Naturally, as soon as I saw this week’s TTT prompt, my brain went blank: “Ten Favorite Books from Ten Series”. But after some digging around on my shelves in the blog, I do have some answers! I’ve probably left out something perfect and amazing, but here goes. I’ve linked to my review in each case, assuming I have one posted on the blog!
- Death of an Author, by E.C.R. Lorac. Of the British Library Crime Classics series, this is one of my favourites. This is perhaps not the conventional sense of “series”, and perhaps I should’ve picked my favourite Lorac of her series about Inspector Macdonald… but, well, I didn’t.
- Mirror Lake, by Juneau Black. It’s hard to pick a favourite of this series, because it’s less about any individual book (at least so far) and more just enjoying the setup. Still, Mirror Lake is very clever.
- The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System, vol 3, by MXTX. Okay, maybe it’s cheating to count this as a series, but we’re not being marked on accuracy here. I like book three the most because Shen Qingqiu starts to realise some things — and starts to finally understand Luo Binghe and treat him a little more fairly. And of course, they get their happy ending.
- Two Rogues Make A Right, by Cat Sebastian. I didn’t choose this just because a major character has TB, but that kinda factors into why I find this so memorable. But I also enjoy how Sebastian’s series usually take a character who seemed an unlikely love interest in a previous book, and get into why they acted that way, and make them worthy love interests after all, and — if I remember rightly, anyway — this was the first book where I noticed that pattern.
- A Fashionable Indulgence, by KJ Charles. I wouldn’t always expect a first book in a series to be a favourite, but I think there were things I found frustrating or just not to my taste in the latter two books — while appreciating the arc and story over the whole trilogy, and liking the second and third books quite a bit, to be clear! And I do enjoy the characters (and their relationship) a lot in this first installment.
- Prince Caspian, by C.S. Lewis. I’m not absolutely positive I shouldn’t pick Voyage of the Dawn Treader here, but on the other hand, this has all four of the Pevensies, and as a kid I ate up the introductory chapters with the secret midnight meetings in the tower…
- Tropic of Serpents, by Marie Brennan. This book is where that series fell into place for me, and it’s a perfect illustration of how Isabella is as a person (and a scientist). I just had a lot of fun with it, and always do.
- Feed, by Mira Grant. Honestly, this book has lived rent-free in my head for so long. I’m not as big a fan of the rest of the series — not that I dislike it, just, this is the book that I like the best.
- Glamour in Glass, by Mary Robinette Kowal. This is another series where it was the second book that made things really click for me. It was very unlike the first book, and went some bold places.
- Have His Carcase, by Dorothy L. Sayers. Perhaps a controversial choice, compared to Strong Poison or Gaudy Night, and there’s a strong argument to be made for The Nine Tailors, in my book. But ultimately I love Peter and Harriet’s early friendship and the wittiness this particular book is written with.
Those are my choices, and I’m sticking to them!
What about everyone else? Would you/did you find this one difficult to answer?
