A doua viață a lui Joey Vasquez

by Natalie Messier, Irina Cristescu (Translator)

Un debut fermecător despre iubire, destin și șansa de a deveni cea mai bună versiune a ta, inclus în clubul de lectură al lui Reese Witherspoon.

La prima vedere, Joey Vasquez are tot ce și-ar putea dori. La treizeci și doi de ani, este avocată în drept comercial, la un pas de a deveni parteneră în firmă, are o casă în Los Angeles și, în ochii părinților, aproape că ține pasul cu sora ei, medic chirurg.

Totul se schimbă, însă, în seara în care Joey participă, fără nicio tragere de inimă, la o cină organizată de Elijah Aarons, cel mai bun prieten al ei și bărbatul după care tânjește în secret de paisprezece ani. Printre invitați se află și Alex Aquino, clasicul tech bro din Silicon Beach și ultima persoană pe care și-ar fi dorit s-o revadă. Pentru Joey, este cel mai rău scenariu imaginabil – totuși, în noaptea aceea, asistă la ceva și mai rău: propria moarte.

Cu o a doua șansă neașteptată de a-și îndrepta greșelile, Joey se trezește din nou la optsprezece ani – chiar în anul în care i-a cunoscut pe Elijah și pe Alex. Înarmată cu amintirile din prima viață, este convinsă că s-a întors ca să-l convingă pe Elijah că împreună ar fi cuplul ideal. Atunci de ce se simte, inexplicabil, atrasă tocmai de bărbatul pe care credea că îl urăște?

„Natalie Messier este o stea în ascensiune a literaturii romance.” – Carley Fortune, autoarea bestsellerului New York Times Vara iubirii noastre

„Un debut absolut fermecător, care se joacă cu eterna întrebare: dacă e nesuferit, cum de e atât de atrăgător? A doua viață a lui Joey Vasquez este un omagiu adus șanselor pe care nu le-am avut – și celor pe care le-am îmbrățișa de fiecare dată. Imposibil de lăsat din mână!” – Ashley Poston, autoarea bestsellerului La șapte ani distanță de tine

„O carte incredibil de romantică, într-un mod exuberant, minunat și incandescent.” – Sarah MacLean, autoare a bestsellerului Furtuni de vară

Genres: Romance, Magical Realism, Fiction, Time Travel, Fantasy, Contemporary, Audiobook

432 pages, Paperback

First published July 7, 2026

Reviews

[Nilufer Ozmekik]

This is one of the best debuts I've truly devoured! The themes of second chances, time travel, learning from past mistakes, discovering true love, finding your authentic self, and uncovering your life's purpose were all meticulously executed with remarkable precision. Each twist was masterfully crafted and perfectly timed, creating a reading experience that left me breathless with anticipation.

I found myself absolutely captivated by this original, unique, and deeply heartfelt story that compels every reader to confront a universal question: What would we do if we could travel back to that pivotal moment in our lives where everything went wrong and try making different choices to embrace entirely different consequences? Can we truly change our own destiny and save ourselves from endless cycles of misery and regret? Countless thought-provoking questions swirled through my mind as I turned each page, making this far more than just entertainment—it became a profound meditation on choice, consequence, and the paths not taken.

While the romance was beautifully developed, I found myself even more drawn to the protagonist's relentless pursuit of genuine happiness and self-discovery. This added an extra layer of depth that elevated the entire narrative beyond typical romance tropes.
The plot centers around Joey (Josephina Vasquez), a 32-year-old corporate lawyer in Los Angeles who appears to be living the dream—she's on the verge of making partner and seems to have it all figured out. However, this polished exterior is nothing more than an elaborate facade masking her profound unhappiness and spiritual emptiness. When she reluctantly attends a house party thrown by her college best friend Ellie (and yes, despite the nickname, Ellie is a man who married his college sweetheart Cat—the woman who ended up with Joey's first love), she'd rather endure a waterboarding session than face the evening ahead.

The situation becomes exponentially worse when Joey discovers that her arch-nemesis Alex—who has recently transformed into an insufferably arrogant billionaire—will also be attending. As if that emotional assault weren't enough, she learns that Cat is expecting a baby, delivering a devastating double blow to her already fragile heart. Her inevitable confrontation with Alex deteriorates into a vicious exchange of insults, leaving Joey desperate to escape back to her apartment and her beloved adopted cat, Ruthie—her only reliable source of comfort.

Having consumed only two glasses of red wine, Joey believes she's perfectly capable of driving home safely. How much harm could it possibly cause? The answer comes swiftly and brutally when her car collides with a tree, seemingly ending her story in tragedy.

But death, as it turns out, is merely the beginning of Joey's extraordinary journey. She awakens in what can only be described as the world's most depressing waiting room, complete with hideous carpeting that seems designed to torture souls for eternity. There, she meets her assigned caseworker, who presents her with an unprecedented opportunity: a genuine second chance at life. She can return to any pivotal moment of her choosing and attempt to rewrite her story, pursuing happiness instead of the lonely existence she'd been trapped in—escaping her soul-crushing job, her dysfunctional family dynamics, and the painful estrangement from her sister.

Without hesitation, Joey chooses to return to that fateful college party where she first met Ellie, absolutely determined not to let him slip through her fingers this time. She's convinced she has the perfect plan to secure her happy ending.

However, once she's transported back into her eighteen-year-old body, reality proves far more complex than her carefully laid plans. Every different choice she makes creates unexpected ripple effects, and most surprisingly, she finds herself inexplicably drawn to Alex—who, in this timeline, is completely different from the arrogant man she grew to despise. The magnetic attraction she feels toward him threatens to derail everything she thought she wanted, forcing her to confront the possibility that her assumptions about love, happiness, and destiny might have been completely wrong.

With only one precious chance remaining, Joey must navigate these unexpected feelings while ensuring she doesn't doom herself to repeat the same patterns of misery that defined her previous life. The stakes couldn't be higher, and the choices couldn't be more challenging.

Overall: This book absolutely enchanted me from beginning to end. It's a brilliantly crafted fantasy romance bursting with innovative concepts that make you yearn for your own opportunity to travel back in time and reshape the pivotal moments that defined your life. The author demonstrates exceptional skill in weaving together complex themes of regret, redemption, and self-discovery while maintaining perfect pacing and emotional resonance throughout.

This debut absolutely deserves five shining stars and has established this author as someone whose future works I'll eagerly anticipate. The creativity, heart, and wisdom embedded in these pages make it a standout addition to the fantasy romance genre.

My heartfelt gratitude goes to NetGalley and Gallery Books for providing me with a digital review copy of this marvelous fantasy romance in exchange for my honest and enthusiastic thoughts. This opportunity allowed me to discover what I'm confident will become one of my favorite reads of the year.

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[꧁ ༺Minne༻ ꧂ (Back :))]

Well. That was not supposed to work on me. But it did, so here we are 🤭​

Joey Vasquez is a 32 year old lawyer who isn't exactly happy with where her life has ended up. She's also been in love with her best friend, Elijah, for the past 14 years. The problem? He's married. When Joey gets a chance to revisit the past, she has to confront the choices she's made, the life she's built, and whether changing one thing could change everything.

This book had me teetering between 4 and 4.5 stars. It definitely tested my boundaries, but somehow came out victorious 😂 All I can say is Alex, you know what you did.

I can't say I particularly liked any of the characters, and I didn't care all that much about the romance either. It felt less like a romantic experience and more like a story about love vs habit, the right person and timing. I guess it did its job, because despite not caring much about the romance, I found myself invested in Joey’s journey and truly happy with where it all ended.

Second chance romance and time travel are tropes as old as time, but that didn't stop me from enjoying it. There was just something about the story that kept me reading. Think 13 Going on 30 or Back to the Future. I guess stories like this are always fun.

4 stars for a good time.



Updates while reading ༄˖°.☕️.ೃ࿔📚*:･

July is a good month. Joey Vasquez is a 32 year old lawyer and she's unhappy with her life. She has also been in love with her best friend, Elijah, for the past 14 years. The catch? He's married. 14 years though?



Cue a series of unfortunate events, life hits the reset button, and she suddenly wakes up in her 18 year old body. Now she's got a chance to do it all over again. All I can say is: GO JOEY!

#Backtothepast #30goingon13 🤭

[Snjez]

Interesting premise, but a lot of things didn't work for me in the end - how the time travel aspect was done, the storyline development, the characters and their relationships.

I didn't really like Joey as the main character. Her thoughts and actions annoyed me most of the time. Her pining after her best friend Ellie, her married best friend, didn't sit well with me. I quite liked Alex and I don't get why he was supposed to be the asshole in this story. I was waiting to see what he did that made Joey hate him so much. And you're telling me it was because of the phone call with his wife that Joey overheard after sleeping with him? Mmm, you slept with a married man. What did you expect?

Taking her back in the time when she was 18 and first met Ellie didn't make her a better person. I get that she wanted a second chance with him, but sleeping with him at the party within a few minutes after meeting him, literally throwing herself at him, isn't the best way to "secure" him as a boyfriend. Was it the very next day that she kissed Alex? Something like that. Anyway, I thought she was really stupid. And a really shitty friend.

Another thing I didn't like is that she is basically a 32-year old woman in a body of an 18-year old. She had all her memories of the future and she brought all her knowledge and life experiences with her, which gave her a lot of opportunities to manipulate Ellie and Alex, her friends, her family, and even her way through classes. And it also made her sleeping with 18-year-old boys, one of them a virgin, feel icky. Especially after hearing what Ellie wrote about it.

The writing was fine. I feel the characters lacked depth and nuance at times and their actions felt forced, like the third act break up. I wanted to slap Joey. She didn’t deserve Alex at all. Some relationship choices were odd. The sort of twist was a bit expected, I wasn't surprised by it, and the ending was predictable. There were some really lovely scenes and conversations with Alex, that I thought were the best part of the story.

The audiobook was also fine, nothing too exciting.

[Tarah DeWitt]

THIS. This is a special one. Devoured.

[Karen]

“…if my geriatric cat buys me an easy out from a situation I’m eager to exit, well all the better.”

Good clue about how a reader might actually respond to this story.

How does one overcome a long-time crush on somebody? In this case, as a reader we can choose to allow ourselves to become involved in a very messy love story, with a complicated route to what appears to be a happy ending. Or is it?

With a smattering of magical realism, time travel, and a second-chance romance theme, readers find the female protagonist dying at 32 with an opportunity to redo her life. Waking up once again at age 18, with all her original memories intact (oh my!), which path will she choose? Can she change the direction of her life, her friends' lives, her cat's life, and ultimately her own love story?

My typical headache with time travel tropes is when history can be rewritten. Inevitably, those ripple effects rewrite character choices and fates as well—leaving it up to individual readers to decide if the execution actually works.

Was this story straightforward in its telling? Perhaps. Enemies-to-lovers trope? Yes. Was the story emotionally chaotic? Absolutely. And perhaps that is what made it so difficult for this reader to connect with.

While the premise held plenty of promise, the execution never quite came together for me, leaving me more detached than invested by the novel's conclusion.

One last point, some scenes were a bit too graphic for my tastes. The detailed nature of the spice felt a bit gratuitous to me. I prefer leaving the bedroom antics to the reader's imagination.

As an outlier, I encourage readers to explore other reviews as well.

[Fernanda (ivyfer_isreading)]

This is the second book about a ‘fix-it’ different timeline kinda story that I've read recently and I loved both of them so I guess this is something I enjoy?!!
In every version of you we have a system that when someone dies and they were not happy with their lives they get one chance to do it again. Our protagonist chooses to do that and goes back to her first year of college. It's a mess but in the best way. 
I love how the characters are not perfect, a lot of them made very questionable choices actually but that's a reason why I loved them. It's not difficult to believe these are real people, and what they do in the situation is also pretty much what I'd do. I read the book in one sitting, so you can imagine the pace is great and I couldn't put it down. 
Also, I loved everything about the cat iykyk
I can't believe this is a debut, I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for the author. 

Thank you Edelweiss and Atria for the ARC.

[ro ༊*·˚]

2.5 ⭐️ i mean, not to be that friend that’s too Woke™, but the whole ‘33 year old in the body of an 18 year old’ felt a bit weird and… manipulative? to me. not my vibe

[aira]

this seems like the kind of book I will enjoy ☺️

[Marie]

This was very… interesting.

Joey dies but gets a second chance at life because she had so many regrets in her first life. She essentially goes back in time to when she was 18 and just started college. But she’s still 32, just back in her 18-year-old body now. What could go wrong?!

I’m going to start this review by saying that this book was indeed as ‘insatiably bingeable’ as one of the author blurbs on the cover suggested. I couldn’t put it down, it was very entertaining, and it wasn’t as predictable as many other romances (for me). The pacing was perfect (up until the end), and I almost liked the time travel aspect.
It was an engaging and well written book, and I’d recommend it, I think.


However, there were also some things in here that left me feeling conflicted. Which I’m about to get into so, SPOILERS BELOW.








The fact that she travelled back in time for her second chance and the first thing this 32-year-old woman did was have sex with her best friend, Elijah, from her former life who was 18 years old at this point in the new timeline, and did not know her yet? That was fucking weird. Like please reverse this situation and think about it for a second…
And not just because of their age gap, which Elijah didn’t even know about.

She manipulated everyone around her to get the outcome she wanted for herself, the outcome she thought was best for everyone. And yeah, people called her out on it, and it also backfired spectacularly, but she still never really understood or regretted it imo. She came across as pretty selfish and I never warmed up to her. So while I didn’t dislike her, I also didn’t like her.
Both her and Alex were flawed characters that I wasn’t really rooting for. I did enjoy their story, but I didn’t love them as main characters.

Even though I found most of this story quite messy plot-wise, I still had good time with it up until we found out how Alex died/time travelled. From that point on everything suddenly felt rushed, so convenient and kind of forced which was disappointing.

I’d still recommend it though.


__
Everyone around me is reading this rn, so naturally I’ve got to check it out 👀🤭

[Cristina Lazăr]

Sunt cărți care îți plac, sunt cărți care te emoționează, iar apoi sunt acele cărți care reușesc să te ia complet prin surprindere și să rămână cu tine mult timp după ce ai citit ultima pagină. Pentru mine, „A doua viață a lui Joey Vasquez” de Natalie Messier a fost cu siguranță una dintre acestea. Mi-a plăcut enorm de mult și, sincer, nu mă așteptam ca povestea lui Joey să mă poarte prin atât de multe stări. Am zâmbit, m-am enervat alături de personaje, am simțit emoție, nostalgie și, în multe momente, m-am oprit pur și simplu ca să mă gândesc la propria mea viață.

Mai multe în recenzia de pe blog: https://carti.blog/2026/08/27/a-doua-...

[Shantha (ShanthasBookEra)]

"For fans of The Love of My Afterlife and The Seven Year Slip, Reese’s Book Club LitUp Fellow Natalie Messier’s heartfelt contemporary romance debut follows a woman who gets a second chance at a formative time in her adult life—this time to win the “one that got away.”

Joey Vasquez is 32 years old and a successful attorney. She has made the "right" decisions and done everything her parents expected of her. When she's invited to a party pf her best friend who she has loved for years, she leaves the party depressed because his wife is expecting a baby. She leaves the party upset and dies in a car crash. Her case worker gives her a second chance. So she takes it and works to change where she thinks things went wrong.

This is such a creative, engaging story and I was here for all of it. Joey is a character you root for. It's full of second chances, time travel, romance, career choice and friendship. The biggest love story is her identity and learning to love herself and find true happiness. Highly recommend adding this to your TBR.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Gallery Books and Natalie Messier for the gifted advance reader's copy. All opinions are my own.

[Casey Reads 🌸]

I wish I could go back in time like this. Imagine dying and you have the choice to do life over with all your memories of what happened before so you can make better decisions and be happier? I would jump at the chance.

But we do see that it is more complicated than that. You can become obsessed with trying to prevent tragedy or repeating the same mistakes.

The whole concept of others coming back too was really hard to wrap my mind around how everyone could be in the same timeline when they died at different times but it was so interesting!

I really enjoyed this and there were some really good spicy scenes. I kind of hope there is a scenario like this after death. 💛

4.5 rounded up!

[Tara]

Joey is lowkey a sociopath but so is Alex so maybe they’re perfect for each other

[Kat]

This cleansed my soul. Breathed air into my oxygen-deprived lungs. Fueled by cells with ATP. Healed my childhood trauma. Recalibrated my moral compass. Shuffled and then reconnected the synapses in my brain. Reminded me of my purpose in life. Baptized me in seratonin.

✰ 5 stars, firing my therapist because this healed me

thank you to gallery books for the ebooks arc in exchange for an honest review

source: netgalley ebook arc

[Jessi ❤️ H. Vojsk [if villain, why hot?]]

Maybe I‘m worried over nothing, and everything will work out in the end.
Or maybe life is messy, and nothing ever works out as neatly as we’d like.
Maybe there’s always someone standing on the sidelines, silently suffering through heartbreak, even if you don’t notice them.

I expected something a little different from the whole second chances plot, but I still had fun reading it.

The concepts of second chances on life, of resurrection or reincarnation are my favorite in any type of story.
That’s why I couldn’t wait to see how this book was handling everything.
While being enjoyable, I did have some problems with Joeys fixation on Ellie, the way she was really self-centered and her hate for Alex was exhausting.
But, there were some things I adored, like the weekly meetings, the focus on friendships, Ruthie and working out a path for the future you imagine for yourself.

All in all, it was a really good book.

[megan ◡̈]

alex fucking aquino!!!

this book was honestly a bit of a slowburn love for me. i strongly considered dnfing around 20% because i still had one foot in and one foot out as i find myself easily annoyed by books where an MC is in love with this awful person thats dating or getting married to someone else.

its a whole thing, its very hit or miss but i decided to try and tough it out a bit longer and THANK GOD I DID because alex aquino entered the picture and suddenly there was tension and chemistry and the banter between joey and alex!!! my goodness i was hooked again.

though the build up to everything was a slow start for me once the foundation was laid it hit the ground running and did not slow down once and had me hooked on every last word. i was so enthralled by it that i was distraught when i had to pause for the night to attend something i had been really looking forward to for several days.

i feel like 2026 has truly been the year for magical realism and i am absolutely living for it!! not that i would ever want to put an author in one box but i sincerely hope this is not the only magical realism we will get from natalie, i will be eagerly awaiting to see what she does next!

[Madison Martin]

Maybe a hot take, but this book hooked me harder than Fourth Wing and ACOTAR. I TORE through this book. I think this is such a fan story of love and second chances and will be recommending it to everyone I know. I think this is a book anyone would be able to visualize well and enjoy to the fullest. I loved the characters, the concept, the story, everything about it. Cannot wait to read this book again when it officially comes out!

[strawberrymatchaprincess (school s.ia)]

4 ⭐️
RTC!!🥹💗

[cate]

alex and ruthie they could never make me hate you. give me a cat dad and a hater cat every day of the week

[Syndi]

Every Version of You reminds me so much of that movie 13 Going on 30. But instead of teenager being influence by hormone, this book is about second chance in life to make it right. I like it very much. Miss Messier writes a fun banter and the plot is light not too heavy.

Very entertaining book.

4 stars

[TheConnieFox]

This author’s debut novel was a big hit! I absolutely loved it, from beginning to end. This is all about a second chance at life, blending with magical realism. It was an extremely addictive read, and it kept me wondering what would happen next. This is a time-travel romance that is filled with lovable characters. This book made me feel emotional, reflective, hopeful, and lighthearted. It also made me smile and laugh.

It is a medium to fast paced read with strong character development. The characters changed and grew in the story, and were very diverse. The characters' flaws seem to be the main focus of the story. I found the storyline to be very original and imaginative. This book does bring the heat and spice! It is an easy to read, fun book! I give this amazing book a 5 out of 5 stars rating! Great work!!

Thank you to NetGalley, author Natalie Messier, and Gallery Books for this eARC in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

This book will be published on July 7, 2026!

[♥︎ Heather ⚔ (Semi-Hiatus-attempting return)]

Review shortly

[Janssen]

This was such a fun read (heads up for a few spicy scenes)

[Sarah (bookofsari)]

Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review

Natalie Messier's debut has a premise with real potential. A woman dies at thirty-two, gets sent back to eighteen, and has a second chance to course-correct fourteen years of pining after her best friend. The setup practically does the heavy lifting on its own.

Joey is a corporate lawyer whose entire inner life revolves around Elijah, a man who has been perpetually out of reach. The problem is that neither Joey nor her obsession with him are particularly compelling. She's not unlikeable exactly, just thin, and the story doesn't do much to fill her out before sending her back in time. When the premise finally kicks in, I was already a little detached.

The mechanics of the time travel are handled well enough. Messier keeps things moving, and the tension between what Joey knows and what she's walking back into has some genuine appeal early on. The first quarter of the book was where I was most engaged, before the cracks started to show.

What I couldn't shake was the mental age dynamic. Joey is a thirty-two year old mind in an eighteen year old body, and at various points her behavior toward people who are actually eighteen reads as manipulative at best and predatory at worst. The book doesn't seem especially interested in sitting with that discomfort, which made certain scenes difficult to get through and pulled me out of the story more than once.

Alex was actually a bright spot, and the more time the story spent with him the more I wished it had committed to that earlier. Elijah, by contrast, never justified fourteen years of Joey's devotion. He's largely defined by what Joey projects onto him rather than anything the story actually shows us. Cat was another character I found myself wanting more of, particularly in Joey's second life, where her presence felt underused given the weight she could have carried.

Messier's writing is capable and the pacing mostly works. I just needed the story to reckon more honestly with its own complications.

[fadheela ♡ (reading slump semi ia)]

✨🐈‍⬛ “If I had a chance to do things over, I would want to be as close to you as possible” 🐈‍⬛✨

⤿⌛20/07/26
➸3.5 stars | damn this book was such a MESS, and the fact that I still sat and read the whole thing because I want to get out of this slump that's been eating me since may, and this was vibing with my mood?😀 I started reading the book because the synopsis sounded just like the short novella I read in June "Back to You" by Ann Liang, so I was craving to get a longer version of it and this sounded perfect 😍 But I wasn't expecting this to get messier the more I read lmao. I got second-hand embarassment, went AWW one second for the MCs, and EWW the next second. So as I said it's a book with messy characters. I was contemplating whether I should rate this 3 or 4 stars, so I'm sticking for the middle ground and rating it 3.5 ⭐ for now.
I have nothing to complain about the writing style, because honestly I'm really surprised by how flawless the writing is for a debut book! If you feel you need a messy book with messy characters, go for it!😂

read this if you like:
🍷 time travel to past
🍷 second chance at life
🍷 coming-of-age
🍷 messy past & messy characters
🍷 unrequited love
🍷 he fell first

[Angie Miale]

Joey is a workaholic corporate lawyer without much of a life. She goes on dates periodically but doesn’t let anyone in because she is secretly in love with Ellie (Elijah) the one who got away. She suddenly dies but gets a second chance at life and she goes back to college in 2012 to have a second chance at love. But instead she finds herself drawn to Alex, a billionaire capitalist that Ellie is friends with, a man she hates. Back in her 18 year old body with a 32 year old soul, she changes so much of what she wishes she could have done differently the first time.

If I could go back in time to my college days I’d have to do things the same so I could have my kids. But I definitely would find a way to see Whitney Houston, Prince and Michael Jackson live.

This is well paced and written. The back and forth between her 2026 mind and what she knows in 2012 is a running bit that doesn’t get old. If you enjoy time travel or second chance magical realism romance this is a book you should be reading. There are a lot of characters, many of whom play the same role and the metaphysical aspect of this doesn’t get too deep. I enjoyed the first 25% of the book the most. There were some surprises and twists near the end that were different than most time travel stories.

Thanks to NetGalley and gallery books for the ARC. Book to be published 4/28/26.

[Delaney]

The thing about time travel romcoms is that they allow so much redemption…. So when the character just doesn’t redeem themselves it kinda ruins it for me. Alas, this main character never crossed into the “making better choices and improving their life” category for me.

Thank you to the publisher for the gifted arc

[cursedb]

This is one of my favorite tropes. I absolutely love stories about going back in time and getting the chance to do things over, especially when romance is involved, so this book was right up my alley. I found myself rooting for the main character from the beginning. She was easy to like, and I genuinely wanted things to work out for her. It did take me a little longer than usual to finish the book, but I honestly don’t think that’s the book’s fault. Life has been a bit hectic lately, so I don’t want to hold that against it. The ending was fairly predictable, but I don’t see that as a negative. Stories like this often follow a familiar path, and sometimes the joy comes from watching the characters find their way there rather than being surprised by the destination. I really enjoyed that journey, and the ending left me feeling satisfied. Every time I read a time-travel romance like this, I can’t help wishing I could have a chance to go back and rewrite a few moments in my own life. This book gave me that exact feeling, which is probably the biggest compliment I can give it. For a debut novel, I think it’s safe to say this was a great start.

[Kimberly]

4.5 rounded up to 5 stars

Second chance magical realism romance with plot twists, fickle cats, and latine representation.

As soon as I started reading this book I knew I was going to love it. I felt as though I lived vicariously through Joey while she travelled back into time to face her regrets head on. Did Joey do it perfectly...? Of course not but thats what makes this such a compelling and addictive book. Because it's never as easy as going back in time and changing one thing everything has a domino effect and Natalie Messier depicted this so well.

p.s. character approval from a fickle cat is the ultimate green flag. just sayin

[Sara]

Traped at cycle of lost time
travel throw it make my basket full
more years slep as claud autumn
same act at my cat defore
pursut joy was another law
turn my lonely extit end
happy spend
by time change
by last version
by y
travel throw gap time
turn rich wind on
clear my heart
yr