I love when a book surprises me and I end up loving it far more than I thought I would. That is exactly what happened with this book. I went into this one expecting a quick, cutesy read that I’d probably land right in the middle on, but what I got was something unexpected and with a whole lot of heart!

Cassandra Dankworth likes – dare I say needs – things to go a certain way. Loud noises bother her, scratchy clothes bother her, she doesn’t get most jokes, routines comfort her, and she associates most everything with a color. She’s also very direct and expects others to be direct with her which often leads to communication breakdowns and eventually problems in her work life as well as in her relationships. When she finds herself single and jobless because people read her as abrasive or disinterested and almost without a place to live because of a communication breakdown with her flatmates, it’s very difficult for her to cope. But then all of the sudden Cassandra wakes up and finds that she has somehow managed to rewind her life by a few hours which on the surface seems great, but she doesn’t have enough time to get her bearings straight so she can fix things, so she just ends up getting dumped and fired all over again.

Once she figures out that yes, she really did manage to throw herself back in time, she decides to try again. Unfortunately, she can’t travel back more than a few weeks, so she won’t be able to prevent the death of her parents, but she might be able to figure out where things went wrong in her relationship and her work life to prevent not only her being fired but also her relationship with her flatmates and her boyfriend, but time traveling also has its downside and when all is said and done, Cassandra will realize that things might just happen for a reason and maybe there’s something else in her life that she needs to fix.

I loved that this was a different kind of rom-com, and I really appreciated that Cassandra was anything but your typical strong-willed woman who can’t help but fall for the annoying ex/asshole co-worker/hot enemy (or whatever other cliché’d character you tend to find in this genre). Cassandra is clearly neurodivergent and sees/experiences the world differently and I LOVED this. It elevated her above the cliché that we so often see in these books and gave things a whole new spin. What I also loved is that the author doesn’t go into the specifics of why Cassandra can time travel – she just can and I accepted it because it just worked.

I especially loved Cassandra’s journey and how she tries to make things work a certain way, but eventually she grows to learn not only who she is, but what she really needs in life. It’s a nice reminder (especially for us control freaks) that sometimes we just need to let go and let life happen. Sometimes the things we think we need or want aren’t good for us and if we just let go and let things happen something even better will happen to us down the road.

This was a very enjoyable read. It really surprised me how much I loved it.