Top Ten Tuesday: Book Series I Gave Up On

Top Ten Tuesday was originally hosted over at The Broke and The Bookish and is now over at Jana’s blog, That Artsy Reader Girl.

This weeks topic is all about the book series that we never got around to finishing. Unfortunately, I have quite a lot to choose from, but most of my reasons for giving up on them were good enough. I also realised I’ve forgotten about so many books, but the majority of them were read over six years ago!

1. Angelfall by Susan Ee

While I enjoyed the first book in this trilogy, I feel that at this age it isn’t my cup of tea anymore. I am much more into the older section of YA, with a focus on Fantasy more than paranormal. So, unfortunately I won’t be picking up the next two in the series.

2. The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare

I feel like I could put all of Cassandra Clare’s books into this section. I started reading this series, as well as The Infernal Devices series, and I ended up giving up with both of them. I think I just fell out of love with the story and characters, or got bored in some cases. It happens and while it can make us feel bad, at the end of the day we shouldn’t force ourselves to read something just because everyone else loves it.

3. Bloodlines by Richelle Mead

I wanted to love this series as much as I love The Vampire Academy, but it just didn’t work out for me. I ended up only reading the first two, even though I owned the third, and didn’t realise it went on for so long!

4. Divergent by Veronica Roth

I feel like a lot of people say they never finished this series. I never even watched all of the films. Divergent tried to be like the Hunger Games and I don’t think it worked for me. I remember liking it at the time but I didn’t think it was anything special, and I had gone off of dystopian as a genre until I picked up Scythe by Neal Shusterman (but it has a new twist on the genre).

5. The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa

I think I enjoyed this book, although I don’t remember much about it and I never read the second one. This isn’t the first series that I didn’t finish by Julie Kagawa, as I never finished her Iron Fey one either, even though I own all the books (fellow bookworms, why do we sometimes buy a whole series and THEN realise we don’t like it? I’ve since stopped doing it).

6. The Violet Eden Chapters by Jessica Shirvington

I picked this up when I was going through my angel phase, you know, the one that included Halo and Fallen? Anyway, I can’t remember a single thing about this book and I wouldn’t even know the main character’s name unless it was in the series name.

7. The Mara Dyer series by Michelle Hodkin

Again, another book that I can hardly remember because I read it so long ago. I think it was a mystery, thriller type book, but I could be completely wrong. I may have picked this up because the cover looked cool (no judging please).

8. Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

This could be one of the series I gave up on too quickly considering how many people love it and can’t wait for the final book to be out (unless it already is out, I can’t keep up). I can remember a few details about this book, which shows that I probably did enjoy it, but I don’t think I will be playing catch up anytime soon.

9. House of Night by P. C. Cast

Why couldn’t these books have finished while they were still good? I absolutely adored this series up until Tempted (I think) and I even re-read them a couple of times (it was my vampire loving phase and I blame Twilight for it). It would be quite funny to do a re-read and see if they are as good as I remember, or worse than I thought. Could be an interesting experiment.

10. Covenant Series by Jennifer L. Armentrout

I think I remember these books being based on Greek mythology, which is something I enjoyed at the time (which was about 6/7 years ago now) and all I know is I loved the first two books. I can hardly remember a thing about them and I never carried on reading, even though I had Deity on my shelf. I doubt I will ever pick them up again, but you never know.

There were quite a few that could have been added to this list, but they aren’t as well known as my chosen ten.

What is the most well-known series you gave up reading?

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I’m Thankful For

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly event hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. This weeks topic is all do with the American holiday, Thanksgiving. While I don’t personally celebrate it as I live in the UK, I hope all my American followers will have a great day when it comes around. There is always something to be thankful for in life and I have a lot at the moment.

When it comes to choosing the books I am thankful for I had to think long and hard about it. I had to ask myself why am I thankful for them? Once I asked myself that question it became relatively easy to rattle them off. So here we go…

1. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

I have chosen this as my first book because without them I never would have gotten into reading YA. They were so new and different to anything I had read before and it was a turning point for me, especially when it came to growing up. You can read more about it in my blog post The Book That Made Me A Reader.

2. The Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

This series of books is by far my favourite and I am so thankful that I read them. They are all incredible in their own way and the characters are so easy to fall in love with. I am actually planning on re-reading this series in 2018 at some point because it has been a while, but I will never forget the way they made me feel (I even cried at some points).

3. The Magicians’ Guild by Trudi Canavan

I am thankful for this series in particular as it was the first that I read which was purely fantasy. While it is definitely not the best fantasy book I have read, it was the one that opened my eyes to a genre that has become my favourite. I may revisit these in the future and see it with some new perspective.

4. The House Of Night Series by P. C. Cast and Kristin Cast

There seems to be a lot of vampire books on this list, but I am thankful for these in particular as they introduced me to other P. C. Cast books. The Goddess Summoning series were some of the first Adult novels that I read and I remember loving them, especially because they were based on Mythology.

5. Half-Blood by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Speaking of mythology, I am thankful to this series because it made me fall more in love with Greek mythology and books to do with them. They were so different when they came out and that was what I loved about them. Although, I never did finish off the series so a re-read may be in order so I can buy the rest.

6. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Ever since I picked this book up, it has been one of my favourites and I am so thankful for that because it made me aspire to be that amazing at writing. It was magical, with the most breathtaking descriptions and I just know I will be reading it again now I am older. It seems to be the perfect book to read around Christmas time.

7. The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins

This book deserves a place on my list because it introduced me to thrillers. I had never thought much of them before reading The Girl On The Train, but it hooked me from the beginning and didn’t let me go. Hawkins is an incredible writer and knows how to keep you guessing, definitely worth reading!

8. Anna Dressed In Blood by Kendare Blake

I chose this book due to the fact that it showed me you can have a male POV and it can work, really well might I add. It was the first book I read where there wasn’t a female protagonist POV and it was a horror too, something I don’t normally read (but I do love horror movies). As well as this, it also made me love Kendare Blake’s writing and her latest series, Three Dark Crowns.

9. The Vampire Diaries by L. J. Smith

I read this series after I started Twilight (I was into vampires at the time, but, having been published in 1991 it was around long before Twilight) and it was way before it was turned into the TV show that everyone loves. My reason for being thankful for this is that it led me to watching the show (even though there are so many differences between the two) and it is easily my all-time favourite show. Reading these books were an introduction, although I only read this series in full and the first in the Return series (There are 5 different series in total).

10. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

I, like everyone else, loved this series when it came out and couldn’t get enough! My reason for being thankful is that it introduced me to the dystopian genre, something that had an influence over one of the novels I wrote when I was younger. It was so different and unique, as well as daring and original. While I may not have agreed with who they chose to play the characters in the movies (they weren’t like the ones in my head) I will always love these books.

I really hope you enjoyed reading my top 10 this Tuesday and if you have your own then leave a link below, I would love to check them out!