I know many romance readers are also ritual re-readers, with books they re-read or seek out at different times of year.
Some folks read The Hogfather every holiday season, for example. Other people re-read a specific book once a year, but the timing is more flexible, and might be whenever the mood strikes them.
I think that’s so neat, both as a unique way to celebrate a book that is precious to a person, and that has reached a very personal status with whoever re-reads it. That’s so cool.
So I asked the folks here about their annual re-reads.
Do you have books that you read every year? Is there a time you read them, or do you wait for the mood to arrive?
Shana: I’m not sure if this counts but I reread a Talia Hibbert book every year, usually one of the Ravenswood series. They all feature an interconnected group of friends/fam who are super kind. I usually find myself picking it up when I’m grumpy as all these books have prickly heroines.
I also seem to end up reading Rebekah Weatherspoon’s low-conflict sugar baby romance So Sweet at least once a year. I actually read it twice last year thanks to grad school stress!
Sarah: That’s nifty – do the books still give you all the happy feels when you’re done?
I think one of the hallmarks of a solid re-read-able romance is that it’s so well crafted that it doesn’t lose its emotional power even if you know, like really really know, what’s going to happen
Shana: Yep, I totally agree. I actually think I enjoy the Ravenswood series more as a reread, it’s nice knowing exactly how the Big Bad in each book will be vanquished.
Lara: I don’t have an annual reread book, but I do have a little first aid kit of books. If I’m feeling disconnected from people, I read Murderbot.
If I need to be swept away, then I read A Week to be Wicked by Tessa Dare. If I need reassurance that things will work out, I read Poison Study by Maria V Snyder.
Sarah: Do you re-read them frequently? What a good first-aid kit
Lara: Reflecting on it, it probably is around once a year that they each get deployed. Murderbot is more frequent though. I need reminders that being human is good albeit annoying.
Sarah: Murderbot is my insomnia read. If I’m up with a REALLY LOUD ACTIVE BRAIN I can pick up any of the novellas and calm down/
AJ: I reread the first 2 Murderbot books while getting tattooed one time. It was a perfect level of “distraction from the pain but familiar enough not to need my whole brain.”
Tara: I’ve been rereading Truth and Measure for years. First as a fanfic, now that it’s a published book by Roslyn Sinclair (with Above All Things as the other half), I read that version and I don’t go back to the fic.
I’ve just never seen passion captured that well before, so it’s worth losing 3 or 4 days in a row.
What about you? Do you have books you re-read each year, or romances you revisit at a particular time? Which ones?
During the Christmas season, I always reread Kati Wilde’s Christmas trilogy: ALL HE WANTS FOR CHRISTMAS, THE WEDDING NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS, and my all-the-feels favorite, SECRET SANTA. There are many other books on my “comfort rereads” shelf, but I don’t have a specific season or time that I’ll choose one of those, only Kati’s trilogy is reread at the same time every year.
I reread Mary Balogh’s Christmas books or the Bedwyn series during December and just finished a reread of Chase’s Dressmaker Series. There’s a couple Grace Burrowes and Lorraine Heath books I reread semi annually, too.
I am a VERY infrequent re-reader—I think the only thing I have read multiple times as an adult is Harry Potter? And I have re-read MORNING GLORY MILKING FARM because that book is SMOKING, but otherwise I can’t think of too many others I’ve re-read. I wonder what the difference is between re-readers and non-re-readers?
I mostly reread the classics such as Pride and Prejudice or The Great Gatsby. At Christmas, I read a lot of Carla Kelly’s stories.
I don’t reread, but I relisten to my favorite audiobooks, particularly to get back to sleep. A WEEK TO BE WICKED is on there but my absolute favorites are WELL MET (written by Jen Delucca/read by Britney Pressley) and BECAUSE OF MISS BRIDGERTON (written by Julia Quinn/read by Rosalyn Landor). These are both banter filled/low angst books. The characters bicker but don’t yell a lot, which is key when you’re trying to drift off. There’s also not a lot of danger and peril, which tends to work its way into my dreams when I fall asleep.
I had a week of being cooped up in the house with a dry hacking cough, children with pink eye, and snow. Both these books made it back in the rotation and got a work out.
@FashionablyEvil, I don’t really re-read either. For me, it’s not about knowing the ending, it’s about wanting to skip ahead to my favorite parts and not read anything that might bog me down.
I’ve also found when I reread, I might see flaws that I didn’t see before and that’s a bummer.
The only exceptions I can think of are JANE EYRE and anything by Jane Austen, but that is b/c they rarely wrote in full scenes like modern writers. You have to read the whole thing to get the feel of the book rather than skimming.
Even those, I probably only read every five to ten years.
Every Christmas and January, I re-read these:
Trisha Ashley’s Christmas books
The Twelve Days of Christmas
Last Christmas at the Castle
The Christmas Invitation
Rosamunde Pilcher’s Winter Solstice
I looovvvee rereading. Like visiting with old friends!! My go-to rereads are Ilona Andrew’s Innkeeper Series and Hidden Legacy series. Shelly Laurenston’s Call of Crows series is perfect for my inner ass kicker.
There are others but those are the ones feel most drawn to. They sometimes get read more than once a year!
I’m a frequent re-reader. Last year, I did Kelley Armstrong’s Cainsville and Casey Duncan series. Check, Please! By Ngozi Ukazu is another I’ve read a few times. My most re-read of all time though would be Tamora Pierce’s Song of The Lioness quartet. I’ve reread it maybe once a year or so since middle school, and I’m now in my 30s.
In the middle of a reread of Rachel Reid’s Game Changers series because I’m currently at a place in life where I need to know EXACTLY what I’m getting from a book. And this is definitely not the first time I’ve revisited this series. It’s a fav.
Last year was almost all rereading for me despite a very long TBR list. I signed up for some StoryGraph reading challenges to get motivated for new books. Nalini Singh’s Guild Hunter and Psy Changling series were my go to comfort reads during COVID and I still listen to one or two of the books each year when I’m feeling anxious. Shelly Laurenston’s Honey Badger series, especially Badger to the Bone and Breaking Badger.
I am a constant re-reader. Because I love series, I need to be careful about re-reading one book in a series because I will end up re-reading the whole series. Grace Burrowes and Ilona Andrews will definitely suck me in every time.
For a few authors, like Patricia Briggs or Jennifer Ashley’s Below Stairs books, I reread the entire set if a new book comes out.
For a very few books, I will just reread specific scenes. For example, I love the beginning of Devil’s Bride but can’t make it through the whole book.
I tried to listen to the audiobook of “Truth and Measure” because y’all liked it so much. I listened to more than I usually would of something I didn’t vibe with, because y’all LIKED it SO much. In the end, I could not deal with the abusive treatment of the assistant, even though I knew there would probably be a HEA eventually, and noped out about a third of the way through.
I’m not re-reading much (reading at all has been difficult these past years, and I feel so behind that I’m not re-reading a lot), but I usually re-read something in Bujold’s Vorkorsigan universe (not strictly romance, but sci-fi often with romantic elements) at least once a year.
I seem to go through periods where I do more or less re-reading. I’ve never re-read anything annually but there have been times when I had several books that I regularly turned to for comfort re-reads.
Currently, I don’t really do that. Looking at my StoryGraph overviews for 2023 and 2022, I re-read three books each year, none of them the same. But I do repeat authors – Cat Sebastian, Riley Hart and Misha Horne are authors I like to re-read, for different moods and reasons.
I’ve thought of an exception – every year for the last 15 years, I’ve had the INTENTION of re-reading Martin Luther King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail (published in Why We Can’t Wait) in honor of MLK day. I re-read it in 2009 and it was so meaningful, I decided that I’d do it every year. I have re-read it some years, but not every year, but I like having the intention.
I’m an inveterate re-reader. The one book I re-read in full each year is “Teach Me” by Olivia Dade. I <3 Martin. It is on my shortlist of books I'd gladly develop book amnesia for, so that every re-read is like the first time. Most of the time, however, I re-read sections of books, when I need to feel a certain something. For example, when I need to swoon, I frequently re-read Reid's letter to Meg near the end of "Love Lettering" by Kate Clayborn. I've also re-read the last three chapters of "His Quiet Agent" (book 1 in The Agency Series by Ada Maria Soto) because the way Martin and Arthur express their love for each other resonates with me so much. Lately, I've been re-reading a particular chapter in "The Painted Crown" by Megan Derr because it captures so well the loneliness I've been feeling (but that there can be a HEA).
idk how many times I’ve read:
The Hating Game by Sally Thorne and Kulti by Mariana Zapata…but many many times.
As a child, I used to read Calico Captive every year. I don’t do a lot of re-reads anymore (at least not on purpose), since there are so many fish in the sea. That being said, I love going back and listening to audiobooks of things I read as text some years earlier. Kind of alarmingly, they’re like brand-new stories to me! The Murderbot & Ancillary series come to mind, as well as Rothfuss’ Kingkiller Chronicles. Oh, and anything by Terry Pratchett or Becky Chambers.
Almost every Christmas I reread Sally Malcolm’s novella Love around the Corner. It’s just perfect.
I reread whenever I want the feeling/writing of a certain book and I’m not getting it from any of my current reads or I’m just in the mood for that book. I’m a mood reader! Here are my rereads:
Pale Moon Rider by Marsha Canham
The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons
What I Did for a Duke by Julie Anne Long
Pride and Prejudice
The first three books in the Outlander series
Reforming Lord Ragsdale by Carla Kelly
I love re-reading – I think it is an anxiety/neurospicy thing where sometimes the world is too much and new is unknown so I just need the comfort of a book that I already know I will love. Plus with the ability on Kindle to bookmark and highlight I can easily do “favorite parts” if I don’t want to re-read an entire book and just need a quick mood booster.
Gene Stratton Porter – “Freckles” and “A Girl of the Limberlost”
Lynn Kurland – first 3 books of the Nine Kingdoms series
Tamora Pierce – I will never grow out of her strong heroines, though I definitely have preferences and Kel and Daine get re-read the most.
Lisa Kleypas – Love in the Afternoon
And because I have been on an MM kick for a while now those are the most frequent re-reads:
Amy Lane’s “Clear Water” and “Summer Lessons” have such compassion and acceptance of ADHD characters – love and re-read these regularly. I also re-read “Homebird” and some of her other Christmas ones at the holidays.
Mary Calmes’ “Frog” – I just love this novella. So cute, great side-characters. Several of her others are regular re-reads too – the Marshals series, the Warders novellas, Torus books “In a Fix” and “Fix it up”
AJ Sherwood – I am totally in love with both the Jon’s Mysteries and R’iyah Mage series. Major comfort reads for me.
K.L. Noone’s Character Bleed series and “A Demon for Midwinter”
Lissa Kasey’s Simply Crafty series and also Survivors Find Love & Kitsune Chronicles, though TW for the last 2 series.
Other authors – Alice Winters, SJ Himes, R. Cooper, N.R. Walker, Rhys Ford, TJ Klune, Charlie Adhara, C.S. Poe, Annabeth Albert, Barbara Elsborg, Lily Morton… the list goes on, and I am sure there are loads of others not coming to mind at the moment 😉
I’m not a big re-reader, but when things get stressful (and they do at least once a year0 I return to any of the book sin Nalini Singh’s Psy-changeling series. Those have become my emotional support books….
Not necessarily annual for these but very much a rereader or a skim reread/second half. Ebooks are much easier rereads as a mood reader.
Written on his skin by Simone Stark, have lost track of my reread count. Can only imagine I would have loved any subsequent books she wrote as much as that one 🙂
Tessa Dare’s definitely – reread in part for the book 4 release.
And Wall of Winnipeg I’ve read and then listened to and read again, but not on a regular cadence (I bought the new paperback but haven’t read the copy of it yet).
I’m in the middle of a reread of Ilona Andrews’ Innkeeper series as we speak. Their books are some of my go-to rereading material, especially the Hidden Legacy series. I just never get sick of it. Other regular rereads for me are the ACOTAR series (I know, somewhat problematic but I can’t get enough Rhysand) and the Wallflowers series by Lisa Kleypas. I find that in general, I reach for a reread when I need total comfort from my reading and my brain can’t even handle the gentlest version of not knowing what will happen next. It’s generally a sign that I’m under stress but not always–sometimes it’s just a sign that reading is a particular source of joy in my life right then. For example, I reread way more in the winter. There’s just something about being curled up under a blanket with a book that I am 100% certain is going to make me happy.
Roni Loren’s the Ones Who Got Away Series. I love these books – the characters are three dimensional. They have shared trauma that works out in different ways. The friendship between the women is a fundamental element of each of the books. The men are men you would actually like to date.
I actually depend on my favorite re-reads for those times that I need to read but don’t wish to invest the necessary energy to grapple with a new book or risk the potential for disappointment.
Sometimes, it’s a short term need and a single book from my Kindle’s Comfort Read category does the trick. These include titles like Trust Me by Jayne Ann Krentz, The Madness of Lord Ian MacKenzie by Jennifer Ashley, Artistic License by Elle Pierson (Lucy Parker), Slightly Dangerous by Mary Balogh, and What a Dragon should know by G. A. Aiken.
Occasionally, a single book doesn’t do it and I need THE WHOLE SERIES. That’s when I turn to specific authors. Last year, I read Ilona Andrews’ Innkeeper Chronicles (actually an annual event), all of the main Liaden books by Lee & Miller, Sarina Bowen’s Brooklyn Hockey books, Bujold’s Cordelia books (also an annual occurrence) and the entire Penric & Desdemona series in its internal chronological order.
One thing I find interesting are the authors/series that I’ve depended on in the past that I no longer lean on for comfort reads. It used to be Elizabeth Peters/Barbara Michaels, Georgette Heyer, and Mary Stewart in me younger days. The one thing all these authors and titles have in common is their ability to make me laugh or at least smile at the character based humor.
Every winter I reread (via audiobook) Suzanne Brockmann’s INTO THE STORM. I just finished my annual reread and now I’m re-reading INTO THE FIRE.
If I’m in between books and can’t find something I’m really liking yet, I will pick up anything by Ilona Andrews. Usually it’s MAGIC STRIKES (love the Midnight Games) or one of the Legacy series books.
I love rereading. It feels like visiting old friends. I don’t have an annual ritual, but I find myself rereading Nalini Singh’s Psy/Changeling series either in full or my favorite books in the series quite often. I also enjoy Anna Hackett, Monette Michaels, and several others for rereads. I love having an e-reader because as a book reminds me of a passage or another book, I can pull it up and start rereading once I finish the current book in process.
I almost never re-read anymore because I’m such a slow reader and have such a TBR pile. But my one exception is I CAPTURE THE CASTLE by Dodie Smith. For years it was different every time I re-read it, as I grew and changed. (The first time only, I was so taken with Stephen; why couldn’t she love Stephen?!) It’s so much more to me now than the various love stories. When I read it, I feel like I am fourteen and my bestie and I have just been give permission to walk to the store ON OUR OWN for the first time and it feels so grown up, and it’s summer and we might be barefoot. And I love that part of the story is the dad writing a book (or is he?!?) that is meant to do to the reader exactly what I Capture the Castle does to me.
I used to leave notes for myself each year but I stopped that because they started to depress me; how could I have spent so much time agonizing over such stupid boys? I do still consult the map I made of the castle. And I try to time the reading so that I hit the Midsummer Eve chapter on Midsummer Eve. I have always wanted to start reading in March and then read along with the dates/seasons but have not managed it yet.
For the last couple of years I have reread Roz Alexander’s HIGHER around Rosh Hashanah. It’s an ff contemporary romance between two lovely, somewhat stuck people (an almost-rabbi who left rabbinical school one semester early to take care of her younger siblings after the death of a parent; a visual artist who has been treated badly in Jewish spaces because of her background). It’s the only romance I’ve read that really seems to understand the themes of the Jewish fall holidays (taking stock; returning to community; being brave enough to change). It always has something more for me.
I would love to re-read and except for Murderbot prior to the new book, there never seems to be time. The anxiety (I know, I know) of the library holds, my TBR, the book club, and now KU, almost have me spinning in place because they are looking at me. So I alternate between all four sources and that works for unread books. The re-reads are a dream.
Like @DiscoDollyDeb, I reread Kati Wilde’s Three Days Before Christmas collection. I also periodically reread Kati’s other books; Shelly Laurenston’s Pride series; Beth Bolden’s Piranhas and Food Truck Warriors and Riptide stories; Julie James’s FBI/US Attorney’s (especially That Thing About Love, Something About You, About That Night, and A Lot Like Love); Jeannie Lin’s Pingkang Li Mysteries; Erin Nicholas’s stories, especially Sapphire Falls and Boys of the Big Easy; Joanna Bourne’s Spymasters series; Loretta Chase’s Lord of Scoundrels; Lisa Kleypas’s Devil in Winter…
I have quite a few comfort reads that I reread whenever needed:
Mary Balogh: Slightly Dangerous – always! I love most of her book, but this is the ultimate one!
KJ Charles: Band Sinister – and any other of her books, but this is my favorite.
Joanna Chambers: any of her Enlightenment Series and Total Creative Control (co-written with Sally Malcolm)
Anything by Cat Sebastian
KL Noone: Frost & Raine
As squee me says, sometimes “I need to know EXACTLY what I’m getting from a book.” And as Laura says, “I reread whenever I want the feeling/writing of a certain book and I’m not getting it from any of my current reads or I’m just in the mood for that book. I’m a mood reader!”
There are also some authors or particular books that are so well written it feels like opening a door to another world and something else could’ve happened since the last time you visited.
Kulti by Mariana zapata because I love a grumpy sunshine
Persuasion because it’s my comfort read
The Duke who didn’t because it is so perfect that I am delighted anew each time I read it.
I’ve become a serial re-reader as well. Especially if my anxiety is ramped up. I just need to read something where I already know the outcome–MURDERBOT (pick one), THE GOBLIN EMPEROR, WHAT I DID FOR A DUKE, FORBIDDEN (Beverly Jenkins), ANY OLD DIAMONDS, ALL OF THE FARRAH ROCHON BOOKS, and many others 🙂
I even use audiobooks versions of The Goblin Emperor and The Song of Achilles to put myself to sleep if needed.
I reread the Lord of the Rings yearly-ish for a handful of years long ago, but otherwise I don’t normally reread things that many times, and now I’m especially unlikely to reread because my TBR is so much. I’ve taken to (when I have the energy) writing little reviews and/or plot summaries of things I read, to reduce that “I know I read and enjoyed this a few years ago but I barely remember anything” feeling. I still reread occasionally; comics and kids books are good candidates for it because they go quickly.
As a child, I reread my copies of Hans Brinker, Heidi, (abridged) David Copperfield, and my Untermeyer-edited Treasury of Poetry. Then and now, I read an arm full of books each week. Yet believe it or not, with the above exceptions, it never occurred to me to reread books until I started reading SBTB. With the exception of favorite poems and a handful of novels by Betty Neels, I’m still not much of a book rereader.
My Tessa Dare reread is Do you want to Start a Scandal. I read Sunshine by Robin McKinley so often I have stopped counting it in my GR stats.
Constantly rereading Ilona Andrews, and Murderbot is absolutely on my reread list.
I can reread A Psalm For the Wild Built by Becky Chambers endlessly. I own it on ebook, audiobook, and bought the paper copy recently because I had to own it.
I’m another who re-read constantly, usually only favorite parts, and it’s completely dependent on my mood. I don’t have annual re-reads.
And these comments are killing me because there are so many books in my head now that I want to go re-read!