TTT: Hidden Gems/Underrated Books

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly blog meme put on by The Broke and the Bookish

Newly Discovered Hidden Gems

I Am Not A Serial Killer by Dan Wells
I'd never heard anything about this book before I stumbled on it at the library and it's been out for at least six years. This is a fantastic, if morbid, tale with fantastic first-person narration and top notch character development.
(I know, I know; I've been talking about this one a lot! Don't worry; it totally deserves the praise.)

Vicious by V.E. Schwab
Though I know this book has been talked a lot about on blogs and booktube (that's where I first heard of it), for a long time it was only available in hardcover at $30+ so I'm assuming it wasn't all that popular at the beginning. With the success of Schwab's more recent books, Vicious is more readily available so if you haven't read it, you'll want to check it out. (FYI, I'd rate this one R for swearing. The book was good enough I read in spite of this, but there's quite a lot of it.

Beauty and the Clockwork Beast by Nancy Campbell Allen
This book is huge in Utah, but I'm honestly not sure how popular this book is elsewhere. If it isn't, IT SHOULD BE. This is a fantastic proper romance (aka, clean; my favorite) that's also a steampunk that's also a retelling of Beauty and the Beast that's also inhabited by ghosts, vampires, werewolves, and who knows what else at this point! I really hope Allen makes this a series, I don't really care if it has sequels or companion novels, I just want more of this awesome world.
(Note: While this is written by an LDS author, it's not an LDS book.)

Underrated Favorites

Half Moon Investigations by Eoin Colfer
I feel like a lot of Colfer's stand alone novels are underrated but my favorite among them by far is Half Moon. I've lost count of how many times I've read it and the audio version is great too.
This is funny mystery for middle graders, with a kid detective who thinks he's a hard-boiled private eye, which is absolutely hilarious in the first person narration.
Check out my review here!




Always Neverland by Zoe Barton

This is an after-Peter-Pan Peter Pan adventure. We know that Peter continued finding new mothers for the Lost Boys after Wendy went home and this is what happens when Peter decides to take Ashley to Neverland -but Ashley is more interested in adventures and fighting pirates than playing mother. I know this kind of story has been done a lot, but Always Neverland is the best I've read; Barton does a fantastic job of keeping Neverland and it's inhabitants true to the original while updating it for a modern audience at the same time.
Check out my review here!

The Ever Afters by Shelby Bach
Of course it's on this list! This series is phenomenal and it deserves the love of every school, librarian, and fairy-tale-loving child. No joke.
Check out my reviews for the whole series here!
I also hosted an awesome blog party when the final book came out.





What are some of your favorite underrated books? Newly discovered hidden gems? I'm all ears!