I absolutely loved the concept of this book. It was magical and had a lot of potential to take a very specific story about a very specific family and tell some truths that are universal.

Ever want to go back in time when you were a kid growing up in suburbia? This book takes you to a place that existed in our past with her current self. Trying to figure out why she is the person she is currently.
This book was a fun trip down memory lane for sure if you grew up in the 80s.

Firstly, thank you to the author and publisher for giving me early access to this book in return for my review. It was realty enjoyable! In this book, Amy is going to visit her family over Thanksgiving and mysteriously finds herself travelling back in time by 30 years, experiencing Thanksgiving as a third party in her childhood home with her family and younger self.

The positives:
I loved the concept and thought it was so interesting and well done. The book didn’t get itself bogged down in the lore or the hows and whys, and I loved the no-nonsense way it just happened and that was that.
I thought it was a strong narrative choice to have it focus on just an average family during just an average holiday. There’s a lovely passage near the end of the book celebrating average lives that just really sparked for me.

This book was obviously very personal and very cathartic for the author. The main characters are much richer for being real people and you can tell each and every one of them has been written with love and reality. There was a lot of heart in the book, good use of humour and it did ring true.


The negatives:
Because it’s the story of an average family during an average holiday, I’m not sure what the point in going back was. Nobody is changed as a result of the story and I feel any potential lessons Amy could have learned were missed. Because she wasn’t going back to right any wrongs, prevent anything bad happening or to learn any lessons, it feels long. Nothing actually happens and yet the narrative is plot driven, so you’re waiting for a thing that never comes and it felt a bit of a slog past 60% because it was just a list of events with little to no growth and the same staid analysis.

My biggest issue by far is that Young Amy seems like a regular kid. It was pretty jarring to hear a child constantly be called a freak for reasons that didn’t merit them. It really turned me off adult Amy, both as a protagonist and a mother- I could never talk about a child like that, even if it were a young me. Little Amy isn’t in any way broken and doesn’t display any behaviour out of the ordinary, but is constantly described as weird. I feel like real life adult Amy the author feels chronically unique but has completely misjudged herself. Ironically, she has no idea just how average and normal she is and the self loathing displayed is…interesting but also pretty weird.

When asked that age-old question, “If time travel existed, would you rather travel to the past or future,” I always pick the past. I have a great nostalgia for times gone by and am curious for the way things were. Amy Weinland Daughters takes time travel one step further in her memoir-novel hybrid, You Cannot Mess This Up. In this novel, a 46-year-old Amy travels back to 1978 and spends Thanksgiving with her 10-year-old self (posing as a long-lost cousin.)

With such an intriguing premise, You Cannot Mess This Up is set-up for greatness just on storytelling opportunity alone. What would it be like to meet the child you were? As a former teacher, I often wonder about what I was like as a child, only being able to catch glimpses of my former self from grainy home movies. If we could meet ourselves, would we like ourselves? Would we be able to see our future selves waiting within?

You Cannot Mess This Up is filled with hilarity and awkwardness, while at the same time being incredibly poignant and nostalgic. I connected with Daughters on many passages as she expressed the exact same things I have been feeling and pondering as a now 40-year-old woman evaluating my life. And although I was not yet born in 1978, I greatly enjoyed seeing the year brought back to life in You Cannot Mess This Up, as my own mother graduated from high school in 1978, so I have often heard her talk about it.

On the other hand, You Cannot Mess This Up reads as somewhat of a catharsis for Daughters. As I read this novel, I imagined Daughters wrote this book as a way of working through her feelings and questions about her family and life. I say this because Daughters overflows this novel with personal details, many of which are not particularly important or relevant to the reader, but that would be of great interest to Daughters’ own family. This book would do well to be largely edited down to move at a faster clip and reworked to appeal to broader audience. While many of the details and musings Daughters includes would work well for an actual memoir, they muddle the story in novel form.

Recommended to anyone who has ever been curious about their past or who has a fascination with the late 70s!

this one was just okay. i really wanted to like it, but it didn't work for me. i think if you're into sweet little romances, then you'll probably like this one. but who knows?

I would recommend that everyone read this book! The author goes back in time and visits her own family during her childhood. Her observations and the perspective with which she views things is so thought-provoking. It has me looking at my own life in a different way and that is a powerful book!

This is a cute and original story idea: A 45-year-old woman is mysteriously returned to her house and family in 1978. It was funny, in places, and entertaining, but ultimately in annoyed the heck out of me. Amy Weinland Daughters simply cannot keep from inserting "woman parts", "man parts" and many, many other euphemistic instead of actual words. She also drops in references to growing pubic hair (why?) and giving birth to large -headed children (coming out of her woman part)

What is entertaining is the contrast between our tech-infused world and the simpler world of land lines, radios, phonographs, and large cars without seat belts. Also amusing were the descriptions of Houston neighborhoods (amusing to me since I lived in Houston for 14 years starting just after the time of the book.

Decide for yourself whether an imaginary trip to your own past where you had the opportunity to meet your own 10-year-old self is worth your time and effort. Having ploughed through to the end, I'm not sure it was.

But thanks to NetGalley and She Writes press for an ARC copy to read and review.

Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for an opportunity to read this book in excellent for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
This is a book that took me awhile to finish. I kept putting it down to think, to savor and to imagine what I would experience if I was in the same situation. This story is a one magical realism- what if you could go back for a day and visit your childhood home, meet your parents as a peer and see yourself as you really were. This story has the author do just that- she goes back to Houston on magical Thanksgiving in 1978, with the cover story of being a long lost aunt from Centerville Ohio. The family welcomes her with open arms, and she gets to see through adult eyes what it was really like, and remembering what was long forgotten.

Especially poignant was seeing herself - a 10 year old ball of freakish energy, at once amplifying the drama and the fun. Her relationships with her siblings were accurate to memory- they had a ball. She didn’t fit in , and a 10 she didn’t care. This was the pinnacle of childhood for little Amy- full of confidence, and zest for life that slowly over the next decade would drain out of her. Meeting her beloved grand parents one more time, and seeing that there was a judgmental undercurrent between them and especially aimed at her mother that she never noticed before. She was able to confirm her suspicions that although her mother didn’t like her much, she really did love her. Lots to process with complicated family dynamics there.

As a Gen X, so much about the late 1970s was nostalgic for me. Playing outside, making up games when the internet didn’t exist. I especially loved the scenes of the mall- having experienced the glamour in its heyday myself as a child was the reason why I chose a career in department store retail. So much has been lost to Amazon- some for the better -no longer needing to emboss multiple copy carbon receipts for credit cards and so much for the worse-a mall full of wonder and everything you could need including a hickory farms.

*I was given an ARC in return for a fair and honest review.
I was intrigued by the synopsis of this novel: an imaginary time travel back to the 1970s and the author's childhood. While it was fun to travel down memory lane with all the minute 70s details, the story itself did not make me want to read more. I was tired about halfway through and felt that the author was repeatedly restating what she had learned from her adventure. A good editor could be a big help with this one. Not terrible and some fun moments.

I really liked this story!
It brought me back to my days in the 1970's and just how much has changed from then to now!
Amy Daughters has went back in time from 2014 to Thanksgiving 1978 back in her own family, but as an adult.
She sees herself, her siblings and her parents as they were, yet the dysfunction and memories seem so different than Amy remembers.
I loved the magic of "going back" and wish I could do the same.
Memories are definitely different for each person.
Ahhh... to live a day or two in the past when life seemed simple and easy. Or was it?
If you enjoy historical fiction(?) or have lived in this time, you will definitely enjoy going back in time with "Big" Amy to learn some things and see some of her memories.
Thank you to @ NetGalley and to @Simon & Schuster for this ARC and allowing me to read and provide my own review!

Thanks to Net Galley and Simon and Schuster for the opportunity to read You Cannot Mess This Up by Amy Weinland Daughters. What thought provoking book this was for me. The author took an interesting approach to a question I think many of us have asked ourselves - would we go back if we could, and if so what would we do differently? I'll be recommending this to many.

You Cannot Mess This Up
A True Story That Never Happened
by Amy Weinland Daughters

I enjoyed the book. Some of the things made me wonder too much. But, all in all, it makes you think and feel the what-ifs. Good one to read a new type of book.

3.5 stars
What if:
You were a rather jaded adult woman, in your late 30’s, and had a chance to go back in time to meet your ten-year-old self and your family? This is what happens to Amy; she travels back to Thanksgiving 1978 and gets to interact with everyone as they were when she was a kid, even her kid-self (whom she finds rather goofy and hyperactive)! Experiencing her relatives, and herself, as an adult, provides Amy with some shocking revelations about the adult she grew up to be, and about how capricious memories are.
Best part of this book was all the 70’s nostalgia! Eating at Bonanza, bell-bottoms and platform shoes, Saturday morning cartoons with bowls of sugary cereal, etc.; so many memories, because I was born in ‘69!

I will start this review naming that I stopped at 20% (around 50 pages) into the story. This decision to stop was more about me as the reader than the premise of the story. I found the premise extremely relatable as Amy travels back as her adult self to visit her life as a child. As a fortysomething mom, I have thought often about how differently I see my own mom now that I'm very much in her shoes. I liked how there was humor included in her reflections, as well as looking at how technology has changed us. I will say part of the reason I stopped reading is I was too far up in my feels which is again abut me. I always dig a unique premise, and this was definitely one. Thanks to NetGalley for the access!

If you could travel back in time and spend a holiday with your family, including your younger self, would you?

I would love to go back to the 90's and spend a Christmas there!

You Cannot Mess This Up is about Amy Daughters, who is travelling back to her hometown of Houston for Thanksgiving. Mysteriously, she is transported back to 1978 and is going to be spending Thanksgiving with her much younger parents, deceased grandparents, and her ten year old self.

I read this book while having Covid-19, and found it very easy to read. I literally laughed out loud in some parts of the book, and sobbed my eyes out when Amy talks about seeing her grandparents again. Don't even get me started on when she is reunited with her childhood dog.

I did find it confusing initially on why Amy had to go back to 70's, I felt I needed a bit more context (this could have been easily explained but I had brain fog). There were a lot of cultural references to Texas in the 1970's, some of which I didn't entirely understand - given that I am from Aotearoa and in my thirties.

As the description of this book says, Amy also begins to appreciate that memories are malleable, wholly dependent on who is doing the remembering. This is such a fascinating topic to explore in a book, and I really enjoyed it.

I loved the premise of this book—that the author travels back in time to 1978 to interact with her 10 year old self & the rest of her family. But there wasn’t much of a plot or reason for the time travel. I think it would have been more compelling if there had been more of a back story, detailing the main character’s present & why going back to confront her younger self, and her younger parents was necessary/helpful/relevant.
I did love all the hyper-specific details of 1978, as I was just about the same age as the author was at that time.

I loved the premise of this story. It’s 2014 and Amy Daughters is 46, married and has two sons when she flies to TX ahead of her immediate family for a meeting with her dad and siblings regarding her parents’ estate. She experiences a time blip however and ends up in 1978 at her childhood home in Houston with her mom and dad, older sister Kimber and younger brother Rick and most weird of all…her 10 year old self! Amy pretends she is a distant cousin from Ohio and spends Thanksgiving and part of the next day observing her family and herself as a 10 year old. Although the family seems pretty perfect to the casual observer, Big Amy can’t help but recognize the dysfunction underneath all the polyester pantsuits!
I was 12 years old in 1978 and enjoyed all the nostalgic references. The author did a great job of bringing that time period to life as she described the clothes, music, decor and lifestyles of the 70s. It was fun to take that walk down memory lane and compare it to my own memories of my childhood in Texas.
Big Amy uses the time to examine herself at age 10, the awkwardness she often felt, and her relationship with her mother and other members of her family. She compares the memories from her childhood with what she is actually seeing played out in front of her. Why did she remember things the way she did? Why did she feel like her mother loved her but perhaps never liked her? Why was she such a freaky adolescent? Did she feel accepted as a child? Did she even notice what was going on around her? Big Amy tries to understand her adult self in a new light as she watches the family dynamics of her past. Although the story is fictional the author states in the epilogue that
“Though the journey detailed in the pages of this book didn’t happen in real life, the impact of writing it was, for me, nothing short of life changing.” I appreciated this because she wrote the book as a way to address her inner feelings from her childhood. It freed her to talk with her mom about their relationship and find some peace going forward. I found the introspection very real and relateable.
I did feel the story moved a bit slowly and I wished the author had been more forthcoming with some of the details of her childhood. She was VERY awkward and her parents described her as difficult. Why? She hinted at some hard handed discipline by her mother. She hinted at alcoholism. She tried to take her own life, but again the details were vague. I wish she had just filled in the blanks a bit more. I also struggled to reconcile how odd she was as a child with the fully functioning adult she had become.
I think anyone growing up during the 70s might enjoy this book, as would adults trying to reconcile childhood hurts in present day.
Finally I loved the cover photo! It reminded me of my 10 year old self with my crooked pony tails! The cover is what initially drew me to read the book! Cover art is so important as a first introduction to a novel.
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book. This review is my honest opinion.

You Cannot Mess This Up: A True Story That Never Happened is a terrific novel by Amy Weinland Daughters.

Our main character finds herself thrown back in time to 1978 at Thanksgiving at her parents house, when she, minutes before had been there in 2014 to settle their estate. She has to spend time with them as her 10 year old self. During the time she is there (36 hours) she re-examines herself, her relationship with her family, and basically everything about her life.

As I was 11 at Thanksgiving 1978, I related to this book so very much, down to the trip to Bonanza! I laughed and I cried at Ms. Weinland Daughter's story. I've lost both of my parents within the past few years and think that this would be such a gift, even if it may not have felt like it at the time.

I can't wait to recommend this to my book club when it comes out.

4.5 stars

I was given this book as an ARC by NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions are my own.

3.5 stars

I really loved the premise of this book, and while it was fun most of the time, it did have some points that really dragged for me.
I can see this being a fun and nostalgic read for many.

Amy is a 46 year-old mom on her way back to the house she grew up in to discuss her parents estate when something extraordinary happens. She finds herself transported back to 1978, where she meets not only her parents, but the 10 year-old version of herself. I can’t tell you how many times I wished I could travel back in time to see my parents in the house I grew up in. I would tell them how much I love and appreciate them, and say all the things that I didn’t say when I had the chance. This is an incredibly moving, but also comic story that I can’t recommend highly enough