Actual rating: 3.5🌟

The premise of this story is the main reason that I downloaded this book from NetGalley. It mentions something about reliving a day over and over again. This kind of stories really interests me. I tried not to have high hopes so I won't be disappointed in case it is not what I expected.

When I started reading this one, I had difficulties in trying to like our MC Heidi. Heidi is not the 'perfect' goody two shoes MC that everyone will usually root for. She did a lot of questionable things (for me) and made a lot of nonsensical (for me) decisions. I honestly almost dnf this book.😅

I'm also weirded out by how many times her legs or stomach turns to jelly or was compared to gelatin whenever she sees someone attractive. Not sure if the weirdness comes from the usage of the phrase or the reason why she will even feel that way.

What I liked is the part where Heidi learns little by little the things that she didn't noticed because she's so focused on her 'future plans' instead of the now. I actually like how her character tried to make amends on her previous mistakes. I also like the fact that she finally learned to listen and not just forced her ideals on her kids.

The fantasy part was not really explained. Her thing with Angel is instalove and I wasn't a fan of that. The day repeating again and again is quite tiresome at some point but I persevered and managed to finish this one.

It was an okay read.👍

*Thanks to the publisher for making this book available for review via Netgalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest thoughts and opinions of the book.*

Oof. I just couldn't get into this story. The premise intrigued me - The main character, Heidi lives a day she felt would be the most glorious. She proposes to her long time friend at a music festival ... however the proposal is declined & Heidi is shattered. She confesses to a stranger her only wish is to relive the day over again, so she could do it differently. This leads to Groundhogs day, living the same day over and over, with Heidi's actions changing based on her assessment of her values and ideas.

I was granted eARC access to Every Time We Meet via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thoughts are my own and my review is honest.

When this book was suggested to me (I don't remember where or by who now) I was promised "Groundhog Day, but updated and sapphic." Well, it is and it isn't. Our main character does indeed wake up to a radio alarm clock, late for everything, and fail in love. The day does indeed repeat several times over until she gets it right. That's where the similarities end.

First of all, her repeated day is different every time. Yes she wakes up the same way, she's late, she has kids and a lover she's splitting her time between, and her proposal is disastrously declined; but every time the day starts over her lover is someone different and she has this nagging feeling there's something she should know about her daughter's music teacher (lover #1 demoted to contact in subsequent days.) The thing she's late to is slightly different. The way she plans to propose is slightly different. This decision to make the repeated day different in little ways seems to have lead the author to take us through every hour of the day all 10 times, and it gets old. Keep in mind that in the film this is inspired by, we only get highlights (and lowlights) after a couple of full repeats. The film works because after the audience understands the fact that the day repeats exactly and he can't escape, we're only shown the key moments. The times he comically predicts something. The various ways the date still blows up. We don't need to confirm that the alarm clock rang on hundreds of mornings or see him leave the house in a rushed mess. We assume that happened again when we see he's on the date again.

Second, let's address that sapphic promise. On day one she's rushing to get everything right so she can propose to her girlfriend. The opening line of the book's official synopsis says "women-loving-women." Readers are under the impression that Heidi is a lesbian. Day 2's lover is a man. As someone who falls under the bisexual umbrella myself and knows all too well what bi-erasure is and what it feels like, I'm happy to see a bisexual lead, but that's not what the teasers about this book set me up for. I was expecting Heidi to repeat the same day over and over again until she got her girlfriend to say yes, not until she got any random lover of any sex and gender to say yes. If you're going to do bi, do bi, but tease bi so we aren't thrown for a loop when the first man shows up. Furthermore, since the repeated day changes up her lover, perhaps a love triangle should have been established in day 1 so it wouldn't be so odd that day 2 is this other person with different assets to offer, and then just alternate between realities where she picked one or the other at some point instead of jumping to realities where she never connected with certain people.

I think this was a great concept and I'm definitely looking forward to trying more books by Leibowitz's in the future. This is a debut, and I recognize that. I hope Leibowitz will be able to take the constructive feedback reviewers are offering and leave any nasty comments in the trash pile where they belong, because I can see great things coming in the future with a little more experience and polish!

Sadly, what works on the screen, with the right actors, the right direction, and the right twists just does not translate well to the page. I was excited for a queer version of Groundhog Day, but instead of feeling clever and amusing, this just felt boring and repetitive. It doesn't help that the day itself wasn't particularly interesting, with too much everyday parental banalities to it. There seemed to be no rules or reason to what changed with each new day, and it felt like the dating changes were a mistake, robbing us of the opportunity to become invested in the relationships.

I fell into the habit of scanning, looking for changes, and that just broke the narrative experience. I came away tired and frustrated.

2.50 Stars. This was a disappointment. The movie Groundhog Day is such a beloved classic- well just about anything Bill Murray does is a classic- and I just love the premise of having the multi day do-over. I have read a few books that tried this premise and some have worked better than others. I’m sorry to say that this one just didn’t work for me at all.

I hate to really rip on a book but I found this to be almost a chore to read at times. The biggest problem is that the day that repeats, is just not that interesting of a day for me to read it over and over, ten times in total. This is the story about a single mom who has trouble fitting a romantic relationship in with her kids’ busy schedules. So we are literally watching her go from kid activity, to kid activity, to kid activity, to a sort of date. I hate to say this but I honestly just didn’t care.

The beginning of each day is very Groundhog Day like with the radio waking the mom up before she rushes off to a festival. I found it to be a little odd that the radio was the one main thing the author kept similar, to the movie, as all I could think of is if anyone even listens to the radio anymore? Anyway, the next biggest problem I had is that it felt like 70% of the book was total repetition, and many of the times word for word. Only very small things about scenes or convos were changed and it became really boring to me. In the movie GD, after repeating the same day a few times, we then just see Bill in certain scenes. For instance just dates that don’t go right. We don’t always see the whole day played out over and over, step by step, but we do in this book and it was too much repetition.

One of the very few things that changed, day to day, was that the main character’s past was different upon waking up every day. She was dating some new character every do-over day. While I liked that the author had the main character be bisexual, so there were many different options of secondary characters she could date for this slight twist on the do-over day, but there was a problem here too. I didn’t get why this even happened. I didn’t get the rules and why her past was always with different people. There seemed to be no collation in what she was doing in the previous do-over day, to cause her to have a new partner. So while it was a neat little twist, it didn’t really work because it was random with nothing actually behind the cause of why it occurred.

There were some other issues I had but I don’t want to just keep ripping on this book. I think the author chose this premise with good intentions but it just didn’t come together. While this is not a book for me, and it’s a book that I cannot recommend, I do wish the author well in their next book.

This is a unique take on the Groundhogs Day movie, where the main character keeps redoing the same day over again until she gets it right. While I like that she gets to try finding balance between love and her kids, the outside force that restarts her day with a new love interest each time feels a bit random. It was hard to keep from skimming each chapter just to look for the changes. The cover art is beautiful and the ending is worth the wait, but I’m worried readers will just skip to the end like I was tempted to do.

The most recognized “reliving the day” story for me is the movie Groundhog Day and Every Time We Meet does seem to draw at least some inspiration from that story. When Heidi wakes up on day one, she is already running late. She has plans to propose to her girlfriend at the Lilac Festival and things are off from the moment she opens her eyes. The book then progresses through many passes of Heidi reliving almost the same day trying to get it right.

Here’s the issue I had with this book. I did not care for the way Heidi was portrayed and I felt like it wasn’t even her fault, but rather the story she was put in. Heidi had her first child at 18 and married her high school boyfriend. They went on to have two more kids and then their marriage fell apart and her ex is now remarried with a new baby. Everything was made out to be Heidi’s fault. She was chastised for being disorganized and late and all the things that went wrong that day were put down to Heidi being a mess and not having it together. While working full time, she was supposed to do all the scheduling for the kids while letting her ex know with plenty of time what help she needed, and when and if he could fit it into his schedule to help, he would. She was also supposed to somehow bond with the new wife who was shown to have nothing but contempt for Heidi. Now, of course there were areas Heidi could make improvements, but having every single thing be her fault every day was way way too much.

The story also got a little repetitive as she was reliving the day nine times that we were shown. The basic premise stayed the same with Heidi making visible changes along the way, but one key player in Heidi’s story changed every day and that didn’t work for me at all. At the end, it wasn’t helpful to the story or clear for me what Heidi was supposed to learn from having a different person step into this role each day.

I would not consider this book a romance and although there are some romantic elements to Heidi figuring out a relationship for herself, it’s all seen in glimpses and there is no true relationship development.

The premise of Every Time We Meet intrigued me from the start, but the execution didn’t have the same follow through.

I got this book for free in exchange for an honest review.
I read the first 50% fairly quickly and it was quite enjoyable other than some repetitiveness but I didn’t really mind that. Unfortunately, the book just kept on repeating itself over and over (which I understand is the basis of the book) to a point that I couldn’t stand to read it any more.
I was hoping that Heidi would at least figure out what was going on so I kept reading.
I don’t think that the premise is a bad idea, I just think that a lot of it was repeated word for word with some déjà vu moments here and there and it was very frustrating. I did really enjoy the writing style but not enough that I wanted to keep rereading the same sentences.
I was really hoping to love this book and I can’t help but wish that it was cut off half way through so that it might have gotten a higher rating from me.

The premise was a big draw and i was quickly absorbed with how the story panned out until it got a tad repetitive.

Every Time We Meet is a book on the struggles of a perfectionist who got to live the same day over and over again. Heidi has 3 kids with her ex husband Evans. She has the best plans for her kids but has trouble keeping up with them all. She is seeing someone whom she intended to propose to but somehow always messes the day up and has to repeat the same day until she got it right.

Every day on repeat she meets the same lady, Angel, whom she is drawn to regardless of how the day went. While her life is on repeat, she has to come to terms with what matters and what she wants out of life.

3 stars. Readers might find it too much when the same day is repeated for consecutively 10 days. I would have liked the book better if I knew what caused and gave Heidi the chance to live her day over and over again. Powers of the lilacs on the first day of the festival?

I just reviewed Every Time We Meet by A.M. Leibowitz. Thank you NetGalley and Supposed Crimes LLC.

Personally, I've never been a huge fan of groundhog day stories. I was willing to give this one a try, since it's sapphic, but I didn't love it. I did like the characters, however the plot just got annoying and I was praying for it to be over. I think I've decided I won't be consuming any more stories with a similar plot in the future.

Every Time We Meet delves into the life of main character, Heidi, who is struggling to balance the different schedules of her children, ex, current love interest, and herself. The book follows her as she has an almost "Groundhog Day" experience of reliving the same moments of the same day over and over. Leibowitz is able to craft variations of Heidi's day, adding new details and elements, each time she lives the same day again. It is a quick read and offers an escape to a world where you can find answers to what it might be like to "do-over" a day in desperate need of re-doing.

The general plot of the book moves quickly, and while you are starting at the beginning of the day, there are a lot of details to keep track of throughout the novel. Unfortunately, I found the character of Heidi to be off-putting from the beginning, I had a difficult time liking her character because she comes off as carefree and somewhat negligent of both herself and everyone around her. I completely understood the fact that she was balancing many, many moving pieces, and Leibowitz did a great job of creating the busy chaotic schedule of a mother of three kids, with three totally different personalities. However, it did sometimes feel like if Heidi had always been this way, that her children and those around her would have taken major issue with her, well before this day. While I took issue with Heidi, I did enjoy the book and the general theme and reoccurring imagery of lilacs and mystery that came along with the story!

I’m sure the concept for this book sounded wonderful to the author when she thought of it or dreamt it, but the outcome is anything but. The book takes place over six days. And each day starts out the same as the first day – meaning readers have to read it over and over and over – with minor changes day-to-day. When the author chose to make her main character unlikable to the point of being obnoxious it meant readers would have to meet the character six times. And if the first time turned you off because the character’s actions and reactions to her own bad behavior, too bad because you get read the same bad actions and reactions over and over.

My thanks to Supposed Crimes and NetGalley for an eARC.

𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁.

I got the ARC very early on but I put off read this until a good day after seeing some of the reviews. I wanted to see if I could come up with a different perspective and maybe even enjoy this more than other readers. I really did try, but I still ended up skipping pages to avoid the repetitiveness.

I’ll be honest, it's an interesting story. Heidi's wish to make a bad day better comes true and she ends up in a time loop, which I must add, comes with fundamental differences in each of the ground hog day repeats. I empathise because the day had indeed been a mess for Heidi - with the kids, the ex and the current partner. But like many other readers, I found it hard to like the way it was written because of how I had to relive the same day and 70% of the same dialogue ten times.

At least Heidi’s love story kept me motivated to read until the end. And I think I got two learning points out of this book - One, that you have to accept that life can't be perfect all the time. And two, if it doesn't feel right, it's probably the wrong person you're with.

After reading the blurb, I wanted to love this book. After reading it, I am sort of disappointed. First let me say the premise was great. I have read another book like this and if executed right it could be really good. What fell short for me is that each day involved a different person Heidi was involved with. It would have been better if we had some background on each of these people she was involved with during her groundhog day. Yes I did like that it did always involve the one "stranger". Overall it just didn't appeal to me and wish some aspects of the romance was different. 2.5 stars.

This arc was provided by netgalley and the publisher for an honest review.

I love “Groundhog Day” type worlds. And it was really exciting to find a queer one. A lot of times with these the various versions of the days can get a bit repetitive, but this one really held my attention. I felt that Heidi was an interesting and relatable character and I appreciated watching her character growth. The meetings with Angel built up perfectly and their chemistry was lovely. I really really enjoyed this book.

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3904128152

I had to DNF this about 30% of the way through because I just couldn't get through it. There were a lot of grammar and word choice issues, and the plot wasn't well executed.

Groundhog day.

How many times do you repeat the same mistakes expecting different results? A lot if you're Heidi, single mom of three.

Heidi is in love with the idea of being the perfect mom, the idea of being part of a couple and the idea she is in control. Heid is not perfect, she's not really part of a couple and she most definitely is not in control.

The story takes you through one day in Heidi's life over and over while she struggles what she needs to change in order to escape this time loop.

Interesting read.

I wanted to like this a lot but sadly it turned out to be quite disappointing, to me at least.

The MC Heidi keeps re-living the same day over and over until she lives it right. For a book of this format, one needs to be careful to avoid too much repetition and unfortunately this felt too repetitive. I also think that the characterization was somewhat lazy, and I didn't really feel invested in Heidi's life, what her final choice is going to be and it felt like some of her decision were coming at random. The writing was sort of superficial, lots of describing actions, plans, surroundings but not feelings? Which is not a good thing in a book that is supposed to be at least party romance.
(view spoiler)

I'm giving two stars for the good queer representation and also because despite its faults, the story still kept me engaged enough that I wanted to know how it ends. Another positive is that it is a fairly quick and light read. I also believe that the idea to write about a woman who is juggling too much and spreading herself too thin, wanting everything to be perfect, to the detriment of her life, her children's life and her relationship, is a good idea. But I believe there are better ways to write about it

This book sounded absolutely awesome. Romance with a science fiction twist? Perfect! So, I was very excited to start to read it. Unfortunately, I was not too impressed and I DNF:ed it. When I read a romance, I think the most important thing is that I actually want the romantic couple to be together. Even If this is under women’s fiction the entire premise is repeating the day until the main character get the girl. And right from the beginning I did not get any positive feeling from the main character. I can like my main character a bit “messy”, but I do not like when it feels like they blame it on other people. I understand that her ex-husband does not sound like a nice person, but how can she be upset that he does not just drop everything to help her in a second when she has poor planning? He was going to a niece baptism. Is he supposed to skip it just to drive his kids last minute because she did not plan? You complain that you do not have any help, but still refuse all help from any other person who volunteers it. And when she starts to “feeling a little fain” and start stuttering when a single father to one of her daughter’s classmates just said “How’s it going” I had to call it quits. I get that you can notice other people but come on, you just missed your own proposal to your girlfriend because of poor planning. Now you swoon over some other guy so much that you almost faint and start to studder? A guy that you described as “extraordinalary attractive” and “striking blue eyes and a charming smile, the kind that made a person feel as their words were the most important thing to Tom in any conversation” plus some more description. At the same time, we do not know how the girlfriend look like, or really anything about her except her name. Right now, I just now I will hate however the book will end. Will she end up with the girlfriend I will hate it because how she just swoons over other persons so much and how the author chooses to put so much emphasise at this Tom guy. Does she end up with Tom which would make a lot more sense, I would feel cheated from the premise of the story and it would be weird to go from proposing to your girlfriend to switch to another person in one day. Thus, it ended up in a loose loose situation where I knew I would not like any ending to the story.

I'm so glad I read this without looking at any reviews beforehand. I really enjoyed this novel, which has a Groundhog Day plotline to it but with a queer retelling. Heidi is an over-stretched single mother who is trying to make everything work. As she repeats her day, she begins to realise that she needs to ask for help more and that she's choosing the wrong romantic relationships for yourself. At some points, I did find the days to get a bit repetitive but I think in the longterm it's an important aspect to the storyline. It's not a perfect novel but I really enjoyed reading about Heidi and the choices she makes.

This isn't a typical romance, so I think it might not work for some readers who might go into it thinking it is. Read this if you're wanting a novel with strong character development and an interesting premise.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Supposed Crimes for a copy of this novel. ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.