With the big finale of a certain TV show a couple of weeks ago I’ve been thinking a lot about endings and how much I both love and hate them. I can’t wait to find out how things finish but either don’t want it to be over or fear that it won’t live up to expectations.

I think this may be why I’ve developed this bad habit of not finishing series’ of books. I will faithfully read every book released, will add the final book to my most anticipated books list, will even pre-order it and count down the days to publication but once I have that shiny new copy in my hands I just can’t bring myself to read it. This seems to be particularly true of fantasy series for some reason and the more excited I am about it the less likely I am to read it any time soon.

There are a lot more than the seven listed below but these are the most recent cases where I’ve read every book in the series but the last one. I also have a bad habit of reading the first book in a series and going no further, but that would be a MUCH longer list.

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Book of the Ancestor by Mark Lawrence

So I absolutely adored the first two books in this series and have been going on and on about how much I can’t wait to read this ever since I finished Grey Sister. There has been so much foreshadowing of what’s to come I need to know how it ends but this is one of those cases where I don’t want it to be over. I have no doubt that the ending will be phenomenal but I have a bad feeling some of my fave characters won’t make it and I’m not sure I can take that.

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Caraval by Stephanie Garber

This series has been a little up and down for me, I was a bit meh about Caraval but I absolutely loved Legendary (Tella made a much better MC for me). I’ve therefore been a bit wary about the third and final book. It could be brilliant or it could be meh… and the reviews I’ve spied so far haven’t exactly been glowing

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Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton

Similar to Caraval, it’s the reviews that have been putting me off reading the final book in this trilogy. I’ve very much enjoyed the first two but despite owning book three since it was released over a year ago I’ve not quite managed to read it yet.

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The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare

Umm… unpopular opinion time but I’ve just never really gotten into this series. I loved The Mortal Instruments (well most of it – let’s not talk about a couple of incidents) but the first couple of books in this trilogy kind of bored me. Not sure if it’s because it’s steampunk (I rarely get on well with steampunk) or if the whole love triangle thing is getting dull (just pick someone Tessa) but other than a few moments the first two books were a hard slog. I do think though that as I have slogged my way through most of the trilogy I should just finish the bloomin thing. Plus it seems that The Dark Artifices is full of spoilers for this and the Mortal Instruments.

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Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

For some reason a lot of people seems to hate on this series but I’ve enjoyed pretty much every book. OK yeah there’s been some stuff I haven’t been so keen on but I do want to know what happens to Mare (stupid name) and the others. In this case it’s the fact that it’s a big giant hardback that’s stopped me from reading so far. It’s too heavy to carry about… and ok that’s a rubbish excuse and if I really was desperate to read it I would have read it by now but umm I still haven’t read it.

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Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor

I loved Strange the Dreamer but given how heavy it is on description I didn’t find it the easiest read. That style of writing and me just don’t mesh well, I need to be in the right kind of mood and have enough time (and peace and quiet) to give it my full attention. Needless to say that hasn’t happened as yet so Muse of Nightmares is still sitting patiently on my bookshelf. I will get to it, just not sure when…

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Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas

This is probably another unpopular opinion but for me this series peaked at book two and it’s been downhill ever since. It feels to me like Maas is trying to make them too big and putting in all this unnecessary stuff (and characters). I’ve technically not finished Tower of Dawn, for some reason I gave up ten pages from the end, but I do think I’ve made it this far so should just bloomin read it. If only it wasn’t sooo big.

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I actually made a bookish resolution that this year I would finally finish off some of these series but so far I’ve failed miserably. Maybe this post will  encourage me to just do it… although it seems unlikely.

Have you finished any of these? Should I just read them? Do you ever put off finishing a series?

Happy reading

Ax