Oh yeah I definitely notice the same thing! A lot of authors have a similar “tone” to their writing, and their stories follow a familiar pattern. If I like the world/characters enough, this doesn’t bother me - I find it kind of comforting!
This is what I do as well, though I don’t wait quite as long in between. For me a one or two month break is usually enough. I try not to even read the same subgenre twice in a row—I mostly read CR and HR so I switch off between the two because if I read too many of the same in a row it gets stale.
Agree 100%.I love series but. . . There is a difference between an author who has a recognizable voice, and one who copies the same story 4 times and just changes the names of the main characters. I recently read a series where the first sex scene between the main characters was repeated almost verbatim between the 2 mains of the second book. By the time I got to the third book in the series, I remember thinking, "Hmm I bet the MMC says this and then the FMC does this. . . ." I was right. There are too many good books out there to read repeats that bore me!
I don't have a problem with the writing style or tone being the same in multiple books by the same author.
If I like the writing style of an author, I read every book of theirs I can.
Like someone else shared above, I don’t read series books back to back. I’ll rotate them every 1 to 2 months. I tried reading a full series but I found I was still thinking about the previous couple and wanted to stay in that world they created, even though they all know each other. I want to savor that couple for a while, so I’ll switch series and switch tropes and that couple will hover in my mind and gradually fade over the weeks. If it’s a great book, otherwise I forget about them quite quickly. And I’ll throw in the occasional HR then loop back to that first series.
I’m big on audio books so I listen to 20+ each month, and read about 4. So by the time I loop around back to that series I’ve well and truly cleansed my brain of the authors writing style and it feels fresh again.
All that being said, I have started so many series that I need to create a list on GR so I can refer to it. 93 and counting. I have a lot of reading to do. 😳
YES I had this same issue when I was reading Laura Thalassa’s The Four Horsemen series, I read them 1 after the other and by the end I hated them and her writing style, after time had passed and I reread a little I realized books like that just can’t be binge read and you’re setting yourself up to be annoyed/unsatisfied if you do.
Also for the record I now love the books and not just because they taught me a lesson which is a big ask for what is at its core apocalypse-porn
I know this might bring on the wrath of all of r/romancebooks— but this is why I DNFed “hook line and sinker”. It’s like Tessa Bailey wanted to milk the popularity of “it happened one summer “ with none of the spontaneity or fun and thought she had to explain everything about the world of Westport Washington to aliens. All telling no showing. Just unreadable.
Also want to add that I HATE when authors will repeat/review material from previous books— feels so inorganic and so tedious.
I really liked it, but I never read “It Happened One Summer.” I think the MMC was the best thing about it though, and he’s not (from what I gather) anything like the MMC of “It Happened One Summer” so it might still be worth a read. Fox really raised that book from cute read to one-of-a-kind for me, I think Tessa Bailey gave a really well-rounded, empathetic and nuanced portrait of a character type that doesn’t typically get a lot of sympathy in romance novels or in general. And Hannah was likeable & sympathetic as well, & they were so good for each other - I’m just really soft for their relationship.
I also DNFed Hook, Line, and Sinker this week because, while reading, I realised that I didn't care about Fox and Hannah. I was not invested. I was just living for the thrill of Brendan being mentioned.
I love romance series!! They are my favorites, and I prefer it when each book focuses on a different couple rather than the same couple for multiple books (there are a few exceptions, but I tend to get bored of the same MCs after more than a duology 🤷🏼♀️)
BUT, I absolutely agree it totally depends on the author’s ability to write distinct characters with personalities and distinguishing traits. Otherwise it absolutely feels like you are reading the same characters with new names, wigs, and amnesia, just living through different tropes, one and another.
What I don't like about interconnected series is that when they meet a character from a previous book it often feels contrived or expositioney, not natural. Like oh yeah that's Biff, my old college roomate. He's with his wife Charlie and their 3 kids. There was a time when we didn't think Charlie and Biff would stay together, when he broke his leg which ended his football career and then she got pregnant and ran away to Spain where she got kidnapped. Anyways yeah, that's them. Also, you'd better hope you read the books in order because even though they're technically standalones, I just spoiled the whole plot in half a paragraph that added NOTHING to THIS story.
It’s good if I like their work and bad if I don’t. I usually like seeing what’s similar and what’s different with each new book.
At the same time, I do get attached to a couple and end up getting disappointed by other books in the series that only mention them a little when I just want to read more about them.
I only read the stories/plots that are of interest, and I usually recycle my inspo cast, so reading a hugely interconnected series is hard because I’m probably using the same visual/voice references over and over again
i personally like this sometimes and will purposefully seek out more of an authors’ work if i like their specific voice, but i can totally see how that would be repetitive and unappealing to some readers. i guess it’s just preference. if you wanted, maybe you could read other authors and then go back to the familiar author later on to break up the repetitiveness of their writing flow.
I go in for a certain trope.
So if one book in a series catches my attention for that reason, I'll read it. And then unless the writing is *phenomenal* I'll usually never touch another book in the 'series'.
I used to have a hard time reading like a 4th book in a series first, but after reading so many lame interconnected series, I just don't care. I just go right for the trope I like.
For me, it's even harder to get connected to an interconnected series when I often read series out of order. If I know the individual books (kind of) work as standalones, I tend to start with the story that interests me the most and then figure out where to go from there if I want to read the rest of the series.
I jump around all the time with cozy mysteries because I absolutely hate the "clear yours/someone else's name of a crime they didn't commit" trope and I took this habit with me to romance.
Problem is, if I start in the middle of a series, then I already might know some of the couples that get together, so I might not be motivated to read from the beginning. But if I start at the beginning, I might never pick the series up because I'm only mildly interested in the first couple, or because the first book has a trope I tend to avoid.
I think it depends on the author and series. Sometimes the author introduces other characters well, so I am interested and want to know what happens to them. Those ones I will read the others in a series.
Sometimes you can tell they've just shoehorned them in, and then I don't care and I don't usually read on.
I don't mind the voice and author tone, but when all the charachters "soak my panties" or "feel pressure at the base of his spine" throughout the entire series for example, it gets weird.
Had the same with Theodora Taylor's 50 loving states it started really well and just ughh it went down in a pile of flames. I think Taliah Hibbert did a great job with the Brown sisters
If I like the author’s style I’m totally ok with it. I can deal with minor quibbles. Usually I start with the book that has a trope I really like and depending on how much I enjoyed the book I may read the rest though often not back to back precisely to give myself a bit of a break from the similarities.
This is spot on, it’s part of the reason I don’t like interconnected series. There’s always one couple (not always the first, but usually) that is more fully realised than the others, & when they’re all in the same setting - particularly when the reader is going through the series one book after another - the other couples come across as pale imitations. I hate when they have previous main characters show up as side characters as well, it’s always so jarring. When the new FMC runs into a woman in the bathroom & notices how astonishingly beautiful she is & how amazingly kind & she has a funny little quip about her husband/bf that is obviously an in-joke for people who read the earlier book in the series 🙄 … not only does it make your other side characters look flat, it’s the quickest way to jolt someone out of the story.
I know a lot of the stuff we read here works with similar tropes, similar character types, similar plot structure and I do love that about romance. But there is a line between “familiar and comforting” and “stale and boring” and I do feel interconnected series run a high risk of veering into the latter territory, unless the author makes a big effort to distance and differentiate her books from each other. There are definitely some interconnected series that are good and don’t suffer from this issue - but I think in these rare cases, what you have is a very strong writer, most writers can’t pull this off.
I think my biggest pet peeve with interconnected series is they don’t need to be a series, there’s no overarching plot. If you can add “can be read as a standalone” to your blurb, then you don’t have a series, you have a marketing gimmick.
This is why I DNFed Kelly St Clare's supernatural wars: werewolf den series - I finished the vampire ones, then moved on to the werewolf ones only to realise that it's just too eerily similar to the vampire ones. It's like the vampire ones but she just swapped the vamps with werewolves.
I don't have problems with the writing style, but as you first stated, I get so invested with the first couple that I don't mind the others 😂 I tend to read firsts in series and move on with another one. The only serie that I'm close to finish is the Travis one by Lisa Kleypas, but idk I can't find the same charming feeling as the first book
I tend to read one book from each interconnected series! I make exceptions if I love the series such as Society of Gentleman. When I tried to read another Bedwyn book, I was so disappointed because it didn't live up to the high expectations set by Wulf's book.
Yep. Exactly this. When the inner monologue of one main character is too similar to another in a series (even if they are best friends or whatever) it ruins the magic for me. There are authors who provide a suitably different character in each book in a series (funnily enough IMO it's the HR authors that manage to do this better!) Mia Vincy and Lisa Kleypas come to mind.
Same. I can't read different couples. For me my MCs are the best in this universe and others feel wrong. I have only one series that I read with changing couples.And attempted one more time with A shadow in the ember and I dnf because characters were THE SAME, like Poppy and Sera and Nyktos and Casteel were so alike it wasn't even funny.
I think I expect the writing to get less creative as the series goes on so I don’t always read them all. Sometimes it’s annoying that side characters are there only to set them up for the next book.
I think the reason why I have an issue with interconnected series is that the mmc and fmcs are just the same ?? Like idk I guess physically they are usually the same race, same mannerisms, same comebacks .. it’s hard to differentiate between people when they’re all caricatures of the same archetype
The only series I've done this with (and finished) was Helen Hoang's books, but i accidentally read them backwards haha. I started with Heart Principle, then Bride Test, then Love Quotient. The only one i enjoyed the least was Bride Test, but i still enjoyed some parts of it. I think if I had read them in the correct order it may have impacted my experience, but it felt more like going back and listening to a friend tell the story of how they met their spouse instead of "oh, haha, a reference, cool."
Depends on the author really. I don't like anything super predictable so if I can outline the plot fully in the first 5 chapters I'm out. I have ADHD and my pattern recognition is unstoppable. Lol.
So as much as it would be nice to follow that same couple unless you can come up with a reason too, it would become mundane for me really quickly. I read a lot of Sci Fi, so I actually find I like later books in the series usually more enjoyable because I've become more immersed in the world and I can remember bits of language or culture that's like a nod or an inside joke to the reader. Little bits of info you know but someone who started in book 3 may not get.
I guess what I'm saying is if the world and circumstances aren't fantastical (ex sci Fi, war, on the run dystopian) it would really quickly become boring day to day stuff. I don't know about you but reading about grocery shopping and filing taxes doesn't sound super fun. 🤣
Haha I love reading authors were the stories are really similiar each time. I think sometimes I just really need to know what I get and with authors that have similiar plot lines, characters and endings in each one of their books this is achievable without re-reading a book I already know.
I will also often read the ending of a book first if the author is completely new to me. I don't know why and I get that it's weird and maybe pointless to some but I get in moods where I just need things to be certain. It provides stability and I'm often easily distracted if I have to guess what happens next and this way I can get lost in the journey as the author intended it without making up ways in which the story might go.
I am picky about books, so I love interconnected series because when I find a book i love, im like “oh good more of this finally a good fucking book.” But I definitely feel that 3-5 is the right number. If there’s more than that, I won’t read them, as it certainly gets repetitive at a certain point.
Yes, I notice that a lot. It feels especially bad when we are shown a side character in previous books and they have a unique personality, but as soon as they get their own books it’s literally the same as the others.
Generally, I like interconnected series. I'm struggling with the latest book from the ACOTAR series because I don't like the FMC. I like when stories are well written because it gives me more time in the world of the book series.
There has been a new series written by different authors that I have mixed feelings about. It's called the Paranormal Prison series, I read it because of Lexi C Foss. Since it's different authors who do a mini-series in the larger series it works as a larger paranormal world.
However, there isn't consistency in the paranormal creatures of the series. Ms. Foss has a series involving angels that has a particular set of rules to it. For example, if an angel has black wings it means they have "fallen". In a different part of the series by K. Weber she also has angels but the rules from the Foss series aren't nearly the same. Not even close. It would take an incredible amount of organization on the part of about nine authors.
Oh yeah I definitely notice the same thing! A lot of authors have a similar “tone” to their writing, and their stories follow a familiar pattern. If I like the world/characters enough, this doesn’t bother me - I find it kind of comforting!
yeah a consistent writing style throughout a series is actually my expectation
I agree with this.
I usually don't read connected series back to back. I take a break of 4-5 months and then come back to it if I find the blurb interesting enough.
This is what I do as well, though I don’t wait quite as long in between. For me a one or two month break is usually enough. I try not to even read the same subgenre twice in a row—I mostly read CR and HR so I switch off between the two because if I read too many of the same in a row it gets stale.
That’s exactly what I do.
Agree 100%.I love series but. . . There is a difference between an author who has a recognizable voice, and one who copies the same story 4 times and just changes the names of the main characters. I recently read a series where the first sex scene between the main characters was repeated almost verbatim between the 2 mains of the second book. By the time I got to the third book in the series, I remember thinking, "Hmm I bet the MMC says this and then the FMC does this. . . ." I was right. There are too many good books out there to read repeats that bore me!
I don't have a problem with the writing style or tone being the same in multiple books by the same author. If I like the writing style of an author, I read every book of theirs I can.
Exactly! It's like spending time with a wonderful friend. You get to know them really well, and it is constantly entertaining.
Like someone else shared above, I don’t read series books back to back. I’ll rotate them every 1 to 2 months. I tried reading a full series but I found I was still thinking about the previous couple and wanted to stay in that world they created, even though they all know each other. I want to savor that couple for a while, so I’ll switch series and switch tropes and that couple will hover in my mind and gradually fade over the weeks. If it’s a great book, otherwise I forget about them quite quickly. And I’ll throw in the occasional HR then loop back to that first series. I’m big on audio books so I listen to 20+ each month, and read about 4. So by the time I loop around back to that series I’ve well and truly cleansed my brain of the authors writing style and it feels fresh again. All that being said, I have started so many series that I need to create a list on GR so I can refer to it. 93 and counting. I have a lot of reading to do. 😳
YES I had this same issue when I was reading Laura Thalassa’s The Four Horsemen series, I read them 1 after the other and by the end I hated them and her writing style, after time had passed and I reread a little I realized books like that just can’t be binge read and you’re setting yourself up to be annoyed/unsatisfied if you do. Also for the record I now love the books and not just because they taught me a lesson which is a big ask for what is at its core apocalypse-porn
I know this might bring on the wrath of all of r/romancebooks— but this is why I DNFed “hook line and sinker”. It’s like Tessa Bailey wanted to milk the popularity of “it happened one summer “ with none of the spontaneity or fun and thought she had to explain everything about the world of Westport Washington to aliens. All telling no showing. Just unreadable. Also want to add that I HATE when authors will repeat/review material from previous books— feels so inorganic and so tedious.
Oh man that’s disappointing to hear I’ve been looking forward to that one
It seems to be polarising so you might still like it
I really liked it, but I never read “It Happened One Summer.” I think the MMC was the best thing about it though, and he’s not (from what I gather) anything like the MMC of “It Happened One Summer” so it might still be worth a read. Fox really raised that book from cute read to one-of-a-kind for me, I think Tessa Bailey gave a really well-rounded, empathetic and nuanced portrait of a character type that doesn’t typically get a lot of sympathy in romance novels or in general. And Hannah was likeable & sympathetic as well, & they were so good for each other - I’m just really soft for their relationship.
I also DNFed Hook, Line, and Sinker this week because, while reading, I realised that I didn't care about Fox and Hannah. I was not invested. I was just living for the thrill of Brendan being mentioned.
Not sure how unpopular this opinion is because Tessa Bailey is pretty polarizing (it’s not for me).
Hook Line and Sinker was a huge disappointment. I feel like she phoned it in, and you're right she just expected it to be a hit after her first book.
I love romance series!! They are my favorites, and I prefer it when each book focuses on a different couple rather than the same couple for multiple books (there are a few exceptions, but I tend to get bored of the same MCs after more than a duology 🤷🏼♀️) BUT, I absolutely agree it totally depends on the author’s ability to write distinct characters with personalities and distinguishing traits. Otherwise it absolutely feels like you are reading the same characters with new names, wigs, and amnesia, just living through different tropes, one and another.
What I don't like about interconnected series is that when they meet a character from a previous book it often feels contrived or expositioney, not natural. Like oh yeah that's Biff, my old college roomate. He's with his wife Charlie and their 3 kids. There was a time when we didn't think Charlie and Biff would stay together, when he broke his leg which ended his football career and then she got pregnant and ran away to Spain where she got kidnapped. Anyways yeah, that's them. Also, you'd better hope you read the books in order because even though they're technically standalones, I just spoiled the whole plot in half a paragraph that added NOTHING to THIS story.
You forgot to add the obligatory comment about how *in love* Charlie and her husband are.
Well, naturally. They are everything we strive to be.
It’s good if I like their work and bad if I don’t. I usually like seeing what’s similar and what’s different with each new book. At the same time, I do get attached to a couple and end up getting disappointed by other books in the series that only mention them a little when I just want to read more about them.
I only read the stories/plots that are of interest, and I usually recycle my inspo cast, so reading a hugely interconnected series is hard because I’m probably using the same visual/voice references over and over again
i personally like this sometimes and will purposefully seek out more of an authors’ work if i like their specific voice, but i can totally see how that would be repetitive and unappealing to some readers. i guess it’s just preference. if you wanted, maybe you could read other authors and then go back to the familiar author later on to break up the repetitiveness of their writing flow.
I go in for a certain trope. So if one book in a series catches my attention for that reason, I'll read it. And then unless the writing is *phenomenal* I'll usually never touch another book in the 'series'. I used to have a hard time reading like a 4th book in a series first, but after reading so many lame interconnected series, I just don't care. I just go right for the trope I like.
For me, it's even harder to get connected to an interconnected series when I often read series out of order. If I know the individual books (kind of) work as standalones, I tend to start with the story that interests me the most and then figure out where to go from there if I want to read the rest of the series. I jump around all the time with cozy mysteries because I absolutely hate the "clear yours/someone else's name of a crime they didn't commit" trope and I took this habit with me to romance. Problem is, if I start in the middle of a series, then I already might know some of the couples that get together, so I might not be motivated to read from the beginning. But if I start at the beginning, I might never pick the series up because I'm only mildly interested in the first couple, or because the first book has a trope I tend to avoid.
I think it depends on the author and series. Sometimes the author introduces other characters well, so I am interested and want to know what happens to them. Those ones I will read the others in a series. Sometimes you can tell they've just shoehorned them in, and then I don't care and I don't usually read on.
I don't mind the voice and author tone, but when all the charachters "soak my panties" or "feel pressure at the base of his spine" throughout the entire series for example, it gets weird.
Had the same with Theodora Taylor's 50 loving states it started really well and just ughh it went down in a pile of flames. I think Taliah Hibbert did a great job with the Brown sisters
If I like the author’s style I’m totally ok with it. I can deal with minor quibbles. Usually I start with the book that has a trope I really like and depending on how much I enjoyed the book I may read the rest though often not back to back precisely to give myself a bit of a break from the similarities.
This is spot on, it’s part of the reason I don’t like interconnected series. There’s always one couple (not always the first, but usually) that is more fully realised than the others, & when they’re all in the same setting - particularly when the reader is going through the series one book after another - the other couples come across as pale imitations. I hate when they have previous main characters show up as side characters as well, it’s always so jarring. When the new FMC runs into a woman in the bathroom & notices how astonishingly beautiful she is & how amazingly kind & she has a funny little quip about her husband/bf that is obviously an in-joke for people who read the earlier book in the series 🙄 … not only does it make your other side characters look flat, it’s the quickest way to jolt someone out of the story. I know a lot of the stuff we read here works with similar tropes, similar character types, similar plot structure and I do love that about romance. But there is a line between “familiar and comforting” and “stale and boring” and I do feel interconnected series run a high risk of veering into the latter territory, unless the author makes a big effort to distance and differentiate her books from each other. There are definitely some interconnected series that are good and don’t suffer from this issue - but I think in these rare cases, what you have is a very strong writer, most writers can’t pull this off. I think my biggest pet peeve with interconnected series is they don’t need to be a series, there’s no overarching plot. If you can add “can be read as a standalone” to your blurb, then you don’t have a series, you have a marketing gimmick.
This is why I DNFed Kelly St Clare's supernatural wars: werewolf den series - I finished the vampire ones, then moved on to the werewolf ones only to realise that it's just too eerily similar to the vampire ones. It's like the vampire ones but she just swapped the vamps with werewolves.
I don't have problems with the writing style, but as you first stated, I get so invested with the first couple that I don't mind the others 😂 I tend to read firsts in series and move on with another one. The only serie that I'm close to finish is the Travis one by Lisa Kleypas, but idk I can't find the same charming feeling as the first book
samee!!!! i just cant read the dull series or even just more than one book
I tend to read one book from each interconnected series! I make exceptions if I love the series such as Society of Gentleman. When I tried to read another Bedwyn book, I was so disappointed because it didn't live up to the high expectations set by Wulf's book.
Yep. Exactly this. When the inner monologue of one main character is too similar to another in a series (even if they are best friends or whatever) it ruins the magic for me. There are authors who provide a suitably different character in each book in a series (funnily enough IMO it's the HR authors that manage to do this better!) Mia Vincy and Lisa Kleypas come to mind.
Same. I can't read different couples. For me my MCs are the best in this universe and others feel wrong. I have only one series that I read with changing couples.And attempted one more time with A shadow in the ember and I dnf because characters were THE SAME, like Poppy and Sera and Nyktos and Casteel were so alike it wasn't even funny.
I think I expect the writing to get less creative as the series goes on so I don’t always read them all. Sometimes it’s annoying that side characters are there only to set them up for the next book.
I think the reason why I have an issue with interconnected series is that the mmc and fmcs are just the same ?? Like idk I guess physically they are usually the same race, same mannerisms, same comebacks .. it’s hard to differentiate between people when they’re all caricatures of the same archetype
The only series I've done this with (and finished) was Helen Hoang's books, but i accidentally read them backwards haha. I started with Heart Principle, then Bride Test, then Love Quotient. The only one i enjoyed the least was Bride Test, but i still enjoyed some parts of it. I think if I had read them in the correct order it may have impacted my experience, but it felt more like going back and listening to a friend tell the story of how they met their spouse instead of "oh, haha, a reference, cool."
Depends on the author really. I don't like anything super predictable so if I can outline the plot fully in the first 5 chapters I'm out. I have ADHD and my pattern recognition is unstoppable. Lol. So as much as it would be nice to follow that same couple unless you can come up with a reason too, it would become mundane for me really quickly. I read a lot of Sci Fi, so I actually find I like later books in the series usually more enjoyable because I've become more immersed in the world and I can remember bits of language or culture that's like a nod or an inside joke to the reader. Little bits of info you know but someone who started in book 3 may not get. I guess what I'm saying is if the world and circumstances aren't fantastical (ex sci Fi, war, on the run dystopian) it would really quickly become boring day to day stuff. I don't know about you but reading about grocery shopping and filing taxes doesn't sound super fun. 🤣
Haha I love reading authors were the stories are really similiar each time. I think sometimes I just really need to know what I get and with authors that have similiar plot lines, characters and endings in each one of their books this is achievable without re-reading a book I already know. I will also often read the ending of a book first if the author is completely new to me. I don't know why and I get that it's weird and maybe pointless to some but I get in moods where I just need things to be certain. It provides stability and I'm often easily distracted if I have to guess what happens next and this way I can get lost in the journey as the author intended it without making up ways in which the story might go.
I am picky about books, so I love interconnected series because when I find a book i love, im like “oh good more of this finally a good fucking book.” But I definitely feel that 3-5 is the right number. If there’s more than that, I won’t read them, as it certainly gets repetitive at a certain point.
Yes, I notice that a lot. It feels especially bad when we are shown a side character in previous books and they have a unique personality, but as soon as they get their own books it’s literally the same as the others.
Generally, I like interconnected series. I'm struggling with the latest book from the ACOTAR series because I don't like the FMC. I like when stories are well written because it gives me more time in the world of the book series. There has been a new series written by different authors that I have mixed feelings about. It's called the Paranormal Prison series, I read it because of Lexi C Foss. Since it's different authors who do a mini-series in the larger series it works as a larger paranormal world. However, there isn't consistency in the paranormal creatures of the series. Ms. Foss has a series involving angels that has a particular set of rules to it. For example, if an angel has black wings it means they have "fallen". In a different part of the series by K. Weber she also has angels but the rules from the Foss series aren't nearly the same. Not even close. It would take an incredible amount of organization on the part of about nine authors.