Every Series I've Started in 2025 (So Far...)

Lori
20 hours ago
6 min read

The End of the Year Book Tag (very rudely) asked which series I’ve started this year that I still need to finish. As a chronic series starter as well as a chronic sequel procrastinator… this number is embarrassingly high. Naturally, I am using that embarrassment to fuel this post.

A full roundup of ongoing series would fill an entire novella, so today we are JUST discussing series that I have started during 2025. So that we don’t end on a note of failure, I will highlight any series started AND completed so far this year as well.

Will I do a full ongoing series summary one day? Maybe. Who knows? I surely don’t.

Finished Book One… and DNF’d the rest

Pucked by Helena Hunting - To make a long story short, I went to my first ever hockey game in January. I had a lot of fun and thought, "Ya know, maybe I could be into some sexy hockey." I went to Barnes and Noble to check out the sports romance section, and stumbled across a really adorable special edition for Pucked. Naturally I bought it, and in the heat of my newfound hockey boy craze, I started the book immediately. About 80% of this book was read aloud to my husband as we CACKLED. I sincerely hope it was trying to be funny... though I believe it was trying to be sexy. It was an experience (though not in the way the author intended), but I will not be subjecting myself to anything else by Helena Hunting.

Finished Book One… Undecided if DNF’ing

The Faithful and the Fallen by John Gwynne - I struggled to finish Malice, and quite frankly I'm pissed about it. We have a classic good versus evil epic fantasy. We get a boy and his dire wolf against the cruel world. There's giants and drakes and murky prophecies, oh my! This stuff is like mother's milk to me. I live and breathe chonky fantasy books. I love slow pacing. Why oh why can't I bring myself to pick the sequel up off my shelf??? Everyone adores this series, and I do not understand what I am missing here.

I loved Malice while in the act of reading it, but once I put it down it was an intense struggle to pick it back up. Less than a year has gone by since finishing Malice, and I already feel like I'll need to reread it before I can move on to Valor. This just adds another barrier to entry in an already daunting task.

Do I give up? Do I continue? Do I agonize about it for another year?

Sworn Soldier by T Kingfisher - To be perfectly frank, I only read What Moves the Dead because it is a retelling of my favorite Poe story (and Vincent Price adaptation), The Fall of the House of Usher. Though I generally had a good time with a story I know so well, botanical and rotting horror just generally do not seem to be my thing.

That being said, I do not believe What Feasts at Night is a botanical horror, nor is it a retelling. I do wish to give T Kingfisher another go; I'm just not decided if the next Sworn Soldier book will be it for me.

Series I Have No Hope Finishing Before 2026

Magical Cats Mysteries by Sofie Kelly – Curiosity Thrilled the Cat was so damn cute. I’m apparently becoming a cozy mystery girly between this series and Shady Hollow (Juneau Black). We follow a small town librarian as she becomes the leading suspect in a grisly murder. Naturally, she tries to solve the crime herself with the help of her curiously talented feline companions.

Book two has been purchased and awaits the purr-fect rainy day vibes, but with a whopping sixteen installments, it will be quite awhile before I finish the series (or tire of the gimmick).

Plantagenet and Tudor Novels by Philipa Gregory – I flew through the first four books and absolutely will continue, but I needed a little break. These books are an oddly addicting guilty pleasure of mine. I am fully aware that I am reading the exact same 50 years of history over and over again from slightly different perspectives. No, I do not care to comment further on my behavior.

One Book Away From Completion! (There's Hope For Me Yet!)

Chestnut Springs by Elsie Silver – I have already waxed poetic about the Canadian ranchers on this blog to excess. I have no shame, and will finish the last book by the end of the year. I'm very excited to spend some time with our broody oldest brother in a fake engagement trope. What more can I say? I'm a sucker for this series.

Flame Cursed Fae by Eliza Raine – Admittedly I've lost my steam with this series, but I will finish it out by 2026. What you have here are all the same tropes and angst from Fourth Wing, wrapped up in a shiny Norse Mythology ribbon. Throw in some romantasy buzzwords like "fae" and "forbidden romance" and you've got yourself Flame Cursed Fae in a nutshell. To be clear, I never said these books were great, but they are a fun palate cleanser.

All Caught Up! (Waiting on Sequel Publication)

Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell - Last we spoke, The Poisoned King was on my list of anticipated reads. A girl does sometimes read her preordered books in a timely fashion. Look at me goooo!! I just love this little middle grade fantasy series. The sequel absolutely blew book one out of the water, and I had no idea that was even possible! No publication date for a third book in the horizon yet, but you can bet I'll be scanning for it.

Started AND Finished in 2025!

The Loom Saga by Elise Kova - Started AND finished this year! I found this trilogy in a library sale several years ago, and I mostly bought them because the naked hardcover looked so cool--I won't lie to you. I was scared they'd rot on my shelf forever. Apparently, you can pick books right off your shelf and just read them?! I never knew.

I've never read a fantasy quite like this one before, so it was incredibly refreshing. Yes, yes it has classic star-crossed fantasy romance plotlines and blah blah blah... but the world building was really exceptional to me--The magic is based on alchemy, the technology is steampunk, the main character is an assassin, there's heists, world-hopping, inter-species politics, gray morality, rich history and lore, and an incredibly diverse cast of characters. As an early contender in the romantasy genre, this one really should have gotten more attention. And it would have if the internet could've shut the hell up about Sarah J Maas for literally five seconds.

Nevernight Trilogy by Jay Kristoff – I actually read Nevernight back in 2019, but took too long to continue with the series and ended up in that "now I need to reread the first book" limbo I seem so fond of. It only took six years but I did do that reread, AND I finished the entire trilogy while I was at it. I'm very glad I finally did.

The assassin school trials trope has been overdone by now, so Nevernight didn't hit the spot quite as much as it did the first time, but I still enjoyed myself. Jay Kristoff's prose is so beautifully atmospheric (though many will probably feel the books are over-written). The rest of the trilogy really expanded the plot well beyond the scope I had anticipated. It was absolutely worth coming back to the series.

I do feel the story was told in the wrong medium. I think this story could have been a really stunning RPG, and it would have been better experienced as a video game than as a book. I have never felt this way about a book before, and I am not sure I can articulate these feelings much more eloquently so I'll leave it at that.

Jurassic Park and Jurassic World by Michael Crichton – 10/10 buddy reading material with my good pal, Carolyn. I'm not certain this needed to be a duology personally, but I'm not going to complain about some more dinosaur content in my life. Just like the Nevernight trilogy, Jurassic Park was a reread before I finally finished out the saga. Next up will be a good ol' watch-through of all the movies. I need more dinos in my life pronto!

The Carls by Hank Green – I loved this duology. It’s been a long time since I’ve read a sci-fi that felt so fresh and new to me. It reads a little YA which was sometimes frustrating for me, but it is intended for a more broad audience. I think the less you know going in, the more impactful these books will be. Essentially some colossal sculptures mysteriously appear all over the globe, and we follow April May who just so happens to make a viral video about them just before her world goes to shit.

I mean... it's written by Hank Green and we know the man has some worthwhile things to say.

Yes, yes, I know... "She's out of control! Someone stop her from starting new series!"

HUSH.

I'm just a girl.