this one is not for me. thought i would try a new to me UK author but between the writing style and trying to be invested in the story, i gave up 20% in. also had no interest in the greek mythology of it all either. the time travel was confusing, too.

If you had the power to travel back in time, would you? In this delightfully wonderful novel, Cassandra Penelope Dankworth unexpectedly discovers that she can go back in time and change the past. If you are a fan of "Oona Out of Order" or "Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine," then you will love this book!

Cassandra is a creature of habit, and her life runs in a predictable order. She knows what she likes (museums, jumpsuits, Greek mythology) and what she doesn't like (mess, change, her boss drinking out of her mug). Then, on one no good, very bad day, Cassandra is dumped by her boyfriend, is fired from her PR job, and learns that the local café has run out of her favorite banana muffins. Overwhelmed and feeling that her life is ruined, Cassandra discovers that she can time travel. One small rewind at a time, Cassandra tries to change her past, but soon she realizes that she is trying to fix all the wrong things.

This was such a fun read! While this is a book about time travel, it is also a book about second chances, growth, and love. It was heartwarming, witty, and full of surprises. Cassandra is an unlikable character who you will find yourself rooting for and end up loving. I highly recommend this book!

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing/MIRA for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Push through when or if you get a little tired of Cassandra at about the 33 percent mark and you will be rewarded. Cassandra's life has imploded- she's been fired, she's been dumped, she's about to lose her apartment- when she has a panic attack on the street and finds she's in a Groundhog Day type situation. Most important to her at first, she can go back in time to the beginning of her relationship with Will but there's more. And there are the mysterious envelopes she refuses to open. Smale has inserted Greek mythology into the plot but don't be intimidated or worry if you aren't familiar with it because it will make sense. I liked that Cassandra is neurodivergent, that she sees colors coming from people, and that she grows during the course of her very strange journey. I'm one who almost DNF but I'm glad that I did. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. A very good read.

Fabulous! Smale is a phenomenal writer and Cassandra in Reverse is a wonderful addition to her works. Cassandra is very clearly on the spectrum and struggles to make good connections with her peers and loved ones. There's an element of mystery throughout this novel, as we as readers learn Cassandra can time travel. Her time travel presents as more of a do-over than a jump through history, and she's given the opportunity to redo moments she struggled with. What transpires as this story unfolds, however, is the beautiful recognition that Cassandra is not weird or anything 'other', and we begin to see her leaning into the quirky, wonderful differences that make her formidable. I highly recommend this one!

Cassandra does not like surprises, but she is in for a big one: after being dumped, fired, and having her café run out of her favorite treat, she discovers that she can travel back in time. This could be interesting for someone who doesn’t get along well with others.

Cassandra has a unique opportunity to fix things in her own life and is going to give it a try. Doing this though, will change things in the lives of others. Could this cause her to have to make difficult choices?

This protagonist is well portrayed by the author. One gets a clear sense of how others view her as well as how she views herself. Cassandra will come to some realizations. She messes up a lot and resets time over and over until she’s at least partially satisfied with the results. However, some things don’t want to be changed. She’s a stubborn one though and wants to show time who’s boss.

Cassandra’s other relationships (besides that with her boyfriend) are a mess. Does she even care? As readers follow her on her adventure, it’s endearing to see the way Cassandra makes an effort and has some personal growth. There is a disclosure at the end of the story, which turns out to be educational and helpful in increasing one’s understanding of an important topic. The author did a good job in representing this.

There is a strong theme of Greek mythology. It is tightly woven throughout the story and is used to display how Cassandra thinks, finding itself often in these pages. It’s understandable, especially at the end, why it’s necessary to be so ubiquitous, but could the author maybe have used just a little less?

At any rate, the story plays on ideas done before but in an unusual and fresh way. It’s worth the read. I was given a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

I love a time travel/time loop story, and this one was perfectly done, with the added bonus of a bunch of Greek mythology references and a (to me) very well-executed and relatable neurodivergent main character. This was funny and smart and sweet, and I loved it.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

I LOVE a good time travel book and this one did not disappoint!!!

Cassandra is having a horrible day. She has been dumped by her boyfriend and then fired from her job. Soon she discovers that she can go back in time. She decides to use this newfound power to change what went wrong. As Cassandra starts reliving her days over and over, she realizes what she has taken for granted in life. She learns more about herself and starts making changes.

This was such a well written, thoughtful, funny, and witty book! The characters are great and felt very relatable. I love that this book is about the second chances you can have in life and how to grow from the past.
I highly recommend adding this to your tbr list! I look forward to reading more from Holly Smale!



📘: Cassandra in Reverse by Holly Smale
🗓️: June 6, 2023

Thank you to NetGalley, Holly Smale, and Harlequin Trade Publishing for this ARC!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

*Reviewed on NetGalley and Goodreads.

Cassandra in Reverse is like nothing I’ve read before. The main character “is on the spectrum” so the reader experiences the action through the eyes of someone who sees the world differently. Emotions equal colors and vice versa, for just one example. I’m not a fan of mythology or time loop fiction, but this is a well written novel. My favorite part was near the end when she meets up with her sister.

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and author for an e-ARC of this novel. All opinions are my own.

This was such a quirky novel with a neurodivergent main character. There's lots of Greek Mythology throughout the plot which I enjoyed. Cassandra's character was probably my favorite thing about this story because I felt like the story itself was all over the place at times. However, I kept reading because I wanted to see how Cassandra got through her time loop.

Everything in Cassandra's life has gone awry and now she has been given the ability to go back in time and change her path in hopes of creating a better outcome. Despite her best efforts, things aren't turning out the way she wanted them to, but her perspective of what is truly important in life is changing. Nothing about this story was predictable and viewing the world through Cassandra's colourful lens was particularly fascinating. I am grateful for the advanced digital copy from NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing. I heartily give this read five stars!

I really wanted to like this book, but I just couldn’t. I kept getting annoyed at the run on sentences that I had to re-read multiple times to understand. I didn’t finish it, so maybe it got a lot better, but I couldn’t make myself continue.

TLDR: I freaking loved this book. It was a delight!

Cassandra in reverse reminded me of Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore, another book I adored. If you like reading about time travel and do-overs, you’ll love this book.

Cassandra is a neuro-divergent woman who tends to rub people the wrong way. She says what she thinks without tempering it to suit societal niceties, has trouble taking cues from people to understand how to behave, and breaks down when she’s overstimulated and overwhelmed. Her job in PR is ill-suited for her, being that she can’t stand relating to the public. Cassandra reads people’s emotions through color and tries to understand the world around her by relating people and situations to Greek mythology, which she’s something of an expert at.

On one terrible day, Cassandra gets dumped, fired, and thrown out of her flat share. When she unexpectedly discovers she has the gift of time travel, she’s given an opportunity to go back and change the past. But what is it that Cassandra really wants to change?

For someone whom the other characters found so unlikeable, I found it easy to fall in love with Cassandra. I think you, too, will find yourself rooting for her all the way to the end.

It’s interesting to note that the author, Holly Smale was diagnosed autistic at the age of 39 and regularly shares, debates about, and celebrates neurodiversity on Twitter and Instagram.

Thank you to @netgalley @holsmale and @_mira_books_ for an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Have you ever wished you could travel back in time? I don’t mean visiting the Pyramids or stopping a war before it happens, but rather taking back the last thirty seconds after saying something stupid or re-doing a morning where everything’s gone wrong. In this heartwarming novel, the quirky and likeable protagonist suddenly realizes that she possesses this rather limited power of time travel and uses it to try and improve her life.

Cassandra Dankworth has a lot to contend with at the moment in addition to her unfortunate last name. In the course of one truly terrible day, she’s dumped by her boyfriend and fired from her PR job for not being a “People Person.” By the end of the day, she’s delighted (albeit confused, but she’s not about to ask questions) when her ex shows back up, acting like they’ve never broken up. But the next morning, Cassie is dumped again. By lunch, she’s being fired again. Which is about the time when Cassie realizes she’s not crazy, she’s just time traveled. The rest of the novel follows Cassie as she realizes she has a chance to set her life on a different course and struggles to use her new powers to get things right.

The real star of this novel is Cassie herself—she sees the world in black and white, has trouble understanding social cues, and prefers predictable situations. She also loves Greek mythology, and there are plenty of mythological references and facts scattered throughout the book, which provide interesting facts as well as insights into her character. This story focuses less on the time travel aspect of the book and on Cassandra and her journey to understand and accept herself. The book gets a little bit repetitive in the middle as she re-lives the same situations a number of times, but the ending is strong and more than makes up for that.

Cassandra in Reverse by Holly Smale is a witty, heartwarming, and thought-provoking novel about a young woman who wakes up one day to find herself reliving the same day over and over again. Cassandra is a creature of habit, and she quickly becomes frustrated with her new reality. She tries everything she can think of to break the loop, but nothing seems to work.

As Cassandra struggles to find a way out of her predicament, she begins to learn more about herself and the people around her. She realizes that she has been taking her life for granted, and she begins to make changes in her life. She becomes more open to new experiences, and she starts to take risks. She also learns to appreciate the people who love her, and she begins to build stronger relationships.

Cassandra in Reverse is a story about second chances. It is a story about learning from your mistakes and growing as a person. It is also a story about the power of love and friendship. Smale's writing is witty and engaging, and she creates characters that are both relatable and memorable. Cassandra in Reverse is a book that will stay with you long after you finish reading it.

Here are some of the things I liked about the book:

The characters are well-developed and relatable.
The plot is engaging and suspenseful.
The writing is witty and humorous.
The book explores themes of second chances, growth, and love.
If you're looking for a book that will make you laugh, cry, and think, then I highly recommend Cassandra in Reverse. It's a book that will stay with you long after you finish reading it.

The plot is interesting because it explores the idea of time travel and the consequences of changing the past. It is also a story about love, loss, and redemption. Would you get undumped, unfired, and even gets to eat your favorite muffins again given the opportunity?

In the wake of getting dumped by her boyfriend, friendless and recently unemployed and with her flat share in jeopardy, Cassandra discovers she can go back in time - but only to the beginning of their relationship. She sets about trying to fix things, along the way battling loud noises, unpleasant smells, and judgmental people. All the while avoiding what came before that first meeting, the things she can't erase no matter how many times she goes back.

I love, love, love a British time-loop rom com, and Cassandra in Reverse is a delightful entry in this subgenre, clever and biting with a fully realized main character and a serious heart.

Honestly, that's all I have to say. It's a great book. The secondary characters are vivid and interesting; the writing is excellent; Cassandra is believably flawed without being annoying.

I especially loved the way Cassandra's challenges are also her strengths. She wears the same jumpsuit to work every day because many fabrics irritate her - but she delights in the colors and textures of her collection of clothing. She has an encyclopedic knowledge of Greek mythology but is tormented by events that she can't forget. She often doesn't understand others' emotions - but she can see them as colors, a beautiful metaphor (to those of us without that ability) that permeates the novel

Cassandra in Reverse is a very unique book. The main character is a 31 year old woman who has autism and can time travel. Not your cookie cutter story! Cassandra is very lovable and relatable- who hasn’t felt clueless in some social situations? Unfortunately it is almost every minute of every day that Cassandra feels like she did the wrong thing. At times I was annoyed by the looping stories but I got used to them. There are lots of Greek mythology references which slow the story down. But overall I loved Cassandra and her journey into self awareness.

“There’s joy in irony and I was named after Cassandra, the mythological Trojan priestess who was cursed by a sexually thwarted Apollo to see the future but never be believed. A strange legacy for any parent to give a tiny baby, but thirty one years later it seems I finally know more than anyone else in the room.”

CASSANDRA IN REVERSE is an absolute delight. Not only is it a funny and entertaining twist on the time travel trope, but I really loved getting to know Cassandra, who is autistic. I have to admit that I don’t know many neurodivergent adults well enough to talk with them about how they process the world, but author Holly Smale did an amazing job creating a charming character who does it differently than I do.

Cassandra is having a horrible day (dumped and fired, back to back) when she discovers, by accident, that she can go back in time. She decides to use this newfound power to change what went wrong and put her life on the “right” track: specifically, she aims to ensure that her boyfriend, Will, falls in love with her, and that she keeps her public relations job at an advertising firm. Of course, this isn’t as easy as it sounds, but I laughed along as she tried.

The fact that she’s repeating moments in her life is comforting to Cassandra because she knows what’s coming next and, for the first time, she is starting to better understand the motives of the people she’s interacting with. Cassandra has a hard time reading people. She processes emotions as colors (hers and everyone else’s). She enjoys repetition, wears the same five outfits all week, has a difficult time making eye contact and takes things quite literally. She becomes overstimulated by loud noises and uncomfortable clothing. The book is sprinkled with Greek mythology, which is the framework Cassandra uses to “make sense of the world and everything in it.” And although Cassandra’s autism is an important element of the story, I appreciated that she is a character in her own right, with personality traits that are simply hers.

CASSANDRA IN REVERSE does have romance in it, but the book is more about accepting ourselves for who we are and embracing differences in others. There are some scenes that teared me right up, especially the ones where Cassandra connects with others and creates new friendships.

After reading, I Googled Smale and learned that she is, herself, autistic and processes emotions via colors, just like Cassandra. No wonder she does such an amazing job creating a character who is so real and a fantastic representation of a strong woman who experiences the world in different ways.

I would compare this book to Tracey Garvis Graves' The Girl He Used To Know: both feature neurodivergent women who are more than their "diagnosis."

I highly recommend this book! Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for an eARC of CASSANDRA IN REVERSE in exchange for my honest opinion. This review will be posted on Goodreads and at www.instagram.com/watchskyeread.

There was just something about the blurb of Cassandra In Reverse that caught my attention immediately. I love a story with a time travel element, and I also have a weak spot for quirky and unique characters... Cassandra Dankworth sounded like a character with so much potential, and I simply HAD to meet her and get to know her story. I'm so glad I did, because I ended up having an absolute blast with this book.

There is a lot to love in this book, but there is no doubt whatsoever that main character Cassandra Dankworth is the true star of the show. I warmed up to her immediately, and I had an absolutely brilliant time seeing the world through her eyes. I thought that the autism portrayal was expertly done, and I loved the message behind this story that people with autism might think and function differently than what you are used to, but differently doesn't mean less in any way. Cassandra's character growth and road to self-acceptance is well developed and realistically portrayed... If you can take the whole sci-fi aspect with the time travel with a grain of salt of course. There is one thing for sure: Cassandra is a character that will stay with me for a long time, and she is one I wish I could meet up with in real life.

What I also loved was the focus on Greek (and Roman) mythology, and how the gods/characters were incorporated into the plot. The references to the different myths fitted the story very well, and it also helped give more insight in Cassandra's character at the same time. Another major element in Cassandra In Reverse is the time travel of course. While you usually see time travel in science fiction books, I think that this story reads mostly like a contemporary where time travel is only casually included in the plot. Sci-fi fans might be disappointed by the lack of focus on how the time travel actually works, but I personally didn't mind as I found the balance to be just right.

There is some romance and even a love triangle included in Cassandra In Reverse, but I don't think the main focus of this story is on the romance itself. Instead, it reads more like contemporary fiction about a character trying to find her true self and accept the way she is. The story puts a spotlight on autism, family issues, work relations and the fact that time is fickle and a small change might have consequences you could have never foreseen.

All in all, I don't think it comes as a surprise when I say that I had a fantastic time with this story. If you enjoy a well written contemporary with an unique main character, excellent autism representation and a touch of time travel and romance, you HAVE to add Cassandra In Reverse to your wishlist. Trust me, you will regret not meeting up with her!

While I enjoyed having a neurodivergent main character, this book fell flat for me. I ended up quitting it at 37%. There is a lot of Greek mythology references which do not interest me, and although I like ground hog type scenarios, this one got repetitive and didn’t hold my attention.