Cover Image: Five First Chances

Five First Chances

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Member Reviews

“There’s a difference between sadness and regrets.”

Lou feels like she is stuck on the wrong path: alone, in a city far from home, watching other people be happy. When the man she's in love with announces his engagement to someone else, Lou is consumed by 'what ifs'. That's when she finds herself slipping back in time to a night two years ago, where one small decision changed everything... Suddenly, Lou has a chance to fix her mistakes. But as her choices lead her down roads she never could have imagined, she finds herself stuck in a time loop of her own making. And with each slip, Lou notices her life intersecting with one person again and again. A friend of a friend who once lived on the periphery, who is slowly becoming the one person who makes her feel like she might finally be on the right track. Lou is about to realize that our greatest love stories aren't always the ones we expected, but are the ones we choose to fight for.

I was not expecting this book to be such an emotional read. This is not the book to read if you’re looking for a light and happy read. The Groundhog’s Day trope, was well written. I didn’t feel like the time loop was too repetitive. However, the pacing was definitely a bit slower than I would’ve liked. We get to see different sides to the characters throughout the time loop. Some characters were likable from the start, while others may have to grow on you. This is definitely a book you probably have to be in the mood for to fully enjoy.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

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Read if you like:
💜 Romances
⛅️ Groundhogs Day
🥈 Second Chances
🧠 Mental Health Rep


This one was so well done! I loved that the character didn’t realize what was happening at first but slowly started to realize and then go through her five chances for her second chance to get things right.

This book covers a lot of heavy topics but does them so well and includes really well done mental health representation.

I highly recommend checking this one out for a different type of romance.

Thank you to the publisher for my ARC in exchange for my review!

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You only get one chance at a first impression…or so we’ve been told. But how many chances are we allotted for major course corrections? In Five First Chances, Sarah Jost takes readers on a journey of what-ifs, romance, time travel, friendship, and self-reflection—quite the undertaking for a debut author. Many thanks to Sourcebooks Landmark for supplying me with an ARC copy to review.

Our protagonist, Lou, kicks off the story with a profound moment of honesty that helps her acknowledge that somewhere along the way, she really screwed up her chance at happiness. Even better (or worse, depending on how one chooses to look at it), she may even know exactly which of her decisions marked the beginning of her life’s downhill slump. I’ll admit, this approach came across as a slower, wordier start than I would have preferred. Self-awareness is important—don’t get me wrong—and definitely something that fiction writers ought to consider in terms of character development and making said characters more relatable even as they confront unrealistic situations and hurdles. That being said, a little often goes a long way, and let us not forget the trusty adage show, don’t tell. To this reader, Five First Chances began with a rather lengthy conversation that we revisit every time Lou uses up another chance to get herself back on track.

The plot does pick up the pace when readers find themselves jerked back in time alongside Lou. It seems the universe sees fit to give her another shot (or maybe a few more) at love, friendship, and true happiness. But, as the title suggests, more than one take is needed for her to see what’s been right in front of her the whole time. This, I feel, is one of the most relatable aspects of Lou’s character and her misadventures. After all, who’s lucky enough to get anything as important as the rest of one’s life right the first go-round? What might make or break certain readers’ perception, though, is that it’s not just one day on repeat five times. Lou is allowed to live two specific years again and again without being fully aware that that’s what’s going on. It makes for a complex ride and provides plenty of chances to see the story from multiple angles, but some may crack this title open anticipating something more along the lines of Groundhog Day, where one day is the main focal point. Interested readers: think less Bill Murray and more Sandra Bullock (criss-crossed timelines and romantic drama of The Lake House, anyone?).

For those looking for a more whimsical and obviously fictional version of the journey of self-discovery in Eat, Pray, Love or who live to reread (see what I did there?) The Time Traveler’s Wife, Five First Chances may be just the title to add to your TBR list.

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A unique time loop story, the novel begins with death and had me confused until I saw the beautiful trajectory of main character Louise, whose reaction to people who stay the same throughout her chances is a wonderful thing to read. A heartbreakingly sweet love story is folded in, but ultimately this story is about personal growth and it is beautifully portrayed.

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I love a good time loop novel. Inevitable we all have moments in which we wonder "what would have happened had I made a different choice?" I was engrossed in this story and the characters.

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I love, love, LOVE time loops, but especially when paired with a tragic storyline. Once you finish this one, the title hits the heart a little harder.

It took me a bit to wrap my brain around the situation, as there's quite a few characters and individual conflicts. But I became instantly hooked once I had everything straight.

As Lou slowly realizes she's being continually transported back two years to Saturday, July 15th, 2017—repeating the same period of time—it's a story of small moments making monumental rippling effects.

As always with books like this, a review feels impossible to adequately capture the beauty and bittersweet message of this story.

I loved seeing Lou rebuild each version of her life into something she truly wants. There's moments of repairing friendships, acknowledging that some people will never change despite multiple chances, finding love and attempting to hold onto it ... and more!

The ending wrecked me, I must say. But I loved it anyways!

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I was so excited to read Five First Chances by Sarah Jost. I found the synopsis to be intriguing and I’m a sucker for a good love story. I can totally relate to Lou’s struggles with “what ifs” and wondering how things would have been different had she made different choices.

Sadly, I struggled with this book a lot. I can’t quite put my finger on what it was about the writing style that I found so difficult, but it made it so difficult for me to get into the story and the book in general.

The time looping was also just too much for me. The plot had so much promise, and with all of the positive reviews, I truly thought I would love this one. I hate to say it just wasn’t for me.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for gifting me an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

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Five First Chances is a Groundhog Day esk story. This was a different take on the Groundhog Day theme though, its starts with a chance encounter and resets every two years when an extremely painful event happens for our main character. This seems to trigger the do over.

In Five First Chances, the main character isn't aware that she is getting a do over, at first. Instead she has this overwhelming sense of deja vu. Not knowing she is getting these do overs, means she can't consciously make different choices, but unconsciously she seems to sense where she needs to do things differently. This actually makes her a stronger person, without even really realizing its happening to her. She starts out as this really awkward person that just let's life happen to her, to becoming someone who takes charge and makes life happen. But at some point when she does realize what is happening she trys to force things, which only makes things worse, but finally helps her to achieve some clarity in order to get out of her loop.

What I really liked about the story - I liked that it was a very different take on the Groundhog Day type theme. I think the ending came together really nicely. It ended the way it should, even if it was incredibly bittersweet.

What I struggled with - I found it could be a bit confusing because we were following over a couple years each do over. It was hard to keep track of what had been significant to that day in the last do over. A major challenge with a Groundhog Day type theme is the repetitiveness of the story, which affects the pacing. I think if this story had been just a bit shorter it would have helped it move along at a better pace and could have avoided some of that repetitiveness.

The ending of this story was just so well written, that overall I ended up coming away with a good feeling about the book.

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I was truly looking forward to a time loop romance. Sadly, Five First Chances didn't look up to my hopes. The main character didn't understand she was in a loop at first, which made for a confusing read. Even after she figured it out, I didn't find her particularly engaging. I was most interested in another character, Nick.

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Louisa is reliving the same few months over and over. She gets five chances to re-live her friend's birthday party and the few months following it. In each case she is surrounded by the same handful of people and most of the same events unfold. But she has some awareness of what is happening and can make different choices based on what she has learned from the past. With each pass she is able to face the truths of her life, help her friends and decide who she truly wants to be.

This one is Groundhog Day meets Me Before You and In Five Years with a dash of Sliding Doors. Be prepared for heavy emotion and little explanation of the time slip. It was a 'like' not a 'love' read for me. Something was missing for me in the main Lou relationship that drove the story. It was sad but I was not as bought into it as I wanted to be. Also folks looking for a traditional HEA should be braced for something quite different.

Thanks to Sourcebooks Landmark for gifted access via Netgalley. All opinions above are my own.

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This book broke my heart. I was not expecting that ending. And there was some laugh out loud moments, especially with the otters.

I enjoyed all the different chances that Lou took. Everyone was so unique. I also liked looking at the snapshots of the days that made a difference. I loved all the different characters. How each of their stories changed a tiny bit as well or you saw them in different situations. Each chance had you building on the information that you learned from the characters.

It was fun when Lou figured out she was in a time loop. Those are always the best reactions.

I would have loved to get some POV from Nick.

This book has content that was really heavy: cancer & treatments, death, suicidal thoughts, bereavement, grief and miscarriage (to name a few). This book will most likely you feel so many emotions and cry. I cried a lot.

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This book was a pleasant surprise to me! I was captivated by the premise and it kept me engaged! The Midnight Library is one of my favorite books and themes in this reminded me of that book! I can tell this won’t be for everyone, but I really enjoyed it!

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This book emotionally wrecked me.

As someone who doesn't cry in books often, this one had me in tears multiple times. Sarah's story had me in my feels and the premise of this story kept me intrigued from the start. The time-bending aspect was beautifully orchestrated.

Lou's character development was *chefs kiss* in this book – you can see Lou finding herself more and more as each chance flies by. The love story that develops as a result left me gutted, in the best way.

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I really enjoyed this time loop premise as it was unique in the way that the character doesn’t know it’s happening right away and she slowly realizes it bit by bit as she goes through her five chances. I was surprised by how sad this story was, romance novels are usually of the cutesy kind. I also loved how all the secondary characters were essential to the story in some way.

Lou was such an endearing main character and I couldn’t help but be carried away on her journey and cheer her on to find happiness. There is a lot of heavy subject matter in the book..miscarriage, mental health issues, cancer, death and bereavement. But they are all central to the story and are used sensitively and not in a gratuitous way. The ending has a twist and I did not see it coming and was an oh my gosh moment. This was an excellent debut and honestly, I can’t wait to see what the author comes up with next.

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I feel like you either like or hate time loop stories, and I personally really enjoy them. I appreciate this one for doing something different and having the main character, Louise, getting 5 chances at living 2 years of her life, as opposed to just one day. But the way the book was structured and how the characters handled the loops could’ve been better. Louise certainly starts off pretty unlikable, but as someone who struggles with anxiety, her journey completely made sense and she had some great growth (finally) by the very end of the novel. I also really liked seeing her interaction with recurring situations and characters because, while some things never changed, Louise’s reactions always did and I just thought Jost did such a great job utilizing the time loop device and doing something profound with what has the danger of coming across as repetitive to the reader.

Usually a book that makes me cry is automatically 4-5 stars because I’m easy like that, and this definitely packed an emotional punch. And boy, did I sob! But it took me a long time to get into the story. The romance was touching and I loved the love interest, wish we got to see him more. Jost touches on so many important themes in this book and it serves as a great reminder to live your life fully with no regrets (a cliche for a reason). Overall, I think there are better emotional time loop stories out there, but I’m glad I read this one. It’s hard to say specific as to what could’ve been better without spoiling the story but if you like these types of books, definitely worth checking out.

3.5 ⭐️

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I’m really not a fan of the “grown adult character behaving immaturely” storyline. I found Lou to be difficult to take and I didn’t care about what would happen to her. The formatting also made it a bit hard to read. It got very wordy at times and I found myself skimming large portions of paragraphs. Overall this just wasn’t the book for me, but it could be for someone else.

Thank you to the publisher for the ARC.

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Her best friends birthday party. A text from an ex. While Lou thought she made the right decision, now she wonders if changing how she reacted that night could change everything? When she suddenly wakes up back at that night, she has a chance to change things. Will she make the right choices the second time though? Or the third? Fourth?

I always love a time loop story, and this one was so fantastic. We watched Lou become a better version of herself with each restart, and I loved seeing her grow. The beginning of the book moved a little bit slower than I prefer, but by the time I hit around 40% I could not put it down. Overall, this was such a lovely story that left me in tears.

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I received this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is one of those very very slow settings g the scene books where you put the book down a lot before you pick it up and recommit. It is a good book but I wish it established faster.

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Welp. Have your tissues handy for this one. I expected a light hearted romcom style book, and what I got was a anxiety fueled, self sabotaging main character, with some decent friends, a messy family situation and some douchy men mixed in. Her journey to finding herself and her end guy were worth all the other crap, so don’t get stuck on her early antics. Again - tissues required.

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If I could only say a few words about this book, I'd have to shout them from the rooftops. Read it! This is the most brilliant, life-affirming, heartbreaking, heartwarming story! Oh my gosh can Sarah Jost write!

I'm not normally a fan of time travel, magical realism, books about chances to live life over, rewriting the future, groundhog day stories.... they all feel a little "same" to me, like I've read them all before. But not this one. From the first page it pulls you in and it does not let go. This author did an outstanding job of storytelling. The love story is mesmerizing and I sobbed at the end. I am in awe of Sarah Jost's talent. I am going to shout it out on social media and tell everyone I know to rush to buy it. May this book fly high and be on every bestseller list going!

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