Burn, Rewrite, Reread Tag 2023
As I’ve done for the last few years, I’m doing this tag as part of my annual wrap-up traditions. I just love doing it! It’s great to highlight some of the titles I read this year that wouldn’t necessarily make my Year’s Reads in Review list. Plus, I always find it interesting to see if my thoughts about a book have changed much since I read it when I look back.
Here’s a recap of what you are supposed to do:
The Rules:
-Randomly choose 3 books.
-For each group, decide which book to burn, which one to rewrite, and which to reread.
-Repeat until you completed
three(I do 5) rounds
To get the books for each round, I used a random number generator to pull titles from my “Books Read in 2023” excel file. This includes any DNF’d titles for the year; and if a number repeated itself (or landed on a heading), I reran the generator until I got a fresh title.
Round 1
Burn: I’m picking King of Spades. When it comes do the Midnight Dynasty books, I seem to be a Constantine fan so this Morelli book didn’t really work for me. I skimmed through the next two in the series just so I had a general idea of how it linked to the other novels in the universe.
Rewrite: The rewrite for Unwilling Bride would just be to make it a full novel. I could have read a lot more about this couple, I really liked them!
Reread: So I made it a goal this year to reread/read all the Chronicle of Narnia books. The Magician’s Nephew definitely made more sense to me as an adult than when I read it as a child…but maybe because I had a better understanding of the Narnia timeline.
Round 2
Burn: I’d only burn Furysong because it ripped my heart apart as the finale to this amazing series.
Rewrite: This was tough to pick but I’m going with A Righteous Man. While I really enjoyed it, it was just missing that little something to take it to that next level for me.
Reread: I DEVOURED The Total Knockout from start to finish. I just loved every aspect of this book and would definitely revisit it in the future.
Round 3
Burn: I actually rated You Said I Was Your Favorite the highest out of the books in this round. So I’m just going to make a pun about how much I enjoyed the slow burn romance 😉
Rewrite:I’m going to pick I’ll Always Be With You. I really enjoyed the start of the novel but when the setting changed, it just lost that spark for me.
Reread: I enjoyed the shift in the plot direction for House of Shadows from the first novel in the series. But I noted that I should have read this book rather than listened to the audiobook so that I could keep all the characters straight.
Round 4
Burn: I was actually very surprised by how much I enjoyed Undertow despite my preconceptions from the synopsis. But I feel like it’s one of those books that you just read once because as soon as you know the big reveal/twist, it’s not the same the next time you pick it up.
Rewrite: I enjoyed learning more about the Canadian Icon Christine Sinclair in her memoir, Playing the Long Game. I just wish the audiobook was Sinclair narrating her own story (though I get why that isn’t the case when I finished the book and learned about how private and shy she is.).
Reread: Again, Prince Caspian actually was a reread for me when revisting the Chronicles of Narnia novels. It was actually the last book I can remember reading when I was a kid.
Round 5
Burn: The romance in the Spy Girl series annoyed me so much that I would burn the 6th installment, The Phoenix.
Rewrite: I enjoyed this extended epilogue of all The Field Party crew during The Last Field Party. But I do think Asa’s story could have been expanded upon considering how his novel ends.
Reread: I’d read nearly all of Laurelin Paige’s books again and Brutal Billionaire is no exception. Such an addicting read from start to finish!
What would you Burn, Rewrite and Reread from 2023?
