I saw the amazing Book Spiral do this post and it inspired me to do my own! As some of you may know, I have a challenge, that I set myself every year, which is to read the next book in all the series I am currently reading. I love this challenge. It keeps me accountable and also the series are all so amazing. But sometimes you get the odd series here and there that you just don’t love or you read the first book hoping to continue the series and just realise it is not for you. Today I thought I would list some of those series for you guys. Not all of them as there are a lot but some more notable series.

To read Book Spiral’s post, check it out here >>>

Now, something a bit different. This is a series that is so so popular and beloved by many fans and back in 2019, I decided to give it ago. I had seen everywhere to focus on the series’ sub-series rather than reading in the publication order but I did not listen to anyone and decided to go via publication order anyway. Maybe this is where I messed up. Either way, while I loved the world and thought the books could be funny I always found myself losing interest around the halfway mark. The writing just couldn’t maintain my interest for long enough. I ended up DNFing the 8th book because I just couldn’t get through it and that was when I decided this series was not for me.

Now, disclaimer, I went into this book not expecting it to be a 5 stars read. I wanted to read it to prepare for the show and to see what all the hype is about. I thought it would be a solid 3 stars. I didn’t expect to not like it as much as I did. The way I describe my feelings towards this book is that it felt more like a plot outline or a first draft of a novel. The writing lacked depth/detail for me, it lacked world-building and most of the characters just fell incredibly flat. I did read it in one day though. After this, I decided to not continue the series.

This was a series that I had loads of things about. Some people loved it, some people had an issue with it. I read the first book and while there were some things that I didn’t love, I did enjoy the plot. Going into the second book all those things I didn’t enjoy just came right back. I found myself not enjoying the second book that much at all. I found the writing to be incredibly slow-paced, which lost my interest, and I found one of the main characters to be incredibly annoying. Frustratingly so.

This had so much promise it just fell incredibly short for me. I thought the plot was ok but lacked structure, and the magic system confused me. These I could have worked with fine. I heard the series got better with each book so I was willing to overlook those elements. It was the characters (specifically the way the female characters are written) that made me not want to continue. All the female characters are extremely objectified to the point where I can’t really remember what their personality was because it was outshone by the main character’s comments on wanting to sleep with them or how their boobs looked. It just was cringey.

To be honest, the main reason for this is I preferred watching the show. The book was good but I just decided that there are so many books in this series and I already have so many to read and maintain that I wouldrather just watch the show.

This is very similar with The Witcher series. I just preferred the show more. While the books are good I just wanted to focus my energy on the show instead. A show I highly recommend!!!

Now, the first book I loved. I gave it 4 stars. It made it to my top 10 books of that year. I was super excited to crack on with the series until I read book 2… While the world was amazing and I loved learning more about it. The plot wasn’t as engaging. I didn’t like the characters that much this time around. Mainly our protagonist Tom who was so incredibly boring. He lacked all the personality he had in book 1. Because of that I then wasn’t sold on the new character Freya whose whole personality was hating Tom’s girlfriend and being in love with Tom. I just didn’t get it. It felt like a downgrade from book 1.

This is literally the exact same reason as Rivers of London. Interesting world and magic system but awful representation/treatment of women. It was cringeworthy. The main character himself also made me cringe as well. This just did not work out for me at all. We need to stop sexualising every female character we add to the page.

Now, this is a controversial one. I read The Hobbit and loved it. I was a massive fan. This got me excited to officially start the trilogy. The Fellowship of the Ring was an absolute slog to get through. I was so bored and didn’t really understand what was going on. That was then doubled when I read The Two Towers which I actually DNFd. I love the lore, the world-building and the characters (though the lack of women was incredibly disappointing) but that writing style was just not for me. I will stick with the movies.