
But before we all became young adult junkies, we had a different sort of series. More mature. More intense. More gory. And sometimes, even more pointless and repetitive.
So here they are in all their beautiful/ugly glory: the adult series we love (and the ones we've lost).


Diana Gabaldon's Outlander and Lord John series are on their way out. These books are getting harder and harder for me to read. They've become too long and too plot-less. Unlike Harris, who gets sick of her characters, Gabaldon is too in love with hers and doesn't know when her stories become over-indulgent and when they need editing. Gabaldon seems to be her own biggest fan and, having her publishers eat out of her hands, she has every opportunity to continue writing 1000-pages long fanfiction based on her own characters and stories.

Now, on to the series I still love and look forward to reading more of. It is, sadly, a very short list.
First (and it feels blasphemous to call these books a series) I really hope to one day read a 3rd book in Margaret Atwood's cycle of dystopic novels called (by someone) MaddAddam Trilogy. After seeing this YouTube video, I am more hopeful that this book will be completed, because with Atwood you can never be 100% sure. She herself never knows if a book can be written until is is written in full.

Downside Ghosts and Dublin Murder Squad are on this list as well. Catie will speak more eloquently about these two. For these authors I just hope that they will know when to stop while they are ahead and not follow the mistake of other series writers.

This series is both finished and unfinished. I am apprehensive and excited about the new planned additions to the already completed story arc. This extension can be a huge failure or a lot of fun. At this point, I choose to be optimistic about it. This is the only attitude a Jericho Barrons addict like moi can afford.

Jasper Fforde is like that new person you meet at a party who you are instant best friends with--I love these people. They like all the same things you like, they listen to the same music, they read all the same things and you end up talking to them for hours. That's what I love about Jasper Fforde. When I read one of his books, I feel like I am just jumping onto the same wavelength and enjoying the ride. I am keeping up with his Thursday Next series, about a literary detective who can read herself in and out of books, and his Shades of Grey series, about people who live in a world where social status is determined by how much of the color spectrum you can see. I really can't think of many authors I'd describe as wacky and/or zany, but Jasper Fforde is sure one of them.

For quite a while, I was following several paranormal romance series. I kept up with the Argeneau Vampires by Lynsay Sands and the Dark Ones series by Katie Macalister for years and I still get excited when I see them in stores or at the library, but they've both let me down several times in recent history so I've mostly given them up. I still hold out hope that Macalister will pick her Aisling Grey: Guardian series back up because I really enjoyed all four books in that series. As an attempt to fill that void, I grimaced through a few books in the offshoot Silver Dragons series and then jumped off that ship. My cobloggers have already and will mention that we all mourn the loss of the Sookie series but I'd also like to throw another series into the pit of despair: the Undead books by MaryJanice Davidson. Contrary to the trend with many series where each subsequent book gets longer, pretty soon the Undead series will just be printed on leaflets. In terms of reading them right when they are released, I think the only paranormal series I'm following devoutly is Chicagoland Vampires. That series is reaching it's awkward puberty years and I spend more time daydreaming about whose story in the Chicagoland universe might come next when that series comes to its end. I have lots of (unsolicited and unwanted) suggestions!


The Sookie Stackhouse Series by Charlaine Harris – I feel so justified in dropping this series after reading the recent reviews of Deadlocked. It’s such a disappointment because I used to look forward to these whenever a new one was released. Unfortunately, I think the author lost her passion for the series and its characters long ago and instead of just ending it, she’s apparently decided to take everything we once loved and just burn it to the ground.
The Stephanie Plum Series by Janet Evanovich – I’m pretty sure that these were always bad. Still, when I first picked this series up at age 21, I thought it was pretty hilarious. Then I realized that the author was actually just re-writing the exact same book over and over again. This realization took approximately eight years to form but at least I finally got there. I guess I have matured somewhat in my adult years. Hurrah!

The Kate Daniels Series by Ilona Andrews – I read the newest one last year and it just wasn’t clicking with me. I think this series is great – one of the best, even. But honestly I’m not sure if I’ll continue with it. Hopefully all of my amazing reviewer friends out there can convince me one way or the other!
The Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon – Yes, these have gotten extremely long-winded and detailed but I actually think they’re still great. I am just not feeling as connected to the characters as I once did. I may or may not read the new one. Again, it will be up to my trusted reviewer friends to sway me.

The Peter Grant Series by Ben Aaronovitch – I love Peter and I love his hilarious shenanigans as a magician/constable. I am actually really looking forward to reading the third book, which I’ll be reviewing here in the next month or two.
The Sirantha Jax Series by Ann Aguirre – Sirantha Jax ranks among my all-time favorite kick-ass female heroines and I LOVE that this series is like a magical hybrid of urban fantasy, romance, and sci-fi. It’s something different in a genre which can easily become stale.
The Hollows Series by Kim Harrison - more than any other series, the cast of this one feel like my old friends. This was the very first urban fantasy series I ever read and even though I was a bit disappointed in the last one, I'll definitely be coming back for more.

The Newsflesh Series by Mira Grant – The very kind people at Orbit sent me an ARC of this which arrived today and it has taken everything that I have not to drop everything in my life and dive in eyeballs first. In fact, I’m actually rushing through this post right now so that I can get to reading it more quickly.
The Downside Ghosts Series by Stacia Kane – Why oh why does Chasing Magic not come out until the end of June?* And how the hell have I managed to resist reading the ARC that’s currently mocking me from the front page of my kindle library? I’ll tell you: I enlisted a sponsor. This series is so addictive that I need help in resisting it. Regina from Badass Book Reviews has kindly offered to keep me honest. Until the end of May. At which point you all won’t be hearing from me for approximately 6-8 hours.
*P.S. How hilarious is it that I'm complaining about this when Sacrificial Magic was released only a month ago?
The Dublin Murder Squad by Tana French – When I saw that the ARCs for this were restricted to booksellers and librarians, I wept a little. (Okay, no, I didn’t. But there was probably a melodramatic sigh of some kind.) To say that I am highly anticipating the twisted mental journey that her latest Broken Harbour is sure to take me on would be a severe understatement.