Rebirth and Second-Chance GL Novels in English: 4 Picks With Adult Leads

The best rebirth and second-chance GL in official English: Dena Blake's Kiss Me Every Day, Abby Crofton's Five Kisses at Midnight and Django Wexler's How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying.

In Chinese web fiction the trope is called chongsheng (重生), rebirth. The heroine dies, or hits bottom, and wakes up years earlier inside her own life with every memory intact. It isn't chuanyue (穿越), where you cross into somebody else's body. In chongsheng it's your own past and your own mistakes, and you get one more go at them. English readers know the same engine as the time loop, where one day repeats until you get it right. In baihe (百合), the Chinese name for GL (see What is baihe?), the do-over is nearly always about one woman: the wife she ignored, the friend she let go, the rival she sent to her death. The sapphic version works when the heroine's knowledge doesn't buy her anything. She can see the bad day coming. The other woman still has to choose her again, from scratch.

So, the honest part. We couldn't find a single Chinese chongsheng baihe novel with an official English edition. The licensed manga and webtoons are thin too, and much of what does exist is set among teenagers. What's left is a short list: two English-language romances, one fantasy novel, one Japanese manga, one webtoon, and two free serials of our own.

Do-overs in the real world

Kiss Me Every Day — Dena Blake (2020)

The most literal second-chance book here, and the messiest family situation. Wynn Jamison is about to turn thirty, rich from her career and alone. Her birthday dinner is with Carly Evans, the woman she once stepped aside for so that her sister Jordan could have her. Jordan and Carly are married now, and Carly isn't happy. A freak thunderstorm in the night throws Wynn back to that day, and she keeps reliving it, choosing between loyalty and the woman she wanted. Bold Strokes Books published it, and its own blurb calls it a do-over. Goodreads readers are split. Several liked the premise and the chemistry, which one called hot and steamy. Another said she got sick of reading the same day, and one found the way the loop ends confusing.

Five Kisses at Midnight — Abby Crofton (2022)

A 112-page novella you can finish before the ball drops. Bell Sharpe manages events at a hotel in Waikiki and takes a nap before the New Year's Eve party she's running. She wakes up to the same day again. The one person who believes her is Lola Winston-Jones, a champion surfer who reads odd science fiction, and each loop brings Bell back to her. The Lesbian Review counted it out in kisses, one per chapter, and found nothing to complain about except that it's short and not especially funny. There's no spice, just kissing. Think of it as Groundhog Day with sunscreen.

Rewind to the Day I Married Her — Jiang Yuanzhi

Rewind to the Day I Married Her is a NovelMyth original serial, free to read, three chapters so far, and it's chongsheng in the classic Chinese mould. Xu Yan, 31, signs eleven pages of divorce papers without reading them. The only handwritten line in them is her wife Shen Zhiqiu telling her she can throw away the osmanthus tree on the balcony. That night a friend of Zhiqiu's texts her the truth about the morning Zhiqiu sat waiting for an ambulance for her father: four calls at 6:19, 6:21, 6:30 and 6:52, all declined from a hotel in Singapore. Then a crash on a wet elevated road puts Xu Yan back in a makeup chair on her wedding day, aged 24. In this version she takes Zhiqiu's hand, cancels the flight, and books a cardiologist for a father-in-law who says he only has heartburn. It's a slow burn on purpose. In three chapters it gets as far as pulling hairpins and catching someone on a staircase, and chapter three ends on a phone lighting up at 06:14.

Fantasy loops with a body count

How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying — Django Wexler (2024)

Here the loop has been running for roughly a thousand years, by one reviewer's reckoning. Davi was summoned from our world to save a fantasy kingdom, and every time she dies she wakes in the same rocky pool on a mountain. By the British Fantasy Society reviewer's count she has done it 237 times. Tired of losing as the hero, she kills the wizard who keeps sending her out and decides to become the Dark Lord instead. Orbit published it in 2024, and it's the start of a duology. Be clear about what kind of book it is: this is a comic fantasy with a romance in it, not a romance novel. The love interest is Tsav, a bald, tusked orc woman, and one reviewer called the romance a big storyline that runs beside the war-building and doesn't take over. Davi is bisexual and thinks about sex constantly, and some readers called that a tired stereotype. The Lesbrary reviewer took that criticism seriously and enjoyed her anyway. There are plenty of sex jokes but very little on the page, and a lot of dark humour about dying.

I Became the Villainess Engaged to the Heroine — Yoon Seorin

I Became the Villainess Engaged to the Heroine is a NovelMyth original serial, free to read, four chapters so far. On the surface it's a transmigration story. Tessa, 29, processes freight invoices. She reaches for her microwave soup and comes to as Lady Seraphine Vauclair, 24, holding a cup of scalding tea over the head of Saint Elodie, the heroine she's engaged to by royal decree. The book Tessa has read four times ends with Seraphine beheaded on the palace steps. The rebirth belongs to the other woman. Chapter four reveals that this is Elodie's fifth time through the same garden party. Seraphine has poured tea on her four times and poisoned her once, and every round ended with Seraphine on the steps. When Tessa asks why she drank the poison, Elodie tells her to ask on the eighteenth, the day after the Lantern Ball, which she has never lived to see. The interesting move is that the woman reliving her life is the love interest, and Tessa can't tell whether Elodie loves her or the Seraphine who poisoned her. Chapter four ends on one kiss.

Remembering a past life

Unnie, I Like You! — Jeongussi (2021)

A webtoon rather than a novel, and reincarnation more than a rewind, but the do-over is the whole point. Park Chanmi, a student from a wealthy family, remembers a past life in which she loved a woman named Hanbyeol, who died young. In this life Hanbyeol is a university professor who remembers none of it, and Chanmi is set on keeping history from happening again. It started on WEBTOON's Canvas section in 2021 and became a WEBTOON Original in 2024, and Tokyopop's print edition began in October 2026. Be aware that the romance is between a student and a professor before you start.

FAQ

Are any Chinese chongsheng baihe novels officially in English?

None that we could confirm as of October 2026. The closest is the Chinese manhua Soulmate: a woman falls asleep next to her girlfriend and wakes up about ten years earlier, as her high-school self. We left it off because that half of the story is set among teenagers, and INKR now lists it as removed from sale. Coming in February 2027, Tokyopop's Hiraeth Remained by Nitamoto follows two adult women who jump from a building together and wake up alive. MangaUpdates readers tag it as a time-rewind story.

Is One Last Stop a time-loop book?

Not really, although lots of lists file it there. In Casey McQuiston's 2021 novel, Jane Su is a 1970s punk lesbian who has come loose in time and can't leave the Q train. August, 23, is trying to get her out. Nobody gets to redo their own life, and that's why it isn't on this list. It's still a lovely read.

Which of these are spicy?

Kiss Me Every Day is steamy by its readers' accounts. How to Become the Dark Lord is crude but mostly off the page. Five Kisses at Midnight stops at kisses, and Unnie, I Like You! is sweet. Our two serials have reached one kiss between them so far.