Moving on from your favorite author

     Wow, it's harder than I thought. I have one author I've been reading for close to 20 years, racking up around 3400 pages read. A friend got me going on the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. I had never read such fascinating historical fiction and time travel mixed together. She also built a long-lasting romance of a married couple which is a rarity these days. From time to time, her books got a bit over the top (morally) and I'd set them aside, but over the years I missed the main characters and would pick up another book in the sequel. 


     Fast forward 20 years and the story of Jamie and Claire is still alive. Can you think of any author that can write 800-1400 pages per book in her series and keep a married couple living a life of adventure?


     It's just that. Outlander and Dragonfly in Amber were two of the best books I've ever read. Unbreakable connections, visions of historic Scottish battles, necessary separations ending with unforgettable reunions. They had it all. But somewhere along the series, it just became about the details. I thought it was just me, I was just being impatient. I would read one over the summer and give up the time it would take me to read seven other books.


     Last summer, I gave it another chance - spent a month reading through 1000 pages only to come away feeling once again that the characters weren't connecting anymore and the villain was just a blip in the pages. The volumes went from 630 pages to 1400?What about the editing?  I joined the fan site and asked the other readers if it was worth continuing and they promised it was, but this time I went to Goodreads and found that the future volumes are pretty much the same.


     It's such a downer to put down the series for good, especially when I have the next two hardbacks staring at me,  but here goes. The first two will always be in my top 10, but I am moving on.  Have you ever had such a nerdgirl problem? Ever had to finally accept that your favorite band, actor, or writer just wasn't all that anymore?


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