Series, not so great but you can't stop reading

[Amyiw, Challenges Moderator]

So does anyone else have a bunch of series that you loved but don't so much anymore, yet you keep going back to them?

I have a bunch of them, some still put out that really good one which is a surprise, but usually.... not so much.

These are the two I can think of off the bat.
Christine Feehan's Dark Carpatians, 1st Dark Prince
Kerrelyn Sparks's Love at Stake, 1st How to Marry a Millionaire Vampire

[Aly is so frigging bored]

KS finished that series, for now at least :)

[Adele, Moderator]

i loved it, but you cannot re read too many times.... trust me i have tried. 3 times was my limit. i have a terrible memory but i found enough was explained it the books to catch me up. haven't read the most recent book.

[Adele, Moderator]

Twilight saga. half of the time i wanted to scream just screw him already! but i did find it was one of those i just couldn't stop reading. .. no matter how many faults i picked with it! (vampires should not sparkle... fairys sparkle vampires do not).

ok ive said it lets move on.

can't think of any others right now. most of the series i have read recently have me hooked. this is harder than what i first thought it would be. topics that make you think.... i like it! :o)

[Amyiw, Challenges Moderator]

I didn't realize that Kerrelyn Sparks decided to end the series. I'm kinda relieved. I still have Crouching Tiger to read, and I will with high hopes but... they've been really hit or miss.

Not as bad for me is the Argeneau series. Some of those I loved, loved. but hit or miss today.

[Norma, BOM & Co Moderator]

Anita Blake... She is a pole, keeps messing up, but I still read...

[Aly is so frigging bored]

Norma wrote: "Anita Blake... She is a pole, keeps messing up, but I still read..."

I couldn't finish the 1st book...

[Amyiw, Challenges Moderator]

Anita I actually was able to put down. I don't think I'll pick it up again.

[Adele, Moderator]

after the last book, even i struggled to read it. yes me a devoted anita blake reader. i just found jason really hard to read. it was minimal storyline ,lots of sex, and it was fractured(what i mean by that is it felt ideas were thrown in but not nutured).

[Amyiw, Challenges Moderator]

I actually did put Elemental Assassins down and don't intended to continue. The relationships just seemed to get to intertwined and I felt I had come to a good point at book 5, .

With Feral Warriors by Pamela Palmer, I finally just skipped a few books and read the end book. I didn't care about any of the middle characters and did like the last one. I doubt I'll ever go back and read the ones I missed.

[Adele, Moderator]

i actually really enjoyed elemental assassin. i wouldnt re read it but it was Allright.

[Norma, BOM & Co Moderator]

Adele wrote: "after the last book, even i struggled to read it. yes me a devoted anita blake reader. i just found jason really hard to read. it was minimal storyline ,lots of sex, and it was fractured(what i mea..."

Was that the new book I see everywhere??? I still twitch when trying to pick up book 6.... I just... can't.

[Amyiw, Challenges Moderator]

Norma wrote: "Was that the new book I see everywhere??? I still twitch when trying to pick up book 6.... I just... can't. "

Ha, I can do you better, I got over halfway through, perhaps as far as 3/4, and just couldn't finish book 7. I'm in the middle of it still. It is filed under "reading slowly" but at this point I should just do a DNF. I actually didn't think the storyline was bad, actually the books in general have solid storylines, the problem is Anita in impossible, deadly, and gruesome situations. This one was the vampire counsel coming and dealing with the triad. Too many godlike baddies, all with their own agendas, and all putting Anita in way over her head.

[Norma, BOM & Co Moderator]

OMG!!! LOL! That is like Hawley Book of the Dead... Took me 5 months to read! 5 MONTHS!!! It was mediocre..then I find out it will be a series.... I am dreading that! It was bad... but I know I will read.. because I have to know... GRR!

[Amyiw, Challenges Moderator]

OK Night Prince. I should have stopped it after book 1. It was my first Jeaniene Frost book, and luckily I went to the 1st Night Huntresses, Halfway to the Grave, instead of waiting for the next of this series. I love Night Huntress, and Cat & Bones, I loved Mencheres and Spade's books. I haven't liked Vlad's. Liked him in the N.H. books but not in his own books. Also, Leila is flat, also, TSTL frequently. I'm 25% into the 3rd book, which was supposed to be the last in the line, but no... she broke the 3rd into 2 books, so another one after this one. I didn't know If I would get to this one but it was a BOM in one of my groups. I'm disliking it all the way so far.

[[deleted user]]

Anita Blake is my number one "I don't know I continue to read this but I still do" series. I haven't read Jason yet, I'm actually somewhat dreading it and may skip it entirely if it's not important to any plot lines. Though I'll admit, there are less and less plot lines anyway....

I just started the Elemental Assassin series and I loved book 1 but now you all have me scared lol.

[Norma, BOM & Co Moderator]

Thank you Hybrid! OMG! I can't get away from Anita Blake! She makes me want to tear my eyes out!

[Amyiw, Challenges Moderator]

OK, Night Prince series book 3, Bound by Flames got a lot better by the end, 3 stars. So I guess I'm probably going to end up reading number 4, argh.

Anita Blake, argh. I may have cured myself, but knowing me I'll ended up going to finish the one I stopped in the middle of and end up jumping into the next. I just have this niggling feeling when I leave a book 1/2 read. Especially when I was thinking it was pretty good.

[Adele, Moderator]

i feel like i'm the only one who actually likes anita blake. i don't particularly like anita and some of her choices but i have fallen in love with some of the characters like Jean Claude, Nathanial and Micah(*sigh*)
i suppose it would be on my list of i'm not sure why i read it but i do. but i have read the series 3 or 4 times now(which just makes me glutton for punishment i suppose)....Anyway things tie in later if they don't make sense now (which is the annoying bit of the books).

Hybrid, Read Jason, but prepared for a lot of whinging from Jade(her only female lover). lesbian action and group sex oh and a lot of angst from Anita( seriously apart from all the sex you would have thought it was a YA book with all the "teenage angst"). but seriously it's not essential to the story line(hell just even read the last few pages to get the book overview that LKH always does in the last chapter and the overall decisions Anita has made).


Oh and Read Elemental assassins, i'm waiting on the next book to come out. i smashed through them as i had got them at the library and we only have one month...so you kinda guess what happened, i got all these books i HAD to read before time was up. It was fun but yeah i don't think i'll re read them anytime soon...not unless i get them out one at a time that is.

[Connie]

I too enjoy reading the Anita Blake series not so much for the sexual encounters which there are alot of but i actually enjoy her personality and the way her thinking gets things done as well as many of the other characters in the story. I don't think it can be an easy thing to keep a storyline going.

[Amyiw, Challenges Moderator]

The stories that go with Anita Blake, and the characters, are pretty good. I just can take so much on the horror suspense side of things, they are pretty dark. I get done and think, 'that was pretty good', but I'm all stressed out and wrung dry. I can compare it to the Dresden Files of Jim Butcher, I kind of feel exhausted and depressed after reading his books. I've like the last few that I've read, so I go back, but whammy! Darkness.

Some people love the dark suspense/horror genre, I appreciate its storytelling but cannot take too much. Anita is just over that edge for me... I think. I feel jittery sometimes while on the edge of my seat reading it.

[[deleted user]]

I read and love dark suspense/ horror. But I also love grim dark epic fantasies as well. So my biggest problems with the Anita Blake series is the overuse of sex and lack of good plot lines. Otherwise, I like Anita and most of the crew.

[Amyiw, Challenges Moderator]

And I'm alright with the sex as I read erotica occasionally also. But the dark can really get me down. I think more so in the winter time since I have a bit of seasonal blues. :-)

[Candace]

One for the Money, Two for the Dough, etc. The first nine or ten books were hilarious, as in run-to-the-bathroom-before-you-pee-your-pants-from-laughing-so-hard funny.

And then it was as if someone else started writing them. The next five or six were horrid, but those first were so good, I kept getting them.

The most recent are better, but I don't think she's *ever* going to have Stephanie pick between her love triangle, and we're up in the twenties. It's way past time to make a decision, but I'm so invested in it now... crap. Can't stop.

[Amyiw, Challenges Moderator]

I've heard that about the Stephanie Plum books. I've only read 2 but loved them both.

[Connie]

I know what you mean about that series but yet i keep on reading them but was surprised when they made the movie

[Candace]

But they miscast the movie something horrible, and it didn't do very well.

Last I heard, it's going to be a television series, next.

[Norma, BOM & Co Moderator]

Candace Blevins wrote: "One for the Money, Two for the Dough, etc. The first nine or ten books were hilarious, as in run-to-the-bathroom-before-you-pee-your-pants-from-laughing-so-hard funny.

And then it was as if someon..."

Thanks for the warning. I was going to read those... but knowing that is NOT worth investing the time. :)

[Candace]

If you need a funny, lighthearted read, then go for the first nine or ten. They are seriously good, and hilarious... just know the triangle isn't going to be resolved.

[Connie]

It's true they are a quick light hearted read and to be honest I still look forward to the next one

[Amyiw, Challenges Moderator]

I keep thinking I'm going to get back to them (Stephanie Plum series) but because they are a bit out of genre for me, I never do. I agree that the first couple were quick light and fun reads.

[Adele, Moderator]

was that the one the movie with katherine heigl? she is a bail bond collector? i watched the movie but i don't think i have read the books as yet. and if i have i'm obviously due for a re read!

[Connie]

Yes that was the movie based on the book

[Amyiw, Challenges Moderator]

I thought the movie was cute but definitely not comparable with the book. The book just had the nuances of the characters so well done. All very quirky.

[Katya]

Black Dagger Brotherhood....I keep swearing I will stop but can't help myself.

[Amyiw, Challenges Moderator]

Katya wrote: "Black Dagger Brotherhood....I keep swearing I will stop but can't help myself."

BDB, I should have stopped that one too, at book 6 but no... I had to see what was going to happen to John. Then Torment, etc...

I did stop at Lover at Last but it is sitting there, along with The King, saying read me, read me. I loved a couple of them, liked a bunch, but some were total torture with their multiple plot lines and idiotic outcomes. Jane's ghost was the first.

[Katya]

Amyiw wrote: "Katya wrote: "Black Dagger Brotherhood....I keep swearing I will stop but can't help myself."

BDB, I should have stopped that one too, at book 6 but no... I had to see what was going to happen to ..."

I loved them all through Then struggled with the rest of the series. Oh, did not like Phury's book either.

[Amyiw, Challenges Moderator]

Actually your right #6 Fury's book was the beginning of troubles. I so wanted to read his book but then reading about a person struggling with addiction is not my idea of PNR, and on top of it the subplots. I really liked Revenge's story afterward, Lover Avenged, but not Lover Mine, John's, which I was waiting for. Then Lover Unleashed was pretty good which surprised me. And, then Reborn... I almost gave it one star... maybe should have. I just haven't gone on from there but keep thinking of the other characters.

Sorry that's Phury?

[m]

The Vampire Academy series is alright but I just can't put the books down, like constantly my head is in the book It's just addictive for some reason. Why is this happening,am I turning into a vampire?

[Amyiw, Challenges Moderator]

OK, a year has gone by (almost) and I have to reiterate my take on the Carpathians by Christine Feehan. I still am going to read these, I know it but the last three, which I read after my original post above, were unimpressive with one making it up to 3 stars for me. The last one I read, was my 3rd one star review. Yet... I'm even thinking to pick it up again!

[Oleander]

Ditto on the Carpatians. I think I read about one of those a year. One is more than enough lol

[Jeana]

Sometimes I wonder why I keep reading the Shifter's Unbound series and the Alpha Pack series. Sometimes reading romance novels just gets to the point where I'm like "stop having sex and go kill something!" But, I prefer violence of sex any time

[Amyiw, Challenges Moderator]

Jeana wrote: "Sometimes reading romance novels just gets to the point where I'm like "stop having sex and go kill something!..."
LOL, yeap sounds like PNR might be a bit hard in that case. I like the sex over violence so not in the same boat though. I never did like Alpha Pack though. I did give it a second try and no go, so easy to put down. I still like Shifter's Unbound but I take it for what I always thought, light fluff reading, not my favorite series but pretty good PNR with emphasis on the R (usually).

I think I'm more disenchanted with the PNR series of Lynsay Sand's and the Argeneau. Probably because I really, really liked them at first and now, not so much. In fact it feels like out of the last 7 or 8, none have really hit it. Not a good stat.

[Amyiw, Challenges Moderator]

Argh, I have to put another series on this list, Lords of the Underworld. I liked it pretty well at first, a B+ series for me but lately too many story lines and over complications. She has taken a page out of the BDB and has multiple plot lines with only the main line having a conclusion and all the others in little cliffhangers. I just finished The Darkest Torment and didn't think much about the main characters though it could have been because William and Gilly kept over taking the story, and I really like those characters, so going back to the main characters always was a let down. The other lines, Cameo or Galen and Legion, was so so. So over all a 2 1/2 star.

I dreaded picking up this book, even though I kind of liked the books before, mainly because of the multiple plots and complications that take away from my enjoyment. It is hard for me to remember what was going on last time.

[Adele, Moderator]

Ooh i like that series.
Ok it has to be said. Harry Potter. I'm listening to the Audiobooks again. Narrated by stephen fry... very easy to listen to while I knit
i'm going to re read the Viking series by Tim Severin next.

Ps. i have finished my course so everyone will be hearing from me soon! :o)

[Amyiw, Challenges Moderator]

It started out pretty good, but has petered out.

Harry Potter? But those are great.

[Adele, Moderator]

no nothing wrong with Harry Potter series at all... i am a big fan.
i have re read them so many times and listened to the audiobooks so many times... i have actually lost count.

i'm not impressed with the latest one is what i meant by it .
other than that i loved the series but the latest one i read and could not stop reading even though it wasn't fantastic( That's why i thought it should be in this topic)

oh and as for Viking... im on my 4th re read of that too.
its nothing as spectacular as raymond e feist's magician (thats a classic).
but there is something about the viking trilogy that brings me back to it again and again. I Can't stop reading it when i do read it though.

[Norma, BOM & Co Moderator]

OMG! I thought of a series of books so bad... yet I can't stop listening to them and I forgot... they are that bad! GAH!

[Adele, Moderator]

well.... tell us... what series?

[Norma, BOM & Co Moderator]

I don't remember! Once I need to listen to the next book I will remember. This will require a lot of investigative work.