Books in a series and other offerings of my brain

In reading my posts to date I realized that what I am putting together is not so much a list of good books or a list of reviews of books or really any kind of list or recommendations. I am really thinking through my fingers and the keyboard of my computer about what, for me, makes a book good and what features I look for in a good or great book. Whether this is helpful for anyone else I don't know but I do know that I frequently will put down a book and think 'wow, why can't I put words together like so and so does?' I certainly know all of the words this author used in this book....why can't I do this? I have tried and believe me the results were not print worthy at all.

So here is a list (not all inclusive by any means) of some of my least favorite things to discover in a book. Most of these items refer to fairly well established book series, generally not 'one-offs' or standalone titles. I have abandoned book series that I have invested a lot of time reading for some or all of these reasons. I generally have anywhere from 40 to 100 books to be read scattered on my nightstand, on the floor on my side of the bed, next to my favorite chair, on my desk, in my purse, and a pile on my actual to be read bookshelf so I can be picky about what I choose to read and quickly cull out those books either being returned quickly to the library or going directly to my recycle/sale shelf.

1. The big tease. By this I refer to authors who design a certain back story for their character/characters and rather than resolving an issue in this back story, continue to walk the reader to the brink in the last chapter, time and time again, only to take a step back (often within the last few lines) and in essence tell the reader "gotcha again, not this time, maybe I'll resolve this in the next book....but who knows, maybe not." This is number one on my list because the book I'm reading now is one of those....Romantic suspense writers are bad at this....will she won't she?
   
2. Genre books that all jump on the same thematic bandwagon (I covered this in an earlier post so I won't elaborate.) Just a further thought....Be original.
3. Authors who fall into the trap of using 10 word descriptions when one or two would do. This is becoming more and more commonplace. Instead of calling a character by their name (and really when you've read 3 or 4 books in a series, the character's name is pretty easy to recall), some authors will seem to shy away from using a name and start describing them.... Mary Jones becomes 'the pretty dark haired librarian'. Or Sally Smith will become 'the vivacious blond candy maker'. We readers know the characters' names, why is it so hard for their creators to use them?
4. Likewise, there is a segment of writers (and this is as true in stand-alones as in series but it is a major peeve of mine) who have their main character use (over and over and over) expressions such as okaaaaay, or puhleeeeeze, or reeeally. The list goes on and on. For me this doesn't make the character seem real or relevant it makes them seem stupid.
5. Rewriting history. This is probably most common in a book series that was originally intended to be a one off and due to popularity becomes a series. Authors, please go back and read your first book and don't make your character, originally a red-headed photographers assistant from Keokuk now a sultry brunette from Baton Rouge. Really disrupts the flow!
6. I am a creature of habit...I like to find a good book series, watch the characters grow and develop within themselves as well as grow with the other characters in the book. I absolutely hate authors who apparently get so bored with their creations that they start killing off major players 6 or 7 books into the storyline or encourage their characters to act in a manner completely foreign to their nature. Now I completely understand that authors conceive and bring forth their characters as a labor of love and completely own their lives but why kill off a deeply loved significant other or some such other nonsense?