Lately though, due to some health conditions I have been finding it harder to sit down an read, I often feel so tired that it can be a struggle, so I’ve been really enjoying buying audiobooks off of Audible. I have purchased one of their audio book subscriptions for the last year or so and I’ve got a lot of use out of it.

I will quite often listen to an audiobook along with reading my book, it helps take some strain of off my brain when I’m feeling tired or am going through a brain fog, but I also love listening to them on their own while I’m doing other things or just having some relaxation time, it still lets me escape from the world for a bit just like reading does.

A Few My Favourite Book Series

My favourite types of books to read are most often from the fantasy and scifi genres, as you will see below. I love things with magic like those from Jk Rowling’s ‘Wizarding World (Harry Potter, Fantastic Beasts)‘ or Cassandra Claire’s ‘Shadow Hunter (Immortal Instruments)‘ series, I’m still making my way through hers but I’m really enjoying it and I loved the Netflix series.

I also love for some reason Dystopia or Utopia type books like the ‘Divergent’ series from Veronica Roth or ‘The Hunger Games’ series by Suzanne Collins, I feel like they are often take inspiration from real places and show us possible futures in an interesting ways.

So here are some my favourite book series, some of which are more recent favourites and some that I’ve loved for quite a while:

J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World (Harry Potter, Fantastic Beasts)

This one will always have a special place in my heart as I’m sure it will for many people, I grew up reading J.k. Rowling’s ‘Harry Potter’ series. When my sister and I were younger our Mum would read this to us before we went to bed, and as we got older and started reading it ourselves, we would be taken back to Hogwarts and follow Harry’s journey all over again.

This is a series that I think is great for a wide audience whether you are a tween or young adult or well into your Adult years, it’s such a timeless story and I feel like it will be a staple in many readers collections for years to come.

More recently she has added to the series with ‘The Cursed Child’ which has been performed on stage around the world with much excitment from avid fans, those both young and old. It’s also available in print form and even though it is in a script format, when you are reading it doesn’t feel difficult to read, you end up reading to just as smoothly as if you are reading a normal book format.

J.k. Rowling has also added to her wizarding world with her ‘Fantastic Beasts‘ series, accompanying the movie series is the movie scripts in book format, like ‘The Cursed Child‘ these are a similar format but for screen not stage. And just like ‘The Cursed Child’ the ‘Fantastic Beasts’ books are just as easy to read.

I’m love both ‘The Cursed Child‘ and The first two books from the ‘Fantasic Beasts’ series, the stories are fantastic and curb my longing for new stories from J.k. Rowling. I haven’t seen the stage show for ‘The Cursed Child’, however my Mum and Sister went and loved it, had it not been so long I may have gone, I don’t deal well with lots of people so I opted not to go. I did however love the book and I hope she chooses to write more stories following this in the future.

I really enjoyed reading the first two books/movies (scripts) for the ‘Fantastic Beasts’ series, I love the character’s and story line. I love that we will get to see more about Albus Dumbledore’s story (he has always been one of my favourite characters as I’m sure is the same for many other people) and I love that we get to see other areas and stories from JK’s Wizarding World.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

I love this series and it was really the only series that I had dived into after ‘Harry Potter’ that made me want to read the story all over again. This really started my love for dystopia type stories, since reading ‘The Hunger Games’ I’ve really been drawn in by these kinds of stories I’m not sure why but they just make for interesting reads.

This series doesn’t have magic like in ‘Harry Potter’ but it does follow Katniss, who lives in one of the poorer districts, and after her sister is picked as a tribute for ‘The Hunger Games’ volunteers in her place. This whole series is centred around her journey through ‘The Hunger Games’ and the society she lives in. It was a wonderful read and one I would love to read many times over.

The movies for this series were also great and I still love watching them, I also heard that Suzanne Collins is writing a prequel to this series that will release some time in 2020, I can’t wait to read it.

Divergent by Veronica Roth

‘Divergent’ is another great series, I dived straight into this series after reading ‘The Hunger Games’. I felt like this story has some interesting twists and turns.

This story follows Tris through her journey in a post-apocalyptic dystopian/Utopian Chicago, where she weaves her way through fractions and what it means to be a divergent. If you liked ‘The Hunger Games’ you’ll probably like this series.

I still have to read the prequel for this series ‘Four’ but if its anything like these I’m sure I’ll love it, I also would love to check out more stories from Veronica Roth, I think this series was great and I’m sure that her other books will be also.

As for the movies for this series the first three were great but I’m super disappointed with the fact that they have left us hanging with not completing this story.

Partials Series by Dan Wells

This series is probably one that not a lot of people have heard of, it’s called ‘Partials’ and it’s by Author Dan Wells, its similar to ‘Divergent’ in that its set in a post-apocalyptic world where humans have all but mostly been wiped out. What makes this one interesting is the fact that its based around genetics and trying to continue the existence of humans on earth.

The humans left have to share with a humanoid species called Partials which they created to use as soldiers but there was a war and the Partials were blamed for wiping out the humans. I don’t want to go into to much detail because I don’t want to ruin it for anyone, I recommend this one if you really liked ‘Divergent‘. Check it out on the Author’s website for a better synopsis. (Link not sponsored or affiliated.)

I really love this series, I randomly found the sequel at a second hand shop and once I purchased it I sought to track down the other books, I have yet to find the first one in actually print but I have the ebook. The storyline is really interesting and I had never heard of the Author (Dan Wells) when I purchased it but I know this will be one that I’ll want to read over and over.

I think this series would also make an interesting movie or netflix series, who knows maybe in the future this might happen.

The 100 by Kass Morgan

This is a more recent addition to my collection, I wanted to read this series because I love the TV series. What I didn’t expect is that the story is very different from the TV series, I guess the writer’s of TV series took a lot of artistic licenses. I still thoroughly enjoyed the books though and I’m kind of disappointed there aren’t more of them.

I feel like these are really easy to read and I was able to get through them in a week (per-book) as the stories are actually quite short. There are still some similar main characters like Clarke & Bellamy, Wells also has a huge part in the books, if you have seen the TV series you will know that he got killed off in series one. They also have a better relationship with the grounders/earthborns than in the TV series which kind of happens later on but there is always a bit of tension there.

The story is similar but things happen in the books that don’t in the series and vice versa. So if you have seen the series and are interested in reading the books be prepared that it’s a similar story but not exactly the same.

My Favourite Audio Books

The 100 series by Kass Morgan read by Phoebe Strole & Justin Torres

I loved pairing this with my books from the series but also it was just great to listen, what I really loved was that it was consistent throughout the series, that it had the same narrators for all four books. What was interesting about these were that they had two narrators, ‘Phoebe Strole’ narrated the chapters from female characters perspective (i.e. Clarke’s) and ‘Justin Torres’ narrated the chapters from the male charaters perspective (i.e. Bellamy). This made for very interesting listening and I really liked this approach.

The audio books were quite short though only about 6-7 hrs long in comparison to some of the other ones I have which are about 16-20 hrs, so if your looking to purchase them just know that your not getting as much for your money especially If you have an Audible subscription.

The ‘Harry Potter’ Audio Books narrated by Stephen Fry

If your going to purchase any audio books I highly recommend the ‘Harry Potter’ audio books, they are fantastic. If your not much of a reader or just don’t find you have enough time for them, these are worth your money.

Stephen Fry does an amazing job narrating all seven of the original books, and I love the way he easily goes between reading the story and narrating each character, its both seamless and very entertaining.

It took me a while to purchase these and now I look back and go why didn’t I purchase these sooner because they are so good. Without an Audible subscription these retail for roughly $40 AU each, if you want to save some money it may be worth taking out a subscription because you can save just over half per-audiobook. But look around you may be able to find it cheaper elsewhere.

The Mortal Instruments – Books 1 – 3 by Cassandra Claire read by Ari Graynor, Natalie Moore…

I’m currently up to book 4 in this series (when writing this) but I really enjoyed the first three audio/books from this series. For the audio books I quite enjoyed the first 3, I really enjoyed the narration by Natalie Moore (books 2 & 3), I felt she was great at telling the story through the different characters.

Looking back I actually didn’t realize that book one (City of Bones) was actually narrated by Ari Graynor and not by Natalie Moore.

When I’m writing this I’m only actually up to book four currently but so far this series is great, I really loved the Netflix series and I love the characters and themes in this series. I think Cassandra Claire has created some great characters and the story line so far is quite interesting.

As far as the Audiobooks I realise this is a long series but I’m kind of disappointed that the narration isn’t consistent like say the ‘Harry Potter’ ones, there are actually several narrators over the series. It won’t stop me continuing to listen and I haven’t got far enough into number four to give a definitive review, I really just prefer a series that has consistant narration, I think it just flows better.

The Maze Runner by James Dashner read by Mark Deakins

I’ve read the three original books and I’m currently reading the first book for the prequel series. Due to some health problems I mainly listened to this one with the occasional reading of the book. I really enjoyed the narration of the first three audio books and found them enjoyable to listen to. I did one long stint where I listened to the first audio book for a couple of hours when I was feeling quite exhausted and couldn’t do much else. I really enjoyed both the story and Mark Deakins narration of the story and I can’t wait to continue the reading the rest of the series.

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One of my goals for the future is to do more reading, It doesn’t matter to me if I’m actually reading or If I’m listening to the audiobook, I just want to read more, I have a semi-large collection and I am always finding more series that I’m interested in so I just want to enjoy it more. I feel like this helps me cope with some of my health issues, by just being able to escape and relax a little.

I would love to listen and read some more non-fiction type books, I’m really into reading body positive and self-improvement books at the moment.

What are your favourite book series that you have read? Have you read any of the ones mentioned? let me know in the comments, I would love some recommendations.

Until next time, I hope you have a lovely day.

Image credits: Photos taken by Erin Applebee. All cover artwork & books/audiobook are copyrighted to the original authors, illustrators and or publishers. Any links included for reference/educational purposes, they are not sponsored or affliated in any way.

Disclaimer – This post is not sponsored and doesn’t contain any affiliate links, links included are for reference only in case your interest in purchasing the reviewed product. Read full Disclaimer here.

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