Top Ten Tuesday: Books I LOVED with Fewer than 2,000 Ratings on Goodreads

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl.

The rules are simple:

• Each Tuesday, Jana assigns a new topic. Create your own Top Ten list that fits that topic – putting your unique spin on it if you want.
• Everyone is welcome to join but please link back to The Artsy Reader Girl in your own Top Ten Tuesday post.
• Add your name to the Linky widget on that day’s post so that everyone can check out other bloggers’ lists.
• Or if you don’t have a blog, just post your answers as a comment.

This week’s topic is Books I Loved With Fewer Than 2,000 Ratings on Goodreads or, in other words, hidden gems.  To generate my list I sorted my Goodreads Read shelf to find books published before 2018 to which I’d given 5 stars but have less than 2,000 ratings.  Some have a lot less.  In fact, I was shocked by how few some of them still have!

It’s probably significant that a lot of them are published either by small publishers or self-published, demonstrating how difficult it is to grab readers’ attention in a crowded marketplace.  Of course, that’s where book bloggers like us come in!

Click on the title to read the book description on Goodreads.

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The Last Train (Detective Hiroshi #1) by Michael Pronko (Published in May 2017, 111 ratings and 54 reviews)

Set in Tokyo, The Last Train is a compelling thriller that makes the most of its location with a clever juxtaposition of ancient and modern Japan.  Read my full review here.  The author has since written a further book in the series, The Moving Blade.

CWA Anthology of Short Stories: Mystery Tour ed. by Martin Edwards (Published by Orenda Books in September 2017, 77 ratings and 41 reviews)

A collection of skilfully crafted short stories written by members of the Crime Writers’ Association. Read my full review here.

Home Is Nearby by Magdalena McGuire (Published in November 2017 by Impress Books, 46 ratings, 31 reviews)

Set in 1980s Poland, the book tells the story of Ania and Dominick against the backdrop of the country’s turbulent history during that period. Read my full review here.

Beautiful Star & Other Stories by Andrew Swanston (Published in January 2018 by The Dome Press, 25 ratings and 11 reviews)

In this collection, what might have been considered footnotes in history are fashioned into compelling, character-driven stories.  Read my full review here.

The Good Father by S.R. Wilsher (Self-published in April 2017, six ratings and five reviews)

Opening amidst the Bosnian conflict of the 1990s, The Good Father is an intelligent, gripping thriller that builds to an action-packed conclusion.  Read my full review here.

Maria in the Moon by Louise Beech (Published by Orenda Books in August 2017, 319 ratings, 139 reviews)

An emotional story that considers the nature of memory – the things we choose to remember and the things we choose to forget – in the perhaps unlikely setting of the aftermath of the floods in Hull in 2007. Read my full review here.

A Reluctant Warrior by Kelly Brooke Nicholls (Published by The Author People in June 2017, 22 ratings and 12 reviews)

Set in Colombia, the gripping story of Luzma and her family forced to flee the paramilitaries but who are then faced with confronting the corruption rife in the country’s society. Read my full review here.

The Crows of Beara by Julie Christine Johnson (Published by Ashland Creek Press in September 2017, 88 ratings and 46 reviews)

An emotional, compelling story of two troubled individuals brought together on the windswept coast of Ireland.  Read my full review here.

The Wardrobe Mistress by Patrick McGrath (Published by Hutchinson in September 2017, 267 ratings and 64 reviews)

Nominated for The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2018, the book follows Joan, widow of famous stage actor, Charlie Grice, as she copes with her grief at his death but begins to discovers Charlie wasn’t quite the man she thought he was.  Read my full review here.

A Dangerous Woman From Nowhere by Kris Radish (Published by SparkPress in September 2017, 68 ratings and 25 reviews)

Set in 1860s Colorado, the book follows loner, Briar Logan, as she sets out to rescue her husband who has been kidnapped by lawless gold miners.  Read my full review here.