It's a good question. Expectations are funny things. For me...maybe yes, maybe no? Maybe I'm not one to answer. I don't really read for plot. But I'm sitting here trying to figure out why I feel one way about Ricardo Pinto's first novel (explicitly the first of several) and another way about the Midnighters books. And the closest I can come to pinpointing it is--forward motion and sense of arc. Feeling like we got _somewhere,_ even if not to the end?

It would be interesting to see what people who look for series books say, versus those of us who learn towards standalones.