Georgie McCool knows her marriage is in trouble; it has been in trouble for a long time. She still loves her husband, Neal, and Neal still loves her, deeply — but that almost seems beside the point now.
Maybe that was always beside the point.
Two days before they’re supposed to visit Neal’s family in Omaha for Christmas, Georgie tells Neal that she can’t go. She’s a TV writer, and something’s come up on her show; she has to stay in Los Angeles. She knows that Neal will be upset with her — Neal is always a little upset with Georgie — but she doesn’t expect him to pack up the kids and go home without her.
When her husband and the kids leave for the airport, Georgie wonders if she’s finally done it. If she’s ruined everything.
That night, Georgie discovers a way to communicate with Neal in the past. It’s not time travel, not exactly, but she feels like she’s been given an opportunity to fix her marriage before it starts…
Is that what she’s supposed to do?
Or would Georgie and Neal be better off if their marriage never happened?
My second Rainbow Rowell book, I was hesitant to read this book — I adored “Fangirl” so much that I wasn’t sure if this could live up to my expectations.
Rowell didn’t disappoint. I didn’t know anything about the book before I picked it up (I’ve stopped reading book blurbs because they’re so often misleading), so I was a bit surprised to discover Georgie and Neal were married at the beginning. I enjoyed that twist. I also enjoyed watching Georgie navigate the troubles in her marriage. It did drag a bit in some places — there’s really only one plotline in the story and it did stretch that out a bit more than it needed to — but overall I loved her characters and getting to know them (and I like to imagine that the young couple in the red pickup truck are Levi and Cath).
Word of caution: if you don’t like flashbacks, skip this book. A lot of the story is Georgie remembering her past. I don’t normally enjoy flashbacks, but (for me) it worked in the context of this story.
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