Jayne Ponders the Allure of a Series

I'm addicted to a lot of series and luckily we here at RWQ have plenty to offer. There's LORI FOSTER's SBC FIGHTERS, ELIZABETH GUEST'S PHARAOHS RISING, STELLA CAMERON'S BAYOU BOOKS, ELIZABETH LOWELL'S ST KILDA BOOKS, SUSAN ANDERSEN'S LINKED STORIES and my own ARCANE SOCIETY novels.
What is it about a series that compels us? Certainly the pleasures of returning again and again to familiar fictional landscapes starts in childhood. I'm thinking of all those Walter Farley horse stories, the Little House on the Prairie books and Nancy Drew, among others, not to mention comic books. And then there's Harry Potter and Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Saga series.
There are series books available in most if not all of the genres: Heck, mystery and thriller writers build entire careers around series characters. The tradition goes way back. Think: Sherlock Holmes and James Bond. Series are huge in romance and the paranormal. They are the backbone of science fiction. They are wildly popular in the new generation of romantic erotica. Can anyone say Kate Douglas and Chanku?
There are a few things that can instantly turn me off a series forever and ever. I have standards. I stopped reading one mystery writer when his screw-up hero allowed his own little adopted daughter to get killed in one of the books. When another mystery writer made a big deal about the homicide victim in the story being a pathetic loser because she read romance novels I closed the book without bothering to finish it. I did not throw the book across the room. I put it directly into the garbage and dumped it down the trash chute. The odd thing was that one of the reasons I had enjoyed that particular series up until that point was because of the romantic relationship between the hero and heroine!
Most of the people I know who read fiction for pleasure follow the events and characters in one or more unique "worlds" or series. As a lover of connected titles, I'm always interested in discovering new series.
Got any recommendations?
Sincerely,
Jayne
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