Book Series I Want To Finish Reading in 2025
Book Series To Binge Read
I love it when I find a book series to binge read. I can get a bit obsessed, like I did with Percy Jackson and the Olympians and the Me Before You Trilogy.
I thought I'd do a round up of some of the book series and serials I've started but have yet to finish (and hope to finally complete reading this year).
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What is a book series?
"There are two basic types of book series: an episodic series, in which the characters return in each book installment to experience a new set of events or challenges, or the dynamic series, in which it takes multiple books to flesh out one single storyline." - How To Write a Book Series from Scratch: Insider Tips To Know by Gate Keeper Press
List of book series I'd like to read this year
These are the book series in order that I hope to complete reading in 2025:
Spellbound series by Annabel Chase
Already finished:
Book 1 - Curse the Day
The only magic Emma Hart believes in is caffeine and the power of the dryer to lose one sock per load. A public interest lawyer buried under a mound of student debt, Emma’s whole life has been one turn of bad luck after another. Her streak seems to continue when she gets lost on the way to see a client in the remote Pocono Mountains. A chance encounter with a suicidal angel lands her in Spellbound, a town where supernaturals have been cursed to remain for centuries--probably not the best time for Emma to discover that she's actually a witch.
Between the recent murder of the town’s public defender, a goblin accused of theft, remedial witch classes, and the attention of one smoking hot vampire, Emma struggles to navigate this unfamiliar terrain without losing her mind...or her life.
Book 2 - Doom and Broom
Emma Hart hasn’t had a moment’s peace since her arrival in Spellbound. Her fear of heights hits an all-time high when she’s tasked with mastering a broomstick. It doesn’t help that Lady Weatherby seems determined to make basic witch training feel more like the magical ninja warrior championships.
When a werewolf is found dead and Daniel is named as the prime suspect, Emma takes the initiative to prove that the angel’s halo is firmly intact, once again stepping on the hooves of the cranky centaur, Sheriff Hugo. The heat is on as Emma struggles to get a grip on her broomstick and identify the killer before it’s too late.
Book 3 - Spell's Bells
When a sleeping dwarf is found entombed in a glass coffin and remedial witch Sophie is blamed, Emma Hart must defend her friend while trying to get to the bottom of the enchantment. The investigation lands Emma smack dab in the middle of Spellbound’s dating scene, where plenty of the town’s residents are eager to make her acquaintance. Emma knows it's time to kick her witchy skills up a notch if she expects to survive Thursday night speed dating and keep sweet Sophie from a life in paranormal prison.
Book 4 - Lucky Charm
New witch Emma Hart is at her wit’s end and, this time, it’s not the result of her vampire ghost roommate, her snarky owl, or her feelings for a certain fallen angel. Key members of Spellbound society are acting like children and it’s wreaking havoc on the town’s regulation-happy infrastructure. When Emma is turned invisible during the investigation, she realizes that the spell was no accident and that someone is out to silence her—permanently.
Book 5 - Better Than Hex
Struggling to make sense of recent changes in her life, witch-in-training Emma Hart decides to pursue therapy as well as a budding friendship with Markos, the town's most eligible minotaur and a talented architect. When the building inspector turns up dead in Markos's latest design, Emma quickly finds herself in the midst of a murder investigation. To top it off, she's defending a young werelion whose possession of a deadly substance has everyone wondering whether his intentions were equally deadly. Despite these distractions, Emma can't stop thinking about fallen angel Daniel and his heartbreaking decision--but if Emma doesn't manage to clear her head of all these distractions soon, she might just become the killer's next victim.
Book 6 - Cast Away
Witch-in-training Emma Hart is preparing for one of the worst days of her life...the marriage of fallen angel Daniel Starr to the spoiled fairy, Elsa Knightsbridge. Fortunately for Emma, distractions are easy to come by in Spellbound when a troll is found dead near a bridge and an overzealous werewolf is arrested for indecent exposure.
Will these incidents be enough to keep Emma from falling apart? Or will one of these situations be her undoing?
Book 7 - A Touch of Magic
Changes are afoot for Emma Hart now that her secret is out and her love life has taken a dramatic turn. With a mayoral election looming and a murderer on the loose, will life suddenly be a bed of roses for the plucky heroine or will she get pricked by the thorns?
Still need to read:
Book 8 - A Drop in the Potion
A new discovery by the remedial witches offers the chance to obtain a key ingredient for a spell that *may* bring an end to the curse on the long-suffering town. Naturally, Emma is the first to volunteer for the task--oblivious to the potential danger she faces. In the meantime, she stumbles upon a dead body in the Spellbound Care Home during a visit to Agnes and hopes--just this once--that someone has died due to natural causes. With the odds stacked against her, Emma faces the challenges ahead as though the lives of everyone she loves depends on it, because this time--they just might.
Book 9 - Hemlocked and Loaded
Emma Hart has a lot on her paranormal plate--a wedding to plan, a trespasser to defend, and a longstanding curse to break. When a pixie dies under mysterious circumstances, her endless list of Things To Do grows even longer.
Will she manage to uncover the truth behind the pixie's death before she becomes the next victim?
Book 10 - All Spell Breaks Loose
The big day is quickly approaching for Emma Hart. The best laid plans go awry, however, when a potion causes her to lose important memories. Without Emma's crucial memories, the coven worries that their hard work to undo the curse on Spellbound will remain at a standstill. It's all wands on deck as Emma's friends rally to get to the bottom of the mystery potion.
Will Emma recover her memories in time to walk down the aisle and save Spellbound?
The Bow Street Duchess Mystery series by Cara Devlin
Already finished:
Book 1 - Murder at the Seven Dials
A murdered opera singer. A duke drenched in her blood. For Bow Street Officer Hugh Marsden, the brutal killing is a straightforward case. Ever since his own exile from polite society, Hugh’s distaste for the ton has grown. Now, an opportunity to take down a peer of the realm has practically fallen into his lap. The only thing standing in his way? Audrey Sinclair, the Duchess of Fournier.
Audrey is certain her husband is wrongly accused, and she’s determined to prove it to the arrogant Bow Street officer, even if she must employ her most peculiar ability—or perhaps curse—to guide her investigation. After all, a duchess can do as she pleases.
Though Hugh is exasperated with the meddling duchess, when her discoveries reveal the true killer is still at large, he has no choice but to join her in the hunt—if only to prevent her from becoming the next victim.
Book 2 - Death at Fournier Downs
After a murder scandal nearly sent her husband to the gallows, Audrey, the Duchess of Fournier, has retreated to the countryside to distance herself from gossip—and from the Bow Street officer who proved as irritating as he was intriguing.
But when Audrey’s friend Charlotte, the Countess of Bainbury, dies mysteriously on Fournier Downs parkland, she summons the only person she trusts to uncover the truth: Principal Officer Hugh Marsden.
Ignoring the mounting friction between them, as well as Hugh’s command for her to stay out of his investigation, Audrey uses her uncanny ability to read the memories of objects to discover a web of sordid local secrets. More than one unlucky lady has been caught within its deadly strands, and a single misstep in their hunt for a killer could make Audrey and Hugh the next targets.
Book 3 - Silence of Deceit
For years, the Duchess of Fournier has buried a shameful secret connected to her remarkable, if bizarre, ability. While Audrey’s gift has helped her solve cases alongside the captivating Bow Street officer Hugh Marsden, she longs to forget her previous committal to an insane asylum. But now, a blackmailer with a taste for violence is threatening former patients of Shadewell Sanatorium, and it appears the ghosts of Audrey’s past have finally found her.
Since their last inquiry together, distance and distraction have helped Hugh restrain his forbidden attraction to the untouchable Audrey Sinclair. However, when a woman’s body clothed in one of Audrey's gowns, and bearing her calling cards, is fished out of the Thames, staying away from the stubborn duchess proves impossible.
Hugh and Audrey must join forces to unravel a puzzling revenge plot, but after the scrappy street boy Hugh has taken under his wing is attacked and left near death, they begin to realize just how steep the cost could be for crossing paths with a killer.
Book 4 - Penance for the Dead
Principal Bow Street Officer Hugh Marsden is used to living in the shadow of disgrace. First, as the illegitimate son of the late Viscount Neatham, and second, as the man who permanently maimed his half-brother in a duel six years ago. Reviled by the posh ton, Hugh happily severed ties to polite society—until the enigmatic Duchess of Fournier, Audrey Sinclair entered his world and turned it upside down.
Now, Hugh’s half-sister Eloisa has done the same. Just days after returning to London and hiring him to find a missing person—someone Eloisa claims holds a destructive family secret—she is murdered in cold blood on a ballroom floor. The prime suspect? Hugh Marsden.
When Audrey learns the Bow Street officer she’s come to cherish is on the run and being hunted for the crime, she vows to clear his name, no matter what it takes. Restricted to clandestine meetings, Audrey and Hugh’s investigation to find Eloisa’s true killer peels back years of Neatham family secrecy, and with it, a diabolical scheme to conceal the circumstances surrounding Hugh’s birth.
The desperate killer will stop at nothing to prevent Audrey and Hugh from unearthing the rest of the wicked truth—even if it means sending them both to an early grave.
Still need to read:
Book 5 - Fatal by Design
A summer house party in the countryside takes a deadly turn after the abduction of a viscountess.
After the shocking events of the spring, Audrey Sinclair and Hugh Marsden are adjusting to their new lives when an apparent highway robbery ends in the violent abduction of Audrey’s sister.
As callous as Millie has been in the past, Audrey can’t turn her back on family. She’ll do whatever it takes to find her sister, even if it means working with the man she’s been avoiding for months: former Bow Street officer Hugh Marsden.
Unsettled with his new role in society, and being deemed one of London's most eligible bachelors, Hugh is happy to fall back on his Bow Street skills to track down Lady Redding—and to see Audrey again. But the viscountess’s disappearance is only half of the puzzle. A long-lost ring worth a fortune could be the driving force behind the deadly events, and as Audrey and Hugh unravel the truth—along with the secrets and complications surrounding their future—a killer closes in on the house party…and selects a new victim.
Book 6 - Nature of the Crime
When a fellow passenger is found dead on Audrey’s packet ship from France, a mysterious note on the body points to her as the killer. Detained in Dover for an inquest that is being led by a prejudiced magistrate, she is joined by trusted friends and family—and the newly minted viscount, Hugh Marsden—to prove her innocence.
But when it’s discovered the murdered man was a private inquiry agent, hired to follow the duchess while she traveled the Continent, they enter a race to find out who hired him and why—and what secrets the true killer intends to expose before sending Audrey to an early grave.
Book 7 - Taken to the Grave
As Audrey Sinclair reaches the end of her mourning period, she and Hugh Marsden, the Viscount Neatham, are at long last looking toward their future together — and hoping for a respite from the dangerous criminal investigations they’ve found themselves entrenched in.
However, when the niece of Bow Street’s chief magistrate Sir Gabriel Poston goes missing, and Audrey and Hugh link her disappearance to a stirring public panic over suspicious deaths at the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, they agree to one final inquiry...
Joseph Stark series by Matthew Frank
Already finished:
Book 1 - If I Should Die
When a homeless man walks into Greenwich police station and confesses a killing, it should be the admission that cracks open a murder enquiry. Instead, he stumbles out on to the street and collapses, bleeding from a stab wound he's attempted to repair himself . . .
The newest member of the Met's murder investigation team, twenty-five year-old Afghan veteran Joseph Stark, doesn't believe the man's story. Yet it becomes clear that Stark and the down-and-out share a connection. And that this could provide the key to unlocking the case.
Soon, the young detective and his colleagues are drawn deeper into a dark, disturbing world as dangerous as anything Stark has known on the frontline. And where there's enough at stake for a man to risk everything . . .
Book 2 - Between the Crosses
No longer a trainee but a freshly-minted Detective Constable, Joseph Stark finds himself working a double homicide. Thomas and Mary Chase were shot dead in their London home, and first impressions are that this is a burglary-gone-bad.
But Stark is unconvinced. Burglary-murders are usually a tragic case of unfortunate timing, but this feels like something else entirely. And when evidence arises to link this murder to a twenty year old cold case the hunt is well and truly on.
Still need to read:
Book 3 - The Killer Inside
Julian Sinclair is a serial killer.
Charming, manipulative, deadly. He hunted girls for sport, and it's high time justice was served.
But when Sinclair's conviction is thrown out in court, DC Joseph Stark and DS Fran Millhaven are forced to protect the man they're sure is guilty from those who would rather see him pay in blood.
Then another girl dies.
And Sinclair can't have killed her from his hospital bed . . .
Is a killer lurking in someone they never suspected?
And have they had the wrong man all along?
The Ackerman Thrillers by Ethan Cross (previously called The Shepherd series. Titles for individual books have also changed).
Already finished:
Book 1 - I Am The Night (Original title The Shepherd).
The night is dark. My soul is darker.
Marcus Williams and Francis Ackerman Jr. are both killers. But while Williams is tortured by the deaths he has caused, Ackerman takes pleasure in his murders.
Williams is a former New York City homicide detective.
Ackerman is a serial killer.
And both men are about to become unwilling pawns in a conspiracy that reaches to the highest levels of US government. They will be plunged deep into a hellish underworld of murderers and killers. They will find that there is more that connects them than divides them... and that their lives depend on it.
Book 2 - I Am Fear (Original title The Prophet).
They say face your fears. Here I am.
OLD ENEMIES...
Francis Ackerman Jr. is one of America's most prolifific serial killers. Scarred from their past battles, Special Agent Marcus Williams cannot shake Ackerman from his mind. But now Marcus must focus on catching the Anarchist, a new killer who drugs and kidnaps women before burning them alive.
NEW THREATS...
Marcus knows the Anarchist will strike again soon. And Ackerman is still free. But worse than this is a mysterious figure, unknown to the authorities, who controls the actions of the Anarchist and many like him. He is the Prophet – and his plans are more terrible than even his disciples can imagine.
Book 3 - I Am Pain (Original title Father of Fear).
You don't know the meaning of pain. Let me teach you.
A father returns home to find that his family has been kidnapped. He can get them back - alive - if he agrees to pay the ransom. The price is simple: the life of an innocent.
Special Agent Marcus Williams is the only one who can stop the Coercion Killer. But to do so, he must first untangle his family's dark past. A past that ties him to the infamous serial killer Francis Ackerman Jr.
Marcus knows that uniting with Francis will be dangerous. But the Coercion Killer has scarred their lives, and is poised to destroy many more. Sometimes stopping the worst of the worst is a job for the best of the bad.
Book 4 - I Am Wrath (Original title The Judas Game).
My wrath knows no bounds. Your torment knows no end.
An Arizona prison officer climbs his watchtower and opens fire on the inmates and guards below. Federal investigator Marcus Williams needs to know why. What he unearths is that the prison has become the hunting ground of a psychopath known only as 'Judas'.
To uncover Judas' identity, Williams must join forces with serial killer Francis Ackerman Jr. While Williams works the case from the outside, Ackerman Jr. goes undercover among the prisoners on the inside. What neither of them know is just how diabolically ambitious Judas' master plan is...
Still need to read:
Book 5 - I Am Hate (Original title Only the Strong).
Most people hate me. But everyone remembers me.
In San Francisco, a ruthless criminal syndicate is building an empire on spilt blood. Among their number is 'The Gladiator'. No ordinary contract killer, the Gladiator sees himself as a modern-day Genghis Khan, determined to carve his very name onto the evolution of mankind.
To stop him Ackerman and Williams face him in an arena of death where violence is inflicted for profit and pleasure. This is the Gladiator's domain, a realm in which he is undefeated... but then he's never encountered Ackerman before.
Book 6 - I Am Vengeance (Original title The Taker).
Vengeance is in my heart. Murder in my mind.
Infamous serial killer Francis Ackerman Jr turns his unique and brutal talents to solving a cold case. Working alongside federal agent Marcus Williams, he discovers that the twenty-year-old murder is linked to a string of abductions in the Navajo Nation.
The investigation leads Ackerman and Williams deep into the largest American Indian reservation in the US, where a ruthless drug gang has established its own kingdom. But Ackerman's resolve to use his bad side to do good is shattered when one of his team goes missing. Unless the team member is found soon, the drug runners will discover that the most terrifying predator in the wilderness is a vengeful Ackerman...
What book series have you started but not finished yet?