Welcome to Monday Musings, a series where I review books that I read pre-end of 2017, when I started writing wrap-ups, talk about characters or topics that aren’t as relevant, or sometimes a surprise non-bookish thing.

Man, this list is kind of ridiculous. I like to do this thing where I read the first book in a series, absolutely fall in love with it, and then take close to half a year to actually finish the damn series. I just get so excited that I want to linger in the world, and then I end up with, like, ten outstanding series. So, today’s post is where I’m at with all of my series!

This might actually be the only one on this entire list that has a sensible reason? Brutal honesty–when I read the first book in this series, I swore up, down, and sideways that I was not going to read anymore because I was so whatever about it. I did end up forgetting about it for several months, too, and then, out of nowhere, it started coming back to haunt me. I kept thinking about the plot and the characters, and I couldn’t get them out of my head, so I finally gave in and got it. The insensible part of this? I’ve had it for months after being haunted by it, and I still haven’t read it.

Okay, for real, this one drives me nuts because I was halfway through the first book in this series when I decided that I knew I was going to love this trashy futuristic story so much that I immediately ordered the other two. I hadn’t even finished reading the first one yet! Thankfully, I’ve now read the first two, and this is the last in the trilogy, so at least I’ve got that going for me?

Okay, to be fair, these books are freaking massive, and there’s only so much middle grade I can handle at one point, so diving into a 600-page MG is a little daunting sometimes. It’s taken me a respectable amount of time, I think, to get through the first two, and I’m sure I’ll get around to this before summer’s end. Wow. I just gave myself an entire season to read this. Oi.

I feel a little better about this one since the third one only just came out this month, so it’s not like I’m super behind or anything, but I was also so in love with the first one that I bought this as soon as I was in a bookstore again. Like, I specifically went in to buy some sequels, and this was the first one on the list, and yet, here we are.

Again, I have no excuse. I absolutely gobbled up the first book in this trilogy, and I was so excited when I first purchased the second one to finally have it in my possession, and then I quietly shelved it and walked away. In my defense (I keep saying this, I should stop), though, I’m a lot better at this process than I used to be. Back in the day, I liked to buy books, put them on my bookshelf, and then never read them. Literally never. Now, I have a dedicated TBR section so that I can feel guilty whenever I’m not sure what to read next.

I have no excuses for this one. It took me an age and a half to read the second one, and now I’m like, I’ll get to it eventually? No, now! This seems to be a trend with the third book in trilogies, which is weird for me because usually I’m not all that sold on middle books (the rumors are true, guys, second books are typically lackluster), so you’d think I’d want to get right to the third one, but it’s like I do rush to it and then just not?

I did take my time with this series for actual reasons, I wasn’t just being lazy. Laini Taylor is a lot. In a really good way, yes, but wow, I feel like I just need to lay down and breathe for a couple days after I finish one of her books. I’m dying to know how this trilogy ends, and I’m trying to read this next month, but this is also my last Laini Taylor book, and that makes me really sad.

This was not actually as bad as I thought it was going to be, though it still also kind of makes me want to crawl in a hole and hide from all of these. The last two, I have plans to read next month, and I’ve been thinking about The Towering Sky and Court of Shadows a lot lately, so they’ll hopefully make an appearance sooner rather than later.

Do you have any outstanding series that you’re in the middle of? Have you read any of these that I’m apparently avoiding? Let me know in the comments below!