Don't you hate it when you're sure you're going to love a book, but you just can't seem to get into it? That's how I felt about Tobias Hill's new novel, The Hidden. The premise sounds interesting: Ben Mercer, an Oxford student running from a doomed marriage, joins up with a ragtag group of archaeologists searching for the secrets of ancient Sparta. The back cover's blurb hints that "there is more to the group's dangerous games and dynamic than he [Ben] understands. And there are things that should always remain hidden." Intriguing, no? Unfortunately, the book moves so slowly that I never got to the mysteries promised by the blurb. I gave the book 50 pages (which I feel is generous considering how many books I've got waiting for me), then abandoned it. My ambivalence has nothing to do with the writing itself. In fact, I quite enjoyed the excerpts from Ben's "transcripts" that are interspersed throughout the story. I just couldn't make myself care about the characters or plot, and I didn't see them growing on me either. So, that's that. Except I feel a little guilty. I always do when I can't finish a book I promised to review.

Because I don't want the book to get short-changed just because it's not for me, I'm going to offer it up to one of you. This is an almost-new trade paperback that came to me courtesy of TLC Book Tours. All you have to do to make it yours is answer this question (and win the drawing, of course): What books have you been sure you were going to like, only to find out you, well, didn't? Or vice versa: What books have you been certain you were going to loathe only to find yourself really liking? I'll draw the name of one winner on November 16 (my son's birthday). Contest is open internationally. Good luck!

Here's the rest of the blurb from the back of the book: