New York Times bestselling author Rebecca Serle, the author behind “heartbreaking, redemptive, and authentic” (Jamie Ford, New York Times bestselling author) modern classic In Five Years, returns with an unforgettable tale of a family of women with an astonishing gift: the ability to redo one moment in their lives.
The women of the Novak family were each born with a gift: they can, just once, turn back time.
Lauren has known since she was fifteen that her mother Marcella saved Lauren’s father from a deadly car accident. Dave is alive and happy, and out on the Malibu waves. But ever since, Marcella, her power spent, has lived in fear of what she won’t be able to reverse. Her own mother, Sylvia, is her polar opposite: a free-spirited iconoclast with a glamorous past she only hints at. Lauren has spent her life between these two role models—and waiting for her own catastrophe to strike.
Then one summer, Lauren’s husband takes a job in New York and she moves back to Broad Beach Road, back into her childhood home on the shores of Malibu. Lauren looks forward to surfing with her dad again and perhaps repairing an unspoken fracture in her relationship with her mother. What she doesn’t expect is for the boy next to door to return home as well: Stone, Lauren’s first love, who broke her heart nearly a decade before.
As Lauren falls into familiar patterns, with her family and, more dangerously, Stone, she finds herself thinking about all the choices, large and small, that have brought her to this moment. And wondering, finally, if one of them should be undone.
Title: Once and Again
Author: Rebecca Serle
Publisher: Atria Books
Expected Publication Date:
Review:
Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this title to read and give my honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
I've been a big fan of Serle's books since I read her first speculative fiction: In Five Years. I just love how she takes you through a story that is compelling enough for you to throw away all you know about what is real and accept what could be real. She makes it super easy to suspend my disbelief and just accept the story at face value.
The idea of having a do over is tempting. But what would you even use it for? And once you used it, would you be upset if something else came along that would have made more sense to use it on? These are the questions raised in this title. Lauren Novak has a do over at the tips of her fingers, but she hasn't used it yet. Her mom has used hers. And her grandmother is tight lipped about her own. Lauren has spent her teen and adult years remembering what her mother did for her father: she saved him from a deadly car accident. Can Lauren find something worthy of using her do over?
I really loved the plot of this book. I liked the idea of the struggle with knowing what be worthy of doing over. Serle infuses such heart into her character as Lauren struggles to make sense of her world and it's changes. She's struggled with infertility (this is a huge part of the story so if it's a trigger, stay away). And the constant stress is putting a bit of a rift in her marriage. When she makes a big mistake that might cost her her husband, she uses her do over and it works. Until a big secret is revealed and she finds herself wishing she had saved it. I cannot imagine this struggle and I'm happy this is not real life. I don't think I could really choose what would be best done over. All my life I've lived by the principle that things happen for a reason. But Serle absolutely had me struggling with the concept of having a chance to do something over that might change your entire trajectory.
I really enjoyed watching the relationship between Lauren, her mother, Marcella, and her grandmother, Sylvia All such very different women with thoughts on how life should proceed. Sylvia with her 91 years of living behind her, is definitely a take the bulls by the horn type of gal while Marcella is much more tentative in her life choices.
I was 100% emotionally invested in every character in this book. I loved that Serle gave us more than one POV, as well. It was interesting to learn about Marcella and Sylvia in this way. I was never confused as to whose POV I was reading, either. Serle gives each woman a distinct voice. Lauren's husband was a little harder to read, since we only see him through her eyes. But you could see his struggle with their infertility. Plus it was easy to see how much he and Lauren loved each other. Dave, Lauren's father, was another character that we didn't get much on but his personality was one of my favorite's. I enjoyed the introduction of Lauren's teenage boyfriend and totally thought the story would take a different turn than it did with him. I will say I was surprised by what happened with him and then how it was woven into the story later. I will be honest and this part of the story is what dropped my rating to a 4.5 instead of a straight 5 but I won't address that part here as it's a spoiler!
I'm fairly certain there is no book Serle could write that I would not pick up. She has a penchant for building real and believable characters and placing them in stories where their life choices are always called into question. She is the queen of the what ifs for me and I love every minute of it. This is my favorite book by her by far. If you're a fan of Ashley Poston and Meg Shaffer, you will love the stories Serle weaves and the characters who help you through them!
4.5/5 stars
Author:
Rebecca Serle is the New York Times bestselling author of In Five Years, The Dinner List, and the young adult novels The Edge of Falling and When You Were Mine. Serle also developed the hit TV adaptation Famous in Love, based on her YA series of the same name. She is a graduate of USC and The New School and lives in Los Angeles. Find out more at RebeccaSerle.com.
