Certain characters and books landed a special place in my heart when I first read them years ago, even if I may not like them if I read them for the first time today. Every once and a while, whenever I see these books around, I always end up telling myself I need to reread.

But then I never end up rereading them.

So here are nine series I keep telling myself I need to reread, but never get around to.

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First things first, I might as well get the very very obvious one over and done with:

Mask of Shadows & Ruin of Stars by Linsey Miller
I’m going to go ahead and explain this one like it wasn’t fairly obvious, but this series means the world to me. It shows a genderfluid character kicking ass and being themself. Sal is Sal, and doesn’t let other characters change that no matter what they say. Sal (and basically all of the other characters) will always hold a special place in my heart. Adding Ruin of Stars into the mix would just ruin me, but you can’t have one without the other.

The next two are both from the same author. The first I credit with making me addicted to reading, while the second one is a spin-off of the first that I just feel like I never gave enough time. While I’ve always liked the first, I never gave the second the time of day I wish I did, and so I wish to reread both just to rekindle my love as well as dig deeper into the complexities of the second.

Ranger’s Apprentice by John Flanagan
One of the books I give credit for shaping my childhood, I met one of my closest friends through this series. I wear a silver oakleaf necklace day and night because of this series and the love it represents for me. While this series is probably the more heterosexual, cisnormative book I’ve ever read, it still holds a special place in my heart, and that’s hard to ignore when it’s literally shaped me.

Brotherband Chronicles by John Flanagan
This one is probably worse than the one I mentioned above in terms of heterosexuality and cisnormativity. Flanagan also has problems with writing fleshed out female characters and its just emphasized in this series. But having been shaped by the series above, it’s quite hard to skip a series directly related to it. I never gave this one the time of day, so the least I could do is reread it to have some basis behind my critiques.

The next two were series that would have normally been on this list, but I actually started rereading…and then never finished. For each of these, I started and finished the first book of the series, but just never went onto the rest of the series.

The Expanse by James SA Corey
I love this series, which I had found back in 8th grade and all the way up to the…5th book? But now there’s nearly 7, and I still haven’t read the 6th, and I honestly can’t remember much about most of the series. The first was my favorite, the second my least favorite, so when it came to starting the reread, I flew through the first and stalled on the second. And I’m still there, about 50 pages in, and not getting any further, despite my love for the series, as well as it’s diversity.

Shades of Magic by VE Schwab
Schwab’s writing is a hit or miss for a lot of people, and I have to say that, at least for this series, its a bullseye. I loved this trilogy when it first came out, but, in all honesty…I’ve never read A Conjuring of Light. I’m just too afraid to. I told myself I would reread first, but after rereading the first, I never reread the second, so now I just stare at ACoL, dreading what might’ve happen to my babies in that tome.

I’ve always been a huge fantasy reader, and if you couldn’t tell that by now, then obviously you don’t know me that well. The next book on this list was one of the few that started that obsession. (When I was on the GoodReads page to get the cover picture, I started rereading the summary, and my need to reread this series only grew.)

The Gentlemen Bastards by Scott Lynch
When I say that I love questionable morals, this is the book that probably stemmed from. Locke Lamora is the definition of questionable, but he’s also loveable and hilarious. This series formed my preferences in what I like to see in my fantasy books, but I haven’t read this series in forever. I know the author struggles with depression, but if/when the next book comes out, I know I’ll have to reread all over again.

These last three are series that I fell in love with after Ranger’s Apprentice. All of these I read during my middle school years (5th-8th for me) and ever since then I’ve been telling myself that I need to reread them.

The Last Apprentice by Joseph Delaney
I will be honest and say that I decided to pick up this series solely because it had the word ‘apprentice’ in the series title. It reminded me of Ranger’s Apprentice, and at that point I didn’t know that the series was being continued. I ended up falling for the mix of fantasy and paranormal, and just couldn’t get enough. The best part is that this series is 12 books long.

Septimus Heap by Angie Sage
Being the child I was, I picked this book up solely because of the shape of it. The copy I had picked up was shorter than the average book, shaped like a square rather than a rectangle. Of course, I chose to check it out from the library because of the summary, and I loved the fantastical elements with the vague hinting of it actually being a dystopia.

Warriors by Erin Hunter
Yes, I am adding this one to this list. I started obsessing over this series because there was a cat on it’s cover. Okay, that’s good, but then I realized that the MC’s name (or original name) was Rusty, and I had just gotten a kitten and named him Rusty without having read this book before hand. I eventually got dreadfully attached to Rusty, the character, and before you knew it, I was the proud owner of the entire series.

Do you have any books you’ve been meaning to reread? Books from your childhood, or books that you just loved from first read? Let me know in the comments!