The world-building in this book is so incredible and thought provoking! It's 2045, and humans have figured out how to rewind a few seconds to undo cringey situations. Sounds cool and also incredibly messy, right? Well, something is happening to Nev, who is working on the 2.0 version. She finds herself moving backwards a day every day, so when she wakes up in what is supposed to be the next day, it's actually the day before. She figures this has to be some kind of glitch happening since she is working on the program, and she needs to get to the bottom of it.

That is literally all I will tell you about the plot, because the whole fun of the story is figuring out what the heck is happening, and what fun it is! It is written in such a great way, because it isn't too scientific for the casual fan to read, but it is complex enough to be really intriguing and perplexing- in the good way. And I absolutely fell in love with Nev, she becomes so much more self-aware and likable as the story goes on, too. She has to do a lot of introspection during the course of the story, and it makes her all the better for it.

Nev is, when we meet her, living a pretty isolated existence. Her life revolves around work, she's on the outs with her family (her only close family member, her beloved grandmother, has just passed), and she's in a non-relationship with some crappy guy. As she starts to travel in reverse, however, she sees the opportunity to perhaps change some of that. She is reacquainted with Airin, who she knew a bit from their college days, but never stayed in contact with. But since Airin is moving forward and Nev is moving backwards, they are always at different stages of their understandings of the situation, so it makes things even more complicated.

Now, my only qualm (legit, the only thing keeping me from giving this the full five) is that ending. I needed more! I have read a few reviews that say it might be a series? If it is, I will come back here and provide that last half a star without hesitation. I have done a lot of investigating (too much, frankly) and can find nothing labeling it as a series, so. I beg of you, someone out there, tell me it will be a series! Hell, lie to me at this point, I need more!

Bottom Line: I loved this book, and I really hope that the story continues, because if not, I shall be left with sadness at never knowing Things™.

A Second Chance for Yesterday - R.A. Sinn

Things I loved:
+ The premise of this book is incredibly cool. If you’re a fan of the multiverse, like me, and love alternate realities and time travel - this book could be a winner for you!
+ I loved the plot and the romance subplot, the futuristic language and imagery!
+ The way in which the story is told - through “loops” that begin with the date and time.
+ Nev’s character arc was great! Watching her grow backwards was incredibly interesting!

Things I wished were a bit different:
+ I felt like the family drama secondary subplot was just a bit too much going on
+ I wish there had been more of a resolution to the Anissa and Jim Bone plot lines. Actually, I feel like the only plot line that was resolved was the family plot line.
+ The overall tone of the writing was not my style, but that is entirely personal preference!

Overall a 3.5 star read for me! Worth reading for sure if you’re interested in the topics I mentioned above! Hopefully there will be a sequel so we can find out what happens to humanity!! 😅

I love books that make you think about the complexities of life and the time travel element is always great. But if you are not a fan of slow books, or plots that jump around this may not be for you. Also beware of the cliffhanger.

This book explores the impact of scientific and technological advances on society, set in futuristic and alternative worlds. The author has done a fantastic job of dealing with themes such as time travel, space exploration, artificial intelligence, extraterrestrial life, and the human condition. This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and I would read more of their work. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

(3.25)

This is a well-paced, YA, timetravel adventure. It's got thoughtful queer representation and an interesting concept with Black Mirror vibes.

Nev works at a big tech company on a product that lets people go back in time by 5 seconds. While she's working on the launch of a new product, she suddenly starts experiencing time in reverse. Now, Nev needs to figure out why and how to get her life back on track.

This was a really fun and fast read. The characters were well written, the world was interesting and the pacing was fast and fitting (for the most part)

It's very good light sci-fi - think of River Song from Doctor Who rather than a story that is tackling the theories of time travel. Honestly, I've never read a time travel book that made sense in that way anyway!

At times I found the characters' choices a little frustrating but not so much that I needed to put the book down.

I was a bit disappointed with the way things wrapped up and wish Nev had been stronger about dealing with her past religious traumas.

Overall, it's an enjoyable holiday read with a sweet, almost plutonic love story.

The book ends on a cliffhanger and gets ready for a sequel, which I'll probably pick up!

Thanks, NetGalley and Rebellion Publishing for this advanced copy.

This book was not for me. I found it slow and struggled to get in to the story. Thank you for the opportunity to read this book but I have to be honest.

Nev Bourne works on a top tech project, SavePoint, which allows customers to move time back in
miniscule increments. While working on the nectar iteration, Nev finds herself caught in a massive code
glitch. She’s traveling back full days at a time. She eventually enlists the help of a former acquaintance,
Airin, who helps her discover the cause of the glitch. But fixing the glitch isn’t what she thought it would
be.
I almost DNF'd this at 15%. I don’t like feeling confused, and this was a lot of information that didn’t
make sense… at first. Once I got the gist of what was happening, I felt better and pushed through. Once
Nev and Airin realized what the solution was, the entire feeling of the book shifted for me.
I ended up liking this more than I thought I would, but I didn’t like how hard I had to work to keep things
straight in my head. Time travel books are always a challenge for me. Overall, I ended up enjoying the
book, so I gave it 4 stars. It has some allusions to spice but no actual spice. The queer representation is
well done. It is addressed, but it is not a central plot point.

One of my Kindig Gems for 2022 was Wrong Place, Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister which told the story of a lady travelling backwards in time, day by day as she tried to prevent a crime and stop the anomaly from happening. I was excited to read a book with a very similar premise – A Second Chance for Yesterday. Perhaps having a prime example of doing this storyline well fresh in my mind did not help my enjoyment of this book…

Nev is a programmer, working on a 2.0 of a software that allows you to rewrite mistakes, creating a SavePoint in time and space which you can easily go back to if you do something which you regret. As Nev triggers the test of the updated version, she wakes up to find it is yesterday, and so on going backwards through time, trying to find a way to stop it. An almost Groundhog Day like scenario.

One of my issues with the book is that I didn’t find any of the characters particularly likeable and didn’t have any empathy with them. We seem to be kept at arm’s length throughout, with Nev making silly decisions and generally messing up. The love interest Airin is also a bit bland, and we don’t really understand Nev’s infatuation with them, particularly in the latter half of the book, when they don’t seem to have had much of a relationship.

Due to the fact that the whole premise of the book revolves around changing space time and rewriting the past as a key and integral part of everyday life, with most people able to trigger it for themselves, it seemed odd that this glitch was kept a secret. Nev doesn’t really tell anyone, even outside of the company, but actually I don’t think it would have raised many eyebrows. The book also got very confusing, particularly in the middle, and some of the ‘rules’ that the author creates seem to be contradicted against, muddying the premise and confusing the audience. I think that if the book had started with a normal day, and then the replay happened so you could see the differences, this would have helped to bring us into Nev’s world. Unfortunately, because we didn’t know the original timeline, other than what Nev remembers in bits and pieces, it just all felt a bit pointless.

The ending is almost a cliff-hanger it is so abrupt and there is a lot left undeveloped and not wrapped up. In particular, the mysterious Jim Bone character we have been introduced to throughout doesn’t get any kind of pay off. I also didn’t understand why or how the timeline ended as it did and there’s no resolution given to any of the questions or plotlines throughout the book which seemed like a major waste of time!

Overall, A Second Chance for Yesterday is a great premise but it’s confusing and the ending leaves us with more questions than answers. Thank you to NetGalley & Rebellion – Solaris for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Unless there is a planned sequel to this book, the ending did not bring the story to a close but rather left many questions. I give the authors huge credit for the maner in which they told this story, if you don't pay attention things could get confusing. I was rather frustrated with the certain parts of the storyline, for example, despite being brilliant her falling in love prevented her from making smart, obvious decisions resulting in fumbling her way through the past. But nonetheless it was a nice ride. Thanks NetGalley.

The premise for this book was that a woman is trapped, forced to live her life backwards, as a result of a computer glitch - the world used a system to pause and rewind the last 5 seconds, so foolish actions and words could be overwritten. However, Nev, the programmer for the company who developed this, has been caught up in the latest upgrade and somehow is now living backwards.

The reality unfortunately was very confusing for the reader as, unlike Nev, we didn't know what she'd done each day so we reliant on her descriptions and half way through I was ready to give up. It was just all confusing with no substance. Nev meets Airin from her university days, also a master programmer, and together they try to correct the glitch, but Airin is living forward in time. There is also the issue that the author lets us know Airin was born male, but prefers to be androgynous, which is fine (if totally unnecessary to the plot) but it was also irritating to endlessly refer to him as 'they' and 'their'.

And then there's Jim Bone, a tramp who also seems some sort of refugee from time.

Overall the second half pulled together but many questions were left unanswered (not least about Jim Bone). I found it a disappointing and frustrating read.

Thank you to NetGalley, Rebellion and Solaris for allowing me access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted to love this book. The description and cover drew me in and I was hooked fairly quickly. The story centres around Nev, a programmer who is instrumental in bringing SavePoint to the masses. A way to rewind and redo moments in your life. Thus allowing you to rant at your boss, tell that customer exactly what you think of them, then redo the moment so you don't face the consequences of those actions because you didn't do them. Except something goes wrong and Nev starts going backwards in time while everyone else travels forwards.

Nev's relationships with those around her are interesting as she tries to make sense of what's going on. But I feel like there could've been more depth to her character, and some of the 'rules' of the Glitch don't seem to follow through the book which is a little jarring.

I was disappointed with the ending as the lack of emotional impact didn't fit the 'facts' of the story. It should've been an emotional punch but instead felt more like a meh than a wow! However other reviewers have mentioned that there are more books to come so perhaps my disappointment has a short shelf-life and I'll get my emotional heartbreak in the story that follows.

Great set up for the rest of the series.. but that CLIFFHANGER? Rude! Time travel is such a great read and I like how each chapter has the date/time. I just kept thinking.. how/when will Nev break this cycle??

"Now, the heat in their eyes was almost incendiary."

Wow - I really enjoyed A Second Chance for Yesterday. The book follows Nev, a gifted programmer, as she tries to prevent the world collapsing with the release of her company's latest rollout, SavePoint 2.0. In doing so, Nev gets stuck travelling back in time and ends up enlisting the help of hotshot hacker Airin as the two become slowly intertwined in trying to save humanity as they know it. A Second Chance for Yesterday is a lovely and fascinating story of family, queer love and redemption. I don't read many sci-fi books but found myself really enjoying it. Thank you Net Galley and Rebellion for the ARC of this one!

What are the odds that I would read two going backwards in time books this year? Pretty good I guess, because I did.

To be honest, I did not finish this book, and I hate to do it. I got about 30% through the when the plot began to take shape and I could not get through the narration of her past and the unrealistic dialogue. I could tell it wasn’t going to be a fun read for me, so I had to let it go.

If you like time travel, light physics, lots of numbers, and don’t mind plain writing, you may like this! The plot is an interesting concept but not enough for me personally to endure.

A Second Chance for Yesterday by R.A. Sinn will be published August 29, 2023. Solaris Books, an imprint of Rebellion Publishing, provided an early galley for review.

I have always been drawn to time travel tales, so this one jumped out to me. And as someone who spent three-plus decades in a software development career, the tech side of this one intrigued me as well.

First impression: each chapter is denoted by a date-time stamp rather than a simple sequential numbering. That's something new (for me). Next impression: the "do-over" aspect of the SavePoint application also seems innocuous enough (on the surface). But good sci-fi knows how to warn of such things. As the story unfolds, I found myself empathizing with Nev's situation as it grows more and more frustrating. I was also pulled into the whole mystery of it all: what was causing this to happen to Nev? And, more importantly, how was she going to break this cycle?

Jumping back a day at a time might seem simple enough, but it relies on the author really tackling the story in a different way. We often think linearly going forward, where here Sinn (a pseudonym for siblings Rachel Hope Cleves and Aram Sinnreich) must craft their story so it makes sense in reverse. A fun exercise indeed.

Without spoiling anything, the ending was fitting for the narrative and themes but did leave me with several unanswered questions (and thus not being fully as satisfying as I would have liked).

Lots of things can go wrong when exploring time-travel, as the characters in this novel can attest. But that holds true for authors as well. Here there is a novel approach to time travel, playing with the ideas of predetermination and free-will without committing too strongly to any specific answer being exactly right. If this was a hard sci-fi novel then some of the vagaries, and unanswered dilemmas that come up, might get in the way of the story. But this isn’t a hard sci-fi novel. This is a novel about what it means to discover yourself, and who and how you want to be in the world. It asks questions about what kind of ripple effects we can have as we move through time and space, and time-travel is simply a plot device to look at myriad sides of a quantum entanglement simultaneously.

And realizing that, the story, and the journey it takes us on, whether forward or backwards, is both moving and satisfying. Our protagonist feels real and solid, and her change and growth feels natural, as opposed to mere acquiescence to plot contrivances. And the writing feels intimate and personal without being contrived. There are characters that work in parallel but with mirrored story-arcs, as they are moving in different directions through time, and the way those two journeys are explored, the journey from inexperience to knowledge for one and the reverse for the other, was done well. Although the story was wrapped in sci-fi concepts and futuristic ideas of how computing will undoubtedly invade our private lives, nothing felt impenetrable or hard to follow, which can happen when futuristic ideas are not the main part of a story but the dressing for a different story. Here they were a welcome and exciting way to go deeper than a less futuristic narrative might allow.

Some parts of the story did feel a little slow, and sometimes the backwards narrative structure did force the authors into corners that were occasionally repetitive. There is ambiguity throughout the story, about motivations and intended outcomes and so forth, and in most cases it felt earned, complimenting the story, instead of feeling like questions the authors weren’t sure how to answer. It is understandable that this may not be the novel for everyone, but if you are interested in heartfelt, genuine introspection delivered with an interesting sci-fi/time-traveling wrinkle, there is a lot to enjoy and think on in this wonderful novel.

I want to thank the author, the publisher Rebellion, Solaris, and NetGalley, who provided a complimentary eARC for review. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This is a very futuristic book about Nev, who is a programmer that is working on brain implants that can rewind moments in your life you would like to change. However, things go horribly wrong when her implant takes a test run and has her life going backwards one day at a time.
She is not sure of how to change this until she reunites with a college friend, Airin. Nev describes to Airin what is going on. It is difficult for the pair to begin repairing this test before it goes live to the public. Nev is going backwards and Airin is living a typical life. They are able to meet despite living in different worlds.
It is a very interesting concept and the ending was bittersweet.
I would highly recommend.
I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A Second Chance for Yesterday is a heartfelt journey into one woman’s past, exploring the mistakes she’s made and her attempts to save the future. Nev is a compelling narrator and protagonist, not always sympathetic but definitely the right woman for the job. Airin is a brilliant counterpart to her, and their relationship forms the core of a story that is ultimately about relationships, to people and to time, familiar, platonic, and romantic.

The author pair behind R. A. Sinn take the reader on an emotional rollercoaster of a story, through bursts of hedonism and grief, and, ultimately, about a woman who has been confronted suddenly with her own mortality. Nev’s future is moot, her past changeable (to a slight extent) and, as she comes to realize, a chance at redemption closes in on the horizon.

A Second Chance for Yesterday is a must-read just in time for summer’s curtain call. Its length makes it a quick but heartfelt read (I was in tears by the end) and it is an achingly sincere exploration of a woman’s past and her desperate attempts to save the future the further she gets dragged into the past. I’d recommend to anyone looking for character-driven, grounded science fiction and queer romance.

The story in A Second Chance for Yesterday is woven around an intriguing and novel twist on time travel. When Nev finds herself going back through time, one day at a time, she has to enlist the help of an old hacker acquaintance from her past to work out what is going on and how to fix it.

The small cast of characters are very well written, with Nev and Airin having a depth and real emotional presence. Their relationship is beautifully told, with the nuances and difficulties caused by the time travel handled in an satisfying and believable way. I was very invested in their relationship, and cried at one poingant point towards the end of the book. The minor characters of Maddy, Jared, Christina, and Kusuma are nicely distinct, and help support the plot - with some very gratifying moments of clarity for Nev in these relationship as she sees them develop in reverse.

I would have liked a little more detail around the parts that Kusuma and Jim Bone played in the background of why the time travel glitch happened, as these were left frustratingly vague - although this is a minor point, and the plot was richly described and had a good pace. The ending left room for a sequel (please?), and I would definitely enjoy learning more about this background if a sequel is written.

Thank you #NetGalley and Solaris for the free review copy of #ASecondChanceforYesterday in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Imagine waking up and finding out something weird is going on. Yes, we might all have that experience at some point or another. But programmer Nev Bourne realizes she’s falling backward in time. R.A. Sinn has unlocked a new fear! This is our book review and recommendation for A Second Chance for Yesterday.

Book premise
A Second Chance For Yesterday takes place in the future and has a sci-fi element to it. For the most part of the world, people walk around with an implant that allows them to “rewind” their life a few seconds. We have the existence of SavePoint, the creator of this brain implant and the company Nev is a programmer for. Nev was given the responsibility to roll out a 2.0 version, and she did…or so she thought. As she realizes she’s going backward in time, she has these moments of reflection about the person she was and how her past has shaped her.
In the midst of losing hope and her mind, she reconnects with a fellow classmate who convinces Nev that they should work together to fix the glitch Nev finds herself in. Clever of the authors, you have Nev moving backward and Airin moving forward.

Thought-provoking and would be a great book club read from all of the conversations that can be had about this book. A Second Chance for Yesterday was captivating and makes you wonder what the future might look like. Would we at this point in 2023 find SavePoint useful? What then happens to Nev?