchen Boy: A Novel of the Last Tsar by Robert Alexander. It totally blew me away.
ReplyDeleteI love recommendations. You've convinced me to Kindle the first one.
ReplyDeleteA book I read over and over is Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. One scene I skip, but all the rest have me riveted.
Hmm. I love so many books. This is hard. But I think the biggest surprise to me was when I read "The Wolf and the Dove" by Kathleen Woodiwiss for the first time. As a 15-year old, it was so unique to me. I'd never read anything so fun. I think because I was able to escape into the medieval world Kathleen built for her readers. Since then, whenever I read a Nicholas Sparks book, he gets me with a twist every time. :)
ReplyDeleteI like surprises, but the book still has to end with a Happily Ever After. Lately the surprises I've read are not happy endings, so I'm a little leery of trying anything new. Just call me wimpy.
ReplyDeleteI agree on Harlan Coben. He can sure twist a plot!
ReplyDeleteThis is great! I've got lots of ideas about which book to order next!
ReplyDeleteI love surprises. Janet Tronstad had a surprise in one of her books that was really cool by the time it happened I did guess it but it was so cool.
ReplyDeleteMy pet peeve is when reviewers who love the gem give it away in a review.
Leigh, I loved that book. So different from what I had read and I love medieval settings.
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