Murder by Death

Task 1:  It’s the annual airing of grievances!  Time to list the top 5 books that disappointed you the most this year and let us know why!

Well, looking at my shelves for the year and the overall ratings, I'm looking at these books and scratching my head as to why I rated them as high as I did.  

My review of Murder in the Museum.  

This one should have been a DNF.  There was so much I disliked about this book.  It was just not a good story, at all.  

Looking back on my review I gave it .5 star each for the cover, the title and the setting of the British Museum.  I probably should have just gave it 1 star since the BM setting didn't last more than 24 pages.

My review of Reading with the Stars: A Celebration of Books and Libraries by Leonard Kniffel.  

A collection of essays by people who were supposed to be stars that weren't (except Julie Andrews and Oprah).  Most of them sounded far more defensive than celebratory and few of them were average at best. 

2 stars.

My review of The Road to Cardinal Valley by Earlene Fowler  

Now this one ... this one I had hopes and expectations for.  The author wrote a fabulous mystery series back in the day with outstanding characters and settings.  But she let me down with this one.  Still great characters and settings, but she yanked them around too much and was far too preachy and churchy to boot.

2 stars.  2 bitter stars.

My review of Poison by Sarah Pinborough  

Oh, how I didn't like this book.  A fairy tale retelling with juvenile prose and adult sex scenes.  I failed to feel the darkness, and cared nothing whatsoever for any of the characters.  This turned out to be a bonus since the story ended without any resolution for anyone.  Except me, who happily tossed it in the big black box to be given away at next opportunity.

1 star for a pretty cover. 

My review of The Haunting of Fox Mill by Phyl Cooke  

Not sure why I gave this 2 stars - it's pretty terrible too.  The writing was bad, the MC was stupid and the plotting was, according to me, "a car crash".

A Ghost story that failed utterly to give me so much as a goosebump.

2 stars.  Why, I do not know.