The women of the Novak family were each born with a gift: they can, just once, turn back time.

Lauren has known since she was fifteen that her mother, Marcella, saved Lauren’s father from a deadly car accident. Dave is alive and happy, and out on the Malibu waves. But ever since, Marcella, her power spent, has lived in fear of what she won’t be able to reverse. Her own mother, Sylvia, is her polar opposite: a free-spirited iconoclast with a glamorous past she only hints at. Lauren has spent her life between these two role models—and waiting for her own catastrophe to strike.

Then one summer, Lauren’s husband takes a job in New York, and she moves back to Broad Beach Road, back into her childhood home on the shores of Malibu. Lauren looks forward to surfing with her dad again and perhaps repairing an unspoken fracture in her relationship with her mother. What she doesn’t expect is for the boy next to door to return home as well: Stone, Lauren’s first love, who broke her heart nearly a decade before.

As Lauren falls into familiar patterns, with her family and, more dangerously, Stone, she finds herself thinking about all the choices, large and small, that have brought her to this moment. And wondering, finally, if one of them should be undone.

3.5 stars

This is my third book by this author, and while I do enjoy her stories, she’s definitely becoming a hit-or-miss author for me. The first book I read by her was such a great experience, but unfortunately, these last two haven’t worked nearly as well for me. I listened to the audiobook, though, and absolutely loved Julia Whelan. She is one of my all-time favorite narrators, and honestly, you can never go wrong with the Queen of Audio!

As for content, there is profanity along with some mild open-door spice scenes. They are not overly graphic, but I would personally rate them around two peppers. For sensitive readers, I would definitely recommend checking trigger warnings beforehand since the story includes infertility struggles as well as cheating and an affair.

The story is told through past and present timelines with multiple POVs. The family is Jewish, so there are cultural elements woven throughout the story as well. At its core, this is a story about motherhood, womanhood, generational family dynamics, grief, loss, death, and second chances. Overall, I thought it was very well written. The audiobook is also fairly short at around seven hours, making it an easy read or listen over a day or two.

One thing I really enjoyed was the setting. The California and LA atmosphere felt vivid and immersive, and you can tell the author truly knows the area well. It gave the story a strong sense of place and made it feel perfect for a summer or beach read.

I also loved the concept of the magical silver ticket that allows someone to go back and change one thing from their past. The story follows three generations of women in this family, all with very different personalities, values, and emotional wounds that create distance between them. Because of those differences, they struggle to form close relationships and truly understand one another. What I found especially interesting was seeing how each woman viewed the ticket differently. For some, it felt like a gift. For others, it felt more like a burden or even a punishment.

My biggest issue with the story, much like many other readers, was the cheating trope. It is just not something I enjoy reading about, nor is it something I personally agree with. It goes against my faith, morals, beliefs, and values, and I think it is ultimately a selfish act that hurts many people in the process. Because of that, it made me dislike a couple of the characters and emotionally disconnect from parts of the story. I really wish the author had taken the story in a different direction instead of centering an affair so heavily. I also found myself wishing the magical element had been woven more deeply into the plot.

By the end, I felt very torn on how to rate this book because there were aspects I genuinely loved and others that really did not work for me. I appreciated some of the surprises and twists, and I absolutely loved the concept behind the magical tickets, but the execution just did not fully land for me. I think the story had the potential to feel more whimsical, emotional, and magical, but instead, it leaned very heavily into infertility and infidelity. It had such a strong premise, but overall, it fell a little flat for me.

That being said, I do think the story was thought-provoking. It actually sparked a really interesting conversation between my husband and me about what we would do if we had a silver ticket to go back and change something from our past. Because of that, I could definitely see this making for a great book club pick with plenty to discuss, especially if you do not mind heavier subject matter.

I will continue reading books by this author because I do think she is talented, but so far, this has been my least favorite of her novels. Personally, I would not recommend this one, but if the premise sounds intriguing to you and the elements I mentioned do not bother you, it may work much better for you than it did for me.