Fast-paced, funny, and utterly adorable, this book is a perfect pick for fans of Groundhog Day–style stories, cozy romances, and anyone who believes love (and a good dumpling) can change your life.

Time Loops & Meet Cutes is a sweet romance built around well-developed characters that grow and learn from each other and those around them. Our female lead, Noelle, is largely likable and relatable. Having been at the same corporate job for several years, Noelle is in a stable but static place in life. She works too much for too little, and has little time for anything else. Noelle’s dating and family history is established as a key motivator to her guarded approach to relationships. When an uncharacteristic splurge on mystery dumplings at a night market jolt her into a time loop living June 20th on repeat, Noelle is forced to face the consequences of her choices in life, while simultaneously enjoying the freedom of no consequences when the clock starts over the next day. As Noelle “meets” Cam, our male lead, over and over again, her attachment grows, while memories of their previous encounters are out of his reach. Cam is a rare male lead with depth and a large personality. His character brings joy to a story that is surprisingly emotional for a book about magical dumplings, and the side characters each have their own place among the larger love story.

While prose was consistent, the plot suffered from pacing inconsistencies leading into the second half of the book. The repetitiveness of the time loops is certainly felt, but I found this simply connected the reader to the impact the loop is having on Noelle. Unfortunately, the pacing failed to pick back up upon Noelle’s eventual release from the time loop. Her stubborn refusal to apply the lessons learned in the loop to her “real” life was frustrating, and made the third quarter of the story drag. The third act conflict between Noelle and Cam as Noelle grappled to move forward with someone who didn’t remember the entirety of their relationship felt superfluous. After Noelle’s persistence in escaping the time loop, fixation on this minor issue paired with her own development set-backs impaired the momentum of their love story unnecessarily. Overall, Time Loops & Meet Cutes was a sweet read. There were times of feet-kicking cuteness, and Noelle and Cam were solid characters in a believable match. I look forward to the next release by this author!

This isn't the first romance that involves hypothetical concepts involving time. Most have centered on time travel, which after reading this, is probably preferable than a time loop. In theory, everyone probably has a day that'd like to do-over. But what if a) you aren't sure what to change, and b) the time loop doesn't seem to end? I would eventually go mad, I think.

For Noelle, there is a certain novelty about the time loop that is fun. She can finally take a day off, or flirt with a stranger, or spend money lavishly. However, with each day, she struggles more with why it is happening to her, and what it is about her life that needs to be "fixed". Lucky for her, she has found another girl, Avery, who is also in the same time loop.

Together, they work to find out the mystery of their situation, and provide comfort in one another as the repeating days impact their mental health or physical health (poor Avery had her period every day, KMN). They also explore their love lives, or lack thereof. Taking chances to make things better.

Do they ever get out of the loop? I won't say, but I will say, some of the loops became a little repetitive, lol. I'm not sure how the author could have edited down and still deliver her message, but I probably could have done with less of the loop and more of what came next.

Overall, this was a sweet (but purely fictional) story, and can best be enjoyed with a meal of dumplings. ; )

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria/Emily Bestler Books for the advanced reader copy.

The premise of this book sounded fun, but the execution fell very flat. Even though the point of the book was to have the FMC repeat the same day over and over, there wasn't any growth on her part, since she's the one person who does know that time is repeating. There are some other books that do the time repeat in a more satisfying way.

I rate this 3.75, rounding up to 4.

The premise of Time Loops & Meet Cutes sucked me right in! Reading this book honestly made me hungry all the time, haha. I very much loved the diversity of food being talked about in this book. Noelle goes to a night market and eats magical dumplings. The next morning she realizes that she’s reliving June 20 again and tries many different avenues on trying to get out of the time loop. She meets another woman, Avery, that is going through the same time loop. I adored their friendship and it was a nice twist seeing them go through it together.

Noelle gets out of her comfort zone by taking in new hobbies, trying new places to eat, and experimenting with new hair styles. She keeps randomly bumping into Cam and she thinks he’s going to be the key to get out of the time loop so she goes through a series of “meet cutes” with him. I enjoyed their love story and connection.

Even thought I KNEW this book was about going through a time loop, the repetitiveness of some of the days felt difficult to get through at times. I did enjoy the book overall though. What would you do if you were stuck in a time loop and every day reset at exactly 3 AM?!

Thank you, NetGalley, for the opportunity to read this as an e-Arc! This was my first read by the author and I will definitely be reading more of her work.

This was such a fun Groundhog Day romance. We have Noelle that is in a rut in her job and goes to a street food fair after work. She eats some delicious dumplings and when she wakes up the next morning, she finds she is reliving the same day.

Time loop books I think is always tough to write because it can get very repetitive. This did happen in the beginning as Noelle tries to figure out what is happening. Once she finds another person that is stuck with her, the story picks up.

I enjoyed how Noelle and Avery tried to figure out how they are stuck in the loop. At the same time, the took risks and did things that IRL would be afraid to try.

It was entertaining to see Noelle try and connect to Cam each time. I could feel her frustration as she knows more about him each time and he doesn't but has a vague sense of connection to her.

Noelle does get out of the time loop and the story continues with her and Cam starting over. I also loved that Noelle and Avery continued their friendship. The connection with the dumpling and the time loop was great and I love how the story wrapped up.

Thank you @atriabooks for a copy of the book.

This is a fun, entertaining read. Cam and Noelle are interesting, strong, relatable, intriguing, compelling, intelligent, sweet, entertaining characters. I enjoyed their romance and the path it took to get to their HEA. The secondary characters added to the fabric of the story and my enjoyment. This book is full of the charm and human complexities that I come to love from Lau. My attention was captured from the very start until the end. The story is easy to get into and read.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Time Loop and Meet Cute is right. This book did time loops and meet cutes effortlessly. It is always worrying to see how the author may develop the story of a time loop, but it was well executed and as believable as a time loop can be ;) This was a fun book and I enjoyed the set up, and thought it was a good mix of the book with the time loop and the rest of the story. Cute romance and definitely a winner for anyone who is interested in the time loop part of it!

★★★☆☆
Time Loops & Meet Cutes was such a fun, charming read! I love a good time loop story, and this one really delivered with lots of humor, heart, and so many mouth-watering food descriptions (seriously, I’m still thinking about dumplings). Noelle’s creative meet cutes and her growing friendship with Avery were such highlights. A light, sweet romance perfect for a cozy afternoon.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance reader copy!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

I’m pretty picky when it comes to time-loop stories. I absolutely love the idea of them, but I often find the execution to be lacking. In Time Loops and Meet Cutes, however, this was far from the case. The author delivered a romance full of chaotic good, using the time loop element in an immensely creative way. Noelle was such a beautifully written character — her quirks made her so lovable and her tenacity was beyond fun to follow. The romance in this book delivered just the right amount of sweetness and light-hearted fun; Cam is honestly such a great parallel to Noelle and it was such a nice change of pace to have a MMC who is so full of life. Even beyond the romance, we got to see Noelle truly understand her life and what changes she needed to be making in order to mend the relationships that have been falling behind. I would highly recommend this book to lovers of light romances with a bit of finding yourself mixed in!

The classic story of girl meets boy, girl likes boy, but girl is stuck in a time loop and cannot for the life of her get out.

After eating dumplings at the night market in Toronto, Noelle Tom finds herself repeating June 20th over and over. After adapting to the idea of no consequences, she stops working, starts getting different haircuts, spends a bunch of money, but just cannot find a way to stop the cycle. She starts hoping that if she kisses the right guy she'll get out - and meets Cam, a brewery owner - but alas, this isn't the magic fix either. Noelle eventually does meet Avery, who is stuck in the same time loop, and together they try to make the best of the situation and work through it.

I enjoyed the story - this is my first time reading one of Jackie Lau's writing. Noelle and Cam both have POV chapters, which is a nice way to get to know Cam better as the main POV character is Noelle. I did find the writing a bit stilted at times, but particularly for Cam's POV. On the other hand, I enjoyed seeing the friendship between Avery and Noelle blossom and how they grew to support each other. There's some great character development from Noelle as she slowly gets herself out of her workaholic, perfectionist lifestyle.

All in all, it's a fun read - thanks very much to Atria Books and to NetGalley for the advanced copy.

After work one Friday Noelle decides to stop at a night market before heading home, the lines are long at every stall but one. So she goes there. Enjoys her dinner and heads home. The next morning she wakes up to her alarm going off and is Friday again. She lives June 20th over and over and over again. She tries to break the time loop but is unsuccessful, but along the way she finds love but he forgets her every night.

This book is Groundhog Day meets Meet Cute Rom-Com. I thought this book was okay. The time loop part felt like it dragged on and nothing ever happened (which I guess is the point of living the same day over and over). I also wasn’t a huge fan of how everything just wrapped up so perfectly. I feel like for most people if this happened and then they got out of the loop they would blow their lives up and change things immediately. She went right back to worrying about consequences and stayed at her job for months. I just felt that there should have been a bigger change in part 2.

I will post about this title on release day in my instagram.

I don’t know what Jackie Lau put in this book but it’s ADDICTING! I literally couldn’t put this down. The time loop was fun and I felt myself getting frustrated when Noelle and Avery were frustrated, happy when they were happy. I felt like I was there with them, and if that’s not a sign of how good this writing was I don’t know what is. Highly recommend this for the romance, for the friendship, for the reminder that life is beautiful.

Thank you to Emily Bestler Books/Atria for an early copy!

Thank you to atria and NetGalley for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Synopsis: Noelle lives a pretty sheltered life. She goes to work and comes home and doesn’t have many friends. She sheltered herself after a bad breakup. One night she eats dumplings from a stand that promises to give her what she needs. Noelle thinks that is just food after a long day but she wakes up and finds herself stuck in a time loop. She meets another woman stuck in the loop and keeps coming across a good looking guy.

What I liked: this was a fun book and really liked the Groundhog Day. Noelle is so sheltered but the loop is good for her. She grows a lot while in it. The things they do to try and get out of the loop are so funny and girl you definitely need those extra chances at flirting. Avery the other person stuck is reliving a terrible day and struggles to keep going. I loved how they leaned on each other and helped each other out. Cam provides a bright spot in their days. I really liked how it worked out too.

I'm not a fan of time travel in books but I do find time loops to be an interesting setup for a romance. How do you write a believable romance when one partner can remember every previous interaction, while the other partner's memory resets each day leaving the couple back at square one, repeating their meet-cute or first date over and over?

Jackie Lau takes this improbable premise and runs with it. Noelle, the FMC, finds herself stuck in a time loop, repeating June 20 over and over, apparently due to eating some magical dumplings at a night market. Recognizing that this could be a terribly isolating situation leading quickly to depression, the author also introduces Avery, another character who ate the dumplings on the same night as Noelle and also finds herself stuck in the June 20 time loop. Between them, Noelle and Avery quickly form a tight friendship and support system as they try everything they can think of to get out of the loop. Meanwhile, Noelle keeps running into Cam, a sweet, cute guy who she forms a connection with, even though every new day, his memory resets and she has to introduce herself all over again. Those repeated meet-cutes form the basis of their relationship and it was fun to watch Noelle, who had sworn off relationships, change various elements each day to see what worked best for her in this new relationship with Cam.

Because Noelle changes something or reacts differently to events every time she repeats the day, that keeps the plot from getting repetitive. As to how the loop is resolved and why it was created in the first place, I'll leave that for the story to tell, but I felt that it was resolved pretty creatively and didn't leave me with head hurting, trying to figure out the implications of stuck or lost time. My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions in this review are my own.

I had more fun reading this book then I thought I would. There were times in the middle of the book where it was repetitive, but the beginning and end made up for it. After eating dumplings at a night market, Noelle finds herself stuck in a time loop. Fortunately, she isn't alone as she meets Avery who is also stuck. They become friends, and work together to try and get out of the time loop. I loved the chemistry between Noelle and Cam and enjoyed reading about all of their first dates since he never remembered them. Overall, I would recommend this as a cute read!

Spiciness: 2/5 🌶️

Thank you to Netgalley and Atria Books for the ARC!

I honestly loved this book and the cover was super cute. I would tell anyone that wants a good read to order and read this book. Super excited for more to come!

3.5/5

Thank you @atriabooks #emilybestlerbooks #partner for the gifted copies of this book!

I was intrigued by this one because the time loop idea sounded so fun! A woman stuck in a time loop waking up each day to the same day. She is able to make different decisions to see how the day turns out but essentially relives June 20th over and over and over again. The only way to get out is to find “the thing she needs most.” The unfortunate part is she doesn’t know what that “thing” is.

Okay, so like I mentioned — this one started off so fun! I was immediately hooked watching Noelle, our main character, come up with all these wild tactics and creative ideas to try and switch up her fate. Whether she was going after that well-deserved raise or desperately trying to get Cam to actually remember her the next day, I was completely entertained. The whole concept was just such a good time!

Now, I’ll be honest — after a little while, it did start to feel a bit repetitive. I know that’s kind of the nature of a time loop story, but I think a few scenes could’ve been tightened up to keep that snappy pacing I loved in the beginning.

One of the absolute highlights for me was when Avery showed up! Another time loop buddy? Yes, please. I adored the energy they brought to the story and their friendship with Noelle was seriously so sweet and wholesome — total serotonin boost.

As for the ending… I wasn’t fully sold on the explanation behind the time loop. It felt a little out of left field and probably would’ve landed better if it had been hinted at or integrated earlier on.

Overall though, this was such a fun, feel-good read that left me smiling. If you love a good time loop trope with heartwarming friendships and a bit of romance thrown in, definitely check this one out!

5/5 stars: This is Lau's BIPOC Sci-Fi (Time Loop) Steamy Romance (Groundhog's Day Homage) stand-alone set in Toronto, Canada that follows a workaholic engineer who finds herself reliving the same Friday over and over again after eating magical dumplings at the night market and can't help by fall for a brewery owner she meets she meets who can't quite remember her. She soon realizes he might be the key to getting un-stuck but she can’t figure out how, even when she steps outside of her comfort zone and lives a little. As she grows attached to him, she becomes more worried that she’ll never escape the loop and he’ll never recall her name. And if she does ever get out, can they be together in the “real” world? Written in dual POV with plenty of heart and humor, Lau's writing and character work are stellar; the characters are well-rounded, complex and yet remain incredibly likable. Noelle's great and I love seeing her break out of her rut, having fun with the time loop and learning about herself and her friendship with Avery. Cam's lovely and I enjoyed following him and Noelle's journey to their HEA. The romance is top notch with plenty of swoony banter and the OPS scenes are incredibly steamy. While there are plenty of heartfelt and lighthearted moments, Lau does takes on same sensitive subjects; so take care and check the CWs. I loved this so much; highly recommend!

I received this eARC thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books | Atria/Emily Bestler Books in exchange for an honest review. Publishing dates are subject to change.

This was a cozy and warm read. Noelle gets stuck in a time loop after eating some magical dumplings and is forced to relive June 20th, she keeps meeting Cam and well I am sure you can guess where this is going.

The time loop section got pretty repetitive, which I guess is the point since it's a time loop, but that kind of dragged for me. I was also unsatisfied by how Noelle finally gets out of the loop. I liked the second section of life post time loop the best and Cam's golden retriever personality. Overall, enjoyable, light, fast, and easy to read.

3.5 stars but rounding up.

Thank you Netgalley & Atria Books | Atria/Emily Bestler Books for the advanced reader copy.