Series VS Standalone...

I do not like Standalones at all. One book does just not give me any satisfaction at all. I need to know there's more to the story..
However.. I get bored really fast of series that go on and on and on about the same people. I prefer series where it's about the same group of people but always has someone else in the spotlight. A great example of this is "Love at Stake" by Kerrelyn Sparks. I loved these books to death and I so wish that it's not over yet. (She has announced the last book to be the last book FOR NOW, so who knows).

When it keeps going on about the same two people in the spotlight, I often feel like the author does some weird things with the storyline and just keeps inventing things to keep it going even if those things would not be considered very high standing or good for that matter. Just to keep it going because it sells. I think we all know a couple of examples.

Series I loved to death:

Love at Stake
Stookie Stackhouse
Desperate Debutantes
Harry Potter (I mean come on, who didn't love this)
Black Daggar Brotherhood
Warriors of Posseidon

I would recommend these books to anyone, they filled endless moments with joy and they kept me interested every time a new book came out. They made me wanting more and more!

Series I started out loving but ended up hating:
We all have it, we start reading books and eventually we just can't help but getting tired of the books, finding the plot twists all too far fetched, wondering how the story ever came the way it did...

House of Night.. I can't help it. I know there are a lot of fangirls and boys out there and I loved the start of it, but after what book 7 or 8 I just couldn't be bothered with it any more?

Gemma Doyle books by Libba Bray. I loved the first one, I don't remember how I felt about the second one but I know it took me forever to get out of the third book. I always get sad when I end up hating a book I've been looking forward to for so long because I don't want to hate these characters I've been spending so much time with (be it in my mind). It's like ending a friendship that's taken you to your highest and lowest points.

The Vampire Diaries. I think this is one of the only times I can say I actually loved the ts show more than the books. I enjoyed the first couple but then it just felt like the books weren't doing it for me.. Shortly after hating the books the tv show came out and I ended up falling in love again.. Just to get my dreams and feelings crushed again when I lost interest in the tv show.

Another one here could be the Divergent books. I read number one and two but lost all interest for number three. Got some more interest back when Four came out but lost it rather quickly again.

It's such a thin line between not going far enough as an author and going that one step to far causing your readers to lose interest. I like to think this is wrong, but sometimes I feel like certain series keep getting more books published just because they sell. Like now, even if I don't like House of Night as much as I used to, I would still buy the books and read them to see if maybe I would start liking them again.
Maybe this isn't just the Authors fault. Maybe it has something to do with me, as a reader, getting older and outgrowing certain books. Which brings me to a whole new level of depressed but that's for another time...
If you want to have a series to read, I reccomend all of the above because once, I did love them. I think the real trick to not hating them after a while is trying to read these books with a couple of other books in between. For example you could read Love at Stake One (How to Marry a Millionaire Vampire - the title alone made me buy this) and then you read one or two books that have nothing to do with Love at Stake, or maybe even more depending on how long it takes you to read a book. After you've read a couple of other books go back to Love at Stake two.
This might be hard because a lot of the books are sold in Box sets now and it can be just oh so tempting to keep reading when they're in reach... It's easier to do when you're actually with the Author. You read a book, love it, look at when the next one is a available only to realize you have to wait a year! This is frustrating but it makes sure that you don't overindulge yourself and get a series overdose!