First Time, Long Time

by Amy Silverberg

For readers of Emma Cline and Melissa Broder, the story of an adrift, sardonic young woman falling for an older radio host… and then for his daughter.

When aspiring writer Allison moved to L.A., she expected her life to finally take shape. After years of dwelling in grief over her brother's unexpected and untimely death, and allowing her mercurial parents' feelings and desires to infect her own, she almost feels ready become the main character in her own story again. Yet Allison continues to feel inextricably tied to both her parents, particularly her unpredictable father, and weighed down by her the loss of her brother. In L.A., as with anywhere else, she feels uninspired and lonely, unable to write and barely scraping by as an English teacher, while struggling to connect with her students and fellow instructors.

After a serendipitous run in with famed radio DJ Reid Steinman, an idol of her father’s, Allison is rapidly drawn under his spell, while also developing an unanticipated, tangled relationship with his adult daughter, Maddie. She’s forced to balance her romance with Reid with her gnawing desire for the intoxicatingly charming Maddie, as it becomes increasingly evident that she and Allison's late brother share more than a few qualities. As Allison's relationships with the equally self-possessed father and daughter deepens, she struggles to establish the boundaries of her own identity.

Through candid self-awareness, keen observations, and deliciously wry humor, FIRST TIME, LONG TIME asks, what happens to a young woman’s goals when she becomes involved with a famous man? And how might she move forward when so much in her past remains unresolved? 

Genres: Fiction, Romance, Queer, Audiobook, Contemporary, Lesbian, LGBT

Unknown Binding

First published July 22, 2025

Reviews

[emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

it be like that sometimes.

fittingly i really enjoyed the beginning of this book! as it progressed, i think it lost a bit of its sharpness and purpose, but i loved the voice.

that's all.

bottom line: will be reading more from this author when there's more to read.

(thanks to the publisher for the e-arc)

[Violet · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been in a major slump and this one was just off the wall enough to keep my attention.

•Debut
•First person POV
•Short chapters
•Love triangle
•Grief

A solid 4 star read

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one just… didn’t quite land for me. First Time, Long Time follows Allison Cohen, a drifting LA adjunct professor who unexpectedly begins a relationship with Reid Steinman, a famous radio DJ she grew up listening to. From there, the story veers into very unconventional territory involving Reid’s adult daughter, creating a love triangle I genuinely don’t think I’ve ever seen before. 😬

I’ll give the book credit for originality — it definitely took directions I didn’t anticipate — but the very dry humor never made me laugh, and the pacing felt painfully slow. I usually enjoy messy, uncomfortable books, but this one leaned more “awkward” than compelling for me. Thought-provoking in theory, but not my vibe in execution.

[Angie Miale · Rating 4 out of 5]

Allison is a college professor and at the age of 28, her mother is being very annoying about her singleness. Allison is a relatable character, she has other side hustles like facilitating book clubs. She met Reid at a bar, he is close to her father’s age. He is a successful shock jock and inspired by Howard Stern. She teaches creating writing and is a writer herself. Allison’s divorced parents are interesting side characters.

I struggled with how to rate this- some of the lines of dialogue are so purely and cleverly written. This is true witty banter and a “slice of life” story. Amy Silverberg is a talented writer and has keen observations of life. My favorite character is Reid’s daughter Emma (she is incorrectly called Maddie in the blurb).

In the acknowledgements she mentions that this started as a 30 page short story and damn I bet that was amazing. I kept thinking “this would work better as a short story” as it was a strangely paced story. Also the blurb gives away a LOT of the story that doesn’t happen until 66% through the novel.

Like many of my favorite short stories, it ends with just an image, rather than a conclusion of plot. If you are looking for a lot of plot, you will likely be disappointed; but if you love observational dialogue, this is some of the best I’ve read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for the ARC. Book to be published July 22, 2025.

[CaseyTheCanadianLesbrarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very funny and moving book about a woman in her late 20s grieving a brother, figuring out she's bi, and stumbling towards a kind of a teacher / writer's career. The book has a wry humour that I loved and there were often sentences that hit me with their truth. I like how Silverberg is unafraid to use exclamation marks a lot, with earnest sincerity! Great ending, in a particularly bisexual way that I really appreciated.

[Marcus (Lit_Laugh_Luv)]

My biggest issue with this book is that the synopsis spoils so much of it!? At ~50% through, Maddie is still barely relevant to the plot, and I think it would have much improved the pacing if her integration in the story were more of a surprise than an expectation. I'm finding the pacing of this to be unbearably slow -- I'm all for 'no plot, just vibes' character-centric books, but rarely do those eclipse the 300 page mark. It's too much of a time investment for a book that would end up being 2.5 to 3 stars, and judging by the reviews, it doesn't sound like the ending is much of a redemption.

Silverberg is a good writer, but I've grown disenchanted with the plethora of self-sabotaging narrators who escape their grief or trauma with crappy relationships. Offhand, I can think of New Animal, Pizza Girl, Green Dot, Perfume & Pain, Luster, A Good Happy Girl, Death Valley and Big Swiss which all feel similar in tone and overlap in themes (yes, I'm aware not all of these are perfect 1:1 comps). I'm just...whelmed.

If you like the titles I've listed, then this is a serviceable addition to your reading list, but honestly, the pacing is unforgivably slow at times.

Thank you to Grand Central Pub for the review copy.

[Karis · Rating 1 out of 5]

~~Thank you to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for the ARC!~~

This book was just - a mess. And probably not in the way the author may have intended.

I've read my fair share of frustrating books, but this one in particular had me stretching out the crevices of my face. The pacing, specifically, is abysmal. Not only did it take approximately seventy percent for the synopsis to start kicking in, but the story was constantly interrupted with so. much. backstory. Despite Allison being so dodgy and unwilling to share her past with anyone, she internally thinks about it constantly. The primary subjects of these flashbacks are her asshole dad and brother, and these flashbacks to the times she spent with them did not earn any endearment or empathy from me. If anything, the more the story was cut off by these flashbacks, the more I yearned to unlearn literacy.

What made reading this worse were the scene breaks. The scene beaks typically are used to time passing, or changing the scene/characters to another part of the story. That is not the case in this book. Scene breaks were constant, especially to the aforementioned flashbacks. But then there were others that would break only to return to the exact same scene. It was maddening. I felt like I was being dragged around with my nails in the dirt, trying to hold on to some semblance of plot for dear life when there wasn't one. The way this choice of writing has left me baffled beyond words - I just hated it so much.

I didn't laugh once. If anything, the prose was stilted, dry, and lacked any of the wit the premise claimed it had. Me slamming my head into a wall repeatedly would be more comedic than anything inside this book.

The characters here just sucked. The whole triangle between Allison, Reid, and Emma felt so gross to read through, and the way it ended so unceremoniously made the whole debacle more pointless. (Allison was prolonging dumping Reid when she and Emma got together, but she didn't have to tell Reid anything because it turned out he and the driver were together! She and Emma did get together, but it wasn't exciting enough for Emma without her daddy in the mix. They broke up, Allison got with Chris, some random co-worker periodically mentioned throughout the story, and then she married him in the last chapter. Mind you, the last chapters where all this happened read like a Sparknotes summary. What was the point of this story at all if you're gonna end it like that?) There were, like, four major characters (Allison, Emma, Reid, and Allison's dad), and their whole personalities can be summarized as serious daddy issues or typical self-centered man. Cardboard has more depth and dimension than this cast.

All in all, I will be giving my thanks to the publisher for the chance to review this book, but I will not be reading anything of Silverberg's in the future.

['*•.¸♡ nay♡¸.•*' · Rating 4 out of 5]

Is this a literary masterpiece? No. But it is the rare novel that read me back

A chronic over thinker and people pleaser, Alison is passing through life without much of a plan. When she enters into a relationship with a famous radio host, she never expects to feel something for his daughter too. Complicating matters is Alison’s family history— A mother who bent over backwards for an unstable father, and the death of her brother, all of which affects her today.

Yet the story isn’t even necessarily what kept me so engaged (although the story was compelling) the way the story is written was just perfect for my brain. It followed a plot, but it was also somehow a stream of thought that was never ending.

Funny, insightful, and moving, this is a stand out debut I would recommend again and again!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

[Ale Domeier · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are a handful of lines from this that I'd like to quote, but I won't.

Anyone who knows me will understand how frustrated I am that the best books I've read about messy relationships this year have involved comedians.

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

RTC, sneak peek on IG!

Thank you bunches to Amy Silverberg & Grand Central Publishing for the #gifted finished copy 🥰

[ash ✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

e-ARC: 3.5⭐️ I had such mixed feelings all throughout this book. The writing style was incredibly interesting, in a way that I still can’t quite decide if I loved or hated. Pretty much every character in the entire book was unlikable on so many levels, but that can mostly be predicted based on the blurb/description, so a reader should be prepared.

Ultimately I do think I recommend this, but it’s a very specific type of reading experience. Don’t go into it expecting a romcom, or even a romance. Go into it expecting complicated characters and emotions, grief, coping, and insane levels of daddy issues.

Thanks to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for the e-ARC!

[Stacy40pages · Rating 4 out of 5]

First Time, Long Time by Amy Silverberg. Thanks to @grandcentralpub for the gifted Arc ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Allison is still grieving her brother’s death and dealing with her mercurial parents when she meets Reid, an older and notorious talk radio show host. They start dating despite their age difference. However when she meets his daughter, she becomes close with her as well.

The main character’s wit and personality pulled me in from the beginning. I loved her take on the world, and her family. This is not a plot driven story. While there is a plot, it’s more about her character and past. Much of the book is her reminiscing on her childhood and past events that happened. With her dry humor, none of it is boring and I was there for every page!

“Your personality is a direct result of your parents, whether you’re copying them or opposing them, it’s all the same demented bell curve.”

First Time, Long Time comes out 7/22.

[Emily · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’ve got to remember that it’s okay to not finish a book

[Sam Cheng · Rating 4 out of 5]

28-year-old Allison cobbles a medley of jobs in LA to support her pursuit of a career as a writer. When we meet her, she teaches courses on fiction and the sort at a junior college and facilitates book clubs for wealthy women. The hours she devotes to writing don’t offer any financial stability or a source of income, for that matter. Yet readers will implicitly learn in time that Allison’s most desired occupational goal is to write. Conversely, what’s explicitly revealed is her biological family’s dynamics. Her parents separate when Allison is 17, and she and her mom continually refer to her dad as The Problem, a moniker that captures his fluctuating, manic personality. Readers get the sense that he suffers from past trauma, which expresses itself as a bipolar disorder; if it’s not a full-blown mental health condition, his adult life evidences problematic signs that indicate issues left unresolved. Even having moved away from her hometown outside of Reno, NV, The Problem’s voice continually rings in Allison’s adult mind. The echoes of his dominating and demanding character tether Allison, and she fixates on what her capricious dad thinks or would respond to situations.

Ironically, the voice inside The Problem’s consciousness is Reid Steinman, a man the dad worships. Reid is 6 years younger than Allison’s dad, and when Allison randomly meets Reid in LA, the two begin dating. Publicly, Reid works in showbiz as a controversial radio DJ, popularly known as a crass womanizer. However, in person, Allison learns that her dad’s idol puts on a persona on air; in real life, he is an orderly person who sticks to his schedule and loves his wandering daughter, Emma. As Allison and Reid’s romantic relationship develops, Allison becomes close to Emma. At first, the two similar-in-age women connect because Emma wants to make it as a stand-up comedian; this was Allison’s older brother’s dream, too. 11 years Allison’s senior, Jack leaves home at 15 and, from an unforeseen tragedy, dies in a train accident as his career started taking off. His absence left Allison to navigate caring for her difficult dad by herself, first indefinitely; later, for good. Emma fills this thick-as-thieves-sibling gap, and before long, Allison begins a romantic relationship with Emma while she is with Reid. The novel ends with Allison’s wedding to an unknown person.

The parallels between characters abound, placed side-by-side for easy comparison and contrast. Reid remains stable, almost rigid—readers keep wondering when his relationship with Allison will end. Allison voices her concern, too: “I keep waiting for you to change your mind about me.” To our surprise, Reid seems committed to her. On the other hand, Allison’s dad travels like a vagabond, gets overwhelmed easily, and can’t confirm his Thanksgiving plans. Allison mediates and diffuses situations for her dad; according to Reid’s manager, Reid becomes more enjoyable to work with since seeing Allison. Emma parallels her father in their assertive certainty; both father and daughter exemplify rotating personas in showbiz.

I kept trying to figure out the author’s emphasis in the parallels; it seems to me that the point is to highlight the convoluted ways we are nurtured by the people who raise us. Contrary to reviews that suggest a woman turning 30 should behave more maturely, I understood the author’s emphasis in showing how generational trauma passes and compounds, particularly when the events don’t receive the acute attention required to process them. Plus, it’s not as though Allison isn’t still working or pursuing her goals (albeit slowly), and the book club subplot meaningfully emphasizes Allison’s meandering.

The bubbling plot and uncertain pressure that brims the story effectively keep me engaged. Silverberg shows her strength in how she matches ideas, even theoretical ones related to writing. The derisive yet curious tone satisfied. Told entirely from Allison’s perspective, our main character’s acerbic voice—neither overly satirical nor sarcastic—holds the questionable life choices that unfold, the results for which she both is and isn’t responsible.

In sum, First Time, Long Time feels uneventfully eventful, and Silverberg’s debut novel (3.5 stars) deserves rounding up. I look forward to this author’s future publications. My thanks to Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for an ARC.

[Jordan Morris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Funny, sad, well-observed. A banger.

[Leah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was avoiding depressed and/or insane woman books for a while because I felt like I had burnt out on them, but we’re back at it baby. this one was really good. maybe a little quippy at times, but a lot of great sentences. I read it all today instead of packing!

I tend to find books that extol the virtues of other books and reading corny, but I really liked what she had to say about it & how it related to the main plot.

[Taylor Ballard · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a four star read up until the last twenty pages. The ending was not great and I have far too many questions / loose ends. I really liked this book until the end - bummer!!

[emily *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 ⭐️
I enjoyed this one so much. The writing style was impeccable along with such a messy plot- I couldn't stop reading this one.

Allison is a junior college professor in LA that lives in a crappy apartment and does many side hustles to stay afloat. That is until one night she meets Reid- her dad's absolute idol. Reid is a very famous radio show host and after flirting they hit it off. As their relationship grows she meets his daughter Emma, and we'll lets just say they have insane chemistry. Allison is stuck between a rock and a hard place when making a decision between the two of them.

thank you to the publishers and netgalley for the ARC!

[Cassidy Reeser]

This was fun, funny, a little sad. It read like my tumblr posts in 2011 at its worst (which wasn’t too much of the time), but even that I kind of enjoyed.

[Holly · Rating 2 out of 5]

The premise is immediately odd and intriguing — a young woman starts dating a much older shock jock only to become romantically involved with his daughter? Let’s crack that cover! However, the whole thing felt a bit unmoored. The pacing was all over the place, the characters weren’t fleshed out well, and the way the protagonist was portrayed didn’t necessarily line up with the way she behaved. The ending was a somewhat bizarre summary, basically, that did the rest of the book a massive disservice. All in all, this was fine, but I didn’t love it as much as I hoped I would.

This book might work for people who like messy-but-controlled protagonists.

[Kristy Riley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was such a toss up for me. There’s so much that I loved like the writing and the daughter storyline. I think maybe I’ve just read too many books lately with slimy undeserving old men so maybe I need a break from them.

I was enjoying the story, the ending definitely felt abrupt but in a way that kind of made sense. In life, we don’t get full explanations and closure so it felt more realistic that way.

I definitely enjoyed the writing and plan on reading whatver else Amy Silverberg puts out.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC!

[Sally · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed listening to First Time, Long Time by Amy Silverberg. The author is also the narrator. She does a good job of both. The writing is really good. I will read this author again. I didn't love the story. It wasn't very interesting to me but I am still glad I listened to it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hachette Audio for the audio ARC.

[Amanda Dingman · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. It was a great book with great characters, but the pacing is off. Also I hate that the synopsis gives so much of the book away

[RebeccaReadsTooMuch 💁‍♀️ · Rating 4 out of 5]

First Time, Long Time is an entertaining story about a 20-something woman finding her way teaching English at a community college in LA. She meets an older man with a radio shock jock career that’s past it’s prime, and they embark on a seemingly mismatched relationship. There are a few messy twists, which maybe aren’t the point, because the point for me with this book was Amy Silverberg’s observant, dry style of humor permeating every line. I liked how didn’t shy away from mental health struggles and grief, and in the end she made me really appreciate family belonging above all else. As messy as this story gets, I honestly enjoyed being in her head for it!

I alternated between reading this digitally and listening to the audiobook, which the author narrates. I had trouble getting into the audio at first, but once I got used to the character’s personality, I felt she voiced her exactly right. I think with this book you could go either way, audio or print, and get a similar reading experience.

Thank you to Grand Central Publishing and Hachette Audio for the early copies to review.

[Y · Rating 4 out of 5]

28 year old Allison struggles with grief over losing her brother, amplified by some complicated family dynamics, when she meets and starts a relationship with a famous radio host, Reid, who is in his 60s.

I found the exploration of the many types of different character relationships in the story very interesting, and these are the crux of the story. The age gap between Allison and Reid icked me at the start, but I think you get to see well what draws Allison to him and keeps her attached. As a character-driven reader, I didn't mind the lack of much plot and found the book engaging throughout. While there some darker topics of mental illness and grief are part of the story, it didn't overall feel like a heavy read; the lighter and funnier parts balanced out the darkness pretty well.
One thing that irked me about the writing was Allison's father being referred to as "The Problem", just a weird, uncomfortable choice for a complicated character.

Thank you to Netgalley and Grand Central Publishing for the e-arc!

[Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you NetGalley and Hachette Audio for this ARC!

This was a very messy and engaging women vs the void book. I loved the mess, especially the mess of having relationships with an older man and also his daughter. The structure was a bit confusing at times as it seemed like a book within a book, but also just a narrative of events. The ending felt a bit rushed for me and I wish it wasn’t so cut and dry for such a messy story. Overall the writing was very good, the pacing was good, and the plot was captivating. I also love that the author narrated her own audiobook!

[vickie · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars ⋆✴︎˚｡⋆

I loved reading this book.
I love complex characters and books that let us in their heads.
If you’re a lover of characters this book is for you, it’s definitely more character based than plot based but still extremely enjoyable.

Amy Silverberg as the narrator did a beautiful job of bringing her own story to light. I truly love to hear authors read their own work for the audiobook.

My only critique is that I wish this was short story just for the simple reason that I think it would help with the book’s pacing.

[Ruth · Rating 5 out of 5]

obsessed with this book. I must have underlined 25% of it

[e is for enchanted ❥ · Rating 3 out of 5]

“They might have been friends or lovers or sisters or mother and daughter. That kind of intimacy between women can be very difficult to decipher.”

3.5 ⭐️

[xTx xTx · Rating 5 out of 5]

a charming read. Family, love, relationships and grief. i loved the structure. i loved the heart.