I started this book.
I read thevfirst few pages.
The first page was good, but sadly quickly the writing turned bad.
It felt like reading a bad hallmark movie.
DNF for me.

Time travel back in time?

Set to the Human League's "Don't You Want Me" this was such an interesting premise. Sign me up.
Lisa Williams in not in a good place. She magically time travels back to the early 1980's so she can meet the one before he gets married (or her, too). At times, it just missed the mark. But an interesting premise.
And come on, Don't you want me. That was such a hit.

Lisa, who happens to be an ‘unfortunate soul’, is capable of time travel and wants to stop something from happening in the past so that she and Adam can be happy.
Plot, characterisation, craft were all solid 3 stars for me whereas the concept was a 4 star.
I recommend this book if you are looking for something with time travel and nostalgia.

This plot was so intriguing!

If you could time travel, what would you change from your past? For Lisa, the answer is simple: she wants to rewrite her love story.

As my first ARC, Don’t You Want Me by Derlys Maria Gutierrez absolutely delivered! I’ve recently been in a romance fantasy black hole and the novelty of Derlys’s magical realism and plot was the breath of fresh air and reset I needed. The plot kept me guessing in the best way—at no point did I feel like I knew what was coming next, which made it all the more entertaining.

As evidence to that, despite Don’t You Want Me including tropes in which I tend to struggle, the writing pulled me in and I found myself lost in the story.

Although I found some moments a little clunky, on the whole I enjoyed Don’t You Want Me and would recommend the story for someone wanting a fun, easy read (especially if you love an 80s flair).

Don’t You Want Me is a fun premise, time travel back to the 80s to explore what a doomed relationship in the 2000s might have been had they met decades earlier. There’s a Peggy Sue Gets Married, 13 Going On 30 vibe that keeps the story light and entertaining. Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this eArc in exchange for an honest review.

The concept of this book was intriguing, but the execution of the plotline wasn’t as engaging as I’d hoped it would be. Part of that had to do with the lack of characterization of the main and supporting characters, and the lack of concrete rules for the time travel that was portrayed in this book.

The FMC, Lisa, was probably the most developed character, but her development seemed off, especially at the end. I’m not sure what she actually learned through all of this. And I wasn’t satisfied with how everything played out.

The other characters weren’t developed enough and some of them, including Adam, seemed to simply become a caricature rather than a fleshed out and fully formed person.

In the original present timeline, Adam seems like the best guy Lisa has ever known because that’s how she presents him. And it’s that “perfect” guy that opens the door to going back to 1982. If only Lisa could meet Adam when they were both younger, her life would be so much better because in her mind, she’s supposed to be with him.

But when Lisa finally finagles time enough to shift the present timeline into something different, he becomes something else entirely. The problem with Adam’s characterization is that there is no development. We only see him through Lisa’s eyes and to say that she’s an unreliable narrator would be an understatement. But it’s up to the author to show us why Adam is a good or a bad or a neutral guy, which I don’t believe Guiterrez fully does. What happens instead is that I couldn’t imagine anyone being with Adam in the present timeline. Once you’ve seen him acting at his worst, it’s hard to forget that, and I wasn’t pleased that anyone ended up with him at all.

The shifts in time were interesting, but I don’t think all of them added up in the end. I’m not sure what Lisa was doing to change things so drastically in the present timeline, and even when she’d go back to the 80s, things were not developed to the point of everything making sense.

Some of the dialogue was clunky and boring at times as well.

Overall, I felt as though this could have used another round of edits and revisions. I did enjoy parts of the book though, but I just wasn’t fully invested in the story.

This book was a fun, feel-good read that totally gave me all the ’80s vibes—and I loved it. The main character, a 40-year-old woman who goes back in time to her teen years, was super relatable and likable. It reminded me of 13 Going on 30, just flipped the other way. There was a nice mix of humor, a bit of romance, and tons of nostalgia. I even teared up at the end! The writing was easy to get into, so I flew through it, and the back-and-forth trips to the ’80s were a blast. And honestly, who doesn’t love a good diner scene?

Overall, it was a really fun take on time travel, and I’m glad I got to read it. Big thanks to NetGalley, Post Hill Press, and Derlys Maria Gutiérrez for the advance copy!

I enjoyed the premise of this book, and the use of the 80s was very fun. The intertwining storylines kept it interesting but there was nothing that pushed it to great for me. I was missing a little more to give it that nudge. At the end, I felt like it wrapped up quickly and left me with questions unanswered.

This was an interesting read. Each time the song ‘Don’t you want me’ played I hoped that Lisa would get the happiness she craved. I thought the character development was good, we got to see Adam without ever really seeing him. In the original timeline we never actually see or hear from Adam, it’s only from all the trips back that we get to see him. I have to say Lisa is better off without him. Pretty near to the start I thought that Marcus was the right one for her, she talked about the happiness they felt at the start of their relationship and their grief over loosing their son was so palpable.

The friendship she created with Stephanie was nice, if a bit strange. They both loved the same man, and in each reality when they got him they were miserable. Adam really was the bad egg!

I loved the trip back when they realised that the Human League didn’t exist and they had to help create the song they needed to get home.

Time travel always messes with your head, and nothing ever runs smoothly, and the butterfly effect was interesting to read, seeing how Emily was affected by Lisa’s decisions and how over everything, Lisa had to put things right to get her best friend back.

A good, funny read.

Thanks to Netgally for providing me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The premise of this book was great. 80´s time travel sounded like something I would like. Growing up I loved the movies 13 going on 30 and back to the future and this book sounded like something in one of those directions.

Unfortunately the writing felt a little flat for me. I did not like most of the characters., I felt like they would say one thing and then 3 pages later had a total opposite opinion. The book starts with Lisa, our married main character who has an affair with Adam. Although the relationship with Adam is sort of the catalyst for the time travel, he barely shows up in the rest of the book and I had trouble seeing why he was supposedly such a catch of a man.

Overall I do think the concept has a lot of fun potential, this version of it just didn´t do it for me unfortunatelyl.

Book Review: Don’t You Want Me by Derlys Maria Gutiérrez
Rating: 5/5 stars

I looooooooved this book—yes, that many o’s. Don’t You Want Me is a stunning time-traveling rollercoaster with rich, immersive character building that completely pulled me in. Derlys Maria Gutiérrez crafted Lisa and Stephanie so vividly, it felt like I was walking beside them, feeling every emotion, twist, and heartache right alongside them. The time travel element? A perfect 10/10—clever, compelling, and never confusing. I was completely captivated from start to finish and genuinely didn’t want it to end. This one’s an instant add-to-cart for my physical bookshelf the moment it releases!

Thank you to Netgalley for this ARC. All views and opinions in this review are my own.

I was intrigued by the time-travel premise and 80s nostalgia of “Don’t You Want Me?”, especially since the song it was inspired by was so popular back in the day. Reading the book required some suspension of disbelief, of course, as with most time-travel type stories. There are always “rules” and the possibility of altering the future and creating multiple realities. The book was lighthearted and entertaining enough to not dwell too much on the sci-fi aspect. I would enjoy it more if the characters had more personality, especially the main character Lisa. I know she’s supposed to be dealing with some traumatic events in her life, but I can’t really excuse her infidelity towards her husband. Also, Adam is awful! I couldn’t see what Lisa saw in him to jeopardize her marriage.

The ending felt rushed, probably because of too many time jumps in an attempt to make the story more interesting than it was.

Thank you to Post Hill Press and Regalo Press for providing this ARC for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Don’t You Want Me by Derlys Maria Gutiérrez is a cute time-traveling romp that, like the title suggests, takes a place partially in the 1980s. In fact, it’s the very same song from the Human League that propels the main character through time as she attempts to rewrite her own present life by manipulating the events of her past.

This story was very lighthearted, despite the references to child loss and marital infidelity. While the book is scaffolded around a romantic relationship, a lot of the book really has to do with female relationships: motherhood, the role of daughters, female friendship, etc. Arguably the storylines about Lisa’s real and imagined children and her relationships with Emily and her mother were much more compelling than that of her with Adam.

The story was somewhat reminiscent of the movie 13 going on 30. It had the same elements of low-stakes time travel and realizing who you want to be and who you’ve become. I also thought that the story had a very strong theme of “the grass being greener.”

The issue with this book is that the characters are tragically underdeveloped and have very little depth. Adam is the very worst example of this. Despite being the whole catalyst for the events of the book, we see literally nothing about him besides that he has some wealth and is a womanizer. He is portrayed as a cartoonish abusive husband and lecher and the reasons why he’s so desirable to all these women is never shown. Short of a few corny jokes, there’s nothing even remotely pleasant about him and there’s literally no chemistry or sex appeal with a single character. It’s hard to sell a whole concept on the back of a character who reads as a cardboard cutout of a Lifetime-movie cheater.

In spite of the somewhat flat characters, I did think that the book was pretty fun. I thought it moved at a good clip, jumping back and forth in time. It’s imperfect but would be a great option for an easy beach read (especially if you want some 80s nostalgia.)

3/5 stars.

Freaky Friday time travel with a fun romantic twist! While this was a bit lighter than I’d like it to be, still had a great time on this journey.

DNF 38%

I thought the premise of this novel was solid, but the writing and the characters did not grab me in any way. In fact, I loathed every single character introduced and felt nothing toward them. I think another serious round of editing is needed in order to strengthen the characters and plot in order to make readers feel more invested.

Thanks to NetGalley & Post Hill Press for an advanced copy of this book.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

I think I might be heading into a bit of a book slump, so take this with a grain of salt—but Don’t You Want Me didn’t quite work for me. The concept had potential, especially with the time travel twist, but the execution fell a little flat.

The writing didn’t fully pull me in, and I found it hard to connect with the characters. The main conflict—where the FMC goes back in time and falls in love with the MMC before he’s married—felt messy in a way that made it hard to root for their relationship. I get that love can happen unexpectedly, but the emotional cheating undertone just didn’t sit well with me.

Overall, it had a creative premise, but between the writing and the romantic setup, this one didn’t land for me. That said, I might revisit it once I’m out of my slump to see if I feel differently with a fresh perspective.

Lisa Williams is a woman on the edge—trapped in a failing marriage and emotionally entangled with a married man she believes is her soulmate. One evening, while waiting for him at a train station, a familiar '80s song transports her back to 1982, to her college days at Columbia University. She’s in her eighteen-year-old body, but with all the knowledge and emotional weight of her middle-aged life. What follows is a thoughtful, time-bending story where Lisa slips between decades, revisiting the early days of her relationship with Adam. She becomes determined to change the course of his life—and hers—by stopping him from marrying the woman he ends up with in the present. But time doesn’t move in straight lines, and each return to the past brings new complications and insights she never expected.

The novel explores love, regret, and the longing to undo mistakes, all against the vibrant backdrop of 1980s New York. It’s a mix of personal reflection and subtle sci-fi, asking whether knowing the future can ever really change it—and whether it should.

I clicked on this title because I love the song and from the description of the book, it seemed to be about 80s nostalgia. The book isn't about that at all, it's more about a mid life crisis. And for once it's nice to read about a woman's mid-life crisis. I really liked the book's nuanced take on infidelity, and how in most cases, the path you've taken will probably be the best one for you, and your choices can define how things go. If this all sounds vague, it's because I"m trying not to spoil the plot because it goes in really interesting ways, that I really did not expect. It's not cliched, it's quite feminist and while I'm not entirely on board with one aspect of the ending, I'm willing to forgive that because the book is genuinely compelling.,

An excellent read for any and all readers! Author comes at you with both barrels and knocks you out of your shoes! Great job fleshing out all the characters. I give this book FIVE stars! Definitely recommend!

Don’t You Want Me (4.29): The cover and premise behind this book drew in the Millennial in me so fast. Time travel back to the 80s?! Hell yeah. Human League as the main song that contributes to said time travel?! I’m in.

Except, the characters were kinda bland for me and you didn’t really learn why or how the time travel was happening until about 88% in and by that point, I was kind of done. The ending was sweet though and was a quick read. ⭐️⭐️⭐️