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Time After Time: A Thriller
Every mother's worst nightmare. An impossible choice. And then... another chance.
Alison Drake has always put her career first—until the day it costs her everything.
At 3:28 PM on what should have been a simple museum field trip, her eight-year-old son Charlie vanishes into a dark blue sedan. One moment he's beside her. The next, he's gone. And Alison was on her phone, closing a career-making deal, when it happened.
But then she wakes up that morning. Again.
Trapped in a time loop, reliving the same Thursday over and over, Alison has something a second chance. She can make different choices. Keep Charlie close. Stop him from getting into that car.
But saving him is harder than she imagined. Every choice she makes seems to lead back to the same moment. Every path forward somehow circles back to 3:28 PM and that dark blue sedan.
Then she notices something she's starting each day a little later. First just a minute. Then two. Then four. What began as infinite opportunities is collapsing into a countdown. Soon she'll have only hours left. Then minutes. Time itself is running out, and she still doesn't understand why she can't save him.
Because the dark blue sedan isn't the real mystery.
The real mystery is why Charlie keeps getting into that car, no matter what she changes.
From Zoe Cross comes a devastating psychological thriller about a mother's love, the weight of guilt, and the terrible price of the choices we make when we're not paying attention. Perfect for fans of Replay by Ken Grimwood and The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North, Time After Time delivers a twist so powerful, you'll immediately want to read it again.
Content While the narrative explores hope and second chances, readers should be aware it contains emotionally intense material involving the death of a child.
Alison Drake has always put her career first—until the day it costs her everything.
At 3:28 PM on what should have been a simple museum field trip, her eight-year-old son Charlie vanishes into a dark blue sedan. One moment he's beside her. The next, he's gone. And Alison was on her phone, closing a career-making deal, when it happened.
But then she wakes up that morning. Again.
Trapped in a time loop, reliving the same Thursday over and over, Alison has something a second chance. She can make different choices. Keep Charlie close. Stop him from getting into that car.
But saving him is harder than she imagined. Every choice she makes seems to lead back to the same moment. Every path forward somehow circles back to 3:28 PM and that dark blue sedan.
Then she notices something she's starting each day a little later. First just a minute. Then two. Then four. What began as infinite opportunities is collapsing into a countdown. Soon she'll have only hours left. Then minutes. Time itself is running out, and she still doesn't understand why she can't save him.
Because the dark blue sedan isn't the real mystery.
The real mystery is why Charlie keeps getting into that car, no matter what she changes.
From Zoe Cross comes a devastating psychological thriller about a mother's love, the weight of guilt, and the terrible price of the choices we make when we're not paying attention. Perfect for fans of Replay by Ken Grimwood and The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North, Time After Time delivers a twist so powerful, you'll immediately want to read it again.
Content While the narrative explores hope and second chances, readers should be aware it contains emotionally intense material involving the death of a child.
280 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 10, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 3, 2026
Oomph. The ending! -KM
October 23, 2025
Sucks u in them become tedious but then u get sucked in and want to figure it out again im glad I stuck to it cause it was a great book but it broke my heart all at once
April 8, 2026
OMG!!! This book!!!!!
I chose this as my listen when I drove down to my daughter’s yesterday to hang with my grandbabies!
Six chapters in I was ready to bail but today I pushed through reading a bit and then listening on my way back home. Let’s just say that by the time I was about a half hour out until I was home whenI was literally sobbing. A mother’s pain that was felt so
Vividly on so many levels. Paranoia. Guilt. Panic. Anxiety. The only person that was tortured was a mother persecuting herself for a simple
Mistake. A mistake, if we are honest, each of us has experienced on some level. And again, it made me sob…a cry that shook me to the core. Well-written with a character that deserves sympathy, love and a hug.
I chose this as my listen when I drove down to my daughter’s yesterday to hang with my grandbabies!
Six chapters in I was ready to bail but today I pushed through reading a bit and then listening on my way back home. Let’s just say that by the time I was about a half hour out until I was home whenI was literally sobbing. A mother’s pain that was felt so
Vividly on so many levels. Paranoia. Guilt. Panic. Anxiety. The only person that was tortured was a mother persecuting herself for a simple
Mistake. A mistake, if we are honest, each of us has experienced on some level. And again, it made me sob…a cry that shook me to the core. Well-written with a character that deserves sympathy, love and a hug.
November 18, 2025
I loved the premise of the book and all the times the main character ventured back and forth. But I did not like the ending at all! There is enough sadness in the world to find it again in a book ending. Will not say more but I was not happy in the end.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews