did I finish ANY series this year!?! 📚 📉 2025 series review

Guess what guys? It's time to start the end of year content. Hello friends. I'm very excited. It is time to begin all of our end of year videos like worst books of the year, best books of the year. Today we're doing my 2025 series review which spoiler alert I don't think is going to be as interesting as some years previous cuz I have not I have not a lot of series but we're going to do it anyway for like you know there's still some interesting things to talk about. Yeah, we've got so many reacting to my 2025 TBR. We've got so many end of year videos coming and we have to begin. It's time. It is time to get going. >> It's almost time for Meg to serve. Today, we're going to be doing my 2025 series review, talking about series I finished, made progress in, series I wish I had started, all of the above. And I'm very excited to chat about it. But before we get into it, I need to chat to you about something else. So, let me cut to other Megan. Obviously, if we are getting into end of year content, we're also getting into festive season, gifting season, and let me tell you, one of the best gifts that you could ask for at the end of this year is a serious light. I love my serious light so much. They're very kindly sponsoring this video. My gosh, is this serious light amazing. I have had this for a couple years now, and it's very exciting. Actually, they're bringing out a new range which I want to kind of tell you guys about, but also just sing the praises of a serious light because any serious light is outstanding. So, obviously, I do a lot of reading, particularly at this time of the year. Let me tell you, the reading is getting crazy out here. And obviously, it's dark outside a lot. And reading is often tiny little words printed on a page. I used to get a lot of eye strain. I used to find it like very I used to really feel it in my eyes reading a lot. But since having a serious light, oh my goodness, the way that this light feels on the eyes is outstanding. If you do a lot of reading, this is like the best thing I think you could purchase, the best reading accessory you could ever get because these lights have something called daylight wavelength technology that replicates the daylight spectrum as closely as possible. So, what this means is it feels so natural on the eyes. I always say it feels like a breath of fresh air. Like there's not that resistance. Your eyes aren't having to work as hard. They're not feeling that strain. Your eyes just feel so much better. Everything is so much more well lit. You can focus. I find I read a lot quicker when I'm using it. And I think, yeah, I've had mine for maybe 3 years now, maybe even longer. And it's such great quality. They're so sturdy. They're so wellmade. You can really tell that this is like a really high quality item. I love mine. I use it every time I read. Every single time I read, I'm using this light. And I have a very exciting offer for you. I have a code meg. And that will get you £150 off. Guys, sit with that. £150 off a HD Pro or HD Essential Light from Serious Readers. The lights also have a 5-year warranty. And at the moment for the HD Pro, they have an extended 90-day risk-free trial, so you guys can try it out with no risk attached. Go check out link down below. Use code Meg, £150 off. Again, this is the perfect thing to ask for this season, I think, as a reader if you do a lot of reading. So, yeah, make sure you check out the link in description. I love this bad boy so dearly. Let's get into the rest of the video. Let's just dive in, shall we? Here's the thing. In previous years, a big goal of mine has been to finish series. I had too many currently reading series. A big goal was to finish series. This year, my goal wasn't to finish series. It was to make progress in series. I will let you know what my series goal this year was exactly. Let me tell you exactly what it was. It was to only have 10 series I've only read the first book of. At the start of the year, I had 22. So, just keep that in mind as we get into this. That was my goal. >> We were all so happy that day. It's It's actually hard to even imagine how terrible things would soon become. >> But let's get into some of the stats. I don't know how many ongoing series I had at the start of the year. I didn't write it down because it wasn't my goal, which I'm annoyed. I will remember at the start of the next year to write down how many ongoing series I had, but I currently have 40. A profound silence has ended the chat. I currently have 40 currently reading series, which is a bit high. It's a bit high. Sorry about the lighting, by the way, guys. I can't The sun is bright. It's a bright winter's day and I can't pull the middle. Whatever. You don't care. Just deal with these bright lights. 40 is a bit high. 40 is a bit high. 40 is a bit high. I can't what it has been in previous. I feel like it's I got it down to kind of like 33 or something. Some of that has been like last year I think there were series that I was up to date with. I don't after you guys insisting that I do this. I don't uh count series I'm up to date with as ongoing series because I've basic I've read all I can. I finished them. And so I think there's quite a few series at the end of last year were in that bracket and now have entered the ongoing series. So I haven't started a lot as we'll see. At the start of the year as I said I had 22 series where I had only read the first book in a series. Now I have 22 series. I've only read the first book in the series. >> You have to give yourself permission to fail. >> So I've not achieved my goal. I didn't pay enough attention to this goal this year. I have not read a ton from series this year. And a lot of what I've read has probably been from series that I love, like Lady Hard Castle, like series that I'm already like ongoing with. And so I haven't even gotten close to achieving this goal. I mean, I think I did one or two videos where I read second books in series and prioritized that, but there's a lot of series I I have not made progress in this year that I should have done that I should have done. I think I will probably have a similar goal next year. I look at my series spreadsheet, which we're going to get into in a second, and I want to read so many of these books. I want to make progress in these series. And also, I don't want to let these series linger. So, I think I'm going to have a similar goal next year, and we will see. We will see whether I get there. I think also TBR 200, I'm pointing back there at the TBR. I have for almost every series, I've only read the first book. I have the second book. So, that would also support. There's two goals there that can that can mesh and I need to get going on it. I only started this year, guys. Three series. >> I can't believe that. I actually can't believe that. >> Read first book in the series and decide to continue it. Three. We're going to look at previous years and compare. Three. Previous years. I was starting 20. So, at the very least, I'm not starting a lot. I have become so much more discerning with the series I start. And you might say, Megan, apply that logic to the series that you've got on your spreadsheet. And like books, you only gave three stars the first book, cut the series off the spreadsheet. But I fear once I've committed to something, I must at least try and stick it out. I can't do it. What I can do is in the moment decide I'm not going to continue that series. But if I've made a decision to continue that series, I need to at least try. I fear that's who I am. I fear that's who I am. And I only finished this year, guys. This is this is the one one side of that. Start only starting three is great. I finished two. We're going to compare that to previous years, but let me tell you, it's dire. I only finished two series this year. That's crazy. I have however made progress in 10. I've made progress in 10 series which I think is pretty typical for me and in some of those I've read multiple books. So making progress in 10 series I don't think is terrible but when you have 40 ongoing I feel like it should be a little bit better. Let me just quickly take you through the spreadsheet. My series spreadsheet. Let's just quickly have an overview while we're here. I don't know how much I've got to say cuz a lot of these have been here a while. Here she is. The series spreadsheet. I want to change the colors. I don't like these colors. These are just like the the color scheme it gives you. I need to like change it up. But that's a that's a problem for another day. Stalking Jack the Ripper. I have not read a book in that since 2021. No. When you say it like that. >> I I might exit this conversation out. >> I want to have it. >> I'll see y'all later. >> When you say it like that, four years, it's going to be 5 years. That's pretty bad. I need to finish that series. Where are children? You know, that's going to be ongoing forever as far as I'm concerned. I usually read one every year now, but I have not read A Drifting Currents Clean and Clear this year, which is annoying, but I'll probably get to it early next year. One would think. This is a series I wish I'd finished. I read the the second book last year finally, and I enjoyed it. And I have both of these. I like this should be something that I prioritized finishing. Lady Hard Castle, My Girl. I've read two this year, which we're going to talk about. I've only got one left. Oh, let me underline that, which means I've got it. Oh, and Baldicks. And I've up to date with the series. For your reference, a book is underlined if I own it. A book is bolded if it means I finished the series or get up to date in it. And I don't know if we've got any italics, but a book is in italics if it's not out yet. That's my that's my little system that I have here. I will probably get up to date with this very very soon. I don't know how much longer I can wait before reading the beast of little words. I'm trying to make it last and that's it's paining me. Oh, let me bold that. Bloody hell, I'm not keeping up here. Bold that. really wish I'd made progress in this series this year, especially because this is a Christmy book, but I'm not going to get to Seven Lovely Suspects before the end of the year. So, now I won't be making progress with that one until the end of next year, probably. I mean, I can read it out of time, but I do like reading Christmasy books around Christmas. I'm a big fan of a Christmas vibe. You can see here there's a lot where I've only read the first book. Like, some of these I need to prioritize. And look, I have most of them. I have US Against You. I have The Woman of Troy. I have 10,000 stitches. I have The Kind Worth Saving and The Talent for Murder. I have Death Comes to Marlo. I have Mate the This series I feel like I can't make progress in. I don't want to make progress in until I've read the original story. So, I don't want to read Sense and Second Degree Murder until I read Sense and Sensibility. And to be honest, I'm not in a rush to read all my Austin, you know, like I don't want to rush it. I only get to read I only get to read them for the first time once. And I love Janie and I only have a few Janies. So, this series is one that I think will probably take me quite a while to get through. This is terrifying. I don't know when I'll ever make progress on this. And then here are the three series I start this year. Perkupo, obviously, I have not started that series this year, but I break the series up into sets of five just to make it easier because obviously there's like 40 books in that series. So, just for the spreadsheet, I break them up into sets of five. I've read four pros so far this year, guys. I read Met on the Express, which I had already read, but I read it at the point in the series. This year, I read Three Act Tragedy. I read Death in the Clouds, and I read the ABC murders. And I feel like this is a great stretch here. So, I'm looking forward to reading them next year. I started the Not in Love series by Alli Problematic Summer Romance. I started Veronica Speedwell, which is obviously a long series. I think this will kind of take the place of Lady Hard Castle for me once I'm Well, nothing can ever take the place of Lady Hard Castle for me, but once I'm caught up in that, I feel like this will kind of scratch that same itch. And I started the Spell Shop series by Sarah Beth Des. I was discerning. I was very discerning. I think I've given up on updating DNF series. Yeah, there's been more than this so far this year, including Oh, there's some Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I made progress in 12 series this year. 13. Amend the books. Amend the Amend the stats. I didn't come down here and check this. I made progress in 13 series this year. I just decided to DNF three of them with the progress I made. I didn't check this. Okay. I made progress in 13 series this year. Just want to get that out there. >> I demand a recount. >> These are my update series. I actually technically haven't read these two yet, but I'm going to be this week. So, I'm counting them in all the stats because I'm going to be before the end of the year. I made progress in Have I counted that one? Okay, hang on. 11 15. I have made progress in 15 series this year. >> This is a reason to celebrate. You know what? I feel okay then. I feel okay about it. Yes, I still have a lot of series where I've already read the first book, but I've made progress in 15 series this year. That's not bad. Okay, I feel like we can be happy with that. The series I completed were the Ceruian Chronicles, which I mean both of these series and The Part of Your World, they could decide to do more books in this world in the future. So, are they finished? Who knows? Who knows? I'm counting them as so because there's no whispers of further books in these series. Final bits of stats. Like I said, we were going to compare it to previous years. Have I got pull that blind over? Is that becoming too distracting? >> A few moments later. >> Okay, I don't know how I feel about that cuz now I'm not very well lit. But I think we might just have to deal with it. Anyway, yeah, here's previous years. As you can see, this year is by far by a third the least series I've ever started in a year. 2019 11, 2020, 2021 I started 20. Last year even I started nine. This year I have started three. Three. Three. So yeah, at the very least I am not I am not starting loads of new series. In terms of series finish, however, by far the least I've ever finished. Well, here's the thing. 2019, I finished three. So, we're kind of on par with that a little bit. >> Hey, flop girl, you have done it again. Constant lowering the bar for us all and doing it flawlessly. >> But there is that 2022 when I really pushed. 2022 was a year I really pushed to finish series and I finished 15. How amazing would it be if I could get to that number again? 15. I only finished two this year. And in terms of the genres of the series that I'm still reading, these are all the series that are under my ongoing series. It is by far mystery series. There are 21 mystery series I'm currently reading. Then fantasy is the biggest chunk with 10, historical with three, sci-fi with three, romance with two, horror with two, and contemporary with one. But yeah, that's surprising to me as well because that used to be so much more fantasyleaning. But it makes sense. I haven't started a lot of fantasy series because I'm not enjoying fantasy that much at the moment and I love mystery. I love mystery. I'm mystery girl. I'm a mystery girl to the end. So yes, it makes sense that now it is majority mystery. I love a good mystery series. What can I say? I fear I've been yapping too long about something that doesn't matter. Let's now quickly talk about the top three series books that I read so far this year. Well, actually really it's not a top three because I've snuck I've snuck some others in. So, let's just go through this quickly. A lot of these books are five stars and you'll probably be hearing quite a bit about so at the end of this year. So, let's not spend too long in this. Just for the summer by Abby Gimenez, great end to a story. In fact, this book a lot of you'll know this is the one where it's like two characters whoever they date goes on to find the love of their life. So, they date to cancel it out, but they've both got like a lot of family stuff going on that's very interesting in this book. You know, some romance books you're like, "Oh, it's a series." And it's just following someone's friend or whatever. This book really, the twists in this really, the Abby Jimenez cinematic universe that this creates is outstanding. It's outstanding. It's not just another romance series where it's someone's friend. This has real implications. The twists in this mean something. If you've read the other books, they really have a greater impact. Outstanding. Outstanding stuff. The ABC murders by Agatha Christie was by far my favorite pro that I read this year. Well, other than other than Murder on the Oran Express, but that was a reread. My favorite new pro that I read this year. Just a great pro, like an outstanding pro. I think if you're looking for a pro to read and you're not crazy like me trying to read them in order, this is a great place to begin even. I would say it really twists our expectations a lot. This book, this is a book where it's a murderer who's like murdering someone with the initials a AA in a place with the initial A and then so on with B and C and onwards. It really upends what we're thinking is going on multiple times and also upends what we expect from a pros on form. Great, great, great one. The Spell Shop by far my favorite series that I am starting so far this year. I adored this. I don't want to speak too much because I read it very recently and I will be mentioning it again before the end of the year, but just oh my god, I just got Tom's mom to read this and I don't know if she's finished it yet and I'm seeing her this weekend and I can't wait to see what she's thinking about it. This is a cozy fantasy set on an island. There's a talking spider plant. She's making jam, but it's set on this like beachy island. It's all about community and coming together and healing the world. And I loved it so much. Such a great series and I can't wait to read more in this series. like this is going to be one of my go-to cozy fantasy series like Legends and Lattes. And then I just want to give a shout out. I can't find an assassination on the Agenda, but I read a exhibition an assassination on the Agenda by Lady Hard Castle. I feel the need not to include them in these lists because all I ever talk about is Lady Hard Castle. Lady Hard Castle and Flo Solving Murder Mysteries. I am like 12 books in at this point or something. They can do no wrong. They can do every book is 10 out of 10. Like it's so amazing. The series is so amazing. I love them. but I'm in so deep and that's why I love them so much. That's all I have to say in that regard. Then let's talk about the top series that I want to finish next year. I just did my all my books on my TBR video and I can't find anything because everything's moved. I I come to know over the year where everything's placed and then I I moved them all for that video. So, I can't find a Psalm of Storms and Silence. This is the second book in a series. I read the first book in the series in 2021. It's a duogy. I need to just finish it or DNF it, but I don't want to do that without at least giving it a go. I fear this might be a DNF because I don't really remember about the first book I read it so long ago. This is the problem with having this many series on your TBR. And I think it was like a 3.5. Like when I look back to Middlegame for example, which is on there that I read in 2020, I feel like if I read Seasonal Fears, I'd be a lot more aware of what's happening because I gave Middle Game five stars and it was an amazing book. A Song of Wraith and Ruin is a bit forgettable for me, but I own the second book. So, I need to e I need to give it a go. I need to give it a go and either read it or DNF it. And I need to get better with dnfing. You guys have been telling me to get better with dnfing. That's very hard for me, but I'm going to try and get more next year. and maybe that will affect the series stuff as well. So, I definitely want to get to that series. I definitely want to read the second books in both the Alley series I'm currently reading. I don't know if either of these series will have more books. I think out of all of them, the the paranormal series is more likely. I feel like this one's just a series cuz we're following characters we followed and not in love that are related to them. Whereas, I feel like she will have this kind of paranormal side quest going for quite some time. But I would like to at least get up to date or read the second books in both of these series. I love Ally. These are my only two Ali books that I need to read, I think, at the moment. I mean, she's gonna come out with 10 more next year. So, I will quickly become not today. But I love Alli. She's my favorite romance girly. So, I would love to read those. And then I would also love to finish the Maid series by Nita Pro. So, this is the third one, which is actually technically like 2.5. It's a Christmy novela that I am going to be reading before the end of the year. I'm going to reading this around Christmas time because I love reading Christmasy books around Christmas time unless something bad happens. I always tend to get ill at Christmas and this video gets scrapped where I read Christmasy books, but I am determined to do so. So, I have this novela and then there's one final book I think called The Maid Secret. So, I'd like to get my hands on that and finish that and finish the series. I've enjoyed the series. I didn't love the second book as much. We'll see how I feel about this one, but I think at that point once I've read this, I might as well just read the last book and finish the series off and see where it goes. Yes, I would like to make progress in this series as well. and then let's quickly talk about the series I would most like to start next year. Let's get into it. First is Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dineman. I was supposed to be reading this before the end of the year. I know, I know, I know. I'm not going to tell you what video it's for, but it was a video that I typically do every year in November. I had to push it because I just wasn't getting enough reading done and I had to begin my good read awards video. That had to happen. And so, I think I'm going to be doing this video in January. So, I will be reading this IN JANUARY. IT'S ABOUT TIME. I actually read How much of this did I read before I had to give up on the video? Maybe like 50 pages. I have read the first 50 pages of this, guys. And I really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed the first 50 pages I read, but I had to put the video on hold. So, I will be starting this in January. I can't wait to get into this series. People love this series more than anything in the world. It's dungeon crawler Carl in this like dungeon that he has to crawl through and there's an alien invasion. It's like it's a game show. It's very cool. And Princess Donut is already an icon in this house. Princess Donut and Deda, you guys are right. One being. >> You're what? >> I'm you. >> I fear Matt Dman somehow met Da and went, I need her to star in my book. So, I will be starting this. I think I said this last year if I'm honest with you, but I really want to start Miss Marle by the Christy. I think I put it off because I already have so many pros to read, but I want to get into Miss Marple. I want to This is a whole different kind of vibe from Agatha and I want to meet Miss Marple and I want to be in this small town and I want to get into the Murder at the Vicorage. So, I only own this one, but I would love to begin Miss Marle because then this is another like lifelong pursuit. I don't see myself finishing pros for like at least the next 10 years, if not longer. So, I'm not in a rush, but I would like to like get the series number down a bit more. Also, I feel okay about starting a series that I'm not going to finish anytime soon. And then, um, the last book is another one I can't find. Don't know where it is. Saw her a couple days ago. Don't know where she is now. And that is Misborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson. I've been saying this one for quite some time as well. It's time I read some Brandon. It's time I read some Misborn. Everyone tells me I'm going to love it. This is obviously such a beloved series, and I just want to see what I think of it. I want to get into some epic epic fantasy. What have I read from Brandon Sanderson? I feel like I read Oh, trust of the Emerald Sea. I loved Tres of the Emerald Sea. Didn't enjoy Skyward. Don't know if that's an unpopular opinion. I read that years and years ago. I didn't enjoy Skyward, but I loved Trust the Emerald Sea, and it's made me really want to pick Misborn up. Okay, there we have it. I have a headache. I feel like I haven't been speaking for that long, but it's taken it out of me. Let me know how your series reading went. Obviously, like I said, this year was a lot of not starting a lot, but also not finishing a lot, but I made progress in 15. That's actually not terrible. Yeah, let me know how your series reading has gone. I am very excited to get into all the end of year content with you guys. So, keep an eye out for that. And yeah, thank you so much for watching this video and I'll see you very soon in another one. Bye.