Top Ten Tuesday – Top Five Characters I Liked That Were In Books I Didn’t Like

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is Top Ten Five Characters I Liked That Were In Books I Didn’t Like.

I struggled with this topic and I only found five books that I didn’t like, which had characters that I did like. When I hate books, I normally hate everything about them, mostly the characters.

 

Cruel & Unusual (Kay Scarpetta #4) – I didn’t like the novel at all, but I enjoyed the main character, Virginia Chief Medical Examiner Kay Scarpetta.

12th of Never (Women’s Murder Club #12) – I really enjoyed the first 6 novels in the series. I hated the 12th novel, but my favourite character is Claire Washburn, the medical examiner.

Going, Going, Ganache (Cupcake Bakery Mystery #5) – sadly another series that I had previously enjoyed that has gone downhill. I love all 3 main characters in the series – Melanie, Angie and Tate.

The One & Only – oh how I hate this book. I enjoyed the best friend, Lucy, because she was the only one in the book that had any common sense.

A Game of Thrones – I feel like I’m the only one that didn’t like this series, but I liked Jon Snow.

Are there any characters that you liked even though you didn’t like the book? Did you like any of my disliked books?

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Blood Lines (D.I. Kim Stone #5) by Angela Marsons

A belated Happy Easter! I hope the Easter bunny was good to you all!

I have found a lot of similarities between the Kim Stone series by Angela Marsons and the Erika Foster series by Robert Bryndza. I have loved each book in each series and they are so unique from their previous novels. They are both in my top 5 mystery series. I would have to give a little bit of an edge to the Kim Stone series, just because the character of Kim Stone is so different from anyone that I have read before. She is so broken and doesn’t let anyone in. She’s not friendly, but there is something about her that you feel connected to and you want her to let you in.

In Blood Lines, the 5th novel in the series, there is a lot of things going on. First, Kim and team have a case where a woman is found stabbed in her car. To some it may look like a carjacking, but Kim knows better. When a second body of a drug addict appears with a stab mark in the exact same way as the first victim, Kim knows that they need to work quickly.

Then in my favourite part of the book, Dr. Alex Throne is back! It’s important to read the series in order since there is a history between Kim Stone and Dr. Throne. All I’m going to say is that it’s a showdown between 2 brilliant, hard core, bad ass women.

I loved every moment of this novel and I can’t recommend this series enough. I was shocked by who the killer was and it took me a bit of backtracking to understand everything. I loved how the novel came back full circle and everything from the stabbings to the diary entries made sense.

5 calculators out of 5!! Loved the main story, loved the showdown between Kim and Alex. Was flawless all the way though. Read this series!!

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Last Breath (Detective Erika Foster #4) by Robert Bryndza

I tend to worry when reading series that the books will start to go downhill. This isn’t the case with the Erika Foster series, as the novel tend to get better and better as the series goes on!

He’s your perfect date. You’re his next victim.

When the tortured body of a young woman is found in a dumpster, her eyes swollen shut and her clothes soaked with blood, Detective Erika Foster is one of the first at the crime scene. The trouble is, this time, it’s not her case.

While she fights to secure her place on the investigation team, Erika can’t help but get involved and quickly finds a link to the unsolved murder of a woman four months earlier. Dumped in a similar location, both women have identical wounds – a fatal incision to their femoral artery.

Stalking his victims online, the killer is preying on young pretty women using a fake identity. How will Erika catch a murderer who doesn’t seem to exist?

Then another girl is abducted while waiting for a date. Erika and her team must get to her before she becomes another dead victim, and, come face to face with a terrifyingly sadistic individual.

I love Erika and sometimes (well…most of the time) she doesn’t know when to keep her mouth shut and stay out of it. The first part of the novel, she is sticking her nose in a case where is no longer part of the team or department. She feels a connection to the case and she won’t let it go.

Throughout the novel, the reader knows who the killer is and I felt that it took away from the surprise factor. I enjoyed getting into his mind, but it was more about seeing how Erika and her team would discover him instead of the reader finding out with them.

4 calculators out of a potential 5. Love this series and can’t wait to read more about Erika and her team!

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Murder in Little Italy (Gaslight Mystery #8) by Victoria Thompson

For those who have never heard of the Gaslight Mystery series before, I would highly recommend it! I remember going in thinking that it was a cozy mystery, but oh man it’s not considered a cozy. There are some very mature themes in the novels and nothing is off limits.

The Gaslight series takes place at the turn of the century in New York City and follows midwife, Sarah Brandt, and police detective, Frank Malloy. In the 8th novel, a young married woman gives birth, but when Sarah goes in to check on her the next day, she is found dead. Now there is a fight between the in-laws on who gets the baby, which sparks a bigger Italian vs Irish rivalry which leads to another death.

I really enjoy this series and I always feel so cozy and warm when I can re-connect with Sarah and Malloy. I love the two of them together and really want them to get together!!

I found that this book was lacking compared to the other books in the series. I think it was because I guessed who the killer was right away. There was also not many subplots to get away from the main storyline. I can’t believe Malloy’s mother and son weren’t even in the novel!

3 calculators out of a potential 5. I’m still loving the series, but wished that there was more non-murder subplots that include Sarah and Malloy. I can’t wait to read the next book and I’m hoping that it will be focusing on Sarah’s late husband!

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Red Alert (NYPD Red #5) by James Patterson

A few years ago, I really enjoyed reading James Patterson’s novels, especially the Women’s Murder Club series. Then after 10 or so books, they got a bit repetitive and I mostly stopped reading them. The first NYPD Red came out in 2012 and I loved the concept. A detective series based on the crimes that happened to New York’s rich and famous elite. Now that’s it the fifth novel, I’m getting a bit tired of the series, but it was a perfect pool side read!

In typical Patterson fashion there are 3 crimes that our favourite NYPD Red detectives (Zach and Kylie) need to solve. First, a bomb goes off at a high profile event where the mayor was attending. One person is killed, but were they the intended target? On the same night, a filmmaker is found dead in a sex act gone wrong. Then, there is a poker game where robberies got hundreds of thousands of dollars. However, the host is hoping the robbery will go quickly away.

Sometimes I don’t love it when there are so many story lines during a story, but I think it mostly worked here. It was easy to follow the different crimes and the suspects for each. I enjoyed the filmmaker’s story the most and was totally surprised by the killer!

3 calculators out of a potential 5. I read Red Alert pool side (see above picture), which makes any book better! It’s your average Patterson read, with a few surprises thrown in.

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