Today I’m sharing my review of Maybe Next Time by Cesca Major. The first physical book I finished this year! I loved this book and I think it was the perfect book to start the year with.
Synopsis
A heartwarming and emotionally poignant time-loop novel about a stressed woman who must relive the same day over and over, keeping her family and work life from imploding as she attempts to change the course of her life.
Dan is Emma’s person. She’s known it since the first time she saw him dressed in lederhosen on the tube.
On their fifteen year ‘dateversary’, Emma texts a list of everything she should have told Dan that morning.
Tell the kids to remember their homework…
And their gloves.
Can you defrost some sausages?
Emma just forgets to write the most important words of all – I love you – and by the end of the day everything changes.
Or does it? Emma is given the chance to rewrite their future – if she can just figure out their past…
Why I Decided to Read this Book
I love the start of a new year and based on the synopsis and reviews I had seen of this book it felt like it would be a good one to start the year with. I had great luck with the Reese’s Book Club picks that I read last year so I had high hopes for this one!
Rating
4.5 Stars (Check out my rating system!)
My Thoughts
I will start by saying that this book is stressful. The way that Cesca Major was able to capture the chaotic life that Emma had was well done, I felt the stress through the pages. I happened to be reading this book in the mornings and at night during the busiest days of my work year (I’m a CPA, hello year end close!) and I don’t think this book helped me relax. However, I kept reading it because I was quite invested in this story from the beginning.
I really enjoyed the writing. Part of the story is told via letters that Emma and Dan write to each other on their dating anniversary and I loved them! Made me want to start this tradition with my husband but it would just be me writing letters. I loved Emma’s character development, it was very realistic and to an extent eye opening. The main theme of this book is how we decide to spend our time. Are we spending it the right way? Are we appreciating our family or are we pushing them away to get our to do list done? This book is also heartbreaking, I hugged my husband extra tight after I finished it.
At the same time I was reading this book I was also reading the book Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals which is a non-fiction book about how we spend our time. It was a coincidence that I was reading these books at the same time (Maybe Next Time as my physical book and Four Thousand Weeks in audio) but it was the perfect pairing. Also they are both great books to read in January or early in the year as you’re reflecting about goals for the year or as you “reset” in the new year.
Content Warnings
Death, grief, car accident, miscarriage. Check out more content warnings in The Storygraph.
Who I Recommend this Book to
I think for this one its easier to say who I don’t recommend it to. If you don’t like stressful situations in books, don’t read it. If you don’t like slightly unlikeable characters that do things you wouldn’t do, don’t read it. I also recommend this for a book club discussion. I think there’s many things to discuss and lots of good themes.
Get the Book!
Check out the links below to order it from Bookshop.org, Amazon and libro.fm.
>>Shop on Libro.fm
If you’ve read this book let me know your thoughts in the comments!
