Best and Worst Book Series of 2021

oh hello today we are doing my best and worst series of the year tag i have done this for the last two or three years this is a video i enjoy doing because i feel like it gives me a chance to make sure that i am giving series experiences as a whole their due credit for my best and worst of the year genre of video it's easy to get caught up in a single entry and kind of forget the totality of an experience you might be having with a series now i will say that i don't think this year was as strong of a series reading experience for me in the last couple of years i've had kind of like big series reading projects that were going really well and this year i had one series reading project that went really badly and one re-reading project that did go very well but like i don't know i just feel like this year for series was a little not my strongest but there are definitely things that i want to talk about as highs and lows when it comes to that and i think that this will be an interesting discussion we'll see how it goes but first let's take a moment and thank the sponsor of today's video book of the month club you've been watching this channel for a while you know that i am a fan and user of book of the month club a very popular and fast growing book service for readers whose mission is to promote new and emerging authors and to help readers find books that they are going to absolutely love every month their team calls hundreds of upcoming releases and readers are given a selection of five curated titles for new and early releases you guys know that i am an omnivore i read pretty much every genre and book of the month club is great at having options in pretty much every genre we've got literary fiction fantasy sci-fi romance mystery thriller non-fiction they have a very good spread but if none of those books that month catch you are fancy no problem just skip for that month no must no fuss and take a look at the next month's selection they have a really competitive price point i think for newly released hardcover fiction we are doing end of the year lists and you will see a few book of the month club picks on my end of the year lists and this month's titles are a flicker in the dark by stacy willingham the holiday swap by maggie knox the anthropocene reviewed by john green a history of wild places by shea earnshaw olga dies dreaming by sochil gonzalez and somebody's daughter by ashley c ford i already read a flicker in the dark by stacy willingham and i can tell you that this was a super well written thriller this is a serial killer coming back to strike again kind of a book and i think the writing in particular was super nice especially for a debut i'm also very intrigued by this one from john green because this is an essay collection from him and while his fiction plots haven't intrigued me to this point his actual writing is super nice so i'm very intrigued to try some nonfiction from him and something else that's very exciting is that in the month of december book of the month is running a special deal where you can get your first book for only five dollars if you use the code jolly so i mean now is the time guys i think this is the time to strike use the code jolly for your first book to be only five dollars so if you're interested in giving book of the month a try use this code and the link down below in the description and thank you once again to book of the month for kindly sponsoring today's video so without further ado let's get into the questions the first question is what is the best series that you caught up with this year that is still a work in progress and i am going to go with p to jelly clark's fatma el sha arui series i guess that's what it's called the first book in the series or the first story i guess in the series was called a dead jen in cairo then there was the haunting of tramcar015 and then this is the latest release that came out this year called a master of gen and i really enjoy this as a lovely blend of mystery speculativeness and a romantic element which tend to be the things that i love the best in books so this is really kind of like amara pleaser kind of series and while there's only three stories that we have gotten so far in this series i am very much hoping or expecting that it's going to continue the way that this one ended definitely opens the door for that and we've gotten three books so far so hopefully we will get even more the next question is what is the best work in progress series that you are still catching up with and actually i just realized that one of my answers is not right i was gonna say the realm of the elderlings but i actually am still catching up with it but it is finished so i need to come up with a different answer well every answer that i'm thinking of either the series is finished and i'm still catching up with it or the series is not finished but i have caught up with it i mean i guess just to shout out my favorite reread series this year was definitely side changeling because i am doing a podcast on that this is still a series that's in progress but i have read all of them so i guess this year i don't really have a good answer for this one i will make up for it by allowing myself to have three answers to the next question which is what is your favorite first book in a series that you read this year i guess in order of enjoyment i would say dead dead girls by forget the author's first name but her last name is affia this is the first in a historical mystery series that is set in 1920s harlem it looks cozy-ish from the cover but it is not cozy it is like pretty full-on mystery thriller but it is historical and i thought that it was a really strong debut and a great first entry in that series similarly i would say amari and the knight brothers by bb alston this is the first in a middle grade fantasy series also a debut also very strong i think you can tell in both of those actually yeah for both of those the issue i had in them was somewhat how the story was paced or how sort of the plot was unfolded a little bit i thought it was you could basically just tell a little bit that it was a debut but in both cases the writing is very strong the character work is really interesting and the overall like story setup is great so yeah i would say amari and the knight brothers similarly very good first book in a series also a very strong debut and then my favorite first book in a series or i guess a duology is the fixer by jennifer lynn barnes this is one of my all-time favorite kind of like political thriller y books i've ever read and again i really liked the way that the mystery worked in this and the characters i thought were particularly great okay next what first book in a series did you read that once you finished reading it you thought this should have just been a standalone and i actually didn't have an answer to this one until like two days ago because i think unpopularly i'm going to say that i think the long way to a small angry planet by becky chambers while i can see why people would want this to be a series because the characters are very endearing it's a warm hug of a book i guess i would say it falls in that vibe of cozy speculativeness so i totally get why people would want more in this but i actually think that this would be better if it was just a standalone story and that's how i'm going to choose to enjoy to read it i'm trying to think why i feel that way i guess while i can see that there would be room for there to be more adventures i kind of feel like the way this ends lends itself well to just being a conclusive ending to a story so that i think is how i'm gonna enjoy it but it was very good i see why people would want more but for me for whatever reason i got to it and was like no i don't i don't think i want to keep reading in this series not because it wasn't good but like this was what i wanted from the story and i'm done now with this okay next what is your most over hyped series of the year so i'm gonna i have four answers to this because like i said i feel like my series reading this year was not as strong as it has possibly been in past years so i know which one is like my definitive number one answer but i have three runner-ups i'm gonna say the the one i liked the least but i'm gonna say was the least disappointing because i do think it's still a classic it just didn't work for me is the book of the new son from gene wolfe this is a science fantasy classic series that sort of established or helped establish the subgenre of science fantasy so like i appreciate what it did for the genre but the actual story i hated and should have dnf'd i didn't because it was a book club and i should have just dnf'd it but there's that one i'm gonna put that as my least disappointing just because it is a class you see what i'm saying then i'm going to say neon gods by katie roberts this is the first in the dark olympus i think is the series title this was massively hyped up to me on book talk in particular but generally this was a big romance title this year i think that this it disappointed me because of how hyped it was i think if this had been half the length this would have been great as a full book i just don't think there was enough plot or character development happening but like it's steamy if that's what you're looking for and uh yeah this disappointed me but i could see why other people would enjoy it i just it was overhyped for me my runner-up for most disappointing i'm gonna say is the rage of dragons by evan winter and this is just because of how hyped it was and how bummed i am that i didn't get on with it if i feel like this is a book that i i dnf because i had no i feel like the character development in this was like almost non-existent and once the only character that i had any kind of connection with died at about the like 35 to 40 mark i was just like i'm good i'm not gonna keep going with this i feel like it's really interesting world building the writing itself i think is pretty good and uh it's a it's very action-packed if you are looking for a fantasy story in a non-basic medieval fantasy world with good writing and a ton of plot development and like a cool world i can totally see why people enjoy this i think because i tend to be a more character-driven speculative fiction reader it just didn't work for me and that really disappointed me because i know how much people love that book and i think the second book also came out already and people were enjoying that so i'm sad that that one didn't work for me and then i'm gonna say the one that actually of these probably worked for me the best but was the most over hyped and therefore the most disappointing was from blood and ash by jennifer l armentrout and the reason why i'm putting this as the most over hyped is because it won the romance goodreads choice award last year and it is just compared to the other things that were on that list i am so shocked that it won i it's definitely it is a romance but it's not a particularly well done one it's fine i think i ended up giving it a two and a half or a three star like it's it's okay it's like a b i guess a two and a half it's like a b minus kind of book it's fine and i think if it had just been like sort of a one offy like oh yeah like i read this and kind of in one ear out the other whatever i wouldn't be as mad about it but like the fact that it got so much hype to me what it gave versus what it was supposed to give to me did not like align totally i'm gonna say it's definitely the most over hyped for sure i'm not gonna continue in that series okay next uh what is a series that you finally dnf'd this year and i only really had one that came to mind and that is serpent and dove by shelby maherin i really liked this first entry because it was a very soapy fantasy romance for new adult i would say and i just thought it was fun like i had a really good time in this one and it set up a lot of really possibly interesting places the subsequent book could go and that book went none of those places it was a really disappointing sequel i think originally it was meant to be a duology and it got dragged out into a trilogy and it killed my interest in finishing the trilogy definitively with that second book next we have what is your favorite series finale of the year and i actually didn't finish well did i finish that mini series i guess i i don't know i felt like i didn't have a ton to pick from this year but i did have two that came to mind that i really did enjoy one is deathless divide by justina ireland this is the second in a why a fantasy western duology first one was called dreadnation and i do think dread nation was better than deathless divide they're actually quite different books in their tone and pacing and just like vibe but i thought that this was a really strong conclusion and took the themes and story that were set up in that first book into some directions i wasn't expecting but in a way that i was very pleasantly surprised by and then the other finale to a kind of micro trilogy within a bigger series i guess was i think it was called say goodbye it's whatever the finale in the sacramento trilogy is from karen rose i really like this book i think that it is much more of a romance well i should say what i liked most about it was the romance rather than the suspense elements in it because it's sort of like a cult serial killer type suspense thriller book and i did like that but i really enjoyed the romance in this particular entry because it was a childhood friends to lovers and it was very angsty in a way that worked for me because angst is not always my favorite in a romance but in this case it really worked for me next is what is the best cliffhanger in a series you got this year and i'm going to go with amari in the night brothers there is a couple of revelations at the end of this book that i think were really delicious and i'm really excited to read the sequel that comes out in february and i am excited to see how the development that comes in the last chapter or two in this book how that pays off i think it's going to be really i hope well let's put this way i really hope it's going to be very interesting because it's definitely set up to be very interesting then we've got what was your favorite spin-off series that you read this year and i'm definitely going to say the heroes of olympus by rick riordan this is the spin-off from the original percy jackson series it does include percy and annabeth and some of the characters we get in the original percy jackson series it's definitely got like a new cast it's definitely a spin-off and so far right now i'm currently in the middle of the mark of athena which is the middle of the five books and i'm really enjoying it i think it's super solid a very satisfying spin-off and takes the overall world and series i think in interesting new directions okay and then next is what is your most anticipated next book in a series that you read this year that will come out next year so basically you're reading in a series this year there's a new entry coming out next year in that series and you're really excited about it for me i decided to go with the final gambit which is going to be the finale of the trilogy that starts with the inheritance games hawthorne legacy came out this year but i'm actually i decided i'm going to save that book for next year so that i can read hawthorne legacy and final gambit back to back and i'm very excited about that so therefore i'm excited for final gambit to come out so that i can read the hawthorne legacy and just finish off the trilogy then we've got what is your most anticipated series to catch up with next year based on what you read in the series this year for me it's definitely going to be the heroes of olympus which i already talked about i'm in the exact middle of it right now and i'm excited to finish it in 2022 and then i'm also going to say the bridal quartet from nora roberts i read the first one in that four book series which is called vision in white and i'm excited to read the next three it is a small town romance series based around four friends who own and run a bridal business out of the old house that one of them inherited so i really enjoyed that first book and i liked the setup of the friends that we got for the next three books so i'm excited hopefully maybe i'll make that a nora roberts project next year because i'm trying to read all of her books right now um so maybe i'll just commit to finishing that particular series next year okay next what is your favorite series that you finished this year the true answer i think is i'm gonna have to say is percy jackson because this is well this is the final book in that series this has become an all-time favorite book i really really enjoyed this particular book and i really enjoyed that series it is a new all-time favorite series so this is definitely the answer i'm going to assume another one that i'm really going to enjoy the wrap up to is the fire blood series from ruby dixon which interests well actually wait let me we'll pause because this will be an answer to it a future question as well but that finale is coming out in the next couple of weeks as of filming and based on where the series has been building to i'm assuming that that finale is gonna be something i really enjoy so that's my runner-up answer but this is definitely the true answer is percy jackson next is what is your favorite episodic episodic series of the year and i'm going to go back to this dead gen and cairo master of gen series from peter jelly clark episodic meaning that it the overall story does build somewhere but the individual books really can be read kind of as standalones because they're not the macro this the story of the series isn't serialized to the same degree that a more episodic series is and i would say that that is true of this particular book i think you could read any of the three that have been released and still enjoy them without having read the others so i will go with this as my favorite episodic series of the year okay and then a variant on the dnfing of a series question is what is a series that you finally bailed on after holding out for it for a long time and that is the lord peter whimsy series so this was one of my this was my failed series reading project of the year i remembered loving gotti knight and bessman's honeymoon from dorothy alsair's i'm actually not going to reread them because i frankly just want to preserve the happy memory i have of that in my mind i was expecting that i i knew that i had read probably like 60 to 70 of these books back in my early 20s and i remember for the most part liking them attempting to reread the series as like somebody in their early to mid 30s this did not work for me mostly at all the thing that i most enjoyed is this the short stories in the collection and then i also enjoyed the nine taylors i think that was what that one was called there were a couple of of high spots but for the most part did not enjoy this and did and just decided not to read at all several of the books and this is a series i've been holding out on reading for more than a decade or love like finishing off so that was a huge like the far and away the biggest disappointment in my reading this year because that was something i'd really anticipated enjoying i made it like a thing i was inviting people to read it along with me and i ended up having to be like sorry guys like this isn't gonna work um so that definitely was my biggest disappointment reading wise this year and definitely for series biggest disappointment the next one is what is the series that you're most surprised you liked this year i'm gonna go with two one i've already mentioned which is the fireblood series by ruby dixon because i mentioned in this tag last year that fire blood was on the bubble for me to dnf i was thinking about bailing on that series altogether and i'm actually very glad i didn't i read i think one more after that and in that next entry that i read the macro plot finally kicked in and i was like okay i actually i like where this is going actually two of those books are on a different best of the year list so i'm very glad that i stuck it out with that one it was on the bubble for me to dnf and i'm really glad that i didn't and then the other one that surprised me was year one by nora roberts not because i loved it but because i have not enjoyed paranora's up until this point and so i was actually very excited that i did end up liking that book pretty well so that was a success okay next we have uh what is far and away my most shameful question on this list and that is what is the series that you meant to catch up with or finish this year that you did not well i mean i could put the heroes of olympus in there but really there's two answers and one of them is recurring on this list for the third time this is the third year in a row i have intended but failed to finish the hearthstone trilogy by elle katherine okay i still have the intention to read it next year we'll see what happens okay moving swiftly onwards also the side series from neil shusterman also looks like marple has been at it love you sweetie good job i meant to finish this trilogy this year and didn't moving swiftly onward the final question is what is a series that you finished this year that you think is greater than the sum of its parts and i am going to go with two so first i am going to say the magnus chase series from rick riordan i really like the overall arc of this i think the individual books sometimes can run a little bit long and actually i had some strong dissenting opinions about this series on a book club i did for the blades and bottom super book club in november so i'll try to remember to link that somewhere but i really do like this first book in particular and i liked each of the books in the series i really like though where the series as a whole goes and i think it's definitely greater than the sum of its parts similarly to the sacramento series from karen rose that we were talking about earlier i really like each of the individual books in this trilogy but as a whole i think they make a very compelling story of this cult that is in the northern california area um as well as basically like serial killer type stories so i think that this trilogy definitely is greater than the sum of its parts and with that that is my best and worst series of the year tag that i do every year this is the 2021 edition so i have all the questions linked below and i tag anybody who would like to do this i really enjoy checking in on series this way every year so i find it helpful i hope that you guys enjoyed this as well let me know how your series reading went this year did you have big hits big disappointments over hypeness under hypeness etc let me know that in the comments below and thank you once again to book of the month for sponsoring today's video remember you can use the code jolly to get your first book for only five dollars check out the link in the description to hop on it and yeah i think that that will do it for this video so if you enjoyed it please like subscribe follow me on the social medias if you are so inclined i have all that information listed in the description box below and i think that that will do it i hope you're having an absolutely lovely day today and i will just talk to you soon bye you

Channel: bookslikewhoa

Views: 4,911

Keywords: books, reading, booktube, literature

Id: 3oL3jSSZNEw

Length: 22min 46sec (1366 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 09 2021