We all have moments where we wish we could live a day again. Maybe the wish is to change some embarrassing thing we did or to enjoy a happy moment with someone special. What would you do if you were to repeat the same day over and over?

In this story, Noelle is trapped on June 20th without her knowledge or consent. She tries everything she can think of to get out of the time loop, but nothing seems to work.

The book was enjoyable when she started to relax and let herself try things she never would have before. It got me thinking about what I would do if the day reset with a fresh start and no consequences. However, the advantage is also a downfall as nobody remembers her or anything she has done.

How did this happen? Will she get out? What will be waiting on the other side if she does? It was a really fun story, even though any time loop storyline comes with a bit of a slow-moving plot and a bit of redundancy. Very cute rom-com summer read.

Time Loops and Meet Cute was a fun rom-com about time loops from Jackie Lau. I actually really enjoyed following Noelle's journey to get out of the loop. I did thing the solve was interesting and unexpected but had not considered how draining being stuck in a time loop would be. Also I want more Avery content!

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review!

My life has been a lot heavy lately and this was just the distraction I needed. I ate this up. A time loop, a little magical realism and of course a romance.

I really liked that it tried something different but the loop lasted a little too long for me. I still give it an A for effort.

I also really liked that in addition to the romance, the book focuses on the main characters friendship, a friendship for Noelle and just a little on family relationships. That may seem like a lot but it never felt busy.

The writing was so easy to fly through. Unfortunately the chemistry seemed a little off between Cam and Noelle. Maybe it was that one was in the loop while the other wasn’t. I’m not sure.

Cindy Kay and Raymond J. Lee narrated this one. Cindy really sounded like I’d imagine Noelle and I’ll say the same for Raymond but at times Cam sounded a little robotic. Not enough to throw off the story but he didn’t hit dreamy for me and his character should have.

All and all I flew through this one and it was the perfect lighthearted distraction I needed.

Noelle feels stuck in life. She’s underpaid and overworked, and she feels like she’s living the same day over and over. That is, until she literally starts living the same day over and over. After consuming some dumplings at a night market on June 20th where a woman tells her that they’ll give her what she needs, she wakes up on June 20th again. She tries everything to get out of the time loop, including meeting the same man over and over again. What started as wanting a kiss to change her predicament though, soon leads to her caring about him. What will happen when she gets out and he doesn’t remember her though? This story premise is very creative, but the execution was a little lacking. The story was repetitive, and not just because of the time loop. Noelle repeats the same feelings about relationships and not being a good friend mover and over again to the detriment of the conclusion of the story. Because so many words are dedicated to Noelle’s self-doubt, the second part of the book is a lot of telling and not showing. The ending seemed very rushed and very convenient, not necessarily predictable, but just wrapped up in a too timely and conflict-avoidant way. Ultimately, this book was enjoyable, but it could have benefited from better editing to allow the storytelling to flow better.

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

I’m really pleased on how this story turned out. The book is very emotional and engaging I really liked the concept of food mentioned throughout the story , I found it very creative. I will definitely recommend it, especially if you’re into time travel stories packed with romance.

This book is for anyone who has felt aimless or stuck in their life. I really appreciated the journey Noelle went through as she was forced to evaluate her life choices while stuck in a time loop. The romance that develops while she is trapped was super cute. Cam was adorably charmed by Noelle and I found it really sweet watching Noelle fall for him. The stakes didn't quite work for me because while Noelle is trapped in the time loop she realizes that there are no consequences for her actions. Watching her aimlessly drift from day to day made it hard for me to stay invested. As someone who recently made a lot of changes to my life I found Noelle's personal reflections compelling. It was frustrating that she couldn't act on those realizations though because no changes would stick. Because of that the story felt stagnant for a period of time. Thankfully the pace picked up and I got invested again. Overall this is a cute story of Noelle's personal growth with some romance thrown in as well that is perfect for those looking for a cozy story about our ability to take control of our own lives and write our own narrative.

Some days you eat magic dumplings that cause you to live in a time loop! And this is a Jackie Lau book, so of course it's dumplings that cause the time loop. Noelle is a serious person with a serious job where she's being taken advantage of, with a sister who'd not so serious. As a romance, it's very Groundhog Day as Noelle learns the way to approach the guy she keeps bumping into... and who kind of remembers her?

I wasn't sure about this at first, but watching Noelle blossom, and then deal with the fall out of the time loop, was a joy. And the way this time loop resolves was very interesting to me - different from what I expected.

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

The premise of the book was really cute but 100+ time loops in (I know she didn’t write each one out) it got old. The departure from the time loop i.e. it just ✨stopped✨, felt really anticlimactic and the conclusion/answer for it all was very lackluster. What I did love was the moments of personal growth, vulnerability, and the friendship between Avery and Noelle.

cute groundhog day

It was cute until it got a little tooo repetitive, the middle felt stagnant with less happening to move the story along. It didn’t feel that urgent to figure out how to solve the loop. Finished the book feeling underwhelmed.

Noelle had been living the same day over and over again. Not literally, but figuratively…until she ate dumplings and found herself reliving June 20th day after day.

After a few days, Noelle tried doing different things, hoping she would get time to move forward again. But nothing worked. She found someone else, Avery, experiencing the same thing, so she wasn’t completely alone. She also met a guy, Cam, and she thought he’d break the time loop. But every day, he forgot who she was…although she was always familiar to him.

It was fun watching Noelle find all the new ways to “meet” Cam. Despite reliving June 20th over and over again, she didn’t do the same thing every day.

The story was monotonous at times, but that was the point. I felt for Noelle and Avery. They were desperate to break the time loop, and it was heartbreaking seeing them ready to give up.
It was emotionally and mentally exhausting for them.

There was no clear reason why Noelle and Avery were the ones stuck in the loop or how it was resolved. But it did help them see that they shouldn’t just settle for whatever they had going for them.

Thanks to Atria for the eARC. All thoughts are my own.

4.25 ⭐️

Time Loops and Meet Cutes was such a sweet book! I finished it in 2 sittings, it was a quick and easy read.

The groundhog’s day concept is nothing new, but I still liked the execution of this one and the way Noelle and Cam’s lives intertwined. The romance was cute and Cam’s ability to believe the unbelievable so easily made me root for Noelle to tell him about the time loop over and over again. I especially liked Noelle’s burgeoning friendship with Avery when they discovered they were both stuck in the time loop and needed each other so badly.

The twist at the end was very predictable, but that didn’t take away from the enjoyment of the book. And the overall lesson about finding out what Noelle and Avery needed to change in their lives definitely made me think about what I’d do in the same situation.

Thanks to NetGalley, Atria, and Emily Bestler Books for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review!

'Time Loops & Meet Cutes' is ultimately a very cute if a little forgettable romance. I liked it fine but I'm not likely to think of it much in the future or come back for a reread. I love Jackie Lau but this is the first time I've felt kind of meh at one of her books.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Time Loops & Meet Cutes was a fun romance novel. I love books that have a time-bending element and what I especially loved about this one was that it explored what happens when the characters leave the time loop, both immediately and over time. This book was so fun and I really enjoyed it!

🌟🌟🌟✨

I wanted to love this book. The summary and the cover promised a perfect blend of Groundhog Day and 50 First Dates, and I was all in—smacking that request button with glee. But while both those films use repetition to build humor and empathy, the loop here didn’t quite translate for me the same way. Instead of playful momentum, the opening of each entry left me feeling the character’s frustration—likely intentional, but emotionally distancing.

I think this book might’ve been better served with a sci-fi/fantasy classification with romance, rather than being marketed primarily as a romance. If I’d gone in with that framing, I might have felt more fulfilled as a reader.

That said, I genuinely admire the author’s imagination. This is a quirky, original twist on the time loop trope. I wanted more banter and romantic chemistry, but that doesn’t undercut the strength of its core idea: two Time Loopers finding one another and working not just toward an escape, but toward personal evolution.

This lands at 3.5 stars for me—a story I didn’t fall head over heels for, but one that impressed me with its concept and creativity. I’ll absolutely be checking out more from this author.

Thank You To the publisher and NetGalley for the copy I read

The FMC gets caught in a dumpling-induced time loop on June 20 and ends up finding friendship and love <3

I loved the pacing of this book so much ++ the narration was so fun to read. The new friendship was so so wholesome, and the main romance was so swoony 🥲 I particularly loved the way the romance plot was tied together at the end!

-- ty to the author, the publisher and Netgalley for an advanced copy!

Noelle Tom eats some magical dumplings and has to live June 20th over and over. She meets Cam while within the time loop and tries to make a connection, which is tough because her day continues to start over. Noelle undergoes a personal transformation with her attempts to change things to bust herself out of the time loop.

I thought this book started out great, got bogged down with the repetitive days, and then I binged the last third of the book!

I enjoyed the characters and their connections, both the romance between Noelle and Cam, but also Noelle’s relationship with her family and friends.

Read if you enjoy romance, great characters, or Groundhog Day.

I loved the premise - a heroine who eats magical dumplings and then is cursed to live the same day over and over again. Noelle thinks she is doomed, but then meets Cam (and keeps meeting him every day) hoping one day her fate will change.

There was so much potential, but because it's a time loop, so many of the chapters felt very repetitive. This made the plot very low stakes as there were not really any true consequences for what was happening. I'm still not even sure what the point of the time loop was? Noelle does say at one point that it allowed her to take risks she never would have otherwise - which is great, I just wanted more!!

Noelle and Cam were both likeable characters, but I felt they both actually didn't have much character development as I would have expected. Their relationship felt very "insta-love" which is not my favorite trope, but they did have some sweet moments. Personally, I felt the spicy sections came out of nowhere.

Overall, I feel the book is a 2.5 rounded up to 3 - I'm sure the are other readers out there who would love this book!
**Thank you to Netgalley and Atria for the ARC and chance to read and review. All opinions are my own**

Thank you to Atria Books for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review of Time Loops & Meet Cutes. I think this was a cute sci-fi twist on Groundhog Day books, but it suffers from the issue that I typically have with Groundhog Day books, and that it's too repetitive. I feel like I wasn't connected enough to Noelle and Cam, even though it was dual POV. I think this book is mainly romance, but I think it also tried too hard to be women's fiction, and both suffered as a consequence. I like Jackie Lau's writing enough to give her another chance, and I enjoyed the twist on this typical trope, but I wasn't too big of a fan of this book.

Thank you to Atria Books for the eARC and Simon Audio for the free audiobook.

Workaholic Noelle impulsively stops at a food market and orders dumplings from a cash-only stand where the old woman selling them claims they will give Noelle exactly what she needs. What she ends up doing is reliving the same day over and over again, stuck in a time loop.

While there is absolutely a romance here (her daily meet cutes with Cam), I feel like this story is more about Noelle’s growth. It’s in the time loop that she learns to realize her worth as an employee, discovers her loneliness when she makes a best friend—also stuck in the time loop, and becomes less judgmental towards her less-accomplished sister.

Her daily “dates” with Cam (who doesn’t remember her obviously) are cute but I felt for Noelle; is this really a relationship if he never remembers you?

It felt like the pacing after they left the time loop was sped up, and I hoped for more relationship development there. But overall, Time Loops & Meet Cutes was a cute and fun listen—especially since the narrators Cindy Kay and Raymond J. Lee did such a great job!

This book was cute. You’ve read time loop books before and I don’t think there was anything earthshattering about this one. I did like the twist that Noelle found someone else in the same situation and befriended them. I will say the vast majority of the book felt so repetitive, even to me, leaning toward annoying. It just went on for a really long time, and then ended without a great explanation. I didn’t really like the time loop resolution, but the love story was sweet.