ym613: I happened to like the first one the best! I’m the only one I know of who does, but I think it’s a very good first novel. I think it might be because by then she hadn’t gotten so overwhelmed by her universe yet.
But even with my disdain of the genre, you can still find me arguing over minutiae in the series and arguing why Harry is a flat character and Draco is much better (especially towards the end).