Harry Potter and the biggest let down ever.

Okay, I have finished the Harry Potter series (thus far) recommended to me by people who write as excellent, must read books. I would one day fancy myself a writer for children, though I prefer the 4 year old and below age range myself. Anyway, the books came highly recommended. I SWORE I would never read the Harry Potter books. Just didn't want to read them. I had seen the movies and enjoyed them and am looking forward to the newest one, but just was NOT going to read the books.

I LOVED the first one. Wow. The Sorcerer's Stone was fantastic. I read it in about 4 hours (longer if you count I had to put it down to cook dinner, do laundry, all the normal wifey things.

The 2nd, The Chamber of Secrets, took me a bit longer to read, but I really enjoyed it as well. Fascinating use of characters and plot twists and turns.

The 3rd. Good book, The Prisoner of Azkaban had the ultimate twist...again a page turner. I looked forward to getting back into it when I had to put it down, but life prohibited me from getting into it very quickly and my interested waxed and waned, but I wanted more.

the 4th book, The Goblet of Fire.....ummmm *yawn*. There were a few good parts but this is no where NEAR as interesting as the other 3. The end was the best part, not because it was over, smarty pants, but it was exciting. The rest was hard to get through.

5th book, Order of the Phoenix.......BORi*snore snore snore*...oh wait. Oh yeah, boring. Again, the END of the book was the best part, the parts leading up had little to none of the adventure I had long come to expect.

and last night I finished the Half-Blood Prince. The thing I enjoyed about it was trying to figure out WHO could be the half-blood prince. I won't spoil it for you, I would have been mad if somebody spoiled it for me, but again, the ONLY good, exciting part was the end. Rowlings threatened many times with events that COULD have been exciting. They started out titillating, but then just fizzled out, not building suspense, but just fizzling out. The end was unexpected and I kept waiting for a "different" outcome (those who have read it know what I mean).

I hear there is one more in the series. I will read it too, but this time, Ms. J.K. Rowling, please....keep the action, keep the suspense, LOVE the character building skills you have, skills that have allowed you to not only keep the players true to their roles over 6 books, but also develop and grow them (or in some cases help them seethe in their anger). I have highest hopes that the supposed final in this series will not disappoint me. I have come to expect so much more.

Book 5.