This Rec League comes from our SBTB Patreon Discord, from user LyricLorelei:
Does anyone have any good time loop story recs? Or things with showing multiple options/versions of life choices?
Amanda: There were a bunch of great recs in the Discord, but I thought opening it up to the larger community would be even better.
We had a Rec League on Dual Timelines that may have some overlap here.
Elyse: Yes! The Darkness Outside Us ( A | BN | K )
It’s m/m sci-fi romance and I ugly cried
Shana: Twice in a Lifetime by Melissa Baron is basically a retelling of the Keanu Reeves movie The Lake House, but there are at a few time loops as she keeps trying to reset the past.
Sarah: This may be not quite what this person is after, but The Last Daughter of York ( A | BN | K ) has a time slip and the plot does circle somewhat (trying not to be spoilery).
Time slip, where characters move back and forth between time periods (Nicola Cornick, Susanna Kearsley) aren’t quite the same thing as time loops.
This is How You Lose the Time War ( A | BN | K | G | AB )
A Knight in Shining Armor ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) is probably one of the most famous.
See You Yesterday by Rachel Lynn Solomon ( A | BN | K | AB ) – that has a character stuck in a one-day repeat
Sneezy: Through a Dark Glass by Barb Hendee ( A | BN | K | G | AB )
Elyse: Outlander, obvs. ( A | K | G | AB | Au )
What books would you recommend? Let us know!
In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren. In general I think it’s pretty common for movies/books set around Christmas/New Year.
I didn’t like The Rehearsals by Annette Christie but it’s about a couple reliving their wedding rehearsal dinner.
In time loop romances it’s always interesting whether it’s one person experiencing the loop (ala Groundhog Day) or two people (ala Palm Springs).
Book Bub has a good list of recs.
https://www.bookbub.com/blog/time-loop
I’ve read quite a few of them, but the only ones I highly recommend are the Rachel Lynn Solomon (but I love everything she writes) and the Lynn Painter.
I couldn’t get into IN A HOLIDAZE or THE REHEARSALS or THE REDEMPTION OF PHILLIP THAYNE.
I love time loop stories, so I keep trying them, but I feel like it is a challenging format for a romance story.
This may be a bit of a spoiler? but THE GOOD PLACE has a bit of this element.
I have not read the series but Kelley Armstrong has a series called A Stitch in Time.
THE SEVEN YEAR SLIP by Ashley Poston
THE DEJA GLITCH by Holly James
ONE LAST STOP by Casey McQuiston
Really enjoyed IN A HOLIDAZE.
I liked THE REDEMPTION OF PHILIP THAYNE okay, but by the halfway point it felt like a push, and I still haven’t finished it yet (my bookmark is somewhere around 75/80%). I love that author AND I love Groundhog Day, so I was disappointed not to like it more, but I think it’s hard to write a full-form romance novel where the FMC forgets you every day.
DEVILS’ DAY PARTY by MC Stunich is a reverse harem, bully, erotic romance that has a groundhog day style time loop. While none of it is my typical thing, I read it because I was curious about how the time loop part worked. If RH or bully romances are your thing, I think you’d like it.
Another vote for “See You Yesterday” by Rachel Lynn Soloman! It was probably my favorite read last year.
@Kim, yes! I’m realizing that’s the problem with a time loop story, as much as I love the general idea. It works better in Groundhog Day b/c it’s a movie (so the story moves very quickly) and the b/c the romance was just a subplot. An important one, but still.
RECURSION by Blake Crouch has been recommended to me several times as a time travel scifi with a romance. I’m still a few chapters in and it’s very engaging so far.
A quantum love story by Mike Chen. Near future, science gone wrong.
I love a good time-loop type story. This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub is a really good one, the focus is not in a romantic love but a familial love and coming to terms with a parent that’s aging.
I haven’t reread it for a long time, but I remember that I really liked Replay by Ken Grimwood.
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St John Mandel
Victoria Goddard’s Lays of the Hearthfire books (Hands of the Emperor and At the Feet of the Sun) have quite a few scenes in which the author revisits the same events but from different perspectives or in greater or lesser detail. So one gets the same events, but learn something new about them. And there is a lengthy passage in the second book in which the protagonist moves from one possible time line to another, and has to help set events there back on an even keel before moving back to his own timeline… while meditating on the choices he made himself within the context of other choices made.
I also highly recommend This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub
I really liked Neverworld Wake by Marisha Pessl it is a young adult novel but has a great mystery element to it and is very atmospheric
Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver is also a YA novel but really liked the redemption arc in it
On a more literary side: Time After Time by Kate Atkinson
If you want to watch one, Meet Cute fits the bill. It’s on Peacock and stars Kaley Cuoco + Pete Davidson.
It’s not a romance but How To Survive your Murder by Danielle Valentine is a great mystery thriller about a girl re-living the Halloween night of her sister’s murder.
It’s been awhile, but I really enjoyed Time for a Highlander by Maxine Mansfield.
I’ll second the recommendation for Replay by Ken Grimwood.
I’ll also suggest My Real Children by Jo Walton. At a certain point, the main character’s life is shown as she follows two different paths.
What Alice Forgot (Liane Moriarty) is really terrific.
This is How You Lose the Time War (Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone) is a gorgeous non-linear enemies to lovers romance. It may be too obvious here, but I also really enjoyed The Time Traveler’s Wife, and thought it was sweet.
Update: RECURSION is indeed a time travel/multiple timelines/time loop kind of deal. With some romance.
Seconding BEFORE I FALL. It’s lovely ❤️
Some duplicate recommendations but they’re really good:
See You Yesterday (time loop)
The Do-Over (time loop)
The Seven Year Slip (time slip)
One Last Stop (time slip)
New Adult by Janovsky (time slip)
Going Bicoastal (two paths, like Sliding Doors)
The Minuscule Mansion of Myra Malone (mirror effect)
Someone mentioned it above: Kelley Armstrong has a Time Stitch series (fourth and final book just released). Funny thing — I’m reading them in order right now. For every novel, there’s an “in-between” novella… I find them mostly medium/low-angst enjoyable reads with a lot of not-scary ghosts. They flip back-and-forth through time from 21st to the 19th to the 18th centuries.
For another movie option, Round and Round came out this December on Hallmark, and it takes place during Hanukkah.