Top Five Series I Haven’t Finished

Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme created by Shanah @Bionic Book Worm, and is now being hosted by Meeghan @Meeghan Reads. You can check out last week’s post here!

This week’s topic is the Top Five Series I Haven’t Finished… yet. I swear this must be my worst habit as a book dragon. I start a book, I love the book, I find out it’s in a series of more books, I buy all those books… and then I move on to a different book.

Maybe it’s a conspiracy, maybe it’s bad luck, or maybe it’s my tendency to go with what I feel like reading in the moment, rather than sticking to any sort of schedule whatsoever. We may never know for certain, but at least this week’s topic is here to push my lazy butt into gear.

Let’s get started!

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Top Five Series I Haven’t Finished

The Queens of Renthia

The Queen of Blood | The Reluctant Queen | Queen of Sorrows

This series was the first that came to mind when I saw this topic. Partly because I started this series near the beginning of my blogging escapades; mostly because I have the third book just sitting there on my bedside table, waiting to be picked up again. Admittedly, I do have the attention span of a squirrel, and being distracted by shiny new books is certainly nothing new (it’s probably the most consistent thing about my blog, actually) but this is nothing short of ridiculous. I loved the second book, and I actually started the third book already! And I liked it! So what on Earth am I waiting for?

Speaking of waiting…

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Spellbreaker Duology

Spellbreaker | Spellmaker

Okay I admit it, I picked this book because – at least in this case – it’s not entirely my fault that I haven’t finished this series. It may have been published last year, but I’d only just finished the first one when it came out, so I think I get just a little bit of a break in this case. Not a lot, obviously, but a little bit. The good news here is that I’ve already ordered a copy of Spellmaker and hopefully I’ll get my hands on it shortly. So there’s absolutely no chance of me buying the rest of this series and leaving it on my shelf to be ignored again. Because that’s never happened to me before.

On a totally unrelated note…

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The Poppy War Series

The Poppy War | The Dragon Republic | The Burning God

I loved The Poppy War; honestly, I cannot praise it enough. It was fresh, powerful, and devastating, and I was really interested to see where the story would go, following an ending that reached into my chest and plucked out every single one of my heartstrings. I fully intend to finish this trilogy, just not right now. 

The Poppy War was a brutal experience (and I loved it) but knowing that same kind of turmoil awaits me in the sequels means that I need to be in the right mindset before I dive in. Underneath my mighty dragon scales hides a soft underbelly of ridiculously fragile emotions; I get way too invested in characters and their problems, and with the everything going on in the world right now, I’m just not prepared for the journey that awaits me once I sit down with Rin again. Does that make me a wimp? Yup! But it’s not like I haven’t neglected series I love before!

Which is my excellent transition to my next neglected series…

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The Outlands Pentalogy

A Touch of Death | A History of Madness | A Promise of Return | A Dance of Lies | A Time of Prophecy

I’ve raved at great length about how much I’ve enjoyed this indie series and I’m definitely not going to stop now. This was one of the first indie series I ever read since starting this blog and it remains one of my favourites. It’s endlessly fun, has a phenomenal cast of characters, and the third installment, A Promise of Return, ended on such a great cliff-hanger that I’m still on the edge of my seat.

It’s the series that started my dive into self-published fantasy and I love it to death for that alone – but that’s also probably why I still haven’t finished it. I’ve been so spoiled, learning about so many great new books and series, that I’ve neglected the one that started it all. And because I’m still hopeful about keeping to my resolutions, I’m adding ‘finish the Outlands Pentalogy‘ to that list.

And speaking of overly optimistic goals…

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The Gentleman Bastard Series

The Lies of Locke Lamora | Red Seas Under Red Skies | The Republic of Thieves

Of all the amazing series I’ve put off reading, this is certainly one of them. It has such a fantastic cast of characters, some truly ingenious plots and twists, and the world itself is kind I only wish I was talented enough to create. So why have I let this one linger for so long? I have no idea.

Maybe it’s because they were super hyped up and popular back in 2006 (and how is that already over a decade ago?!) and I’ve been more focused on new(er) releases lately. I do still want to finish them – there’s enough intrigue left over to fill ten books I swear – and now seems like the time, since the author still hasn’t released the fourth book. That kind of delay speaks to me personally, and I’ve been motivated to finally sit down and finish this series once and for all. 

2022 is going to be a busy reading year.

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And that’s it: my (hopefully) last, shameful February list for the year. We’ll see how well I actually stick to my goal of finally finishing at least a few series in the same year, but I can at least promise to give it my best effort. After all, what’s the worst that can happen? I have more books I want to read crowding my shelves? Oh how terrible that would be…

Have you managed to finish any of these series? I know the answer is probably yes, so tell me about some more series you need to finish too!

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Do you have any series to finish this year? Or are you deep in the hoard like I am? Let me know in the comments, and thanks for reading everyone!

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