This book was so much fun and funny. I loved the time travel element and truly seeing the past for all of its problems and possibilities. I loved working through generational issues and finding ways to heal.

I love a good nineties vibe, but unfortunately I didn't like any of the characters and this one really fell flat for me.

Sam has a strained relationship with her mother, and can’t seem to connect with her. Sam sees her mom as perfect and expecting perfection from Sam as well. In Sam’s world only her grandmother Halmoni seems to understand her, but her mom keeps telling her Halmoni was not the mother Sam thinks she was. To Sam, her mom is just impossible and probably always was. A major blowout between Sam and her mother causes Sam to tell her mother she hates her, as her mom leaves her standing in the rain in a mall parking lot. Sam calls for a ridehsare with ‘Throwback Rides”, and when picked up things start to seem really weird. Sam can’t put her finger on it, but the driver of the rideshare Marge is eccentric and a bit odd. The driver seems to know more about Sam than she should know and suddenly Sam is back in the year 1995 before she as even born. In 1995 Sam has to complete a mission with her mom to be able to get back to 2025. Sam immediately sees her mom Priscilla and forges a friendship with her. The more time Sam spends in 1995 the more she starts to see her mom as a person and starts to understand the relationship dynamics between her mom and Halmoni. As Sam tries to maneuver 1995 without technology, she knows she wants to get home back home bad, but is also starting to enjoy the relationship shes forming with her mom. Sam has to figure out how to fix things or risk being stuck in 1995 forever.

I really liked this book! The mother/daughter relationship dynamic between 3 generations played out so well. I also loved reading about Korean Americans and learning about the culture. Really good read.

Thank you Zando and NetGalley for this ARC.

This is a predictable but also adorable young adult novel, taking you back to the mid-90s with the question of “what was your parent like as a teenager?” and seeing if changing the past changes your present at all. There is a bit of science fiction here with a rideshare car / app that can take you back to the past, but for the most part the book is firmly rooted in a regular young adult fiction space - albeit with references to bands, technology, and fashion trends of 1995. It has a slow start, until you get the hang of the mid-90s time period and there’s been some character development. The middle part flew by at a nice pace, and while the ending is predictable - I still smiled while reading this part. It is a light easy read, and the focus on the story / tension between the parent who immigrated and the child being raised in the new country was my favorite parts and added the bit of levity that the book needed. While the main characters are Korean-American, its a universal story. It also made me hungry for Korean food from all the descriptions and references scattered throughout. I hope you enjoy this one as much as I did! Thank you for Zando Projects and Netgalley for the advanced copy. It was published in April 2023, so it is available now.

A beautiful book that offers fresh perspective to complicated family dynamics. Plus, all the 90s references are so fun!

A fun and fast-paced book, Maurene Goo’s “Throwback” fully encompasses its title with ‘90s nostalgia. Though it definitely feels like something that would be adapted into a Disney Channel Original Movie, it was entertaining enough to keep me hooked til the end. I’m interested to read more from Maurene!

A great book with a Freaky Friday kind of vibe. I also enjoyed going back to the 90's and seeing it through a teen's eyes (since I was little). A good mother-daughter read.

Maurene Goo’s Throwback is an enjoyable and compelling blend of time-travel and teen-movie tropes that references common elements but feels fresh. Samantha is a relatable heroine and the time travel plot allows insights into the supporting characters that have meaning in the present. Thank you to Zando Projects and Net Galley for the advance copy.

This was such a cute ya romance with back to the future meets mean girl vibes I couldn’t put this book down. This story follows Samantha and her mom Priscilla and they just don’t get one another no matter how hard they try. One day after Sam’s grandma ends up in a coma and Sam and her mom have a blow out fight over running for homecoming queen. Left stranded and trying to get to school Sam uses a rideshareapp called way back rides. Well Sam got more than she bargained for as she not only got a ride to school but a ride back in time to her mom’s senior year. Samantha figures out she has to help her mom win homecoming to make it back home.

I really enjoyed this book and the 90s high school references it really was that bad. The writing was fun and easy to read. Samatha was a character I loved she was so upbeat and fiery , she just came to life. The story was such a unique time travel story but thought it was done really well . I hope to pick up more from this author ! I would like to thank net galley and the publishers for a chance to read this book for an honest review.

Funny, laugh out loud book, this is a YA, but is also amazing for fans of Back to the Future or time travel fiction. A must read.

3.5 stars.

Cute. Not my favorite. I was a youngun in the 90's, 9-10 in 1996, so a little bit younger than Priscilla was when Sam time traveled. Which I was not expecting. I don't generally read the synopsis before starting a book. I'm sure I read the synopsis before requesting on NetGalley but that was awhile ago! I really liked Mrs. Jo and I wish Sam had seen her again in the present timeline.

Light and fun read that I would recommend to many of my middle school girl students who haven’t fallen into a specific genre but simply enjoy a great read.

This was a fun easy read and brought back memories for me! It would have been so fun to know my mom as a teen and this reminded me of how she likely was! Cute easy read!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book, as this book has already been published, I will not share my review on Netgalley at this time.

When I saw this book involved time traveling, I decided to pick it up. Thanks, NetGalley and Zando Young Readers for an eARC of the book. I really enjoyed it. Even met and got it signed by the author.

Priscilla is a first-generation Korean American, a former high school cheerleader who expects her daughter Sam to want the same all-American nightmare. Meanwhile, Sam is a girl of the times who has no energy for clichéd high school aspirations. After a huge blowup, Sam’s desperate to get away from her mom, but instead finds herself thrown back. To her shock, a ride share takes her to the autumn of 1995…alongside a 17-year-old Priscilla. Now, Sam must deal with outdated tech, regressive ’90s attitudes, and her growing feelings for sweet, mysterious football player Jamie (when she has a boyfriend back home). With the clock ticking, Sam must figure out how to fix things with Priscilla or risk being trapped forever. Sam’s blast to the past has her questioning everything.

This book gave me ‘Back to the Future’ vibes, but instead of Sam needing to get her parents together, she must help her mom win homecoming queen to repair the relationship between her mother and grandmother. This also gives her a chance to understand her mother better. It would be weird for any present-day girl to go back in time to when their mother was a teen. But Maurene writes it so well.

I really don’t have anything that stands out that I can say ‘I didn’t like’. I even loved her budding romance with Jamie and was thrown for a loop when I learned his secret (no, not telling). It excited me even more when I learned, and I wanted to finish reading it so I could find out who Sam gets together with at the end of the book.

Fans of ‘Back to the Future’, time traveling romances, rom coms, you should pick up this book.

I really enjoyed this book. It had the beautiful cover of a Netflix-destined teen rom-com, but ended up interweaving some deeper ruminations on mother/daughter dynamics, race and racism, and immigrant experiences. Maurene Goo is always a winner in my book and her latest was no different.

A fun easy read and great for those 80’s kids looking for some nostalgia. Sam and Priscilla are two characters you can really connect with whether you’re a teen or adult. I loved seeing the 90s through a Gen Z kid.

Admittedly, I am not the biggest YA reader but I enjoy it from time to time when the premise is appealing. I was very much looking forward to this one, but it was just not for me. It was slow to start, and too dialogue-heavy for me.

I adored this book from start to finish. It's my favorite thing I've read this year and I'm going to be thinking about it for a long time to come!

I've never seen time travel done quite this way before. It was so modern and clever! All the 90s details felt perfectly on point. Even though I *was* in high school in the 90s, I remained in awe of how the author thought of endless details to bring the setting and time period so believably to life. It was just so well done!

I really loved the characters. They felt like real people, with their own mannerisms and ways of speaking. Even the "villains" felt like fully-realized characters. They had their own motivations and histories that came into play. I loved Sam as a heroine. She had a big personality and was the kind of person I'd love to have as a friend. She always did what she thought was right and stuck up for her friends and family. The relationships she had with her friends, family, and love interests all felt so real. I enjoyed watching the relationships transform throughout the course of the story.

There were some plot twists I expected, and some I never saw coming. This book had me laughing out loud at times, and I probably cried about four times, too! I don't usually connect with family relationship stories because I'm not close with my family, but this book really touched my heart, all the same. The way it concluded was probably my favorite ending to any story. Everything was wrapped up in neat little bows and everybody got the happy ending they deserved. I just loved this book so much and now I want to read everything else this author has written!

This was a requested for the cover, because how fun is this cover? And this book was such a fun time.

It took me a little while to read it, to no fault of the book I was just going through some things, and I finally sat down tonight with my weighted stuffed Baby Yoda plush and sped through the second half of this book in like three hours.

The story is fun, after a fight with her mom, and a weird cab ride, Sam finds herself back in the 90’s desperately trying to help her mom win high school prom queen, and fix her mom’s relationship with her grandmother, all while learning about herself and her family relationships along the way.

Now, you can’t think too hard about the time travel thing. If you get too tied up in the what if’s and the tiny details of everything we’ve ever learned about time travel through movies, you’re not going to be able to enjoy the fun time. Because this is like back to the future meets Clueless and every other 90’s teen movie. Because we get a romance thread and it all works out because we love when a romance that shouldn’t work out due to time travel WORKS OUT LOGICALLY if you don’t think about it too much and just let it happen.

The writing is chill and there’s a lot of “lol” and “omg” but it’s all fine ‘cause it’s a good time. This book knows it’s a good time. It’s funny, heartwarming, and cozy.

If you’re looking for a back to the future 90’s young adult teen rom-com/family drama that’s a quick read and lots of fun? Pick this up!

Thank you @netgalley and @zandoyr for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.