As some of you may remember, I was struggling to find a way to feature books I have loved and reread. Especially those books I’ve already reviewed here on the blog. Even if it was a few years ago. You all said I could review again if I wanted to and that’s great. Glad to be reminded we are a non-judgmental bunch of folks in the book blogging community. I thought about re-reviewing but that’s not really what I want. I’ve done that. I don’t want to repeat myself, that’s boring (although, I do it a lot). So, instead, I am trying to create a new feature. A feature where I get a sense of deja vu about books I’ve reread.
Now, you will need to bear with me with these posts and I am still not completely certain how I will implement it. I don’t have a set format and I totally don’t know where the post will take me as I write it. You’ll have to give me hints and tips at the end.
My Rating: (it hasn’t changed)
How Do My Opinions Hold Up After A Year And A Half?
I will begin this with my original thoughts and what I agree with. After a slightly cringe-worthy reread (you read through and edit for a reason, some of those sentences don’t make sense!) I have to say I really do agree with my original review. I may have only really focused on the first book as too many comments on the other three really risk spoilers but I still strongly agree. The best comment I made was that Hush Hush and Fallen should have tried to be more like the Rephaim books and less like Twilight because it’s extremely accurate and also it made me smile.
I agree with all of my comments, really. It’s strange to see my thoughts repeated when it’s been so long since I originally wrote them. It’s like when you see someone else write a review on a book you loved and you feel like hugging the screen because they have fully encapsulated your thoughts to a tee. It’s like that, only less coherent.
Has Anything Changed?
One thing I did notice is that my focus seemed to change between my first read and my reread. In my original review I was flailing over the friendship between Gaby and Maggie. I even call their friendship one of the highlights of the series. Whilst I did love their close friendship it was never my focus during my reread. In fact, I hadn’t really give it a thought. Instead, it was all about the romance and Gaby and Rafa (Rafa, who is probably my only book boyfriend ever) and they were what I was flailing about in my reread. Reading my original thoughts I don’t disagree that I loved the friendship aspect of the series. I loved the friendship between Maggie and Gaby. It’s the central part of a lot of the books. Gaby makes decisions based on making sure she keeps Maggie safe and Maggie totally doesn’t freak out at Gaby being this totally awesome fighting machine. Or about demons. Girl has staying power. True friend!
I do find it strange that my focus differs between my readings, though, and I think it’s very much to do with the type of reader I am from now and then. Whilst romance has always been a thing I’ve enjoyed it’s only within the past year or two I’ve fully embraced romance everywhere because I am a hardcore card-carrying romance reader. I mean, I like to think me embracing romance began when I started this blog but I think I was still hesitant. Instead, I focused on friendships and story and all of that and yes those things were brilliant in the book but damn that romance! I do love a slow burn romance which spans on entire series.
Basically, looking back at my original review I agree 100% with those thoughts. I am even shocked to remember that the first time I read the series I binge read and almost fell into a reading slump and the same can be said the second time around. It seems, whilst many things change when it comes to our reading tastes and bookish trends, many things also stay the same. In this case, The Rephaim series by Paula Weston is still an absolute favourite of mine and will be for a long time to come, I think. It had romance and friendship and an action-packed plot and I simply cannot recommend it enough.
Have you read this series? What did you think? And isn’t it strange you focus on different things when reading as time passes? It is certainly true when it comes to different genres but I never noticed during a reread before.
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