I did a post a few months ago about revisiting old lists, but I skipped one of my old lists because I thought it’d be fun to take a look back at it as part of a larger post about where I’m at in a bunch of series and what progress I’ve made this year.

Fun fact: I actually wound up DNFing a bunch of the series I said back in 2017 that I need to finish. Possibly the most surprising one is the Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson. Everyone on BookTube raves about these books, and I was fully prepared to fall in love with them. And then…I didn’t. I read the first book, The Final Empire, and thought it was just ok, but I wanted to keep going with the series because I’ve heard such good things. But eventually I decided I just didn’t care enough to keep going and push through two more massive books. Maybe one day I’ll decide to give the Mistborn trilogy another try, but for now, I’m happy DNFing the series.

Another big series that I had no idea I’d wind up DNFing was the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy. I loved the first one so much, I went out of my way to buy the UK editions of the whole trilogy. And then I started the second book, and I was super underwhelmed. It was just such a slog to read that I finally put it down and never circled back to it. I wound up looking up summaries of the second two books and donating the entire trilogy instead.

I also DNFed the Goldseer trilogy by Rae Carson. I liked the first book well enough, but I just never felt really motivated to pick up the second one, and eventually I just realized I was never going to. The same thing happened with the Ruined trilogy by Amy Tintera. And while I haven’t quite given up on it yet, I still haven’t circled back to reading the rest of the books that are out so far in the An Ember in the Ashes series by Sabaa Tahir.

This check in isn’t all bad news, though! I did catch up on The Queen’s Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner, and I’m just waiting on the last book to come out this year to wrap up the series. I’m also finally caught up on the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs. I enjoyed the series, but based on some conversations I’ve seen on Twitter, I think I missed a lot when I originally read them, and it’s not really a series I want to keep giving my time to in the future. I also caught up on the Trials of Apollo series by Rick Riordan, but then fell behind, as I haven’t yet read the latest one that came out in October. And I caught up on the entire Her Royal Spyness series by Rhys Bowen and reviewed the series as a whole!

As for more current series, I just finished the Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews! I’m hoping to get a review of the series up in the coming weeks. I’ve also started the spin-off Hugh D’Ambray series, but as there’s only one out at the moment and they’re also publishing the Hidden Legacy series right now, it might be a bit of a wait until book two.

In other urban fantasy news, I’m in the middle of the Guild Hunters series by Nalini Singh. I like it, but it’s got a lot of violence against women and I needed to walk away for a little bit. But I’ve had enough of a break now that I’m excited to dive back in! My love of the Kate Daniels and Guild Hunters series inspired me to go back and give the October Daye books another try. I read the first one and thought it was ok, but I think a lot of my problem with it is that we read it for my romance book club, and it’s not a romance, so my expectations were a bit wonky. But it turns out the style of the world isn’t really my thing, and the romance took waaaay too long to take off, so I’m officially DNFing that series.

On a different note, I’m slowly but surely making my way through the Princess Diaries series by Meg Cabot (I’ve finished the first five). I’m not as concerned with finishing the entire series, as the last book started to annoy me a bit and they are kind of the same thing over and over. But they’re fast reads and I would like to finish them all eventually, so we’ll see how it goes.

In terms of less massive series, I read the first book in The Diviners series by Libba Bray, which I’ve been meaning to read for ages. I liked it, but I didn’t love it as much as I thought I would, so I’ve been slow to pick up the second book, but I do think I’d like to keep making progress on this series and finish it when the final book comes out this spring.

I also read Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine, the first book in The Great Library series, which I’ve heard amazing things about. It took me a long time to get in to the first book, but I wound up really enjoying it by the end and am excited to continue with the remaining four books.

I’m also all caught up on waiting on new releases in a few other series at the moment. Those include the King of Scars duology by Leigh Bardugo, the Sixth World series by Rebecca Roanhorse, the Hidden Legacy series by Ilona Andrews, the Endeavor trilogy by Amanda Bouchet, and the Psy/Changeling Trinity series by Nalini Singh. All are excellent series so far, and I can’t wait for the next installments!

I also read the first book in The Beast Charmer series by Maxym Martineau and enjoyed it well enough that I think I’d like to continue, but I probably won’t make up my mind until the next book comes out. Same thing for Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff. I loved their Illuminae trilogy and enjoyed Aurora Rising well enough, but I can’t say I’m eagerly anticipating the sequel. So we’ll see what happens when it’s released next year.

In addition to starting on several new series, I also started and DNFed a few series this past year. I tried The Girl of Fire and Thorns trilogy by Rae Carson this year expecting to absolutely love it, but I was actually rather underwhelmed by the first book. I’ve heard such great things about this series, so I’m tempted to keep reading, but the reality is that I don’t think these are going to be more than three-star reads for me, and there are too many other things I’d rather read.

I’m also inclined to DNF the Navigating the Stars series by Maria V. Snyder. I’ve loved pretty much all of her books that I’ve read, so I was really excited to hear she was working on a new series, but I thought the first book in this trilogy was just ok. I’m definitely not buying physical copies of these books, but maybe I’ll circle back and give the second book a try now that it’s out? But again, I have low expectations for what I’ll actually get out of this series, so I’m thinking no.

I also managed to finish a few series in 2019: the Psy/Changeling series by Nalini Singh (so good!!), the Crown of Shards trilogy by Jennifer Estep (I love these books!), and the Nevernight trilogy by Jay Kristoff (what an epic conclusion!).

I think that about covers it for all of the series progress I made in 2019 and what I’m hoping to continue with in 2020! What series are you in the middle of and hoping to finish soon? Let me know in the comments!