Looking for a series where the first book ends in failure

A lot of first books and series will have a happily ever after of sorts, just in case they don’t get picked up for the rest more books. Then they can pick up where they left off and say lol jk.

Can you think of a book where the protagonist fails at the end of the first book? And it could stand on its own, but when it picks up in the next book they can move on from that failure.

I’ve definitely seen books in the middle of a series that end with disaster. At this point, the author knows that they have another book deal lined up though.