Top 9 All-Time Favorite Series
Happy National Reading month! For someone already behind on their reading goal for the year (25), this month brings the perfect motivation to catch up on my TBR (to be read). Also a great excuse to talk about some of my all-time favorite books. Each post this month with be a list of my favorite books in different categories. Today, it’s going to be series. (No particular order)
1. Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien
Genre: High Fantasy
(I also think of The Hobbit as part of this series, just to clarify.) Any fantasy nerd or bookwyrm that hasn’t read this trilogy is missing out. If the books intimidate you too much, I highly recommend trying the audiobooks. You can’t regret this series and it will just keep rewarding you throughout your life. My favorite book is The Fellowship of the Ring and my favorite character is probably Gandalf. If you somehow don’t know the summery; Lord of the Rings follows a hobbit named Frodo in his quest to destroy the Ring of Power and defeat the Dark Lord, Sauron. The prequel, The Hobbit, is about how his uncle, Bilbo, found the Ring while helping a group of dwarves win their home back from a dragon.
2. The Raven Cycle quartet by Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Urban Fantasy
This is one of those stories that stick with you after you finish it, the characters haunting your thoughts as you go about your day. The author’s writing style is so poetic and really makes her characters seem so real. My favorite character is Ronan Lynch and my favorite book is The Dream Thieves as it focuses on him and his story. It is about five teenagers trying to find a dead Welsh king buried somewhere in the area surrounding their private school while dealing with murderers, assassins, magic and demons.
3. Bartimaeus trilogy by Jonathan Stroud
Genre: Urban Fantasy
This series is probably the best written three books I’ve ever read. Jonathan Stroud has an an incredible writing style that supplies vivid detail and subtle humor. It also had one of the most brilliant conclusions and I have yet to find one that tops it. There is also a prequel to the trilogy that I also recommend (though read it after, you’ll enjoy it better) and Jonathan Stroud’s other series; Lockwood & Co. My favorite book is The Amulet of Samarkand and my favorite character is Bartimaeus (he will be your favorite as well). It is about an alternate London run by magicians who use demons to get their power and it follows one witty demon and his magician has the unravel plots in the corrupt government.
4. The Shadowhunter Chronicle by Cassandra Clare
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Six series and four sets of bind-up novellas (so far) make up this epic world. Cassie Clare’s writing only gets better the more you read. I had the pleasure of meeting her back in 2018 and she is just a sweet amazing person. I can’t decide on my favorite of her series, but it’s probably the original The Mortal Instruments though my favorite book is probably Lady Midnight. As for characters, given how many we get to see across her works, it is very hard to choose. I’ll cut it down to three; Alec Lightwood, Kieran Kingson and Raphael Santiago. A very basic summery; it is about half-angel warriors who protect the world from demons, showing many different generations and reoccurring characters.
5. Captive Prince trilogy by C.S. Pacat
Genre: LGBT+ Fiction
This one will be an acquired taste and takes a bit to get into, but I think it is beautifully written, deep, mature and surprisingly funny. I binged all three books in four days. My favorite book is Prince’s Gambit and I can’t choose between Damen and Laurent for my favorite character. I just love them both and their relationship so much. It is about a prince who is betrayed by his brother and sent as a slave to the prince of an enemy country and how they work together to save their kingdoms. This summery really doesn’t due it justice. Warning: it is for mature readers and has some problematic themes.
6. Six of Crows dueology by Leigh Bardugo
Genre: High Fantasy
Epic fantasy world, dark plot, diverse found family of characters, this series literally has everything you want in a story. While being very serious and dark, they are also hilarious and I was cackling reading these. I got to meet the author in 2018 and she is a badass. You don’t have to read her first series to read Six of Crows though they are set in the same world and both series are getting a combined TV show on Netflix coming out in a few months. They’ve already released clips of Kaz, Inej and Jesper and I am dying. I can’t choose a favorite book between them, but my favorite character is Matthias. A convict, a sharpshooter, a runaway, a spy, a thief and a Heartrender team up to pull off an impossible heist.
7. All for the Game trilogy by Nora Sakavic
Genre: LGBT+ Contemporary
You looking for a feel-good sports story? Well that’s not what you’ll get, but it’s an awesome story all the same. This series is hilarious and dark and heart wrenching, tackling deep topics with real-feeling characters all while getting you hyped for a made-up sport. I was not expecting what I got from this series, but that just made me love it more. My favorite book is The King’s Men and as much as I love my demisexual bae, Neil Josten, and his stabby boyfriend, Andrew Minyard, my favorite character is still probably Actual-Dad Coach David Wymack. Neil Josten is on the run from his mob-boss father and his cover threatens to be blown when he joins the exy team of outcasts, the Foxes.
8. Dragonspell quartet by Donita K. Paul
Genre: High Fantasy
Of all these series, this is the one you can casual invest in. That doesn’t mean it is any less good than the others, but its story, plot and world are gentler, easy to dip in and out of. The world and magic style are both beautiful and complex and though you can clearly see Christian worship in the writing, it doesn’t distract from the fantasy story. My favorite character is Sir Bardon and my favorite book is DragonKnight as it focuses on him. It is about a young orphan girl named Kale who discovers she has an ability to find dragon eggs, but on her way to be trained, she is suddenly pulled into a quest to save the last meech dragon egg from an evil wizard.
9. Percy Jackson & the Olympians by Rick Riordan
Genre: Urban Fantasy
If you are in the book world at all, you’ve heard of this series. Yes, it is middle grade, but its charms extend to all age groups with humor, diverse lovable characters and Greek mythology. The original Percy Jackson series remains my favorite of Uncle Rick’s works though it is closely followed by Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard. I did still enjoy The Kane Chronicles and The Heroes of Olympus, but a lot less. My favorite book is The Lightning Thief and my favorite character is probably Percy Jackson though I also love Nico di Angelo. Percy discovers he is a demigod, son of one of the old Greek gods who are still around and living about New York City and is sent on a quest to recover Zeus’s lightning bolt. Hope you decide to check out some of these incredible series and keep an eye out for my next favorites list.