Say hello to another bingeable and light read that you can add to your beach bag or travel bag!

I am a HUGE fan of time travel and the cover of this book was really calling my attention

I found the main character, Jenny, to really showcase the trials and tribulations that so many of us go through as we get older, mainly feeling like we missed the memo on life. I have definitely felt that way at times and I know so many others have too.

This story is funny and heartfelt with the female friendships and a protagonist that is just trying to feel good about herself. It also delves into deeper topics like regret, self love, and fate. I really, really thought so much about myself while reading this and think so many people will relate to Jenny like I did.

Definitely a book that will get you thinking while also making you laugh

Thank you, NetGalley and Harper Perennial and Paperbacks | Harper Perennial books for this ARC. This was a fun look at the idea of getting a memo and the ability to relive parts of your life with the opportunity to do over things to get things right the second time. Jenny Green is 35 years old and heading to her college reunion. She was once top of her class and had a promising career ahead of her, but due to choices, things haven't worked out in her favor. She then receives a text that she has a MEMO to redo parts of her. Jenny comes to find out she should have received her memo the first time around, but why didn't she? And is she willing to make the changes necessary to have the life she wants and deserves? This was a fun read at looking back at times in your life and would you really change things in your past to change your future?

🔹 My take: 3/5

💖 Wows - The premise is very interesting of a woman in her mid thirties trying to look at her life until now and how all of her classmates have moved on and how she is stuck and messed in her life. The first half grazed through fast since it covered the reunion, Jenny’s relationships with her friends and mom and Gabe. I especially looked forward to reading Jenny and Gabe’s interactions since it was very sweet.

💔 Ows - While I really wanted to like this book, I guess I was really confused with the execution. Since I am a perfectionist by nature and would like clarity of understanding on everything; what I struggled was with how the entire consortium of ‘The Memo’ worked. The 2nd half got very technical and I found it very difficult to digest. And since I could not really understand how the mechanism worked, it was a dampener.

💫 I would suggest this to someone who is totally into magical realism and has leisure time at hand. This is a long book and not for someone who churn pages fast since they will lose interest quickly. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thanks to @harperperennial and @netgalley for sharing the DRC in exchange for honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I could see why people would like this story- it’s unique and such a fantasy.

I am over books with main characters that suck though. She was so whiny and entitled and all around icky. I didn’t care if she was happy or successful or if anyone was in this book.

The premise of The Memo seems like one right up my alley - Jenny, in a life rut, ends back up at her college reunion, where she is dreading her life choices (cheating boyfriend, failed career, the usual). She ends up receiving a mysterious text where she can redo her life.
What if, is basically the whole idea.

There are too many characters, a few I don't even know why were in the book, and the funny parts, were not funny. While I love a good magical realism book, especially with time travel, this just didn't do it for me.

The Memo is a cautionary tale combo of the grass is always greener and be careful what you wish for. We follow Jenny as she receives a life changing memo after she goes back for her college reunion. The memo is supposed to help Jenny usher in a new life by righting all of her past mistakes and poor decisions, getting her back on the #girlboss track she was destined to be on.

Maybe because I’ve already had these sorts of daydreams and have been working on feeling fulfilled with where I am and not what could have been, the book just didn’t hit for me. The entire time I found myself frustrated with Jenny for giving up on her friends and the objectively other good things in her life. I cringed as she followed the memo directives and further isolated herself from her loved ones that had stuck by her all this time.

Thank you very much to NetGalley and Harper Perrenial for the advanced copy.

Loved this one! Great and fun read. Highly recommend.
Many thanks to the publisher, Netgalley, and the author for my ARC.

Ugh, no no no no no.

The main character in this is the worst. She was so whiny and unlikable which made it hard to root for her at all in the story. Her ultimate life just felt based in hot men and money which fair if that's what you truly want but the author's kept making it out like that wasn't really what the character *truly* wanted and so the whole thing just felt shitty.

I think that there are plenty of other books that do the multiple life possibilities so much better than this and with more nuance and commentary. This felt so surface level. Also, the treatment of Geeta, the seemingly only person of color in this story, felt really icky and weird especially with where she ends up at the end of the book. It actually shocked me that the book could end that way and no one would have said anything throughout the publishing pipeline. Gross.

“Do you ever feel like your life doesn’t measure up to everyone else’s - and wonder if you just didn’t get the memo helping you make the right choices?”
This line from the synopsis of The Memo is the best way to summarize how The Memo begins. Jenny is dreading her college reunion at a small college in upstate New York. It seems most of her classmates are doing amazing things, but she is stuck in a job she doesn’t like with a boyfriend who is cheating on her (again). Come to realize, there is a reason for her situation - her female classmates all got “The Memo” from an organization located on their college campus telling them what to do to live their best realized lives, but Jenny missed out on getting hers. Once she attends the reunion, she is offered experimenting with their new technology to go back to key moments in her past to correct the wrong decisions she made, so long as they are done in the few days before she turns 36, the age where adulthood apparently finalizes.
While the plot seemed a little far out when I first saw this book, I was enthralled by the book and didn’t put it down much once I started reading. I empathized with Jenny, and I was cheering her on throughout. I particularly loved the ending. Thanks to Harper Perennial and NetGalley for an early copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

This was a thought-provoking, feminist second chance at life story that has a women about to turn 37 going to her college reunion where she discovers she missed out on "the memo" everyone else receives that helps them make the best life decisions for the most optimal life.

Able to correct all her biggest regrets, Jenny Green travels back in time to fix the things that caused her the most grief, only to learn that true cost of following the memo wasn't worth the price of her dearest friendships.

Highly entertaining and perfect for fans of books like A special place for women by Laura Hankin, this was good on audio and would make a great book club pick! Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

Great novel, but the pacing was a bit off for me. It felt a bit inconsitent and struggled to keep my attention. However, I really enjoyed the general plotline and most of the characters.

A light, fun read. Jenny is not living the life she wants and is a little stuck. As her college reunion is approaching she starts receiving messages that are confusing to her. What is “The Memo”, what does it mean and would she, if she could go back and change things? It’s an easy enjoyable read that will definitely make you think a little bit about some of the untraveled paths, but also appreciate the ones you’ve ventured down. Interesting concept.

This was a cool premise; not getting the memo being the reason your life is so off track? But also? I wanted to shake our main character and tell her to MAKE A CHANGE. So, while the idea was cool, I was more frustrated than anything. The MC lets life happen to her and is like, Oh, OK. Cool. That's life I guess?! NO.

This book was so funny and a breath of fresh air. It was so easy to relate to Jenny. She’s really dreading her college reunion. It’s like if you could rewrite your story, would you dare? When life doesn’t go as planned, sometimes it feels like you didn’t get the memo of the right choices to make. This book was so good. It’s about life, love, friendship, etc.

I felt so much of this book personally. Her full fledged middle life break down is so relatable. Not knowing who you truly are or why you're not as successful as your closest friends. I have struggled the last few years trying to find my place & figure out who I am just like her in this story. It’s very very relatable. Overall this has a VERY interesting story line. One filled with self doubt, a bit of "magic" and a world of "what if" things had been different and "what if" we had the chance to go back and change things.

What you'll find in this story:
⭐ Second Chances
⭐ Self doubt and self preservation
⭐ Friendship
⭐ Evolving relationships
⭐ Time Travel
⭐ A touch of Romance

All that to say, I definitely could tell this was written by two different authors. Not as fluid as reading a Christina Lauren novel. While the underlying theme and overarching storyline was a fun premise it at times felt dragged out. In chapter one I was skimming. I wanted to get to the jump a bit quicker, I would have loved more character development of all characters. While we find some of the information out that we need to fully understand the story & plot, it comes in a few cases too late. I love the idea of 2nd chances, of having the chance to redo parts of life, of having a chance to maybe change the direction of life OR just be given the chance to see how it could be different. Especially if we are able to see it if we didn't let fear impact decision making or failure!

All that to say it is a fun read. It is witty, funny at times and really sheds light on figuring out who you are and not second guessing.

Synopsis:
"Do you ever feel like your life doesn’t measure up to everyone else’s—and wonder if you just didn’t get the memo helping you make the right choices?

Jenny Green dreads her upcoming college reunion. Once top of her class, the thirty-five-year-old finds herself stuck in a life that isn’t the one she expected. Her promising career has flamed out (literally) and her deadbeat boyfriend is cheating on her (again). All her friends seem to have it all figured it out, enjoying glittering lives and careers that she can only envy from the sidelines. Did she just not get the memo they all did?

As it turns out, she didn’t!

When she arrives at her alma mater for the festivities, she receives a text from an unlisted number.

“Jenny Green: please collect your memo.”

Somewhere on campus, a discreet female-led organization provides comprehensive memos to select students, a set of instructions that are a blueprint for success.

The first time around, Jenny didn’t receive hers. Now, she’s being given the second chance she wants—an opportunity to relive her life and make all the right decisions this time around. But at what price?"

Shout out to Netgalley + Harper Perennial for the eARC! We appreciate you and the opportunities to share in storytelling!

The Memo is the story of Jenny Green who seemingly chose the wrong forks in the road in her post-college life and then we find out that she failed to get "The Memo" which would have led her down a different more successful track. The bulk of the story is about Jenny getting a do-over before her 36th birthday. Of course, no path is totally clear and easy and Jenny's key relationships are in play and she has serious choices to make along this new path.

I think the book was trying to ask some serious questions but it is a rom/com version and basically a fun light read. I liked the story and characters though sometimes I could see the two writers at work.
All in all an interesting summer read.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of The Memo in exchange for an honest review. The Memo is available now.

Holy cow, I loved this book. I'm a sucker for what-if, alternate future books and this one was done so well. Jenny is sympathetic and while she's taken some missteps to get where she is, there's nothing pathetic about her. She just seems like someone who is so close to getting it right and finding the success she wants. Her successful friends are the right mix of aspirational and a little bitchy while still seeming real. This was such a great read and I so enjoyed it.

I really enjoyed this book! I was worried the time-travel aspect would be confusing, but I thought it was really well-plotted. This is the story of Jenny, who has made some mistakes (or what she believes to be mistakes) and feels a little bit stuck; she heads back to college for her 15-year reunion, only to be surrounded by her hugely successful classmates. Turns out, a shadowy organization called the Consortium handed out memos to her classmates, and following the memos has propelled her classmates to their unbelievable successes.

As Jenny is given the opportunity to follow her own memo, she has to make decisions along the way. What’s worth giving up?

My favorite part of this book was the friendship between Jenny and Geeta. Although there are romantic relationships in the book, the core relationship is the one between Jenny and Geeta. At every step, Jenny’s view of her relationship with Geeta changes, but it also grounds her and acts as her North Star throughout most of the book.

The ending was extremely satisfying! The authors wrapped everything up so nicely. I would definitely recommend this to a friend!

Jenny Green, a Coleman graduate, thinks she’s a failure: she’s struggling in a job she hates with an unreasonable boss, she has a strained relationship with her mother, and her boyfriend seems to be cheating on her with their neighbour. Meanwhile, all the people she went to Coleman with seem to be the paragons of success in their various fields. Frustrated, Jenny rants to her acapella friend Gabe that it’s like she didn’t “get the Memo”, hence why she’s so behind everyone else. Her complaint triggers mystery texts in her phone, confirming that she indeed didn’t “get the Memo”, a literal Memo by an organisation of women called the Consortium, who have tabbed Jenny as an epic failure and want to test out their new time travel method on her. She will be given the chance to undo her past mistakes, following the advice she receives from her Memos without question, and she will finally get to stand among the ranks of her fellow Coleman alumni.

Here’s my honest reaction: about 30% in, I thought I was going to hate this. I thought it was some self-pitying do-over in the name of girlboss white feminism; I thought Jenny Green was immature and whiny and that it wasn’t at all believable that she would be turning 36 in a week’s time; I thought the Consortium was bullshit in all their talk about equalising the playing field for women (felt a lot like bioessentialism and lack of intersectionality to me) yet the only ones they helped were university women whom they deemed as having massive potential to make waves around the world—not waves for social change, just “revolutionary” business ideas like expensive vegan bowl services. I didn’t know whether to take this as unserious and satirical or self-indulgent fantasising, and I was tempted to simply DNF it—but it was an easy read in terms of pacing, so I stuck with it to the end.

I’m glad I decided to commit to reading this book to the end because, as both Jenny and I come to realise, the Consortium is *not* really here to help women and equalise the playing field; it’s here to enforce and dictate a certain lifestyle for the women who subscribe to their Memos, pushing them to achieve material success at the cost of their own selves and their actual relationships, pushing for toxic individualism and rivalry between women. When Jenny’s best friend seems to be interfering with what they see as her success, the Consortium’s response is to write her off and remove her from the narrative, once again through a Memo. It’s more like a girlbossing capitalistic cult in the name of feminism than actual feminism about trying to remove barriers and giving women an actual choice in what they want to do with their lives.

All this is to say that this book surprised me by defying my expectations. I think the way it’s marketed, along with the choice of cover art, is deceptive; I initially thought it was really just about Jenny managing to undo her past “mistakes” to become successful, yet I came to see it as a critique of white girlboss feminism and individualism, and how they have been co-opted by neoliberal capitalism. It is about a woman’s resistance to those expectations of the way her narrative “should” have gone because of all her supposed untapped potential. My only real critique of it is perhaps in its tokenistic approach to representation: we have one lesbian (Leigh Sullivan) and one woman of colour (Geeta Brara); I didn’t even know Geeta was POC until Jenny explicitly mentioned it, but even then, I don’t know anything about Geeta’s ethnicity or culture other than that she is a person of colour.

This was so fun! It made me reflect on my own high school reunion an d made me think about if there is anything I would change.