I love this trope so much, maybe it's the nostalgia or something else but i love it and i hope it never stops

Grades 4+. A girl learns that sometimes you need to move on from past friendships for the best outcome. Good message about being yourself and finding your people. Great for 6th graders. Nothing mature, but lots of crush/dating stuff.

A really intriguing time travel story! A good look at middle school friendships. Super easy to read!

This was another great Middle Grade read by Jen Calonita! I definitely recommend trying her books!

I received an e-ARC from the publisher.

DNF - did not finish. I did not connect with the writing style/plot and decided to put this one down. Thank you, NetGalley and publisher for the early copy.

I read this book very quickly (less than two days). It was really engaging and hard to put down. The relationships and conversations felt very authentic. It obviously has a sci-fi twist, but this will be a great one to hand to your realistic fiction readers who are looking for a friendship story with a lot of drama.

This was such a good book! I loved time travel element, and how well it interwined with the story. It's a warm book about friendships and how sometimes we just want a do-over. It's a wonderful MG read and I love Calonita even more!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced read of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Middle School can be very difficult and these best friends need each other more that they know!
But, drifting apart may occur without either person realizing it.
Doesn't everyone wish they could get a do-over once and a while?
These kids get their do-overs and find out quickly that they should be careful what they wish for!

my daughter liked this book a lot. it was really cute for teens and i liked that, too! thank you so very very very much netgalley. you rule my butt.

3.5 stars = Good+

A fun twist on the do-over/Groundhog Day sort of story. This time, Zoe can go back to certain moments for a do over. When she comes back to the present, her timeline is changed by the things she did in the do over. There is no time loop, which was a nice change of pace - I liked the system the author created for this. This is a solid middle grade choice - the drama is centered around a friendship and cliques. The "romance" is limited to crushes and references to middle school dating.

The friendship story here is what I liked the best. Laura is an awful friend, but it takes Zoe awhile to figure that out. And while she's trying to sort things out, she makes some pretty awful friendship choices herself. But she owns them and addresses them appropriately. I could see this being great for a book group or even a class read aloud. Lots of good friendship pieces to dig into for readers as well as the fun of considering what events the reader might want a chance to do over. There are also threads about sibling relationships, being present in the moment, over-reliance on phones, honesty, being true to yourself, etc.

Zoe and Laura have been best friends forever but lately Zoe has noticed that Laura seems interested in other people, other activities and Zoe doesn't fit.

Yep... been there, done that - many times. This is a really familiar middle grade trope and I must confess for the first 30 - 40 pages it was a tad irritating. But then Zoe got a new app on her phone - the Retake app - and she was able to go back - several times to try and fix the friendship. But at what cost? And... was the friendship really worth saving or is it best to move on and grow.

As much as we want to diss the trope it is a real feeling around 6th and 7th grade as kiddos develop and change and grow. Ultimately the story was quite hopeful and might help those who are going through the struggle.

A perfect take on a light time travel contemporary. I love a Groundhog Day loop, and this felt a lot like that. While Zoe isn’t reliving the same day over and over, she is going back and redoing individual days over to try to fix her relationship with her (soon to be ex?) best friend. What I really love about a time loop is how the main character learns and grows from seeing things over again from a new angle, and Zoe did this so fantastically. She wasn’t perfect and kept making “mistakes” but learned along as she went and came to realizations about herself and her relationships with friends. I loved the ending, this is perfect for younger YA readers or older MG readers, because her best friend is very into fashion and boys (so I don’t know that younger MG readers will enjoy it) but I thought it was super fun!

One of the hardest parts of growing up is losing a friend, especially when you don't understand why or how you've grown apart. On the first day of seventh grade, Zoe realizes that her BFF Laura is barely a friend anymore, let alone a best friend. Laura has moved on. Zoe has not. After having the worst first day of school ever, Zoe discovers an app on her phone that lets her return to any point in time for which she has a photo. Desperate to salvage their friendship, Zoe travels backwards to a few different key moments, hoping to make better choices and restore their friendship. Nothing works out quite like she expects. This is a very interesting take on the usual middle school friend drama. Highly recommended for grades 4 & up.

This book was so great! I loved the sci-fi of the time-travel app, the relatable struggles of a middle-schooler, and the realities of friendship.

This book was wonderful for so many reasons, but one thing I loved the most was the honestness of it. Our main character, Zoe, walks us through a lot of her struggles throughout the book. Most of the things she goes through are things I remember experiencing and feeling as a middle-school aged kid. She talks of loss of friends, lack of relationship with her older sister, and finding out who she is and what she enjoys. As she goes through these many challenges in her life, she voices a lot of her internal struggles. It's an honest and vulnerable book.

As well, in true Calonita fashion, this book was quite funny. There are some fun references to modern things we have, like all the social media we use, and that adds to this fun adventure.

It was also fun to see how things unfolded as Zoe tried to change the past and save everything she thought she still needed. As Zoe worked to change the past, we were able to see Zoe's attempts end in many different ways. It wasn't the same outcome each time, which was great, because that enabled us to see how Zoe reacted to things and helped her see how she actually wanted things to be in the end. As well, with each plan, we got to learn more about our main character and the other people in her life.

The ending was perfect to me. With each failed time travel attempt, it became increasingly clear things could only end the one way. It was a good lesson for the main character and the reader that sometimes the things we want aren't always the things we need.

Overall, this was another great book by Jen Calonita! It contained many great lessons for kids and adults alike and was a fun, modern take on time travel.

A sweet book about maneuvering changing friendships throughout middle school. I love the development that happens throughout the book.

Wonderful book about students starting a new year of middle school and navigating friendships. This one should get students thinking about the true meaning of friendship.

This fun middle grade story is about Zoe who is struggling with friendships as she enters seventh grade. When a Retake app appears on her phone, Zoe finds she can go back in history to change things, and hopefully mend her broken friendships. This is a wonderful story about friendship and how things change over time.

In the age of social media this book is important for young readers. The messages are wonderful. I loved this book and will definitely be sharing it with my own kids.

Thank you NetGalley and Delacorte Books for Young Readers for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

If only we could go back and redo middle school with the simple click of a picture.

Zoe misses her best friend Laura, who would rather hang at the beach with her new drama friends than spend time with her oldest friend. After a disastrous first day of seventh grade, Zoe discovers an app on her phone that allows her to go back to any picture in her photo roll and do a "retake."

Every time she goes back it impacts the future and not in a good way. She finds herself going back further and further in time trying to find the moment her friendship with Laura changed. Zoe keeps making mistakes and is worried she won't get back to her real present-day regardless of what that means to her social life.

I really enjoyed this engaging read. It had a universal theme of fitting in, mean girls, friendships, and the horribleness of middle school. This would make a great book discussion read or for mother-daughter book club.

Readers who enjoy books by Wendy Maas and Lisa Greenwald will enjoy these books.

Zoe is excited to start 7th grade with her bestfriend, Laura. After returning from a summer of travelling with her parents, Zoe realizes that Laura has new interests and a new friend group that doesn't include her. She then finds a mysterious app on her phone that allows her to travel back in time to moments where her and Laura started to drift apart. Zoe does everything she can think of to change those moments and ensure their friendship will last. With each trip, Zoe learns that second chances don't always go as you expect and that change is inevitable.

I really enjoyed The Retake. It focuses on changing relationships and social dynamics which is something all readers, but especially middle grade readers, can relate to. It's kind of has Groundhog's Day vibes which I appreciated. I also liked that Zoe learns to be true to herself, that making new friends is okay, and that you can't stop change. I think at some point, we have all wished to go back and redo a moment. This book reminds us that it's our choices, actions, and experiences (both the good and the bad) that make us who we are and that we can't stop change. Instead, we have to roll with it and adapt.

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