Not You Again by Erin La Rosa

Not You Again by Erin La Rosa

Published by Canary Street Press ISBN 9781335916372

Trade paperback, $18.99, 320 pages

From the publisher:

Two 30-something singles stuck in a time loop are forced to relive the worst days of their lives, so they team up to find a way to break the cycle. For fans of Palm Springs and Oona Out of Order, NOT YOU AGAIN offers a fresh new take on the Groundhog Day story.

In Julian, California, every day is April 22. Most people have accepted the loop—after all, reliving the same day every day, there’s nothing to lose. Day drinking until you pass out? Yes. Partner swapping? Why not.

But Carly has woken up at her dad’s funeral exactly 238 times, and she wants out. She doesn’t want to waste her life away reliving the worst day ever in the small town she always hated visiting. Carly wants to go back to writing film scripts in LA; she’s determined to find a way to break the cycle.

She discovers an unexpected kindred spirit in Adam, the mortician she met at her dad’s funeral. April 22 was also one of the worst days of his life: his fiancée admitted to cheating on him with his best friend. Every day Adam wakes up on April 22 to his ex-fiancée's admission, starting each day with a breakup. April 22 was supposed to be his last day working for his parents at the funeral home, and the start of his new life as an astronomer. Adam is a man of science, and like Carly, he believes there must be a way out of the time loop.

Together, Carly and Adam team up to find out what’s causing the time loop. And in trying to find a way out, they also find their way to each other.

My Thoughts:

Palm Springs is an underrated movie starring Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti that dealt with two people traveling to a wedding who get stuck in a time loop. It's a great movie, and when I read Not You Again, it immediately put me in mind of this movie. (I was happy to see in the Acknowledgements section that it inspired author Erin La Rosa as well.)

While it took me awhile to get into this story, I'm glad I went along for the journey. Who would want to relive one of the worst days of their lives over and over again? Carly is dealing with the loss of her father, the man who raised her and gave her a love of movies. She's also dealing with her guilt over not visiting her father when he moved from Los Angeles to the small town of Julian to open a movie theater of his own.

Adam has family issues as well. Along with discovering his wife is having an affair with his best friend, he can't bring himself to tell his parents he doesn't want to run the family funeral home business anymore. He wants to be an astronomer, but he never could bring himself to take a chance and make that leap.

 And as Carly and Adam go from two people who meet on the worst day of their lives and don't like each other to banding together to try and discover a way out of the time loop, they realize maybe there are sparks there. The sparks turn into flames as La Rosa gives the reader some very steamy sex scenes.

I liked the family angle to the story, it gave it an added dimension to the characters for me. And if you love science and astonomy, this story will give you an extra bonus. I recommend Not You Again as a romance with an intriguing concept.

Thanks to Harlequin for putting me on their Fall 2025 Blog Tours.

The Backtrack by Erin La Rosa

The Backtrack by Erin LaRosa

Published by Canary Street Press ISBN 9781335009456

Trade paperback, $18.99, 304 pages

From the publisher:

ABOUT THE BOOK:

From the author of FOR BUTTER OR WORSE and PLOT TWIST comes a new speculative contemporary romance. One woman is sucked into the past—and shown glimpses of what her life could have been—as she listens to nostalgic hits on her old CD player. For fans of Rebecca Serle and Allison Winn Scotch.

When pilot Sam Leto jet-setted out of small town Georgia, she promised she’d never be back—even though it meant leaving behind her best friend, Damon Rocha. Now on a forced vacation home to pack up her childhood house (and help her injured grandmother), Sam is unexpectedly hit with nostalgia from her teens--especially her bedroom, perfectly preserved from the time she left all those years ago. Sam discovers an old CD player among her teenage possessions, and in listening to the burned disc inside, she receives flashbacks from her past life--senior prom, graduation, leaving home. But the memories aren't as she remembers them. They show an alternate past. What could have been. If she never left Georgia all those years ago, would she now have the life (and love) she always wanted for herself?

My Thoughts:

I liked that Sam has an unusual occupation- she's a pilot who flies international routes. We don't see that often in romance novels. Sam and her in-flight crew play the "What If" game with passengers. They seat people together that they believe will make a connection- friendship or romantic- and see if anything develops.

When Sam's old CD player from high school plays a disc her marching bandmate and best friend-wannabe-boyfriend Damon gave her, she sees snippets of an alternate life she could have led- the ultimate "What If" game. It begins with the night that changed everything: the night Damon asked to kiss Sam and she said no.

In Sam's alternate past, she says yes and each song on the disc plays out a different incident related to the song and her life. Sam writes down what happens in each incident and tries to piece together what it could possibly mean.

Now that Sam is back in the hometown she ran away from after high school, she has to face Damon as she cares for her sassy grandmother. (I love a good sassy grandmother!) Does Sam have romantic feelings for Damon and does he still feel the same for her? If so, what do they do about it?

The Backtrack brings the reader back to their own high school days, and I'm guessing many will relate to the outsider status that Sam and Damon shared. It creates a nostalgic feeling in the reader, and readers may reflect on their own "What If" moments from that time.

Anyone who came of age in the 2000's will truly enjoy all the music references, and there is a playlist at the end of the book.

I enjoyed the nostalgic aspects of the story, and the romance of the guy-she-got-away-from is well-done. While I don't usually look for magical aspects in a story, I found this one intriguing. I recommend The Backtrack.

Thanks to Harlequin for putting me on their Summer 2024 Blog Tour.

Friday 5ive- July 29, 2022

Welcome to the Friday 5ive, a weekly post featuring five things that caught my attention this week, this steamy, hot week.

1)  For all of you who follow my book reviews, I have some news. I just joined Bookshop.org as an affiliate. Bookshop.org began during the pandemic as a way to help independent bookstores sell online to  keep bookstores open. It's a great alternative to Amazon, and I ordered books from many different independent bookstores during the pendemic, and was so pleased with the service and the fact that I was supporting bookstores. I set up a shop on https://Bookshop.org/shop/bookchickdi. If you go directly to my linked page, you can see the books I have reviewed on my blog and in my Book Report column and buy them. You can also order any book that is available on Bookshop.org (not just the ones I have reviewed) by searching for the book at the top of the page. When you order from my page, 20% of the proceeds will support Yu and Me Books, the only Asian-American woman-owned bookstore in New York City, and my 10% commission will go to support the Book Cellar, the used bookstore where I volunteer. The Book Cellar is run by dedicated volunteers, and their proceeds benefit the branch libraries of the New York Public Library. We have donated over $1 million to support the programs of the NYPL in the 18 years we have been open. If you like to order books online and want to support independent bookstores, please consider ordering from my page on Bookshop.org. (If you see my bookchickdi photo on the top left corner, you'll know it's my page.) You can also find my shop on the right side of the page of my blog.

2)  When we moved from our home Auburn, NY to a tiny one bedroom apartment NYC in 2009, we rented a storage unit in Kingston, NY near my in-laws. It was a place to store our sons' childhood memories, photos, etc. After 13 years of paying for storage and many trips to the storage unit with the best of intentions of cleaning it out, the task was finally accomplished. My husband, with assistance from his sister, brother, and father emptied out the unit. Each of us got to keep one small box of stuff, and the rest went out. All day long at work I received photos of the boys favorite things- sports uniforms, Batman pajamas, baby blankets- and it was a delightful trip down memory lane. Now I need to purge items from our apartment for my box of memories. Marie Kondo fans would be happy.

3)  My younger son turned me on to this guy on Instagram who lives in NYC and every week films himself and other drivers on his street as they move their cars for the street sweeper, and then jockey for position to retrieve their parking spots before someone else steals it. (@francisccellis on Instagram) His commentary is hilarious, and he has become friends with the street sweeper. I saw with my own eyes this process this week along East 74th Street for the first time since I moved to NYC, and for some reason it brought me joy through all the honking horns.

4) I watched the first four parts of the fascinating six-part documentary series about Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward on HBOMax, The Last Movie Stars.  Newman and Woodward's daughter approached her old schoolmate, actor Ethan Hawke, about doing the documentary. Newman was working on his memoirs with a writer and recorded hours of memories. He asked friends, coworkers, his family and even his ex-wife to record interviews on cassette tapes. Newman eventually burned the tapes, but the writer had them transcribed before burning. Hawke asked his friends, including George Clooney (who read Paul Newman's words) and Laura Linney (who read Joanne Woodward's) to read from the transcripts. Hearing the actual words of Newman, Woodward, and others close to them, and seeing their daughters interviewed, makes for incredible insights into these two talented and complex people. I highly recommend it. 

5) It was a busy week and so I only finished one book. Erin La Rosa's rom-com, For Butter Or Worse is for fans of Top Chef. Nina is a respected chef, owns her own restaurant, and is a judge on The Next Cooking Champ.  Her cohost Leo's family own a chain of Italian family-syle restaurants where he handles the business side while his twin brother is the cook. Leo likes to needle and get under Nina's skin on-air, until one day when Nina has had enough and quits the show. The big problem is that without the show, both of their restaurants may go under. The one way to fix that is to pretend to be dating. It's a terrific enemies-to-lovers story with some unique plotlines, like Leo's anxiety issues. Foodies will enjoy this one, and my full review is here.

 

Have a safe, healthy, cool week.

For Butter Or Worse by Erin La Rosa

For Butter Or Worse by Erin La Rosa

Published by Harlequin ISBN 9781335506344

Trade paperback, $15.99, 368 pages

Hot steamy summer days like these call for a hot steamy romance to read and Erin La Rosa's For Butter Or Worse takes the cake.

Nina Lyon owns her own restaurant and hosts the cooking challenge reality show The Next Cooking Champ. Her cohost is Leo O'Donnell, whose family owns a chain of Italian restaurants, some of which  can be found in airports.

Nina has worked hard to earn the respect she deserves in the culinary world, something not easily attainable for women. She brings her experience to the show and can be tough, but fair, to the contestants.

Leo runs the business end of the family restaurants, leaving the food part to his twin brother Gavin to handle. Leo is handsome and all charm to most people, but snarky to his cohost Nina. He can't help pushing her buttons on air.

Both Nina and Leo hope that their TV show appearances will translate into more customers to their restaurants; it's a tough business with very tight profit margins. When Nina decides she's had enough of Leo, she loses her cool and announces on-air in a live show that she is leaving The Next Cooking Champ.

That leaves both Leo and Nina and their restaurants in a precarious position, and when paparazzi take a photo of them in what looks like a romantic clinch, the only way to save their restaurants (according to the show's PR person) is to be seen in public dating. Can Nina and Leo put aside their animosity to save their restaurants?

For Butter Or Worse is an enemies-to-lovers tale with some delicious food descriptions that will make you hungry. (Nina's mother's Pates aux Lardons -noodles with gruyére cheese, bacon and butter- will be making an appearance in my kitchen very soon.)

La Rosa elevates her story with some interesting touches. Leo has anxiety issues, and I love that he and his mom talk on the phone while watching rom-coms (Sleepless in Seattle) together. As the mom of two adult sons, I appreciated Leo's mom.

As with any good enemies-to-lovers story, Leo and Nina's "fake dates" lead to misunderstandings and to some very steamy sex scenes. (If you don't appreciate explicit sex scenes, this isn't for you. If you appreciate them, you'll be pleased.) 

If you're someone who enjoys a hot romance and doesn't miss an episode of Top Chef, put For Butter Or Worse on your TBR list today. 

Thanks to Harlequin Books for putting me on their Summer 2022 Rom-Com Blog Tour.