I received this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was a great concept and pretty well done. I was worried it might feel a bit clichéd but I liked it!

I received an ARC of, Twice in a Lifetime, by Melissa Baron. What a weird book. I know what having anxiety is like, it really sucks. This book is so different then other books, I still do not know if I like it.

So excited to read/review this gorgeous book! Full review to come here and on the blog. I love a good love story, but this one has such a beautiful, unique, and fresh concept. I cannot wait to see how it plays out. Love the main characters name is Isla as I always thought that was such a gorgeous name,

Isla has fled the city for small-town Missouri in the wake of a painful and exhausting year. With her chronic anxiety at a fever pitch, the last thing she expects is to meet a genuine romantic prospect. And she doesn’t. But she does get a text from a man who seems to think he’s her husband. Obviously, a wrong number—except when she points this out, the mystery texter sends back a picture. Of them—on their wedding day.

Isla cautiously starts up a texting relationship with her maybe-hoax, maybe-husband Ewan, who claims to be reaching out from a few years into the future. Ewan knows Isla incredibly well, and seems to love her exactly as she is, which she can hardly fathom. But he’s also grieving, because in the future, he and Isla are no longer together.

Ewan is texting back through time to save her from a fate he is unwilling to share—and all she can do to prevent that fate is to learn to be happy, now, in the body she has, with the mind she has. The only trouble is the steps she takes in that direction might be steps away from a future with Ewan.

Melissa Baron’s time-crossed romance features a quintessentially endearing and brave protagonist, and an engrossing plot that will keep you turning pages until its breathtaking finish.

The Time Traveler's Wife meets Oona Out of Order in this imaginative and moving debut novel of a love more powerful than time.
Isla has fled the city for small-town Missouri in the wake of a painful and exhausting year. With her chronic anxiety at a fever pitch, the last thing she expects is to meet a genuine romantic prospect. And she doesn't. But she does get a text from a man who seems to think he's her husband. Obviously, a wrong number except when she points this out, the mystery texter sends back a picture. Of them on their wedding day.
Isla cautiously starts up a texting relationship with her maybe hoax, maybe husband Ewan, who claims to be reaching out from a few years into the future. Ewan knows Isla incredibly well, and seems to love her exactly as she is, which she can hardly fathom. But he's also grieving, because in the future, he and Isla are no longer together.
Really enjoyable read totally recommend
Thank You NetGalley and Alcove Press
I just reviewed Twice in a Lifetime by Melissa Baron. #TwiceinaLifetime #NetGalley

I really enjoyed this book and the jump back and forth to future and past

I would recommend this book to friends
Thank you NetGalley for arc !

This. Was. Heart wrenching.

Right up until the very end, I was on the edge of my seat, desperate for the only outcome I could imagine. I cried. I laughed. I breathed through almost startlingly vivid depictions of panic attacks. And I devoured this book.

Shortly after fleeing big city life and settling down alone in a small town in Missouri, Isla receives a mysterious text.

At first, she’s convinced that the debilitating anxiety that drove her to solitude has finally unraveled something inside her. Because what she first thinks is a wrong number turns out to be something far more bizarre: a man claiming to be her husband, reaching out from a future in which fate has torn them apart.

Curious, eager, and a little bit frightened, Isla begins spending her days texting her supposed future husband, Ewan - and his responses draw her further into not only the love he feels for her, but the unlikely relationship they have with years stretching between them.

Afraid to divulge too much about the future, but even more terrified to remain in the version of reality he’s found himself in, Ewan works with Isla to line their paths up from the past - and in the process, falls deeper in love with a version of his wife he never knew. But as Ewan’s future directions alter Isla’s present life, they’re forced to recon with the fact that something neither of them understand is at play; and messing with time too much may create a future worse than the one they know.

(Book TW/CW: mentions of self harm & death by suicide. Anxiety and panic attacks are a frequent topic)

I enjoyed reading this book. I always love a good romance but the time traveling got very confusing for me in the end. I couldn’t keep up with which character was being referenced, from the present or future. Overall, I thought this was a good read but I give it 3.5 stars because of the confusing ending. Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book.

This was a quiet and thoughtful book that slowly crept up on me. Despite a bit of a slow start, after about the first quarter I finished the whole book within a day because I loved the characters and the premise.

I am a fan of time travelling stories - About Time is in my top five films and Time Traveller's Wife will always remain a classic. This was a little less developed than these other books in terms of fleshing out characters and time travelling logic but I didn't feel that this detracted too much away from the book.

I felt at times the plot sort of stumbled into a divot or jerked forward - such as the texting of future Ewan and present Isla becoming sappy and romantic within a chapter which I found didn't seem in character to how Isla had been written - but I loved the overall dynamic between Ewan and Isla.

The ending was predictable however the foreshadowing was still well written and still made me want to carry on reading until I could finish it. I felt invested in the characters and I feel that's all you can ask for from a book like this.

Thank you NetGalley and Alcove Press for providing me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Content warnings for this book: suicide/suicidal ideation, loss of a parent, mental health struggles

What an intense ride this book was. I loved Isla's realness and relatability. The swift intensity of her early text-based relationship with Ewan made sense to me -- when you have anxiety issues and feel things deeply, as Isla does, quite frequently when you encounter someone who sees all of you and still really likes you it's very easy to fall for them very quickly. Also, at that point Isla is only just "meeting" Ewan, but Ewan has already known and loved her for a few years.

For me the most rewarding part of the book was Isla's growth. She needed to know that great love was possible for her, and to see how hard the loss of her was on the future love of her life, before she could find the courage to seek help with her mental health. I loved that her growth wasn't depicted as a steady unbroken path upward -- she had completely realistic setbacks and challenges, and she had to get comfortable with the knowledge that her struggles would never fully leave her but that she could develop coping skills and a support network that would help her get through the darkest times a bit more easily.

Thanks to NetGalley and Alcove Press for the opportunity to read this book!

I am in awe of Twice in a Lifetime. I get the comparison to The Time Traveler’s Wife, but the only resemblance is that both are epic, time defying love stories. Twice in a Lifetime is heavier, less action packed, more character driven, and maybe even more outstanding - but don’t tell TTTW (which is one of my all time favorite books).

Twice in a Lifetime is a heavy, yet hopeful novel, but the despair the heroine goes through is almost tangible. Please check all content warnings and reconsider reading this book if necessary.

That being said, I really loved Twice in a Lifetime. The first part was remarkably beautiful, despite the despair and hurting. Isla being in such a dark place and being so, so loved by Ewan that he’s willing to sacrifice everything to change the course of their future. Sigh. I was ugly crying through the pages. The second part focuses on how Isla and Ewan (re)meet for the first time and fall in love. The third part however, changed Twice in a Lifetime from good to great. I loved the bold choices the author made to deliver the true message of this novel. In my eyes it really paid off and made Twice in a Lifetime even more unforgettable.

Last but least, five full stars for Ewan Park, our Best Book Boyfriend of the Year. I couldn’t wish for a better person for Isla.

Wow this book was so much more emotional than I expected. I thought it would have almost a lighthearted feel, but every chapter pulled at my heartstrings. I definitely had the same feelings as when I read Time Traveler's Wife and In Five Years. Like both those books, I loved the main female character. Isla was amazing. She felt so real and I was thrilled to read a book that didn't have a cookie-cutter heroine. She suffers from anxiety and depression and it has made her lead a sheltered life. It was beautiful to see her open up emotionally to Ewan. There were some slow parts, but the end picked up. Would love to read more from the author. 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Will post on Amazon upon publication

3.5 stars

I really dislike it when book blurbs mention well-loved, well-read books in order to get you to buy a book. I feel like it pre-biases the story. I understand why they do it (it's a quick way to tell if this book is your cup of tea) but the thing is, there's so much more to a book than it's plot. Every book about time travel and love is not the same. Every book that happens non-linearly is also not the same.

For me, what matters most when I compare books is how they made me feel. How were the characters developed. Did the love feel the way it feels in a different book? Did you find yourself cheering for them in the same way, did you find yourself mourning the same way? When you compare it to another book on some of the plot elements alone, you're losing me before I even read your book because what if the feeling is different (but also lovely?) Now I don't like this book because you promised me something and delivered me something else. And that's a shame.

All of this is to say that I don't think this book felt like "Time Traveler's Wife" or "Oona Out of Order" for me. It was quieter than both and yet it still was a lovely book on its own. For me, the biggest element of this book was not the time travel or the love between the two characters, it was the mental health and anxiety that the main character was grappling with and how she got in her own way so often and made her own life harder than it had to be. Her growth in this story, and her ability to both trust herself, trust her strength and put herself forth is the best part of the story in my opinion.

This is the story about a woman who meets her future husband by way of a magical phone text exchange. I didn't really care about the logistics of time travel as some might have, it's so not the point of the story. I loved both of the characters but I did think the story lacked a bit of texture and depth. I wanted to understand more about why her dad was the way he was. Ewan seemed too nice and perfect almost. I wanted to know more about him, too. I loved the premise of the story and how the character changed multiple times as a result of what she knew.

All this is to say, I really enjoyed my time with this story and the characters and the story drew me in. I look forward to reading more of this author.

With gratitude to netgalley and Alcove Press for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

His voice was soft and deep, quiet as a cathedral, reverberant through time and space like so many church bells pealing. It should be impossible. But here it was anyway, and his voice set something free once trapped inside her."

Isla moved to her cottage in a new small town, ready to live a quiet life and emotionally recover from losing her mom. Isla didn't expect for her life to be turned upside down when she gets a text from a man saying he's her husband in the future. Now she has to decide if she's going to trust him, and how far she will go to protect their future together.

This book was beautifully written, and a lot heavier than I imagined. I highly recommend checking for CW before picking up this book. There were times where I felt like I had to put the book down and take a breather because Baron's descriptions of anxiety and depression were very real. I enjoyed reading Isla's character growth, and journey through with mental health through the book.

I wish I enjoyed the romance in this romance book more. The pacing was all over the place. The texting went from 0 to 100 with the pet names and feelings, and the emotional connection felt really intense for the lack of build up between them. I also was not a fan of the last leg of the book, and the events that happened, even though I can understand why the author wrote it like that.
Overall a good book if you like a romance that tackles mental health.

Thank you to NetGalley, Alcove Press, and Melissa Baron for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!
↠ 3.5 stars

The title and book description are what got me. I have a big soft spot for stories about rewinding time and second chances. The love story is extremely sweet, but it’s not lighthearted at all. This book is emotionally heavy, and it took everything out of me.

I could feel Melissa Baron’s passion for her story through and through. She made Isla so relatable that I kept going back to check and see if I knew the author. I’m not going to dwell on the mental capacity of artists, but I want to let you know that Baron got it right. It’s so hard to be able to put these things into words and Baron did it effortlessly.

She was also able to portray Asian Americans and the artist community in a way that didn’t sound too stereotypical and cringy. Thank you for that. I can tell that there was an immense amount of research and heart that went into this debut novel. Congratulations and I can’t wait to read more of your stories.

~Much love from an Asian American designer who paints murals.

I was so excited to dive into this book because I love the concept of time travel and romance. From the time I was little, I had always loved the Time Traveller's wife, so it was easy to pick this book up being older and more into reading than I've ever been.

The main characters Isla and Ewan have this undeniable chemistry that made it so easy to fall in love with their love. While my heart would break at times for them because of this time difference between the two of them, I was hooked on their relationship from start to finish.

For all those who love time travel, romance, and feeling all the emotions, this book is it. I'm absolutely obsessed with it!

Excellent. The author did an excellent job, describing and depicting panic attacks, depression, and suicidal tendencies. There was one point in the book that triggered a panic attack myself. The claustrophobic description was strong. If you’re looking for a book to help understand anxiety and depression, look no further. I’m thankful many authors and public figures are normalizing taking about mental health. I highly recommend this book.

I found this to be pretty muddled and messy. Ewan and Isla just didn’t work well for me. The time travel story line was messed up and at times hard to follow. Isla’s friends all seemed pretty selfish as well. Ewan had some good friends but the majority of the side characters were annoying. I found the ending too predictable for my tastes. The descriptions of panic attacks didn’t resonate with my experience with them, but we all perceive things differently.

Isla moves out of Chicago to a small town, after serving as a caregiver to her mother, who has since passed.

Out of the blue, she starts getting texts from an “unknown” man who seems to know her intimately and happens to be her husband. From the future.

An interesting concept, but I felt the text relationship was too fast and didn’t buy present strangers calling each other with terms of endearments. Then, when the characters finally meet up, found their relationship and interactions boring and flat.

Also, wasn’t a fan of the “twice” life changes plot.

Didn’t love it.

Okay so I really enjoyed the premise of this book, but it definitely fell flat on what I was expecting. I’d still recommend it though, it was good.

Isla has moved to small town Missouri, needing a break from the busy city life, with her chronic anxiety. The one day, she receives a text message from a man claiming to be her husband and a fabulous adventure unfolds with this man who seems to know so much about her, including things she has never shared.

This one is best described as a time travelling romance. I do love a little time travel or sliding doors approach in a novel and this kept me guessing. My only warning, is from the synopsis you may expect a lighthearted rom-com and it did canvass some serious topics. Overall it was such an enjoyable novel with some unexpected twists.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and Alcove Press for this gifted review copy.