i read popular booktok books for a week | the cruel prince, it ends with us, shatter me + electric idol

Hey everyone, welcome or welcome back to my blog! If you’ve been on my blog lately you’ve probably noticed me doing some of these week-long reading challenges and this is my latest one! Today I’m letting you in on my recent challenge of reading popular books that BookTok (bookish TikTok) has recommended. Some of these really surprised me, I won’t lie, I was expecting to see more new releases and was hoping for more diverse authors and characters but, so many of the books that BookTok seems to recommend seem to be written by and for white and straight audiences and also seems to focus on very popular backlist books that I feel did the rounds on Bookstagram and BookTube years ago (*coughs* the cruel prince). So, I had to do quite a bit of searching, but I tried to make a tbr that would work more for me as a reader while also working for this experiment, since I was going off of other people’s recommendations.

Also, I used a spin wheel that I found randomly on google and I put my tbr into it and basically just spun and read whatever won each round! I wanted to use this method to try and make the books I was reading more ‘fair’ and try to lessen myself reading just one ‘type’ of book throughout the week.

DAY ONE [AUG 15TH]

my goodreads review

Okay, so The Cruel Prince was my first pick out of my tbr jar and I’m ngl I’m feeling some type of way about it. I had zero intentions of ever picking this up and out of all the books on my tbr for this post, I was really hoping this one would never get picked. This is going to be a ride and I know it’s going to be one of those books where if I don’t binge listen to the audiobook, I will just never pick it up again so this entire challenge could get derailed on book 1. We’ll see…

Okay, so I won’t lie this was super boring and I am not into bully romances at all, so this was a wild experience for me. If you ever want to feel like you’re going slightly insane go and read the relationships (romance) tab on this wiki page because I swear I lost brain cells reading it. Also yes, I did spoil the entire series for myself because I do not ever see myself continuing this series and I can really see myself zoning out while the audiobook is on.

DAY TWO [AUG 16TH]

Okay, so I am officially DNFing The Cruel Prince at the 25% mark because I could not care less about this book if I tried.

Honestly, this week I was going to pick all of my books out of a jar and maybe I’ll go back to doing that at the end of the week but right now I think I’m going to pick up the audiobook for It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover because my hold just came in on Libby!

DAY THREE [AUG 17TH]

I feel like I know absolutely nothing about this book but, I’m assuming it probably has a bunch of triggers because it’s Colleen Hoover. So, I’m trying to go in as prepared as I can while also being completely unprepared lol.

I was out of the house this morning for a few hours trialling a new job (keep your fingers crossed for me!) which I’ll be doing again tomorrow too, but I’m back home now and I’m finally going to start reading something new!

50% update: can confirm: this book is not a romance. I am once again screaming at GoodReads for putting books n the wrong categories for awards. This was a 2016 Goodreads award winner for romance???!?!

Overall thoughts: I had absolutely no idea what this was going to be when I started reading it but I knew it was going to be rough when the reader started talking about s*icide in the first 5 minutes (not her own, just in general). There are two timeline stories going on in this book, one of Lily’s childhood meeting the homeless boy next door (Atlas) and the other, in present day, meeting Ryle who has a stupid name and lots of money (he’s a neurosurgeon with anger issues). This is very much not a romance, but an exploration of abuse. I’m assuming book 2 will be more of a romance but given that Colleen Hoover is the author, I’m sure it will also come with its own long list of triggers. I didn’t hate it but, I also never actually started enjoying it either so I’m not fully on or off the CoHo train yet.

I very much recommend looking up triggers before picking this up, but, if you’re interested here are some that I can remember:

• domestic assault/abuse
• spousal abuse
• physical and emotional abuse
• rape (heavily implied, not described on page) & attempted rape
• physical injury

DAYS THREE & FOUR [AUG 18TH & 19TH]

Okay, so I’m combining 2 days worth of reading here because my period hit me like a freight train and I didn’t read a whole bunch but, I did just finish reading Shatter Me. I read this a while ago, probably around the time it was published, but I really didn’t remember anything about it, other than the crossed-out words in the book. So, I was going in 99% blind this time.

I will say, I can see why lil high school me would have loved this book because I love it when you have characters who physically can’t touch other people for whatever reason, and the writing style is very unique. But, oh boy, reading it again just under a decade later, my opinions have definitely changed. This was an insta-love mess and that trope that I loved so much? Absolutely moot because she can touch both of the love interests without consequences???!!

Also, interestingly, I was not a fan of the writing style this time around. I still appreciated all of the crossed-out lines but, the overly flowery descriptions and the constant random metaphors really annoyed me and took me out of the story every time!!

I’m really torn on this one. On one hand, this was a quick read with a future love interest that I think I’ll really like. But, on the other hand, this was something of a chore to get through and it’s never a good sign when you’re laughing at a book and not with it. So, I guess don’t be surprised if you don’t see me reading the rest of the series but also don’t be surprised if you do??? I don’t know 😅

DAY FIVE [AUG 20]

Thank you to NewSouth Books for my review copy of Electric Idol!

Okay, so I basically just read this in one sitting, only pausing the audiobook once to go and make dinner. I absolutely loved this and now I lowkey want to go back and reread book one too! I loved Eros and Psyche and I can’t wait to see them cameo in future books! This was an absolute blast and exactly what I didn’t know I was in the mood for. Don’t be surprised if you see me reading book 3 asap! I’m so glad I’m ending this blog post on a high note because it’s been such a disheartening week with the books I chose that I was considering not posting this, but I loved Electric Idol which has made me feel a lot better about it!

Overall thoughts

Okay, so this week was a bit of a flop but, I did read my first Colleen Hoover book and I did read a 4 star (finally!) which I absolutely loved. But, oh boy were some of these books the absolute worst!! I think I might have to try out some of the other books on my tik tok tbr but, maybe do some research first!

Do you read books based off TikTok recs?
Have you read any of these books?

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