Once and Again

Once and Again ~ Rebecca Serle

The Novak women have been blessed with a silver ticket, a one time do-over that they can use to turn back time in order to avoid tragedy. Lauren (37), her mother Marcella, and her grandmother Sylvia have all had the opportunity to press reset. Marcella uses her ticket to avoid a car accident that kills both her husband and the driver of the other car. Ever since she uses her ticket, she is obsessed with avoiding tragedy in life, because she no longer has the ability to fix things. She mostly fixates on her husband’s health, after he needs bypass surgery in his late 30s.

Lauren and her husband, Leo have been struggling with the financial and emotional fallout of her infertility. When Leo, leaves their Los Angeles home for a 6 week job in New York City, they decide to rent out their house in West Hollywood to save money, and she stays with her parents and grandmother in Malibu. There she reunites with her ex-boyfriend, Stone, who has come home to LA to take care of his dying mother.

I liked this book a lot. I’ve read a couple of Serle’s other books, both of which had an aspect of magical realism. In In Five Years, the main character goes to sleep next to her fiancé, but awakens 5 years later, with a different ring on her finger, and a different man in her bed. In One Italian Summer, the main character and her mother have planned a once in a lifetime trip to Italy. After her mother dies, she decides to take the trip alone, where she runs into…her mother. Who is her age, young and vibrant. I liked all of these books a lot, they are contemporary fiction with likable but flawed characters.

Fun coincidence – the audiobook for Once and Again was narrated by the excellent Julia Whelan, who played the teenaged daughter in a blended family in the 1999 – 2001 drama series, Once and Again. She makes any book better, and this one is no exception. Recommended.