Reading a book series in order

I love reading books that are in a series. I like being able to get a more detailed knowledge about the characters and their world with each additional book. And of course I like writing series books.

My question is: Do you expect a book in the middle of the series to explain, in detail, things that happened in all th book that came before it? Or are you good with passing mentions of previous events as it pertains to the book you're currently reading?

The reason I ask is that I noticed some bad reviews on the book I'm currently reading only because it didn't explain past events in the series and "expected" the reader to already know their details.

Personally, I find this ridiculous. I'm on book 3 in this series and I know all about the previous events because...now this is a doozy...I READ THE TWO BEFORE IT! OMG! Yes, you're suppose to read books in order when they're in a series. I thought everyone knew this little tidbit of information. So why in the world would someone give a book a bad review because it didn't tell you what you should already know before you started reading the book? Sheesh!

Now, if anyone out there thinks this way, and want to try their hand at reading my series books, just don't do it out of order. I don't write that way. I will mention past things/people/events as it pertains to the current story and will NOT explain it in full detail. Liz will say something like, "Marcus, my ex vampire lover who I just so happen to have stacked and burned his body in a mountain cabin." She will NOT go into greater detail talking about how Marcus murdered so & so, or how he said this and that, or how the cabin smelled/looked before she burned it down. Why? Because none of that pertains to the current story. If you want to know all that then you should have read book 1 before reading book 3.

To me, it just makes sense.

I don't get the bad reviews about this nonsense. Seriously, have some people gotten this lazy in their reading habits? *Shakes head in amazement*