Smart Bitches, Trashy Books

I’ve stopped series for all 3 reasons: a disappointment I can’t live with (the 2 main characters in the series have sex that I considered non-consensual), a realization that the books are essentially the same book, and a realization that no matter how much I hoped otherwise the characters were too stupid to live.

The Anita Blake thing started to give me a migraine —I was getting the bright lights in front of my eyes.

I’ve pretty much divorced Betsy The Vampire Queen. Every subsequent book seems both longer and less substantial and Betsy seemed to never experience growth—eternity would seem extra long with her. I can’t even get into it for the Minnesota connection as there seems to be very little interaction with real places.

been24—don’t rub it in.

With Anita Blake it was the realization that each book was getting longer and that in each volume the added length consisted entirely of graphic porn; as series progress editors back off (I guess).

I have quit a series when the author has played fast and loose with my intelligence, my emotions (killing off main characters-I’m talking to you Jennifer Roberson), when they don’t have anything new just rehashing characters with different names to keep the series going (Kenyon but I did read Acheron to find out his deal), and when it wasn’t fun to enter their world anymore (Sookie is moving in that direction for me but I am a fan from the beginning so I haven’t quit her yet)! I also realized from this post that I quit Evanovich because she doesn’t have any growth whatsoever !
Thanks Sarah, for this great post!

I’m getting close with JR Ward’s BDB. When the book comes out and it’s $5 cheaper than my favourite pair of shoes, it’s a good sign that the end is near.

For me it started with Stephanie Plum (around book 6 or 7), Anita Blake (around 9 or 10) and Betsy the vampire queen (book 4) as all of them really stopped developing the main character. Note to author: having the main heroine whinge and whine about her life at every chance is NOT emotional growth.

I’m still enjoying Kenyon and Sookie though I accept that I may grow out of these eventually.

I just don’t break up with them… sadly

I buy the new books. Put them on my shelf - wince because I know it’s going to be a trainwreck - read it then bitch about it. I still bought the latest Anita Blake books - gods help me.

I should have broken up with them long ago. With Anita it made the change about book 9 - after that there just wasn’t any PLOT. Characters or world building both died entirely - it was just a series of sex scenes loosely connected with Anita’s new Shiny Powers of Sueness.

Betsy I liked - but like Michelle she frustrated me. I still consider the books fun fluff reads (turn off brain, it’s some easy mush) but Betsy was a ditzy self-obsessed and rather clueless and incapable woman who remained… a ditzy, self-obsessed and rather clueless and incapable woman. All the characters are rather 2 dimensional - fun 2 dimensional, but it got old quicky

Hmm - this long ramble says I break up with a series (or should) when the story stops happening. When nothing changes, nothing grows (and new shiny powers +lots of sex isn’t change and growth) and nothing develops

I thought that after the last Ward book.  I wondered if I really care when she totally changed up the course of the series and now threw in a new random creature to keep the money train moving…and left characters I really cared about hanging in the wind.  Now I’m ehhhh….but, in some parts I want to see how certain characters fare in the new book.

I really dislike it when authors start being in their own hype (ahem you, Stephanie Meyers)

I stopped reading Stephanie Plum at about book 7 or 8 because nothing new was happening.  It wasn’t a planned decision - it was more that I flicked through the pages of the next one in the bookshop, and read the back cover, and thought, ‘why bother?  I’ve read that three times already.’ 

I enjoyed Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton series, but I was getting a bit bored with the same family by book 8 and was glad that the set was complete.  Ditto Mary Balogh’s Slightly and Simply series: individually good, but after a while the repetition becomes a bit much. 

If a book feels like I’ve read it before when I haven’t, I’ll just get bored and wander off in search of something new.  Either I have a short attention span or I’m secretly an inveterate thrill-seeker.  Or both.

I broke up with Anita Blake after 10 books and years of being emotionally invested in the series. When the author did a 180 and changed the whole dynamics of the series and the character I enjoyed, that was when I broke up and have never looks back.

After reading Lover Avenged, I am still interested but I have the feeling that Ward may decided to break up with her BDB series after a few more books.

I am a pansy-ass when it comes to breaking up with a series.  I’m always thinking maybe this time will be better…um, not usually, but there are sometimes surprises.  I did like Lover Avenged better than the last two BDBs.  Or maybe I’ve just lowered my expectations. ;)  If a series has jumped the shark, or is at least rapidly skiing toward that, I move them from “must buy on drop date!” to “get at the library or wait for the paperback to hit the UBS.”  I may have that compulsion to read, but not enough to pay full price.

The long-assed series can be fun as you get to know the world and the characters so well, but a smart author really should know when to say when and provide the satisfaction of conclusion.  Trilogies are great for that purpose - you get the “what happened next?” without the “jeez, can we just defeat the great evil already and head for Miller Time?”

I have a hard time breaking up with a series, so I’ve developed a scale to determine the strength of my addiction:

1 - I’ll buy it in hardcover, the day it’s released.
2 - I’ll buy it in hardcover, if it’s on sale.  If not, I’ll troll ebay for an affordable copy.
3 - I’ll wait until it comes out in paperback.
4 - Used bookstore (or paperbackswap.com) time.
5 - I’ll read the synopsis online.
6 - Done.

I quite Anita after book 8 (or was it 9?) because the Anita I loved had been replaced by a blow-up doll with ammo.  Betsy from the Undead series is down to used bookstore status - is it just me, or is every MJD heroine a carbon copy of Betsy?  I tried her mermaid series, and it read like Betsy with fins.

I love series. I love/hate the anticipation of that new book. I lost interest in Clive Cussler’s Dirk Pitt, he was my first series heartthrob, when he started writing with other people. It just didn’t have the same voice. I was a huge fan of the Stephanie Plum series until Janet Evanovich apparently got as bored with the series as I was. I stayed through 12, hated 13 and 14 and won’t even try with 15. I love Sookie Stackhouse, I can tolerate Betsy the vampire, but my favorite series couple is Joe Pike and Elvis Cole. To me, that is a romance on so many levels. All that’s missing is the kiss. :-D

I broke up with Anita Blake when it became less of a mystery/thriller story and more of a “It’s all about me, me, me!” fest for Anita and her lovers.

I was thinking about this the other day when I was reading the latest J.D. Robb, wondering why it still captures me.  I believe it may be because while each book has a wink-and-a-nod to the reader about the characters (Eve is going to diss Somerset, Peabody’s going to admire Roarke’s butt, Roarke is going to be revealed to own another planetary system), at the core of the book is a story—a mystery, a character developing, new characters who are interesting enough to make you wonder if they’ll return, etc.

I’m still reading Sookie Stackhouse, but I’m beginning to get to the edge of tolerance.  And I gave up on Stephanie Plum around book 10.  She just doesn’t grow, change or make real decisions and I can’t relate to her anymore.

I stop reading a series when the author stops telling a good story.

Sometimes an author forgets—or ignores— the fact that it’s not about them or their name on the cover. It’s about wanting to know where that author is going to take the characters/story next.

If we aren’t going anywhere new or the character(s) are going to become something else entirely then it’s time to move along to another book.

I HATE breaking up.

Like Charlane, my love affair with Ward’s BDB really ended with Butch’s book. I thought V’s would be so awesome because he was the baddest of the bunch and would finally get his HEA. AND it was advertised/classified as a Romance.

By Ward herself.

When less than half the book was devoted to V, and any kind of romance, and then she pulled a Casper at the end…I skimmed Phury’s. That was even worse, and again, advertised/classified as a Romance, also by Ward.

I’ll stick with a series if it’s still got a strong romance factor, though I need an HEA at the end of every book or I won’t read anymore (which is a big reason why I never got into the Anita Blakes) but lie to me, change genres in the middle of a series, or make me have to visit a forum to find out who new characters are, and that’s it for me!

need84…I don’t need 84 books in a series, kthnxbai

The stopping point for me does have a lot to do with emotional growth. I quit Stephanie Plum about book 7 when I realized that she wasn’t going to learn how to be a better bounty hunter… and she was going to keep jerking Joe around for another 8 books. I don’t want to read about someone who never learns or grows. I will admit Joe was the reason I read books 5-7. : )

I quit Anita when I realized the books were going to be focused on sex and not the great mysteries/action that the first few had. I can’t even remember the number. Just when Anita lost all her sexual inhibitions, I lost her character too. The funny thing is I read the first couple fairy books (Mercy?) and the sex didn’t bother me because it was a part of the story. A little weird part, but from the beginning she let us know that was the focus.

But usually I have a hard time quitting a series unless it really gets under my skin in a bad way.

There are series I stick with even though the writing and characterization is only getting worse and worse because I’m hoping for a good idea—stuff by Harry Turtledove would be my own canonical example.

I agree totally with you about series. I have given up on the BDB. Her books have become soap operas instead of compelling romances. Its sad, because the first three were the best vampire romances I have ever read. I borrowed Lover Avenged from the library and every chapter started with “back at the mansion” or some other location.

I’m a little wary of open-ended series in general, as they tend to go the route of long-lived TV shows after a while and become bored with themselves and disrespectful of their audience.  I much prefer when an author states up front, “There will be X number of books in this series, and then the story arc will be complete.”

Most of the series listed here I’ve given up for reasons already mentioned (except for Anita Blake; couldn’t even get halfway through the first one), although it sounds like I have far less patience than most of you guys; I got bored with Stephanie Plum after Book Three.  Another factor that will make me lose interest in a series is too many characters and too many plot threads left unresolved; The Dresden Files has been veering in this direction lately, but I still love the writing and characters, so I’m likely to stick with that one til the end.

It drives me nuts when I have to stop reading a series but sometimes it has to be done because the story that drew me in in the first place is gone or the characters that I originally loved have morphed into unrecognisable beings.

The Anita Blake series lost me when Anita started resembling a Mary Sue and the plot of each book became all the sex. I remember feeling intensely angry with each succesive book until I hit the point when I couldn’t get past the first few pages and ended up chucking the book at the wall. It was a big disappointment as I’d invested a lot into the series, not only financially but emotionally and timewise too.

With the Dark Hunters and Carpathian series, I can’t pinpoint an exact book since I didn’t read them in order but it was after 4-5 books, when I couldn’t tell the characters apart and the stories started to blend into each other.

Usually when I give up a series, it’s because I’m bored with it, often to the point of forgetting about it entirely.  Meg Cabot’s Princess Diaries series was like this for me, although I reckon that’s mostly because I started reading them when I was seventeen and, well, things change as you get older.  I have to admit I was a huge Stephanie Plum fan up through book twelve.  (I’m on the Ranger side of the fence.)  Thirteen fell apart, Fourteen was unbearable, and there’s no way in hell I’ll read Fifteen.  The thing about Plum that disappointed me the most was what Evanovich did to her characters.  Morelli, a once likeable guy, became a controlling, misogynistic asswipe who was often more preoccupied with his penis than he was with anything else.  Stephanie, whom I loved, warts and all, went from bumbling to idiotic and from incompetent to just plain lazy.  The last book I read (14) had no plot at all.  Stephanie talked about Ranger’s penis, then she talked about Morelli’s.  Then Morelli talked about his penis.  And then Lula talked about Tank’s penis.  And then a pizza fell from the sky and that was the end of that.  I have never been so outraged as I was the moment I realized Evanovich must think I was a real idiot to have invested my time, money, and energy in such garbage, and that she had been right.

For a while an author I liked going into hardcover seemed to be the clue that the series had jumped the shark for me.  Like others I have a progression which varies whether the book is mass market or hardcover.  The current sign that an author (publishing in hardcover) is losing his or her luster is whether I put the book on hold at the library when it is announced.  I know I officially have broken up with a series when I won’t even pick it up when I see it in RapidRead or on the new book shelves.

With mass market books, if I don’t buy it within a week or so of it’s being released, it is a warning that the relationship is in trouble.  I tend to purchase new (to support authors) unless I am glomming backlists. 

I have not yet figured out how purchasing for the kindle fits into this work flow.

Hmmm…charge92…rarely.

I broke up with Robert Jordan.  I thought he could have completed a story arc focused on fewer main characters in, say, a trilogy.  Then he could have focused a second arc on other characters, and so on.  I’m not saying he had to end his main storyline in a single trilogy—the thirteen wards and other parts wanted and need all the books.  Just that Perrin, Lan, Matt, and others deserved focus, deserved to be built on, to have their powerful and interesting stories told.  Instead, the parts I loved were constantly sidelined.  Those characters appeared just enough for me to start feeling satisfaction, and then their storyline could disappear for entire books.

I really need for characters to evolve, too.  The first few books are often the best in a series because the main characters are still feeling each other out, and there’s a dynamic of the unknown.  In Cornwell’s Postmortem, we don’t really know at first if Marino is a big mysoginist blowhard, or if he’s worth something.  When a series gets stale, when I feel like the main characters are just going through predictable motions, I put it down.  Maybe a few books later, if a book gets a good review, I’ll pick it up and give it my “30 pages” worth of time to see if it has anything new.

I stop reading when I feel like I’ve been left outside. I’ve felt this most recently with Ward’s BDB series and Moning’s Fever series (to a much lesser degree). Basically, if you’re writing a series, and I’ve been reading that series from the beginning, I don’t appreciate feeling like I’ve missed out on some crucial information because I don’t follow your message boards.

The angel (whose name I don’t even remember) at the end of Phury’s book was created on the message boards, and I found his appearance in the book extremely jarring. It’s really great when author’s are able to connect directly to their readers via message boards, I just wish they wouldn’t do it at the expense of the fans who don’t read the boards religiously.

I think Moning drops similar hints about upcoming character and even Barrons’s true nature on her boards, but because this is a limited series (only 5 books), I think of them more as spoilers though I still feel like I’m missing out on parts of the series because I’m not dedicated enough.

Still I hate quiting a series, even when it loses track of the overall world as SB Sarah mentioned because I do want to see how it turns out in the end. It’s just hard when a lot of these series have no end in sight.

Ha, this was actually a topic of conversation at lunch with my mama yesterday.  My first big break-up was was Stephanie Laurens.  I read the Cynster series all through college, even started the Bastian series, and finally had to stop.  Like Sarah said, I got tired of reading the same book over and over.  No matter how unique a make character was as a secondary in a previous book, once the spotlight was on them, they seemingly lost most of those individual traits and became all alpha, all the time.  Don’t get me wrong, I like alpha, I just needed a break.  Also, I realized that if I had to read one more “he smiled internally” or “mentally blinked” I was going to punch someone.  Don’t any of these people display emotions on their faces?  Beyond the intense, gleaming eyes, of course.

Er, holy typos, Batman.  That’s breaking up WITH Stephanie Laurens and a MALE character.

I usually do well with romance series where each book focuses on a different set of main characters.  I like how Eloisa James and Liz Carlyle (for ex) have books in smaller sets, but old characters keep popping up and getting spotlight time.  each book in this kind of series is focused on its individual story arc of getting to the HEA; so while you run the risk of getting repetitive each story has an equal chance of being tightly written and polished, complete in itself. 

I also really like Stephanie Laurens, although I’ve been struggling with myself over her books lately.  as Kelly W just remarked: “No matter how unique a make character was as a secondary in a previous book, once the spotlight was on them, they seemingly lost most of those individual traits and became all alpha, all the time.”  I agree completely!  her male characters all seem to come out of the same mold and yet I can’t stop reading them!  I think for me I’m still there because the plot and relationships are individual enough that I can still deal.  I do a comforting kind of suspension of disbelief, “once upon a time in SL England…”  ^_^

I’m wary of starting open-ended series following a single protagonist (or set of them).  I like how Elizabeth W compared them to tv shows, that “long-lived TV shows after a while .. become bored with themselves and disrespectful of their audience.”  the beginning books may be very well written, but it becomes really obvious if the drive and life of the story slacks off.  what SB Sarah said about the importance of balancing character growth with world building is very true for me.  when these two elements slack off,  they may still be fun, but nothing -happens- ! 

this points to a more basic element of the series that is crucial to my investment, the story arc.  often with long running series they can start out with what looks like a good story arc, but it goes all to pieces when the author sacrifices tightness of story to keeping spinning it out for more and more books.  with some stories/worlds there is no end of potential; but with others there really isn’t, not the way the author set it up.

one recent series that I praise to the skies is Lois McMaster Bujold’s Sharing Knife books.  the books follow the relationship between a single couple, Fawn and Dag.  throughout the four books we watch Fawn and Dag experience growth and change as individuals, and we see their relationship mature and deepen.  unlike other series/tv shows/movie sequels, the writer does not throw random wrenches into the relationship to get tension and plot twist! thrills.  the tempering of the characters and forging of the relationship is strong, the world building is solid, and the minor and major story arcs wrap up into a richly satisfying conclusion at the end of bk 4.  happy time all round.

anti22 = please god don’t drag a series with one main character out into 22 books!  of course, that’s just what happened with Christie’s Poirot and Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, and by the end the authors couldn’t stand their characters.

I break up with series pretty easily since I have a limited book budget and limited time to read. There are some I follow if I find a volume on sale but the releases get so far ahead of me I lose interest. The hill just gets higher with every release. I like the releases to have a bit of a gap between books (I know other voracious readers hate that but it suits my budget!) so I can remain current. The only series I bought in hardcover was Harry Potter.

Feehan-book 9 or 10
Kenyon -book 10
LKHamilton-book 8 or 9
Evanovich- book 12

Mostly, I leave a series when it becomes repetitive - when the basic plot begins to feel recycled.
With Feehan, it was when they started feeling like club-her-over-the-head-like-a-baby-seal-and-drag-her-home romances.
And for Kenyon, when the romance became secondary to the subplots in the book.
With LKH I completely agree with Anj - once the books switched their focus to Anita’s sexcapades, I no longer identified/cared about the protagonist.
And for Evanovich- grow up and make a decision already! Agh! And really, how many cars can one person destroy?

I usually lose interest when series go to HC, because I’ve moved on to other things by the time the paperback comes out or plain forgotten.  I finally realized when Robb went to HC that I don’t like Roarke at all and haven’t read the series since (apart from that fact that since the names are all the same, I couldn’t remember whether I owned this or that one already).

One series which really shouldn’t have had book 5 was Auel’s Earth Children.  Book 5 was an insult and I wish I didn’t have to remember it as the final installment of a series that was quite important to me as a teen.

Brockmann really went off the deep end with her last few books, so I quit her.

I only read a couple of chapters of Plum and am glad I never got started on her series seeing of where it ended or didn’t, and I don’t do paranormals, so I never read Blake, BDB or Sookie and hearing the complaints I’m very glad I didn’t.

I hate nothing more than books being sold as romance that are not and with Brockmann and Ward that definitely seems to be the case.  Truth in advertising and all that.

What about the time before the breakup, when you know you should go, but you just can’t? I know I should have given up on Gabaldon somewhere in the middle of the last sprawling book, but I love Jamie and Claire so much that I’ll wade through it all, just to get at their interactions.

What I’ve seen over the last however-many responses is that a lot of people are breaking up with a series around book eight or nine.  Is this the point at which we naturally get bored?  Or at which the author has nothing else to say?

Of the series I’ve broken up with, it’s mostly been because the books became identical.  I can cite series where each book was related to the previous—not a sequel with the same characters, but a new pair.  Who were identical to the last pair in everything but hairstyle.  While there are going to be common elements I look for in each related book, there are quite a few that feel like churned-out repeats.

I can cite series where the world has become too massive and sprawling for me to keep up with (JK Rowling, I’m looking at you: three years between books and you expect me to remember what happened in the last one?).

Or there are the series which have gone the other way, and changed focus entirely (yes, Anita Blake).  I think this is perhaps more of an issue with the series that feature a single protagonist, rather than the series of linked romances, which at least have their own plot and ending.  The author tries to keep the character changing and growing, and when you have a character whose experiences are as vivid as, say, Anita Blake’s, that person is going to be altered by the experiences of each book.  But what happens when they change too much?  Time, perhaps, to say goodbye.

I can think of at least one series where after the first couple of books, it became a little like a long-running anthology show.  No character growth, no relationship change, and very little in the way of a plot: just a series of amusing scenes.  Which became less amusing as I lost interest in the whole shebang.

I guess the question becomes, how did it get to this point?  Maybe the author has lost her spark.  Maybe she’s lost interest and is only writing because she’s under contract to (I can think of several authors trapped in ‘next book’ deals; also plenty who want to try something different but simply aren’t allowed).  Maybe she’s got too mentally fat and lazy after early success—or maybe her publishers were the ones getting fat and lazy off her success, and didn’t want to lose their cash cow.  Who knows?

The series I’m still reading are the Dresden Files, Sookie Stackhouse and Stephanie Plum.  Plum is beginning to retread books, but maybe I’m still reading because I started with book seven, then went back and began again.  My perspective is different.  Jim Butcher could probably write an account of going to the supermarket and I’d still wax lyrical about his awesome writing skillz.  And as for Sookie, I do feel the books have changed from the original premise (you made her first love a bad guy!  Oh noes!) but I still want to know what happens next.

I find it revealing that it seems all of us who read Anita Blake books broke up with the series around the same time (Narcissus, which I think was book 10). I really like series books b/c when I’ve spent time with a couple or a group of characters in a novel, I want to see how it goes on. But when the characterization suffers or the series doesn’t grow, I wane. The Anita Blake books had me sucked in - they were GOOD books - but then the sex took over to the detriment of everything else. More than that being boring, that wasn’t Anita and her previous conflict over such behavior dissolved without even a whimper.

I was never as die hard for the BDB, but broke up for good with Butch’s book for the same reasons others mentioned in earlier comments. Ditto for Evanovich, though that’s more a break up with my dollar going to her books than a break up of reading. I now just hit the library for the books to keep track of Joe (sigh, Joe). Even the J.D. Robb books have gone from must buy (I once made a poor B&N employee go into the back room to get a book because I knew it was the release date and they had yet to get the books on the shelf) to reserve at the library.

My series breakups are Joanna Lyndsay, her books became so formulaic in nature, I just felt like she was inserting names in the blanks. Sherrilyn Kenyon, the Dark Hunters became one in the same and there was too much of everything else…I could keep up and the books I was reading, were to me, poorly written, or rushed or something. Although, I did read and enjoy Archeron.

Series that I am now hooked on is F. Paul Wilson’s Repairman Jack series, there will only be 17 of them and we are on books 13 and 14. I love Jack and Gia and can’t wait to see how their story unfolds.

Greg Hurwitz’s Tim and Dray Rackley series, this couple have been through so much with the series and they continue to stay strong and have a deep love for one another. *sigh* :-)

spamword: right59 I wish.

For me it’s all about watching the main character grow and change & secondary to that is the comfort of reading about a setting/world you enjoy. The only series I’m still into is Sookie Stackhouse. I think Sookie’s personality is miles away from what it was at the start of the series, and the books still feel like they’re building up to something as opposed to treading water.

I’m less enthralled with romance series because you get a new couple in every book and so you don’t get to see a character you love continue to grow and change. Also I despise the scenes where the happy couples from books past reappear solely to show off their children/pregnancies and make goo-goo eyes at each other so the current couple can see what’s in store for them. Blah.

I gave up Anita when the sex started taking over the plot. And the plots have gotten down to a single sentence:  New baddy arrives in town, baddy threatens Anita’s friends, baddy must die so everyone can have lots of angst-driven sex.

One series that I truly enjoy because there are not only plots but the characters continue to grow are the In Death series.  It’s the only series that I look forward to and wait for.  When one comes out, my evening is pre-planned so I can sit back, relax and visit with “old friends”.  As long as Dallas and Roarke continue to grow and don’t turn into sniveling angst-driven sex fiends, I will buy this series until it ends.  The fact that we’re at book 28(!) bodes well.  One thing that I love about this series is they can be read again and again.  I can’t say this with the Anita Blake books past the 5th or 6 (and that is being generous).

The only series I still keep up with is Robb’s Eve Dallas. Still buy them in hardback when they come out, too. I’ve left all the rest behind for all the reasons stated above. Sometimes I get lucky and an author I like will start a new series. It’s happened.

While the world is important, it’s still the characters for me. When I lose interest in them, I’m out the door. RL is full of boring people I have to relate to. I don’t have to do so with my choice of reading material.

What about series that ended before you were finished with them? Melanie Rawn’s Dragonprince books come to mind. I loved them! I so wanted to see how things settled after the war, but no… no more books in that world. I’ve bought everything she’s done since, and I liked them well enough, but come on, Melanie! Give us some more!

All this talk of LKH made me think of her blurb on the back of Gaiman’s Graveyard Book. Essentially she said she wished she could read about Bod’s continuing adventures. And even though I loved the book, LKH made me throw it against the wall.

Not every book is suited to become a series! This was a beautiful story about life, how it changes, how your family grows and shrinks, you make friends and loose them, and finally how you grow up. Turning it into a series would reduce its message.

Lately I’ve been looking for stand alone books in all the genres I read. I have too many series going, and I’d like to avoid starting another. I think a lot of the commentors here have said something similar. It’s hard after 10 or 12 or however many books not to loose track of the story.

I guess I see book series more like girlfriends, and the break ups really fall into two different categories:  the Drift-Aways and the Betrayals.

It’s no one’s fault that some friendships just don’t last.  Maybe you just mature at different rates and move on (Sweet Valley, Nancy Drew, Stephanie Plum), or maybe you’ve physically separated for awhile and you just don’t have the same things in common anymore (Pern, Dragonlance).  But you may meet one day, and then you’ll experience a brief memory, maybe happy, maybe rueful, of how much you enjoyed their company once upon a time.

Other friendships… well, some people self-destruct and you’ll never know why (Anita Blake).  No matter what you do, they don’t want your help, and so you’re left with the choice of watching them destroy themselves or just walking away.  Other times, of course, you find out that your friend just isn’t who you thought she was, not because she’s changed, but because she worked hard to draw you in with a deception.  The closer you were, the harder it is to walk away.

One last note:  I immediately drop any author who has the audacity to treat rape like it’s a compliment to the desirability of the protagonist.  Laurell K. Hamilton, Kirsten Katherine Rusch, and Rachel Caine all hit my black list for that crime, and Patricia Briggs just barely escaped.

Worst trope EVER.

For me, when the characters stop growing, I stop reading. It took me too long to give up on the Stephanie Plum books, probably because I was glomming books 1-11 pretty quickly. Then I read #12 and Stephanie was still doing stupid shit like leaving her house without charging her cell phone or taser, and leaving her gun behind entirely. If characters don’t learn from their mistakes, I’m out of there.

Kat said: 

When the book comes out and it’s $5 cheaper than my favourite pair of shoes, it’s a good sign that the end is near.

YES.  I can fill up my gas tank for the price of a hardcover book.  And what’s with the (gulp) $16.00 trade paperbacks?  The price of books unfortunately makes it all the easier to break up with a series that you’re starting to feel meh about.  Or if you DO stick with it, to check it out of the library.  I understand that being published in hardcover is a career accomplishment for a writer, but as a reader it drives me absolutely bugfuck. 

I quit reading Evanovich’s Plum at book 6, Hamilton’s Anita Blake at 7, and Davidson’s Betsy at 4 - mainly because I thought the authors were starting to sacrifice character development and plot for humor (Evanovich, Davidson) or sex (Hamilton).  They weren’t telling well-balanced stories anymore.  I checked Kenyon’s Acheron out of the library, even after the trauma of watching that video trailer - the first and last I’ll ever watch.  Ward’s BDB series is still a must-read for me, though since it went to hardcover, I’ll check the book out of the library instead of buying it.  I read Roberts and Robb in hardcover from the library when the books are first relased, then buy them when they come out in mass market PB. 

One thing that a lot of the series I’ve quit seem to have in common is that, to me, the latter books in the series feel…rushed.  The quality’s not as high.  As a series catches on, and there’s money to be made, the books get pumped out on an accellerated schedule.  The very qualities that made me love the books in the first place becomes evermore diluted, until finally you just don’t care anymore.  Tell me how a midlist author who still works a full time day job is supposed to pump out two to three books a year and keep the quality high - and not burn out.  Something’s gotta give, and we know what gets sacrificed. 

I’d rather an author whose work I love release a single book a year rather than 2 to 3 inferior ones which read like assembly-line “product.” 

Talk about shooting ourselves in the foot.

So many reasons…

Sookie?  Got bored around book 4.  Don’t think I even finished it, and when the next book came out I didn’t even have a twinge about buying it.

Betsy, QotV?  When they went to hardback.  I like cheeseburgers, but I’m not paying $20 for one.  Same thought about these books.  They were mindless fluff, but not that worthy of the price tag.  Luckily the books are so light that I’ll spend an hour in Borders and read the book.

Carpathians?  We had a separation but seem to have gotten back together.  Initial breakup was because it was same plot.  Also, it didn’t seem like any thought was going into the the bad guy/overall arch.  BUT she seems to have actually thought out how the overall plot is actually going, and the relationships are no longer following the same pattern that she had in the first, oh, 15 books.

LKH’s Merry?  When I pay $20 for a book, I would like the plot to advance more than 4 hours.  About three of those books should have been lumped together in one bigger book.  Just because Merry likes being screwed doesn’t mean I like it.

Anita Blake?  Oh. My. Gawd.  There is no series out there that inspires so much rage among people I know who used to read the books.  Mostly when someone stops reading a series it’s mainly boredom or disinterest.  But that one?  I have at least 5 friends who, if I would like to seem them go off on something, all I have to say is, have you read the latest Anita?  The answer will always be no, but then comes the diatribe about WHY they didn’t read it.  LKH didn’t get rusty or run out of ideas; the woman needs a therapist and is instead taking her issues out on her books.  I think the biggest problem was, they were good once.  And then from book 9 to book 10 they quickly went horribly, horribly wrong.  I believe that authors should be able to do what they want with their characters, but really, there should have been an intervention in her case.

picture89? *snort* picture 89 men lined up - that’s the next Anita book

I don’t have much time or money these days, so when I read I want the books to be good, not just a habit. That makes it much easier to walk away from a series that has gone bad. 

Why do I quit? The short answer is because I’m no longer interested in following where the author is going.  That can happen for a lot of reasons. I quit the Plum books when I realized that they’re a sitcom and therefore Stephanie was never going to grow.  I’ve quit other series because they got repetitive or stale and I started to suspect that they exist purely because the author or the publisher can’t let go of the money.

There are several open-ended series that I still love, but not every author can do that.  I think many authors would be far better off if they planned an X book story arc from the beginning and then just closed the series out and moved on. 

In general, I think we would all be better off if more people could let go. If there was no money in continuing a series that has run out of steam then authors and publishers would stop doing it. In fact, if series weren’t such a license to print money maybe we would get more stand alone books. I like series, but I also like to read self-contained stories. Sometimes it feels like there are none of those left, especially in the mystery genre. That’s annoying.

The stopping point for me does have a lot to do with emotional growth. I quit Stephanie Plum about book 7 when I realized that she wasn’t going to learn how to be a better bounty hunter… and she was going to keep jerking Joe around for another 8 books. I don’t want to read about someone who never learns or grows. I will admit Joe was the reason I read books 5-7. : )

Amen to everything Anj just said.

I’m sticking with Sookie because last year she finally told all the horrible men in her life to leave her alone. Of course a few won’t, but at least she recognized that they were making her life hell and not giving her what she wants in return. (n.b.: I haven’t read the one that came out last week yet.)

Gabaldon got demoted to buy-the-remainder status when Fiery Cross covered a very small amount of time (compared to the other books) and had the characters flailing around in their personal problems rather than striving against historical events. Everything was suddenly small-scale, and the pace crawled. I thought the book was a steaming pile of pointless BS, and the next book was worse.

Come to think of it, I broke up with Jordan’s series for much the same reason. The seventh book covered a mere two weeks, and in that time the protagonist didn’t make much progress in his quest, but found time to bonk three of the four love interests he’d been stringing along. DO NOT WANT.

Lack of epic-ness in an ostensibly epic series really irks me.

I usually finish a series once I’ve read two or more books. I’m pretty obssesive conpulsive about series and I’ve gotten really angry with myself for finding myself in the thouroughs of a long winded series.

The series I know I’ve had to let go because I knew they weren’t worth the money and time I was spending on them was Sookie Stackhouse (5th book), The Princess Diaries (6th book), Betsy Vampire Queen (4th), and the Cynster Series (5th book).

I stopped reading for the same reasons, but I also stopped reading because there seemed to be no end in sight and some books like the one’s in Betsy and the Princess Diaries were often too short and stopped at weird moments and cliff hangers for me to actually enjoy them.

The Cynster Series was another situation entirely. I think it was just that in an effort to catch up I read too many of them and it made me sick not just of the series but romances in general. I actually can’t pick up and read one of Stephanie Lauren’s books because it.

My reason for breaking up is boredom…. I guess that ‘sameness’ you mentioned.  If the characters can be swapped out for previous characters in previous books, then I get really, really bored.

Some series, I didn’t even realize I had a break-up until new books were released and I didn’t know about it until I saw it in the store and had a ...“should I or shouldn’t I” buy moment.  Usually with a series, it ends up being ‘shouldn’t’ which leads to ‘not messing with it’.

One series I won’t ever be able to give up on is the Eve Dallas books.  I’m totally hooked on those.  Kresley Cole’s paranormal series is another.  Viehl’s Darkyn and Stardoc books.

I know, I know, Anita…sigh….I say “never again,” then I do - but only in paperback!
I keep coming back for those hints of the old story AND I want to find out what happens with Marmee Noir—it could be kick-ass big badness and I wanna know!

I tend to just keeping reading a series out of habit even though I know it starting sucking about 5 books ago. I think I’m holding out hope that things will improve. A good example is the cat who mystery series. They used to be good, but with the last few there’s no real mystery until the last 50 pages of the book. I think the author died and some ghostwriter took over.

I wonder if the biggest problem with these long-running series is that they’ve got no overall plot or focus.  Is it building to something?  Is it going somewhere?  Will the heroine finally decide which of her many gorgeous suitors she wants/save the world/remember to charge her phone?

I can fill up my gas tank for the price of a hardcover book.  And what’s with the (gulp) $16.00 trade paperbacks?

Yikes, I wish I lived somewhere with fuel that cheap.

I remember asking a couple of rather big-name authors once why, if they and their readers disliked hardbacks so much, publishers were so determined to produce them.  The answer?  Bestseller lists.  Hardback bestseller lists, which enable you to put a NATIONAL BESTSELLER label on the paperback.  And then do a whole new sales push for that release, too.

Going to hardback is purely a sign that an author has become successful enough for the publisher to risk losing a few sales—ie to those who can’t afford/haven’t got space for hardbacks.  They know there are plenty of fans who’ll buy the book no matter the cost, and most of it’s offset by the bigger royalties from the larger cover price.

I find it interesting that so many of these comments come down to
“the series changed” (Anita Blake, BDB, etc.) OR “the series DIDN’T change” (Stephanie Plum, Cynster, etc.)

Of the ones people have mentioned so far, the only one I’m still reading is JD Robb, mainly because it strikes a nice balance between the two:  the characters are still recognizably the same people, but have shown some growth (well, Roarke not so much, but it’s hard to grow from impossible perfection!) and the focus on mysteries with different casts of characters (some of whom reappear later, and that’s nice too) give me the sense of “yes, this is still the books I started with.” 

I’m a big comic book fan, and you see this same dichotomy even more strongly there.  There are people who are furious when the hero isn’t the one they grew up with (usually described as “XYZ is acting out of character!” and “You are ignoring continuity!”) and others who are disgusted when the series doesn’t break new ground (“This is a new century!” or “You just want to re-tread stale old stories!”)

Me, I’ve begun to gravitate more towards manga, where (many) series have a defined story arc with a definite end-point.

(verification word:  stood63—no, I’d never stand for 63 volumes!)

When a character, typically a heroine, doesn’t experience any kind of growth or maturity or insight whatsoever is when I stop reading. 

Becky Bloomwood loves shopping!  She cannot manage her money!  I don’t want to read about the same problems in each book.

Sookie Stackhouse may be on her way out for me, too.  I’m hanging on to the new book in the hopes there’ll be resolution for Sookie and Eric. 

Book 5 or 6 is usually my touchstone for a good series.  By that point, I’m either flinging it against the wall or cannot wait until the next book is released.

It’s pretty easy for me to break up with a series, though depending on how much time and/or money I’ve spent, my outrage at HAVING to breakup, varies. Additionally, I’ll never go back. Once I’ve broken up, there are no second chances. And once I’ve broken up, I’ll get rid of the entire series, since I know I won’t ever re-read them again.

My outrage with LKH was pretty high (I stopped at like book 13, though those last 3 were really really hard to get through). And just recently, I’ve broken up with Karen Marie Moning with high outrage (WHAT is with the very thin hardback? It’s a novella (WTF?) and it costs $20!!!??? Piss me the F off!). Moning is a rare scenerio where I still am really interested in the series, but felt super gipped on the Fae hardbacks. They’re just novellas wrapped in a big package and are really expensive. This is unacceptable to me. I also had a high outrage with Viehl’s Stardoc series (threw the book at the wall). I stoppped reading Betsy just from boredom (outrage nonexistant), Dresden Files from boredom (outrage nonexistant), Kenyon from confusion and lazy writing (outrage mid-level), never got past book 2 of either Lyn Viehl, Feehan, or Ward. Those stories just never grabbed me, so I didn’t even bother. I haven’t made a final decision on Evanovich, yet. I haven’t read 14 yet, so jury’s still out.

But I still love me some JD Robb, Brockmann, Lora Leigh’s Nauti series (though this last one was boring-we could be looking at a future breakup), Catherine Asaro, Jeanine Frost, Nalini Singh, Kresley Cole, Larissa Ione, plus a bunch of others.

Essentially, it’s the same thing as others have said. Consistent world rules and character growth are key. And in my case, don’t freaking package a novella as a hardback book (I bet you can see I’m still really pissed about this one). In fact, don’t package a novella at all-put all three of them in one book and call it a freaking novel! *steps off rant*

Stephanie L: Gabaldon got demoted to buy-the-remainder status when Fiery Cross covered a very small amount of time (compared to the other books) and had the characters flailing around in their personal problems rather than striving against historical events. Everything was suddenly small-scale, and the pace crawled.

I gave up the Gabaldon series after Fiery Cross.  I love Claire and Jamie, but Fiery Cross was so painfully slow.  too much boyfriend, not enough roller derby (to quote buymeaclue).

season27 = soap operas may go here, but I won’t!

I gave up on the Stephanie Plum novels with one phrase: “that I felt right in my dooda.”

I mean. Dooda. I thought, Really, Janet? and closed the book, and haven’t gone back.

I gave up on Robert Jordan after one book because I finished the first one, looked at the page count, realized there were fourteen or so more to read to get the whole story, and thought, No way, no how.

I’m glad I waited to read Stephen King’s The Dark Tower until the whole series was done. Reading an entire series is much less taxing when you know there’s a set ending.

You can’t win with series, it seems like. Change a character too much and readers complain it’s not the series they fell in love with; change a character too little and readers complain of staleness. Finding a balance is very, very difficult, and from all appearances not many authors can do it.

similar82=when you’ve read the first 82 books and they’re all too similar? Time to break up.

I broke up with Anita about two books ago..I was beyond tired of her ridiculous porny ways.  The BDB I dumped after the fourth one, because Marissa was easily the stupidist person ever..and that urban slang was even more stupid.
I hate it when authors try to milk a story beyond it’s death, it’s irritating and insulting.
I’m a fickle bitch when it comes to reading, theres plenty o’ books on the shelf.

You can’t win with series, it seems like. Change a character too much and readers complain it’s not the series they fell in love with; change a character too little and readers complain of staleness. Finding a balance is very, very difficult, and from all appearances not many authors can do it.

I think it’s doable when you have a set number of books/story in mind from the beginning and stick to it. It’s much harder with an open-ended series.

RE:  LKH. 

So, am I the only one rooting for Edward to come back and put the entire cast out of their misery?

What about the time before the breakup, when you know you should go, but you just can’t?

meagan- I know the feeling! I think it’s the “it’s not you, it’s me” phase of the breakup. You want to do it gently, there were good times had together in the past. And it’s not necessarily that they aren’t still a good story, you’ve simply grown apart. lol

Hi!  I just discovered your blog… I stumbled across it late last night and stayed up past my bedtime rolling in laughter at your “Greatest Hits” posts.  As mascara streamed down my face, my husband came back to where I was sitting and asked, “You are still laughing, right?”  Needless to say, your book is on it’s way from Amazon.com.  And I am cursing my husband’s late work hours that he’ll be putting in during the time you’ll be in Washington, because I don’t have a babysitter for the munchkin so I won’t be able to attend.

I have not gotten into too many series yet to have a good answer to this question.  I adore Amanda Quick so I’m on board with her Arcane Society novels.  I get consumed with Kresley Cole novels and can’t imagine ever in my life not reading hers (I want to liquify them and pump them into my bloodstream all day long!).  The only series I’d like to break up with is the Dark-Hunter, and I’m only a book or two in.  Kenyon uses words and phrases that I am morally opposed to, like “holy guacamole” and “listen, buster.”  (Said in all seriousness, of course.  I could appreciate them tongue-in-cheek.)  But I guess I am still holding onto my interest in her otherworld, just waiting for that to end so I can summarily remove the series from my must-read list.

I’m a romance reader. If the author takes away the romance, that’s a definite breakup for me. But like others have mentioned, there are various degrees of breakups.

If the author kills of the HEA, I’m done. Done with the book, done with the series, done with the author. I will get rid of everything I own by that author and I will tell everyone about it. To me, that is the ultimate betrayal.

If the series starts to move away from romance, they drop in my priorities. I’m still holding on to the the BDB, hoping for an improvement. After Lover Avenged,  I don’t see that happening, so the next one will be coming from the library. Brockmann has reached the stage where I only buy her’s used.

Sometimes I wonder if it’s me. I usually manage 4 books in a series. After that all bets are off: KMM, LKH Anita, George RR Martin, BDB, Diana Gabaldon, Cynsters, Feehan’s Drake & Ghost series, the Bridgertons & the Dark Hunters. Often because they feel the same & there isn’t enough growth from book to book to sustain me, I drop off. Sometimes a writer’s voice will keep me going, sometimes it’s because I want to keep going with the overarching plot or world-building from the previous books (as opposed to enjoying each couple’s story).  I still follow a few series: any of LMB’s series, Skolians, Darkyns, Bastion Club, Carpathians. 

I enjoy several mystery authors: Laura Joh Rowland, Peter Tremayne, Ariana Franklin. Somehow mystery series often manage to simultaneously balance the recurring protagonist’s personal story and the unique puzzle found in each title. Now that I think about it, I follow mystery authors longer than most other genres. Food for thought I suppose.. :)

~Amanda

I break up with a series when:

- I can’t remember what happened in the series prior to the latest book.
- I can’t remember who all these flipping characters are.
- I don’t really care about the characters anymore.
- The story arc just keeps meandering along, and there’s no point to it beyond milking the sequel money.

What sells a series to me is when I’m intrigued by a situation or secondary character enough to want to know what happens next.  What loses a series for me is when I don’t care what happens next.

I stopped reading Anita Blake when the mystery element just disappeared and all that was left was the fucking.  The last Blake book I read was humongous, and had a mystery involving a giant pit and disappearing vampires IIRC.  Long-ass book, more new non-humans to sex up.  Anita goes to check out the night club and the pit involved in the crime, and then the issue is never mentioned again.  (Memory of details is blurry, sorry.)

In the next book, there’s a toss-off comment by another character mentioning that serial killer case that was so hard on Anita, and that was it.  No other information whatsoever about the mystery.  And that was it for me, I just found the books more work to get through than they were worth.

The Plum books are just going nowhere.  There are some really funny scenes, and I continue to get them from the library, but I don’t care if I miss one here or there.

I’m still enjoying the interaction between Kenyon’s various vampires and gods and demons, but they’re starting to have an apocolyptic feel about them that is turning me off.  I’m impatient with and contemptuous of apocolypses.  Also, I’m kind of feeling a need to start a chart to keep track of who everybody is, and why they know each other.  I hate that.

Ward is on the cusp.  I absolutely couldn’t wait for the last one, but for the new one, I feel no sense of urgency to read at all.

Re: LKH and Edward

I also stopped around book 9 for the reasons people listed here, but I still check back with people who have hung in there just to make sure the series is still going downhill.  I understand from them that Edward shows up less and less as time goes on, and I think that says a lot about what’s been going on in the series.  Edward is representative of what I *liked* in the earlier books, and the fact that he isn’t around is very telling. 

On the one hand, I’m with Lori S., and I really would *love* a book from Edward’s perspective where he decides Anita has firmly gone around the monster bend and needs to be taken out, along with her entire seraglio.  On the other hand, I live in fear of the day when LKH remembers Edward exists, and puts him in some kinky leather ensemble to worship at the holy v-jay of Anita-Sue.  Because that is one hook-up that should *never* happen.

@Lillie, I won’t rec Elizabeth Donald to you. She starts out with vampire murder mysteries with sex and romance, and eventually drops the sex. The love is there, but it all comes down to the horror novel in the last one of the series.

I broke up with Queen Betsy after book 3. Such a promising premise and so much of it spent just being a terror to her hunky alpha, when she wasn’t shagging him.  And vapid women never did do much for me. The snark carried three books, but I couldn’t be arsed to hunt the fourth.

LKH? I’m reading her in fits and starts. I’ve liked a couple, but her voice isn’t unique enough to try reading them in order or go much farther.

I wandered away from Nancy Drew by 12, and from Dragonlance when it started going all backstory.  I haven’t really liked anything of Stephan King’s since Needful Things.

Julian May, I never broke up with. She wrote 9 very good books, a pair, a trilogy, and a foursome. Edgar Rice Burroughs…he got weird around book 4 of Mars, redeemed himself with 5-8 and 10, but 9 and 11 were complete messes.

I’m waiting on S.M Stirling to FINISH his next trilogy. Because I hate reading and getting stuck waiting for the next book.

Anita Blake when it became all sex- Plum and Queen Betsy when i couldn’t tell if I had read a book before or not-

the Cynsters moved from buy to library when the sex overtook the plot- I do like the characters and want to see what’s happening with them, but not enough to waste my money and shelf space on

Castle/Quick/Krentz- Loved, Loved, Loved- the Arcane Society concept was interesting but the practical application has been awkward.  When we have the same words used to describe the same event/phenom/psychic spore in the past, the present, and on another planet I get bored. Language evolves and changes so do some evolving and changing, please.

Not romance but I’m not sure the last time I bought a Patricia Cornwell and I do still love me some Kathy Reichs, but have been feeling like she wants to quit the books in favor of tv.  If so, please do, and don’t leave the readers with only half of your attention.

I’m like Lori S up around post 12

I have a hard time breaking up with a series, so I’ve developed a scale to determine the strength of my addiction:

1 - I’ll buy it in hardcover, the day it’s released.
2 - I’ll buy it in hardcover, if it’s on sale.  If not, I’ll troll ebay for an affordable copy.
3 - I’ll wait until it comes out in paperback.
4 - Used bookstore (or paperbackswap.com) time.
5 - I’ll read the synopsis online.
6 - Done.

It’s hard to quit a series that I at one point loved. But it’s not hard to wait for a cheap used copy of the book.

Really, anything more than a trilogy is overkill.  I like how Jacqueline Carey did her Kushiel series books. Trilogy set in one time period with one couple of characters, then trilogy set in same world she built but different characters, and next month, Naamah’s Kiss, new trilogy, same world, 100 years later.

I’ve yet to really get to a point where I break up with a series in the romance genre, mostly because I follow authors, not necessarily series. There has been a few authors I’ve dropped, or at least some of their books (can’t read a historical Coulter anymore unless I want to make my eyes bleed, but her FBI stuff isn’t bad), but overall I stick with it. But I tend to rely heavily on the library, so its not a great loss of money either way. My favorite series, however, is taking a hit because the author is passing the reins over to her son (she’s in her 80’s, its only reasonable if it was to keep going), and he’s Gary Stu-ing the crap out of the books. Which is both sad and annoying, because I DO buy those books, and now I don’t want to. But I’m anal enough to want a complete collection. Sigh.

When it seemed like Anita and Merry were going to be manageable series, it was harder to contemplate letting go—weren’t the Anita books originally set for seven or eight or something? Merry at seven? When the impetus became production rather than resolution, it seems to have sapped something from the stories. I would rather have an end to Anita’s story and then, after a suitable period, a new series from LKH. Of course (see above) I can’t let go.
I am a bookseller and have recommended some of these series to guests (adult para-romance newbies looking for a post-Twilight read) with the caveat (for Feehan, Adrian, and Ward) “don’t read them all at once.” If they prefer less vigorous sexin, I send them to great YA series that have not gotten old, like Libba Bray, Rachel Morgan, the Casts. Maybe when these authors hit books eight and nine it will be time to move on.

I find it interesting that so many of these comments come down to
“the series changed” (Anita Blake, BDB, etc.) OR “the series DIDN’T change” (Stephanie Plum, Cynster, etc.)...

I dunno, Hapix, either way, there’s an underlying failure on the author’s part to serve either plot or character properly. 

In the first case, the character has been changed so radically (and generally for no good or believable reason)  that it totally undermines the relationship you’ve spent lots of time and money building up in however many previous books.  It’s like when they spend two seasons getting a couple together on a show and then break them up overnight over something so stupid and contrived that I want to pull an Elvis on my t.v. because they can’t be arsed to allow growth of the relationship to drive a story arc.  Or, say, when “the ardeure” is suddenly thrust (heh) upon us.

In the second case (JANET EVANOVICH, MJD, I’M LOOKIN’ AT YOU!) they are so stuck on superficial aspects of the characters that they refuse to let them develop, grow, change, mature or learn.  How can I buy that Joe and Ranger (yum squared) are so devoted to Stephanie when she’s so utterly incompetant and annoying?  Why should the big, bad, sexy alpha vampire remain obsessed with Betsy when she’s a brain-dead, clueless shrew?  Aren’t both of these authors capable of writing some funny AND some character development?

I’ve cut down on the number of new series I try because I become obsessed with them.  I’m still following a lot of the serie others here hate, namely LKH, because I love finding out what comes next!?

I’ve broken up with series for several reasons, though:

1.  When the world becomes so involved that you need an encyclopedia to keep up, I leave.  (Kenyon)

2.  When the main character NEVER changes and the jokes are the same, I leave.  (Evanovich)

3.  When the author disclaims writing a romance or having anything to do with romances I stop cold turkey.

My sad truth is that I’m a readaholic.  There are just not enough books published per month that I’m interested in reading.  So I always find myself picking these old aquaintances up from the library, or the ubs, whenever I find myself desperately short of reading material. 

Except for the anti-romance authors.

I dropped the Plum series at (I believe,) book ten. You know the one. We’d been waiting for Stephanie and Ranger to get together for, oh, TEN BOOKS, and it was a paragraph.

A PARAGRAPH.

Let’s see here: Janet Evanovich strings us all along over ten books, tantalizing us with the delicious, elusive Ranger, the completely inept Stephanie Plum, how great it will be when they finally do the horizontal mambo, and their night of passion is one paragraph.

Not only did I quit the series, I quit Janet Evanovich. Maybe I just take all of this too seriously, but I won’t buy a Evanovich book again. I’d prefer an author who actually might care what her readership might think about something like this.

Of course, this is IMHO.
-S

I forgot to mention that I broke up with Katie MacAllister last night. Both of her series (vampire and dragon) are interchangable, and her female leads are soooo TSTL. It finally drove me crazy enough to quit last night.

cc: I, too, like the Arcane concept, but I just CAN NOT keep track of which pen name is producing which book. It’s so hard to keep track of the Arcane novels that I have given up. Really poor marketing, IMO.

and seriously, the final LKH book should just read, “Edward returned and killed them all. The End.” hahahhaah.

across79: across 79 series, there are still some I read.

I have a problem with series which never end. I need to know that there will be a conclusion at some point in the foreseeable future, preferably after a set number of books.

I gave up on Janet Evanovich a few books ago due to lack of character development and recycled jokes. I also gave up on Brockmann. I’ve just finished J.R. Ward’s latest and although I enjoyed Rhev’s part of the story, I’m not sure about continuing the BDB series.

I’ve always avoided series like the plague. I’m too fickle to maintain an interest in the same characters over a long arc. Mercy Thompson is the first one to ever grab me by the throat and won’t let go. I thought for sure when it went to hardback it would suck, but it hasn’t. I have no idea how she does two series at the same time in the essentially the same world and keeps me fascinated with both, but there you are.

Not only did I quit the series, I quit Janet Evanovich. Maybe I just take all of this too seriously, but I won’t buy a Evanovich book again. I’d prefer an author who actually might care what her readership might think about something like this.

I agree Strategerie. I quit JE after A)she didn’t care enough to write a new book for me to buy at hardcover prices. It’s like she recycled the same ol shit and knew it would sell because she was an autobuy for so many people. I think that’s just wrong, and B)when she threw the little hissy fit on Center Stage over at B&N because people were buying and reading ARC’s. She’s obviously got enough of my money.

RE:  LKH.

So, am I the only one rooting for Edward to come back and put the entire cast out of their misery?

No, you aren’t.  I’ve said the only way I’m going back to that series is if every single person Anita knows* is killed and Edward comes back, slaps her around a bit, and then they go on a deadly rampage.

*or has had sex with.  at this point it’s the same number.

Some series I break up with entirely. With Anita Blake, “Narcissus in Chains” was the final straw. I drifted away from Queen Betsy after book 4 and barely noticed (after all, she’ acts pretty much the same in every book, which was funny in the first but tiresome after four). The BDB, well, Butch’s book was okay (his change was inevitable so I wasn’t surprised) but the ghost in the next one was just too much and I won’t be back.

With some series I just need my space, so the new entries go on my wait list at paperbackswap.com. I don’t mind waiting six months or longer for, say, the new Stephanie Plum book. AFter all, I’m not missing much. With the Eve Dallas books and Butcher’s Fury series, I wait until they come out in paperback. I know I’ll love it so I will gladly put up the money for my own copies but I’m not in a huge hurry to know what’s next.

Some series I remain faithful to, even unto hardcover. (All of these I have been reading since the day the first book came out and there have been lots of books and money spent since then.) Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse series, Butcher’s Dresden Files books, Patricia Briggs’ Mercy Thompson series and Rachel Caine’s Rachel Morgan books are all on my “order the day they come out list,” regardless of the high cost. I’ve never regretted spending the money for any of them.

What it all comes down to, I think, is how much I care. Series I’ve broken up with I not only don’t care what happens to the characters, I’d rather not know and spare myself the horror. Series I need space from I have an interest in what’s happening in the characters’ lives but I’m not dying to find out RIGHT THIS MINUTE. The series I am faithful to I wait for, stalking online (hey, sometimes they ship before the release date) and finally getting that book in the mail makes my day, rather like visiting with an old friend you love but visit with too seldom. (When Ilona Andrews new Kate Daniels book came last month I was giddy all day. I made the kids go to bed early and read the whole book in one sitting, then reread my favourite parts the next day while they were at school!)

And finding a new series you love enough to add to that list of old friends? Oh, it’s a wonderful feeling, and it goes a long way towards mitigating the bitter feeling of betrayal when a new book comes out in a series I’ve broken up badly with. (Yeah, Anita, I’m talking about you.)

The first huge series disappointment I can remember is Thomas Harris’ Hannibal. And then I had to watch the movie too :(
That book was also provided the earliest dustup I can remember about author stewardship vs. fan expecatation.

I read an interview with Lois McMaster Bujold, who writes the open-ended, excellent, and always-intriguing Vorkosigan series.  She states about that series that it’s not necessary to read them in chronological order, or even in Miles’-point-of-view order, because they all work as stand-alones, and they do.  She makes it work.

The characters develop, you get to know more about the universe and worlds, there’s always something new and universe-shattering that the characters have to deal with.  There’s no backstory infodumping.  It’s just all excellent storytelling.

She mentions, in the interview, that really the only type of story in which you blow your wad, and cannot effectively re-visit the characters, is the courtship story, aka Romance.

If the courtship is having issues in a sequel, then it betrays the HEA in the first book.

What’s my point?  Can’t remember, I should probably eat some lunch…

average45—I could probably turn that into a pithy comment about the quality of books after an author’s pumped out 45 of them, but my blood sugar’s too low.
So I think Romance series are dangerous in that way.  You can’t have serious relationship difficulties in a sequel, because if a reader gets that one first, they can’t believe the HEA in the first book.  Thus the tendency to have Romance series of the courtship stories of people who know each other.

Um, yeah.  Sorry about the poor flow.  Did I mention low blood sugar?

A lot of people have covered my points pretty comprehensively.  The first series I was actually buying and broke up with? McCaffrey’s Pern series (the characterisation and plot both started to appeal less and less—I don’t think anything after Moreta was my cup of tea).  The second? Robert Jordan.

One seemed to be going through the motions, the other seemed to be drawing things out for the sake of it -  George R R Martin seems to be going the same way, which is a pity.

I haven’t broken up with LKH, because I read her from the library, and for something I do not pay for, and know what I’m going to get, it’s still nomalicious. Her fairy one more so, as plot does rear it’s head in between the bowchikawows.

I think I broke up with Lillith Saintcrow (oh what am I saying, of course I’ll read the next one). Well damn, I mean to. One day. I did break up with the werewolf ones from the Aussie chick ... can’t recall the name—not enough plot, too much sex, too stupid to live heroine.

Series I have NOT broken up with: Michelle Sagara’s “Cast” books, and her “Hidden City” ones (despite being a bit same-same); Carrie Vaughan’s Kitty series (although ... a bit light on plot!), Karen Chance’s clairvoyant one, and the Illona Andrews “Magic Strikes” series.  I am addicted to 2 of Kelley Armstrong’s series. Still reading Sookie (Harris), and also the Hollows series (Harrison). So, I’m not a series hater.

I’ll just be curious to see if these ones I like will have the sense to call a halt before the Shark Show Jumping event. Kind of hoping not!

For me, I break up with a series when 1) there’s no emotional growth or character development, despite the fact that the series goes on and on; 2) when I don’t like the main characters anymore; 3) when I keep finding things I’d rather do than pick up the book and continue reading—like dusting. 

For instance, with

LKH/Anita Blake

, our breakup wasn’t about the frequency of the sex.  Our breakup was about the protagonists’ (Anita, Richard?  I’m looking at you both) complete inability or complete lack of desire to change.  I take that back—Richard changed.  Richard changed from strong, hunky, sexxxy, with some angst but Good with a capital G into LKH’s favorite avatar of “I hate my EX”.  Anita changed into Necromancer Extraordinaire with the Mighty-All Powerful-Mink-Lined-Veejayjay-Of-Magical/Non-Human-Cat/Vamp/Wolf/Whatelseyougot-Nip.  Oh, and the policeman (can’t think of his name) changed into Just-Shy-of-Psycho-Bigot guy (I wonder which person in LKH’s life he became the avatar for—her dad?)  That said, however, neither of them (or any of the other characters to a less-annoying extent) ever managed to grow beyond their emotional and/or psychological shortcomings.  They would make noises about how they would do better and not be complete dick-heads and, then, in the very next book, they would be complete dickheads.  I’m sorry, if you KNOW that you are a fucked-up mess and that you have deep-rooted problems that cause you to treat everyone around you like shit—particularly the people you profess to love—at some point, you have a responsibility to those people that you claim to love to get better, with professional help, if necessary.  Having the same conversations (in each of the books) that consist of deep sighs, defensive posturing, and shameful appologies to everyone you love because you recognize, yet again, that you’ve behaved like the total dickhead you are is not emotional growth if you do not change.  In fact, if you are having this conversation, over and over, and yet are doing nothing to be a better person, then the conversation is just a half-assed, bullshit speech that you trot out to smooth things over and to make yourself feel better.  I’m talking to you, Anita-Sue.  After 10 books or so, of watching her kick people that love her (for god knows what reason) in the teeth on a regular basis, her disregarding and dismissing Nathanial for the umpteenth time (despite the regularity, ad nauseum, of the aforementioned conversation since before she became involved with him) just really bugged the crap out of me.  I realized after a good 10 minute rant to my husband about how the character had the emotional growth of a potato that I not only no longer loved the series, I was beyond ready for us both to see other people (instead of ever seeing each other again) and I took all of my LKH books to Half-Priced Books.

With

Stephanie Plum

, I lost interest in her incapable, inept, shallow ass after 4 books.  She has absolutely no real ability to do this job, yet by some nearly supernatural luck, she constantly stumbles over the appropriate bad guy whenever the plot decides she needs an encounter with the bad guy.  Stupid is, and always will be, annoying.  Leaving the house without your gun or without your taser or without charging your phone or without telling anyone where you might have been last if you never turn up again is beyond stupid for someone who is supposed to be a bounty hunter.  I only gave it 4 books because I thought, “Well, everyone seems to love this series—maybe she gets better.”  She didn’t.

With

Amanda Quick/Jayne Ann Krentz/Jayne Castle’s Arcane Society series

, I had a really hard time just finishing that last book (Third Circle).  (On the other hand, I did finally get the cobwebs down from that one corner.)  I haven’t give up on this series yet, but that book was a complete and utter disappointment.  I was so disappointed by this book, in fact, that I’ve decided to wait until the current one comes out in paperback.  The characters were simultaneously just like all the others she’s written and, yet, completely lacking in chemistry with each other.  All obstacles, no matter how great or small, were resolved so quickly and easily that there was little to no dramatic tension.  This was not the Amanda Quick/JAK I’m used to and, believe me, I have every one of her books and I’ve read them multiple times.

On the other hand, I still love

Sookie

, but I’m wishing that Charlaine Harris would realize that with nearly a year between books, I don’t necessarily remember all the details of what happened in the last book.  A small recap of some kind, worked into the plot, would be nice.  Oh, and could we have resolution of some of her romantic issues instead of the constant dancing around of The Men Who Love Her?  (And by resolution, I don’t mean, “strike him dead to permanently to take him out of the running”, btw.)  After all, I’ve found in real life that, while it can suck to love someone that doesn’t love you or doesn’t love you in the way you need, you usually move on and find someone else.  It would just be nice if Harris would simply acknowledge that the ones Sookie doesn’t choose somehow manage to move on with their lives instead of lingering about in her orbit for years, with their hearts on their respective sleeves.  Really, the unrequited (or sorta, but not really requited) longing goes long past realistic and straight into “And I-aye-aye aye-aye-aaaayyyyeee will always love you-oo-oo oo-oo-ooooooo”.  Still, I devour these books in a day, as soon as they arrive.  Love love LOVE them. 

Finally, I just LOVE

Jim Butcher/Harry Dresden

.  Flat out love them all, even the weaker ones.  I’m sure I could find something that I’m tired of after all this time, but since nothing immediately comes to mind, the series is still going very strong for me.

I dropped the Plum series at (I believe,) book ten. You know the one. We’d been waiting for Stephanie and Ranger to get together for, oh, TEN BOOKS, and it was a paragraph.

@Strategerie: I think this is one of the problems with the Plum books—-JE set up a situation where there’s no clear hero. Not all of the fans had been waiting for Stephanie & Ranger to get together. Some of them never wanted that to happen at all. So, if JE really pleases one group she ticks off the other.  In order to keep the series going she has to resort to this sort of lame BS. 

This is one of my major problems with triangles in series books. They almost always make me drop the series and they’re a major reason why I’m wary of UF series, since they tend to turn up in a lot of those. For me, if a triangle goes on very long it ends up making me dislike everyone involved. The person who is the “apex” of the triangle seems like a jerk and the other 2 seem either stupid or like doormats. Once I dislike the characters I’m out, not matter what’s going on with the plot.

Sadly, I am one of those who had divorced myself from Christine Feehan. And I am not just talking about her Carparthians. I can’t get into the Drake Sisters stories any more either. I used to run out and get her stuff the day it came out, now I get it from the library or PBS, if I read it at all.
Also I loved her Jaguar people series and was so excited she had a new one coming out this month. The series has only two stories in it. But when I read the new book, it could have been a Carparthian story without the vampires.

Oh and Heather Graham’s suspense/horror stuff. It is getting predictable and redundant

I don’t think I’ve broken up with a romance series. This isn’t to say I’ve never not finished a series but typically this is out of laziness more than a dislike of the series. If I don’t follow a series from the beginning and I have to work to track down earlier books in a series I tend not to do that.

I have quit several Star Wars series though. All of them because of the death of a favorite character. I will forgive a lot of bad writing in Star Wars novels but once you kill off 2 of my favorite characters and turn the series into something relentlessly depressing and leaving out much of the humor that made the earlier books fun then I quit.

The same rules would probably apply to a romance series.

I think I’m just not into following a series and overall I tend to prefer stand-alone titles.

I’ve never been able to get into Anita Blake or anything by LKH, or Kenyon’s books for that matter. The Plum books didn’t grab me. I made it through 3 books in Feehan’s Carpathian series and found them extremely tiresome and repetitive—there’s only so much of the “i’ll die without you/light to my darkness” storylines I can stand before I start to throw up. And the whole you-make-me-see-in-color-so-it-must-be-true-love-and-destiny thing was too pat.

I read 2 Cynster books and that was more than enough. I accidentally read 3 of Balogh’s featuring a family, I think the sister was Freya or Freida, I can’t remember (a lot of time passed between readings) and made a note not to follow up. I used to read Amanda Quick but I grew bored with her after a while so I haven’t read her Arcane stuff at all and none of her stuff as jayne krentz.

Like other readers I used to read Nancy Drew as a pre-teen but I left that when relationship drama of the cheating kind between Ned? and Nancy showed up in the books. And sweet valley high totally lost me when Jessica got involved with her college professor—that was not cool to 11 yr old me going to catholic school in the caribbean where all the male teachers were ancient priests—I put those down & never looked back.

For a time I read Paulo Coelho’s books when they came out but I got tired of him after The Witch of Portobello and I haven’t picked him up since. And while I enjoy Sarah Waters’ characters, especially in Fingersmith, I haven’t really been interested in reading some of her other titles. As for JK Rowling, I was totally into the world of Harry Potter, & a staunch Snape supporter, but she hit my I’ve-totally-lost-all-respect-for-you-and-look-at-you-askance list with her totally contrived plot point for The goblet of fire (*spoiler* really, voldy couldn’t have made something else a portkey & gotten Harry that way instead of going through the ridiculous tri wizard tournament, really?) not to mention Harry is totally TSTL at the best of times.

**

Overall, though, I think that I’ve fallen out of love with romance novels. I’ve gotten rid of all the ones I owned, and I don’t borrow or buy any more (at least not ones obviously marketed as romances). I can’t even tell the last time I strolled into the romance section of a bookstore. I’m waiting for Karen Marie Moning’s fever series to end (I get them from the library), and unless she writes something else after that that I enjoy, I’ll prolly be done reading romance altogether.

My defection came about mostly because I got tired of the paint by numbers heroines & heroes; the lame plots that were props for much overwrought and frankly boring, sex; the heroes that were alpha to the point of knuckle dragging (see feehan)—and the list goes on. I also got really tired of every romance hero and heroine being white and straight, or if not straight then gay male and white and so, I peaced out, I just don’t have the stomach for it anymore.

This site is the only thing still connecting me to the romance world, slender though that thread may be.

Really, the unrequited (or sorta, but not really requited) longing goes long past realistic and straight into “And I-aye-aye aye-aye-aaaayyyyeee will always love you-oo-oo oo-oo-ooooooo”.

BWA!!

That was AWESOME!

I can last forever with a series and it takes a lot for me to quit reading.  For example, I love KMM’s Highlander and Fever series.  I adore Sookie and loved the last book.  Even when a series has the third worst Mary Sue I’ve ever read (House of the Night, I’m talking to you) I can still be interested.  But what have I given up on?

Stephanie Laurens.  The books got boring.  It was the same book over and over and over and over.

And, of course, LKH.  It almost took me a 12-step program but I quit buying her books.  When Anita engaged in (essentially) bestiality in Incubus Dreams I was finished.  Anita has no redeeming characteristics and is a sociopath.

the cynsters, marauding horde of alpha male/female conquering heroes that they are, i’m still holding out for the prequels—sylvester’s brothers’ stories, which stephanie laurens will probably never get around to writing, untill she runs out of cousins and in-laws and nieces and nephews and long lost siblings (et al) but oh well. plus i’m interested to see if she ever gives what’s-his-name the big bad guy who died via loose bridge/waterfall (OR DID HE?) any kind of resolution.

the malory’s—ok at this point it’s more like the anderson novels, but…i think i’m done after her latest one, unless johanna lindsey decides to give percival alden a happy ending (which would delight me, though i hardly expect it). except for percy, i have no interest in discovering how the next hero in line plans to date rape/coerce/trick his bride of choice into matrimony/hot sexxorings. and the titles! i know they’re not the author’s fault, but “no choice but seduction”? really? plus, “the devil who tamed her”—he wasn’t a “devil”, and “she” needed therapy, not taming; “the marriage most scandalous”...wasn’t actually all that scandalous, really.

mary balogh, i just got bored of her books. it was at “simply…” actually i forget which one, but it had the green cover and the violet-eyed hero that i stopped purchasing that series. i used to absolutely *heart* her stories because the characters were so “real,” etc, but at this point it just seems overwrought, and i can take it for granted that there will be uber drama with a resolution that leaves everyone but the bad guy—if there is one—happy.

jacquie d’allesandro, i’m wishing i’d quit her “...at midnight” series after “confessions.” i bought all four on the strength of the first one (which i do not regret), but after the second one, they feel like…not even “wallpaper historicals”: “stencil historicals” is more the phrase i had in mind. i didn’t even bother finishing the third book because i had the plot worked out a third of the way into it. and the fourth one was just a “headdesk” that i read out of loyalty.

for christine feehand, “dark celebration” seemed like a good stopping point. family reunion, prince reveals his super powers, hilarity ensues. or whatever. i had devoured the rest of them and figured enough was enough. *shrug*

captcha word: sound38. 38 volumes sounds like a good place to call it quits in a series. i’m looking at you, piers anthony. wasn’t xanth supposed to be a trilogy? and then a trilogy of trilogies? and then a trilogy cubed? sheesh!

I love series in books, but I do relate to what everyone is saying.  For me I stop a series when I get too bored to get beyond the first few chapters, and if it sits on my bedroom floor gathering dust then I know it is time to give up, but I do that with authors who don’t write series also.

Anita Blake - Laurell K Hamilton
I still read the Anita Blake series, but it is becoming a close run thing.  Even when the series changed drastically I still found aspects of the books that I enjoyed.  I was disappointed in Richard’s character change, and Anita became whiny, but there were still the odd flashes of something good that kept me coming back.  Blood Noir was essentially a long therapy session for two of the characters and the storyline (of which there was extremely little) was relegated to the last couple of chapters.  I have Skin Trade on order.  I will reserve judgment until I have read it.

Mercy Thompson - Patricia Briggs
I love this series.  I read the last book over night and wanted more immediately.  This is still going strong for me.

Eve Dallas - J D Robb
I inhale this series.  If it were a drug I would have flunked rehab by now.  Everytime I read one of the books I have to reread the entire series.  Oddly enough I am going off Nora Roberts.  I like her one off books, but I am bored by the sets.  The last set (Blood Brothers, etc) boiled down to one book written three times with different names for the characters.  Very disappointing.  I don’t think I will bother with the new series that is coming out.

Dresden Files - Jim Butcher
I like this series also.  It took me a little time to read the last book because I had spent so much time waiting for it, but I enjoyed it and I have the latest ready to read. 

Discworld - Terry Pratchett
Finally, my first and favourite series I still read and reread.  I love every book and when they stop coming I will be very sad.

I am starting new series (some of which people have already mentioned - Sherrilyn Kenyon - Dark Hunter, Rachel Vincent - Shifters, Rachel Caine - Weather Warden).  I hope they will keep me going for a little while, but I don’t deny I have a short attention span!

One other thing about a series, and then I’ll stop (unless another thought occurs to me—I promise nothing!):  I like it when a series is building to an obvious conclusion, and the reader’s patience is rewarded.  An example is Mary Balogh’s Regency set Bedwyn Saga (the Slightly series).  Each book was very obviously leading to the story of the eldest brother, the duke, as the climax of the series.  She dropped little hints along the way showing that character’s development, and the reader was amply rewarded at the end with Wulf’s love story. 

I felt like the unwritten contract between the reader of the series and the author had been satisfied.

::sigh::

This should have been included in my post above.

I adore Kim Harrison and Jim Butcher.  Their series just stay terrific and I’m pretty sure they could start writing plotless drivel and I would keep reading.  I like both Rachel Caine’s series even though Joanne is a Mary Sue (the entire series spans about a month and she’s died and came back to life more than once).  Ilona Andrews is off to a great start—in my opinion, the third was the best of the series.

And I get angry when a series isn’t finished.  Brenda Joyce’s Deadly series, for example, was AWESOME and I will probably never know what happened.

Ack.  Nice little speech on how great the Kelley Armstrong Series is and it was eaten by the goblin of the net.

Still - excellent series, recommended by a friend in a hope to wean me off LKH.  Still going strong and I love her new Nadia Stafford series.

I think the Otherworld series is going strong because she moves around the characters - it never gets stale but you are still able to keep up with the characters you like.

Plus she named her kick-ass werewolf Elena.  It helps :)

I love the Otherworld books, as well.  Great treatment plan for LKH.

I think the most original parts of them (other than the kick-a$$ female werewolf) is that they aren’t really romances.  They do have a lot of romantic elements, but they don’t have to follow the conventions.  You don’t really know if the couple will get together.  Or they might be thinking about getting together and then pop up a few books later, having been together for a few years.  The romance is always just a little bit behind the scenes, so you have to pay attention to the little hints.

And of course the fact that I’m in love with both Jeremy and Karl helps, too.  *grin*

Oh, oh, can we chat for a second about Kim Harrison?

Oh, Kim Harrison. How I mourn thee. Another series I dumped. After how many books, and Rachel is STILL running around like a chicken with no head. I mean, ask some questions, ask for help, quit being so judgemental, stop living with a vampire! Dude! GROW UP!!! And that, right there, is why I dumped Harrison. No character growth. I got soooo tired of listening to Rachel whine and get in trouble, and not ask for help, and…well, you get the idea. And I had been buying in hardback since she went that way. But this last one? Phhhhttthhhhttt. I’m done. Off with you, Kim Harrison!

Well the only series I have given up on, so far is Antia and possibly Merry Gentry, mainly for the mentions above, but every time I think I’m done, LKH goes and dangles the Edward and Olaf character in front of me!!!!

I think its because I started on Obisdan Butterfly that I love these characters so much.  Though now I resist and just get them from the library.  I’m getting near the end of Kenyons books too.  I loved Acheron and still have a few early ones, but I’m not as avid on them as I was.

I’ve just started BDB so its early days for me along with Lyndsay Sands vampire books.

I love series fiction, because I love really long books. Reading a good series is like reading a really really long book. But it also has all the drawbacks of that: you may lose interest in the premise or characters, or the author may ultimately decide to take you someplace you don’t care to follow. With Anita Blake, Hamilton took the books someplace way too dark for me. For me, it wasn’t really the mechanical, meaningless sex that killed the series. In a sense, that made sense to me, because Anita had become so alienated from herself and was so self-destructive. The problem was, the author had a suicidal and arguably psychologically disturbed lead character, and refused to allude to or admit it. And when Hamilton started to introduce sexualized violence, incest and pedophilia as possible (read probable) future plot threads, it was way past time for me to bail. I wouldn’t touch those books with a ten-foot pole now.

The Betsy character just bored me after three books. The Plum books were still interesting until Evanovich stopped creating funny and started phoning them in, around book 11 or 12. I loved Acheron, but Kenyon’s books have long been a bit cookie-cutter for me for a while now. I really dislike Feehan’s couples. They give me the creeps, and it took me way too long to kick that habit.

I don’t mind the changes in the BDB series, although the heroine becoming a ghost thing bugged the shit out of me. I’m also still reading the JD Robb stuff too, although the last one or two have been less interesting. Roberts can still write rings around most other genre series authors, though, so I’m on the reserve list for her latest In Death book at the library. I still love Brockmann and I’m waiting anxiously for Julia Spencer-Fleming’s next. I also like Novik’s Temeraire series and Shana Abe’s last drakon book was pretty entertaining, just when my interest was flagging a bit in that series. Patricia Briggs skated really close with that rape-torture scene followed by happy ending in next scene, but miraculously I’m still reading that series.