The Collector Series by Dot Hutchison

Hi Folks,

Hope you’re all doing well.

Today I’ll be sharing my thoughts on The Collector Series by Dot Hutchison. I’ve been wanting to read this series for such a long time but this year I finally decided to pick it up and work my way through all four books. It’s taken me 4 months to finish the series but I’ve finally reached the end, and I’m now ready to share my thoughts on all the books.

(If you would like to know more about each book just click on the book covers and you’ll be taken to their individual Goodreads pages.)

The Butterfly Garden – 💙💙💙💙1/2

This was one seriously messed up book!! The story is dark and disturbing as it is about a twisted man and his son who kidnaps young girls and keep them locked up in a secret garden. Although dark and disturbing read I couldn’t stop reading it. The story is beautifully written and very easy to follow, as for the characters they felt so realistic and kept me wanting more!

You may be wondering why I haven’t given this 5 stars and the reason for that was because I was a little disappointed with the ending. I thought it didn’t quite match the rest of the writing. It felt a little rushed, also I thought it was left unfinished but once I started the second book it did make sense!! Never the less still a great read!!

The Roses of May – 💙💙💙

After reading the Butterfly Garden, I couldn’t wait to pick this one up, however, I think I may have set my expectations a little too high for this one. This book was very different. It was much slower and took much longer for me to get into. For me the story lacked tension and was a lot more predictable.

There are a lot more characters to remember in this one and although I had issues with connecting with them I did really enjoy reading about the relationships between them all.

Although this Roses of May didn’t meet my expectations after reading the first book, I did still enjoy this one.

The Summer Children – 💙💙💙

After the last book I was a little hesitant in picking this one up, but as I wanted to know what the book had to offer I went right on ahead. I’m glad to say this one didn’t disappoint. Yes, the story took me a little while to get into but once it got going I couldn’t stop. Even though I found The Butterfly Garden to be a messed up, I found the topics covered in this one a little more uncomfortable to read. Having said that I still thought this was a good read.

The Vanishing Season – 💙💙

This is the final book in the series and is the only book I wasn’t too sure about.

I mean I liked how everything is wrapped up at the end and enjoyed seeing characters I was familiar with from the previous books appear, but the writing and pacing wasn’t quite on par to the rest of the books in the series.

At times I also found it a little confusing to keep track of the characters in this one, and the main reason for that was because Hutchison kept switching between the characters first and surnames which often threw me, as I kept thinking they were new characters. 

This was definitely my least favourite book out of the all for books.

To sum up, this is not a bad series but personally I think it could have been so much better. The series started of very strong with The Butterfly Garden but gradually the quality of the series just seems to deteriorate. Honestly I’m glad the series has ended, as I honestly I think I wouldn’t continue on with it from here on.

Would I recommend the series?

Well personally I would only recommend the first book, but honestly I think the rest of the books are down to personal reading preferences as I have seen many others love this series. One thing I will say is that please check out the trigger warnings for all of these books before picking them up as there is definitely a lot of triggering content in all four books that some readers may find difficult to read. I have tried to pick out the main ones I thought would be the most triggering but there may be more that I have missed.

TRIGGER WARNINGS: Kidnapping, Murder, Rape, Child Abuse

Have you read this series? if so What did you think? Let me know in the comments below.

Happy Reading!!!

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