One of my New Year’s resolutions was to have as pressure-free reading year as I possibly could, and since I hadn’t signed up to any official reading challenges, back in February I challenged myself to try and catch up with or finish as many series as I possibly could. I’ve sort of kept to my original list… but there were a few changes.
Series I've completed in 2016
Tunnel Vision Duology by Susan Adrian
The Winner's Trilogy by Marie Rutkoski
The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer
Hex Hall Trilogy by Rachel Hawkins
Dead Beautiful Trilogy by Yvonne Woon
Six of Crows Duology by Leigh Bardugo
So far, I’ve completed six series. (Wooo!) But, only four of these series were on my list at the beginning of the year. I’m not sure how I feel about this, to be perfectly honest! I thought I’d done a little better with sticking to my plans, but I’m so glad I’ve got four series that’s been haunting me for a while completed.
Since February I have found out the His Fair Assassin series is getting two more books, so, technically I can't finish that series until 2019 even though I do own Mortal Heart. I plan on continuing with both the Infernal Devices and Mortal Instruments series soon. I own both Clockwork Prince and City of Lost Souls, so I hope to read both of those by the end of the year even if I don’t get around to completing each series just yet.
The Vampire Academy series on the other hand, well, I'm debating whether to continue on or to abandon it. I loved the first book, but the second wasn't anywhere near as enjoyable. I bought the third book, Shadow Kiss, recently so I'll probably give it a go and see how I feel about the series then. I’m conflicted. It’s really hard to justify investing the time to read a six book series when I’m not completely in love with it, ya know? If you’ve read the series, do you think it’s worth continuing?
Series I've Decided to Abandon
Speaking of investing time in books, while I was on a blogging break I went through all the series I’m currently in the middle of reading and I’ve started 45 series that I actively want to finish. That’s… an awful lot of books. So, I think I need to become a bit more heartless regarding whether I want to continue a series I feel conflicted about or to just cut ties and move on.
Now, I’ve decided to abandon a few VERY popular series and it might anger some people. I just want to say that these are my feelings, opinions and the reasons why I’m unwilling to invest time (and money) on something that isn’t making me happy. Please, please respect this. Okay *deep breaths* Here we go!
Matched Trilogy by Ally Condie - I should have listened to all the reviews for Crossed and Reached. But, oh no, my stubborn curiosity got the better of me and I had to try Crossed. There's only so much lovey-dovey pining and moping I can take before my nausea reflex kicks in.
Morganville Vampires Series by Rachel Caine - For some weird reason after I had finished reading Carpe Corpus (book six) I felt like the series was complete. It's definitely not: there are nine more books after this one, but I felt like it was a good time to step away. I was happy with the ending, and I thought walking away on a happy note would be good idea.
Throne of Glass Series by Sarah J. Maas - As many of you may know, I didn’t like Queen of Shadows. At all! I had been back and forth on whether to continue the series for the entire year up until Empire of Storms was released. Since I love Chaol Westfall with all my heart, I was on the verge of convincing myself to read the book just to see what he was up to. You can see where this is going…. I'm sure the entire world has seen the spoilers at this stage, but if you haven't, don't highlight the following text! --- I’m all for series changing and developing, as they rightly should. However, when the first half of a series doesn’t match the second half of the same series, there’s a SERIOUS consistency issue. I was here to read the story of the Crown Prince of Adarlan, the Captain of the Guard, and Adarlan’s best assassin. That was the story I invested my time and money in. But now it’s morphed into the fae version of The Blackdagger Brotherhood series, where abusive alpha assholes abound. It’s been obvious for quite a few books now that Chaol is the scapegoat for everything negative that has ever happened to anyone in the series. With regards to QoS and EoS, when I saw a certain little novella announced, I began to worry. I’ll support change that makes logical sense, but when a main character receives a personality transplant for no reason, gets his past rewritten mid-series, is shoved aside for the sake of a ship and is quite literally crippled at the end of one book, and then is written out of the next book only to get his own novella like someone is throwing crumbs to a starving crowd... ooh you have no idea how angry this makes me. I can’t justify reading, supporting or spending money on the rest of the series in a situation like this. I can’t. --- I'm sorry, but you've also used up all my reserves of patience. I’m done.
A Court of Thorns and Roses Series by Sarah J. Maas - I was drawn to this series because it was advertised as a Beauty and the Beast retelling with a little bit of Tamlin woven in. When I saw lots of talk of the second book morphing into a Persephone and Hades retelling I had MAJOR reservations. I will always adore Sarah J. Maas as a person. But, as an author, my trust in her books has been severely and irreparably damaged. I’m unwilling to put myself through a scenario of Chaol 2.0, and I’m walking away from this series before history repeats itself. Sometimes you have to face up to the reality that a once favourite author doesn’t hold the same magic anymore, and sadly, you have to move on with a heavy heart.
*Sigh* I really hate leaving series unfinished as I love seeing the same characters grow and evolve over multiple books, but sometimes you just have to let go. It’s at times like this I wish I could escape my addiction to series. Standalones are starting to sounding extremely appealing! Which do you prefer: series or standalones? Or do you like both equally? Thanks for stopping by!
I always find is so rude that people get angry when you don't like something they love or in this case, you don't want to continue with a series that is popular. I fully intend to read the Morganville Vampires series (only done book one so far! Gulp!) but I'd NEVER pass comment on someone else deciding not to keep reading it. There are soooo many books out there to read and I reckon we need to concentate on what we enjoy most.
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