When To Stop?

I've seen some discussions on when a series has gone on long enough; when do you draw the line 'enough is enough'?

My answer has always been 'when I can no longer keep the stories fresh.  I do not want to keep writing the same thing over and over.'

Why do I bring this up?

Because this past month I was fortunate enough to three books by two different authors in which, in my humble opinion, the authors did not know when to end the STORY.

One author has written a series of books, and to hear her talk about them, her fans clamored for the secondary characters to have their own stories.  Fine and dandy; I can relate to that.  Others do it all the time.  BUT....the stories overlap so much, it gets confusing.  Book #1 was wonderful; book #2 was a nice sequel; Book #3 kept going....and going.....and going......I had a hard time believing one woman could keep going back and forth between the two men, one of whom came off as a wuss.  I disliked him intensely, and wanted to yell at him that there were more women out there.  Man up and go find one.  Forget this chick who can't seem to make up her mind!

Then we come to book #4.  Which goes BACK to everyone's college years....then catches up to book #1, then book #2.....then WHAM!  Suddenly this M/M story goes back and forth M/M; M/F; then M/F/M or M/M/F.  Then a character dies, and it becomes M/F again.  Make up your mind!  Oh, then we're back to Book #3's storyline....and there's an annoying female secondary character who I also want to bitch slap and tell her 'there are more men out there....stay away from these two!'

And there are at least three more books in this series?

Yes, I want to read them.  And yes, I'm probably going to skim a great deal if I get mad again.  I'd prefer to WIN the rest of the books in contests, but this author has contests which frankly, I don't have the time to follow all the damn instructions/blogs in order to be entered.

And that's another thing:  Keep contests SIMPLE....just leave a comment and you're entered.  Not this 'follow', 'like', 'leave a comment on all 20+ blogs...'  Who the hell has TIME for all that?

Okay, that rant's over.

The next author has only one book out.  I read and enjoyed the first few chapters, and then came to an ENTIRE section which failed to hold my interest.  It literally made me sleepy.  I had to put it down, take a nap or read something else, and then return to it for another two or three chapters.

And then I came to the last three or four chapters, and enjoyed every word:)

The action in the middle dragged.  I kept wanting things to move along....but in my opinion, the author went off on a tangent and finally wandered around to his original plot point.

So authors, please reread your work?  Get a good crit partner?

This is why I limited my books to a year or two in the lives of my girls.  Why Keri's story stops at a 'HEAFN' ending.  It kept bleeding into books 4 and 5, when her ending is clearly told both times.  It didn't need to be told 3 times.  And-hint, hint-she comes back at a later date, and gets her HEA.  There; now you have an incentive to keep reading:)