Annie Truro: Again

 Read in 2025

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59520819-again

Maddy is in her 40's she's set in her ways and while she has an ok life it's nothing she pictured for her future when she was younger it feels more like life has been happening around her she's not going after  what she wants and it's been like that for years.  She's in a job that doesn't really give her any sense of fulfillment, a relationship where the guy is super nice but they really don't have much in common and she should have ended it years ago... but Paul is stable and at this point they have been together forever, she can't just break up with him now it would crush him.

When Paul gets a job that takes them across the country from Colorado back to her hometown on the east coast she is happy to be closer to her good friend Franny but old emotions come into play while the tragedy that involved a train derailment and the death of two of her high school friends has always been at the back of her mind it comes to the front of it after returning home.  A lot has changed (new buildings on top of where things used to be... like her condo is where the mall was, and her high school was knocked down years ago) there is something comforting in the fact that the old record shop that she used to go to with her friend is still around it was close to her high school and holds a lot of good memories.  

Andy and Darcy died during their senior year of high school a tragic event that really effected everyone in town it's been years but Maddy still remembers the event and how she felt like it was yesterday.  Maddy had a big crush on Andy and she never got to tell him... after the move she finds an old note from Andy (in a jacket pocket) she had never read the note before in this note Andy professes his love for her, what if she had been with him the night of the accident what if they had been given the chance to be together? 

While on break from her work from home job she takes a trip down memory lane at the record shop in the back of the shop she hears a weird sound like an air conditioner is starting up not thinking anything of it at first she soon finds that she's back in the late 1980's in her 18 year old body and reliving her high school days, she walks to her old high school (which is not demolished in this time) and sees Andy very much alive and at first she thinks she's dreaming or maybe hallucinating as anyone would probably think at first... time travel that's just like the plot of a movie, or a book not real life.  

She can't resist going back to the record shop to use the portal and finds herself addicted to being able to see her friend Andy again, if there is any way to prevent his death she's going to try.  She finds that she's not the only one who can use the time portal at the record store another man about her age has been using it as well... wait is that her old lab partner Charlie from high school?  He was also a foot ball star and class clown, he has his own reasons for going back in time and is surprised to see that there is another person able to use the portal.

Maddy and Charlie end up meeting up to talk about their experiences (because who else can understand what has happened better than someone else going through the same thing).  They get invited to join a government project by the young record shop worker who is obsessed with the idea of time travel portals but has never been through one himself (this is heavy to the plot in the beginning --> middle but kind of fades out).  

Maddy and Charlie face the dilemma anyone in their situation would face if given the opportunity to go back in time, if they make a change to the past (even if it's small) it could potentially cause a bigger ripple effect to their future selves and they have been returning to their future selves every time after going back to the past trying to never stay too long.  If Maddy were to change a larger event (that effected so many people) like the train accident would she be the same person in the future, would she even have the same relationships?  It's a big risk especially for someone who has spent so long playing things safe, will she be able to sacrifice the life she knows to change the past?  Also is it even possible since there is a theory that the past doesn't like to change course once it's already on that path.

Maddy and Charlie naturally get to know each other better through their shared time travel experience and you start to see some changes with how Maddy sees her current life and how it could be different, they also struggle with multiple memories from what happened in their original time line, what happened when they went back in time as adults in their younger bodies and how time fixed itself by creating reasons for those changes (I felt that was a nice touch to kind of make up for the fact they were time traveling which was the actual reason for the change).    

I really enjoyed this book for the most part, there were some more dense sections where they were talking about the "time travel theory" with the government study and it got a little repetitive since it was a bunch of "no one really knows how this works or what happens" I also kind of felt that while the book was heavy on the study towards the beginning it dropped off and never got picked back up so it was an unfinished situation in the book.  but I love the idea of being able to go back and have a do over.  

This book had a few typos (but nothing that really took away from the story) and kept me turning the pages wanting to see if she could take the plunge and make the changes needed in the past to save her friends lives which would ultimately cause a huge ripple effect to her whole life, has going to the past all these times like she has been led to her being brave enough to face an unknown future?   

This book is filled with 80's nostalgia tons of bands are brought up --> records, tape cassettes, the fashion it's a time capsule and it really gets you thinking about how you would feel if you had the opportunity to go back in time to your high school days, would you try to change things if you could?  

What is your favorite time travel romance?  Have you read this book?  what did you think?

*Time travel romance (going back to relive own life in high school)  *multiple points of view  

*sapphic relationship representation (small scenes)  *happy ending and sad moments