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Do You Sometimes Find Your Cozy Tastes Change as you Age?

Lately, I’ve been revisiting some of my old favorites – you’ve probably seen the posts of the ones I’ve covered. I’ve also been trying some older series that just never “clicked” for me, for whatever reason. And sometimes the results have been a bit surprising to me.

I don’t know if it’s just that I didn’t give some older series a fair chance, but nowadays, I often find that giving something another chance that I passed on years ago will often turn out to be a surprise new favorite for me! At the same time, some of the older series that I used to really love, I’ve found myself gradually falling off of… to the point where I’m not sure if I could really recommend them to a new reader!

This isn’t usually a drastic change >>> series will either change from a slight recommendation to a “you should probably pass” sort of attitude, but more drastic swings are possible. I’m not sure if this is a change in my own personal taste, or if I’ve just seen enough of certain themes and feel like I need to “move on” from the series.

So has anyone else found that their personal taste has changed when you go back and re-evaluate a series, either for good or for ill? Please keep examples, particularly of series that you no longer can fully support, general – I don’t want this to degrade into a flame war of different series that others might still really enjoy!

Comments

  1. I don’t think it’s aging as much as just the volume of books read. I used to hate cozies – too darn cute – but I like some now. I don’t think I’d like a steady diet, though. And I am more critical, the more I read.

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  2. I’ve also found my tastes have changed but in a slightly different way. Just like you, some of the authors I loved no longer “click” for me, but so far I have never been able to go back to read an author that did not “click” in the past. For me, it seems, a “no clicker” once is a “no clicker” forever. There are plenty of books out there that I’ve never read yet, so I just move on. I try not to reread my cozies. There are a few other books that deserve a reread every year.

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    • Andrea A, I never used to re-read Cozies. It was almost a “rule” for me. However, sometimes when I read some of the recommended comments and see how much other readers enjoy an author who I dismissed, I get the urge to re-read one of the books to see if maybe I just wasn’t in the mood for that author’s books. Also, if I have decided to write about a popular series, I re-read the first book.

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  3. I have to say Laura Bradford’s scrapbook and tea shop series are this way for me. But I still love Anne George!

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  4. Yes! I’ve been disappointed in the recent release for several old favorite authors/series. I thought it was just me. Good news is that it had caused me to branch to some new authors that I really enjoy.

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  5. This has happened to me several times! I’m older, so a long-time reader of cozies. Sometimes the characters don’t seem to keep on growing and changing, so the stories seem too similar. (Note: these are authors that when I go back after a break of several years, I still enjoy and would recommend.) Other series drift into more and more violent storylines; I only read violent storylines once or twice a year, so I’ll tend to drift off that series altogether. Right these days, I’m avoiding cozies that involve independent shops run by recently widowed/divorced younger women, having inherited the shop from a relative. Not that I don’t like them, it’s just that I’ve read so many in recent months that I can’t keep the characters or situations (not to mention the author’s voice) clear in my head. Some are worth strong recommendations, if I could remember which was which!

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  6. I guess I have aged into the genre. I was an English major so I liked to say I only read dead authors. But this new (new to me) genre has been great for reading in bed at night. I haven’t found them boring, I just have been watching for the similarities between protagonists and I still enjoy the books and the different authors. I am an author binger. I will pull all of the books by that one author and read the whole series.

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    • LiterarySnob, every once in a while I binge on an author (not often!) Sometimes I find that if I binge-read a series, I get bored with either the mysteries or the characters. I agree that Cozies are ideal for reading at night – but I also enjoy reading them … well any time!

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  7. Yes, I do find my tastes changing. As I discover better authors, I am no longer so willing to “waste” (as if time reading a book can ever be wasted!) my reading time on authors I turned to in the past. That said, one has to kiss a few frogs on the perpetual search for the newer princes/princesses. It is becoming a problem for me because my very favorite authors either put out 1 or 2 books a year or have stopped writing a particularly good series. So in the meantime I fill in with books that are not a satisfying to me as they used to be. The woes of a jaded old age 🙂

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    • BevD, I hear you! A lot of my favorite authors “only” put out a book a year, which isn’t fast enough for me – especially when I see other authors who are able to write 18 in just one year! (I kid you not! I actually just went to an authors page and counted how many books she put out in one year.)

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  8. I thought I was the only one who experience this! My friend and I ‘share’ cozy books we get from the library. There is one series in particular that she really enjoys. In the past I just couldn’t get past the first few pages but out of desperation one night I picked up one she’s recently finished and found it delightful and have enjoyed the past three books in the series. Maybe the author has developed her writing to be more like what I enjoy or maybe my taste, like yours, has changed over time. Likewise, I recently found a new series that I love and my friend doesn’t care for it at all.

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    • Nancy M, I had that very same thing happen with two women friends of mine. The three of us belonged to a mystery reading group. I shared reading preferences with one of the women. Every time she liked an author, I knew I would have a good chance of liking that author. Every once in a while, though, she would like an author who I just couldn’t get past my 50 page rule. I annotated those authors and have gone back and tried them – and some of them are currently on my favorite authors list.

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    • Nancy M, I know where you are coming from. My sister and I have very similar taste and have often bought the same book, the same day indifferent parts of the country. Normally, if she likes a book, so will I, but a few times if have been like ‘Eww! How could you like this book/series?’ and I am sure she has done the same.

      I find that I will tend to read one genre for a few years and then either take a break or just move on because my tastes have changed.

      Over the years I have gone from gothic romance to sci fi, to historical romance to non-fiction history of a certain part of the world, to erotica, to paranormal, to contemporary romance and now to cozy mysteries. Interspersed in there have been more hard-core mystery, romantic suspense, romantic comedy… You get the picture.

      I am really enjoying my cozies right now, and I hope that continues. I have been tossing in a few others as I read nearly everything Catherine Coulter, Janet Evanovich and now Jenn McKinlay write.

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  9. When Carolyn Hart first started her Bailey Ruth ghost series, I had trouble getting into it. I guess I loved her Death on Demand series too much. But later, I went back and reread the first Bailey Ruth book and loved it.

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    • Teresa L, you bring up a really good point. Usually, if I really like a series an author writes, I end up finding fault with their other series. However, sometimes I have gone back later and found that I actually do like their other series. I wonder if it’s because we like the characters in one of the series so much that we expect the characters in the second series to “come alive” immediately…

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    • Pat, I’m currently reading an Agatha Christie and listening to a Dorothy Gilman in my car. I’ve read both of these books before – and both are by authors who have passed away. How wonderful that the written word is permanent…

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  11. Absolutely! This post is so timely as a friend and I were just discussing how our taste in books has changed! I had some Agatha Christie favorites that I devoured about 10 years ago and when I recently reread one, I was disappointed. I wonder if it’s in part because I had built it up so much in my mind over the years and it just couldn’t live up to all the hype!

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  12. I have found with a few series that I have read and enjoyed for many years the writing has taken a sharp downturn and I no longer have the patience, time, or interest in continuing. While bittersweet to stop reading a series after investing many years into it, there comes a point where the enjoyment ends and I give myself permission to stop reading.

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  13. Well, not so much with books, but with TV? Definitely. Some of the shows that I used to love as a kid, I now find, on re-watch to be extremely silly. Sometimes to the point of being unwatchable.
    I have friends who say the same thing about both books and tv / movies, so you’re defintely not alone, Danna.

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  14. I don’t know if this normal or not. But my taste in reading has changed over the years.When I was young, I read romance novels. Then, I discovered Agatha Christie, I loved the Miss Marple mysteries but read all the others as well. I read everything mystery after that but discovered I liked cozies best and have been reading them since some with more enjoyment than others. Now, I’ve found I enjoy some romances again. I’m especially enjoying a series set in Christmas, CO by Debbie Mason. Go figure. But my first love is cozies. Some of my favorite authors have died in the last few year or are not writing anymore.

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  15. Danna: I know what you mean but I can recommend a series by Sheila Connolly that I really enjoy. The County Cork series with pub owner, Maura Donovan. I’m sure that if I read one or two in her other series, Ill like those as well. She is a gifted author. Another author that i like that has a few series I’ve tried and enjoyed is Leslie Budewicz. So here are a couple series that are fun, light and enjoyable reads that I can heartily recommend.

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  16. My tastes seem to go back and forth in reading. I am tired of the romance aspect of cozies, especially when the female protagonist is pursued by 2 men. I much prefer the mystery to the romance. If anyone can recommend a cozy series that focusses on the mystery rather than the romance, I would like to hear about them. Right now I am re reading the J.P. Beaumont series by J.A. Jance.

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    • KG, here are just a few series you may like. In several of these mysteries there may be a spouse, but the focus is totally on the mystery. Most of these authors are all exceptional mystery story tellers.

      Jeanne Dam’s Dorothy Martin series
      Anne George’s Southern Sisters series (Stellans mentions this series
      in a previous entry above.)
      Katherine Hall Page’s Faith Fairchild’s series
      Susan Wittig Albert’s China Bayles series
      Margaret Maron’s Deborah Knott series
      Hazel Holt’s Sheila Malory series
      Patricia Sprinkle’s Thoroughly Southern mysteries
      Livia Washington’s Fresh Baked mysteries
      Monica Ferris’s Needlecraft series
      Sara Rosett’s Ellie Avery series

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      • Thanks MJ! I have read a few of these series and enjoyed them, but many are new to me. I can’t wait to investigate.

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  17. I have found this to be true as well. Several series I used to really enjoy have gotten stale or too political, though I have not developed a liking for others I previously set aside. Also, as a voracious reader sometimes the cost of the books by older, more established authors has become prohibitive so I am experimenting with many new and self-published authors on Kindle Unlimited and that is hit and miss, but I have several I really like.

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  18. I also find that some of my favorites from the past really don’t appeal to me anymore and have moved on to other genres. Once I started reading mysteries, romances don’t seem appetizing to me especially those whose storyline seem farfetched and whose characters make you wonder who would actually act that way or say those things. Due to the fact that I couldn’t find anything new by my favorites, I did embark on a series I hadn’t read before by an author I hadn’t read before, and I’m enjoying it very much. A nice change of pace. However, I still reread Agatha Christie and others who write similarly to her, so some things just don’t get old for me!

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    • Joyce, I can see how a change of genres could help give you a new set of possibilities to explore! It’s probably a good idea to try a dramatic change of pace like that once in a while, just to see if your tastes have changed a bit.

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  19. I wonder if there isn’t a problem with “themes”. Sometimes I feel the author struggles to keep the theme going instead of just writing a good story. I find myself going back to “old” authors.

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    • Emma, I can see this being a bit of a problem for some people. Keeping to a relatively small theme (like a specific type of shop, for example) might be a bit wearing on some readers, especially those with only a limited amount of interest in that theme to begin with.

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  20. Oh yes! This has happened to me in the last year. I used to only read cozies (I started going alphabetically through your list), and David Rosenfelt. I loved him so much that I searched out similar authors to him. Eventually that led me to some authors that write pretty intense mysteries. I liked that they really kept me on the edge of my seat (or bed, because I read mostly at night.) But then I missed the comforting feeling that I loved when I read the cozies. So I went back to some of my favorite authors, but found that I was bored with some of them. But not all! So now I’m in the process of trying to find new cozy authors that will keep me on the edge of my seat but not be so intense as the non-cozies. I’m looking forward to finding new authors, but I don’t know where to begin. I don’t like the process of having to kiss a few frogs before finding the prince, because I want a great book NOW! ha ha

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  21. I was reading cozies for a while, then I got hooked on 2 of James Patterson’s mystery series. Now I’m reading some cozies again because I’m now trying to write my own cozy. I’m trying to get the feel of writing a cozy by reading them, and learning the style of a cozy mystery.

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  22. I never reread a series. I’m quite sure I’d enjoy some of them again, but there are so many bools I haven’t yet read.

    I may stop reading a series because it no longer piques my interest. Even at that, I may not have really ‘quit’. I’ve just haven’t picked up the latest books. I keep track of them just in case I want to start reading the series again. Most of the time it’s a long series and the author has gotten into a rut, writing ‘same-o, same-o’. The mystery may be good, but the characters get stale. Characters are the most important factor to me.

    When I really stop reading a series is when I don’t like the direction of the romance storyline. One author killed off the beloved love interest character after a dozen books. Another hasn’t gotten rid of the husband (there are problems) who doesn’t have the wife/protagonist’s best interests at heart. I’ll look at the next book and if he’s gone then I’ll start reading the series again. The mystery story lines are very well written, the characters quite complex and enjoyable, but it’s this one aspect that I can’t accept. The third author went in a total different romance direction by marrying off the protagonist to someone who hadn’t been an intregal part of the long series (bet you can guess who that is!). Even though I say this, others don’t agree with me because I see on this blog that they’ve continued to enjoy the various series I quit. We all have different tastes and that’s a good thing!

    Another reason I may stop reading a series is if the protagonist turns ‘dumb’. That I can‘t tolerate. One author (often recommended) did this, so I just refuse to read any more of her books. I do realize the definition of ‘dumb’ is in the eye of the beholder.

    I’m always open to reading an ‘older’ series, especially if it’s recommended on this site and sounds interesting to me. I did this with Edie Claire’s Leigh Koslow mystery series recommended by Danna. Love it! That’s not to say I like to read everything Danna does……….she has such eclectic tastes and there are several series she reads I don’t like (ex: I’m not a historical fiction fan).

    BTW, Danna, (talking about ‘old’ series) have you read the ‘Benni Harper’ series by Earlene Fowler yet? I really think you’d like it.

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    • MJ, I’ve definitely found that I often have more issues with the non-mystery elements of a series (romance, profession, etc) rather than the actual sleuthing itself. I sometimes wonder if it would be better if the genre were a little more centered around the mystery than the life of the sleuths, but a focus on other elements must sell better, or at least bring in a bigger potential audience.

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  23. Although I still read them, there are a couple long-running series that I don’t enjoy as much as I used to (the Tea Room/Scrapbooking series by Laura Child and the Hannah Swenson series by Joanne Fluke). I enjoy the settings, but “oh you MUST investigate because you always figure out before the police” is getting a little tired to me. With so many cozy series ending due to changes in the publishing world, I have been happy to read several “first in a series” mysteries that I really love … Jacqueline Frost’s Christmas series, Kirsten Weiss’ Pie Shop series and Dorothy St. James new Southern chocolate shop series. I found the amateur sleuths to all feel “fresh” and had some quirky personalities/backstories.

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  24. Coming into the discussion late, but yes, my tastes have definitely changed over the years — and I ascribe that to two different reasons.

    Number one is availability. When I was a child there was no money for extras, and though books weren’t considered “extras”, that’s what public libraries were for, so I was limited to what was available. Unfortunately in those days our library didn’t carry the big series children’s mysteries (Nancy Drew, etc) so I read every other mystery I could get my hands on. Phyllis Whitney’s series of mysteries for children were my favorites. So when I finished everything in the children’s section, I moved on to adult mysteries (around age 10) and the obvious first author was Phyllis Whitney again. So from there it was a quick hop & skip to Victoria Holt. (By age 12 I always knew the murderer was going to be the older female servant/friend/relative, who would also turn out to have killed the first wife/girlfriend that everyone thought had run away/committed suicide/been murdered by male lead.) After that came Agatha Christie (due to sheer volume of available titles). During my teenage years I read everything Dame Agatha ever wrote — some of them many times over. After that I basically read whatever else I found at the library that looked good.

    This was all in the ’70s — the cozy genre, as we know it, didn’t yet exist!

    Over the course of the ’80s & ’90s (married, spending $$$ on books, member in VERY good standing of Mystery Guild Book Club LOL) I found myself gravitating towards the cozy titles as they came along — Joan Hess, Dian Mott Davidson, Dorothy Cannell were favorites.

    And that’s how I became a cozy lover! (That sounds weird LOL! Lover of cozies!!!)

    The other reason for tastes changing I think has to do with times changing and readers changing along with them. While there is nothing as timeless as a classic Agatha Christie, for example, when I picked up an old favorite to reread a few years ago, I found I just could not get through it! The pace was soooo slow (to my now 21st century self), there were soooo many words (!), it took a character 3 pages to finish breakfast and cross the road! (And nothing in those 3 pages had anything to do with the mystery!) I think we (readers) no longer have the attention span that people had even 50 years ago (pre-internet, pre-cellphones, pre-social media days). Back in the day, life was slower paced and reading was a leisure activity, done at the end of a workday, and not done concurrently with any other activities. So you sat down and read a book at a leisurely pace and savored every word. And you didn’t want it to end because it might be awhile till you had ANOTHER book to read! So the writing style of those days reflected that lifestyle.

    Today, with so much else going on (not to mention towering TBR stacks and Kindles loaded with thousands of books), writers have to write much quicker paced stories just to keep the readers’ attention. If it takes your character 3 pages to cross the street, the reader has already read emails, sent text messages, updated Facebook, etc. in that time – and will no longer remember who your character was, nor why she wanted to cross the road.

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    • Margaret, that’s an interesting interpretation. Availability is definitely always going to form a big part of our tastes. But I would have said that older mysteries often feel like they move much faster to me. It’s probably the fact that more modern Cozies feel like they include more “love triangle” elements that I don’t usually find as interesting as the mystery. Also, the inclusion of more specific hobby types (and the associated store that the sleuth runs) make it feel like there’s less “mystery” in a lot of Cozies nowadays to me.

      Not that those elements don’t have a place in Cozies, and I usually enjoy them in moderation, but sometimes it feels like they just get longer and longer…

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