This has been the year of do-over novels for me. First there was Matt Haig's The Midnight Library, then Jennie Wexler's YA novel, Where It All Lands, and most recently, Sarah Adlakha's debut novel, She Wouldn't Change a Thing. Adlakha's novel works with the sliding doors premise, wherein characters are able to alter the trajectory of future events. Dr. Maria Forssman is a harried psychiatrist, due any minute to have her third child. A strange warning from a patient sets off a series of events that result in pregnant Maria waking in the not-pregnant body of her 17-year-old self. Moral dilemmas ensue, as she contends with her role as a "repeater," someone who finds herself cycling back to an earlier time in her life. I wasn't convinced Maria was a plausible character. For a trained psychiatrist, she seemed to make too many rookie moves. But I appreciated the novel's resolution. I'm clearly a fan of this do-over sub-genre, and I enjoyed this entry into the catalog. 

[Thanks to Macmillan-Tor/Forge and NetGalley for an opportunity to read an e-ARC of this book in exchange for my opinion.]

This is a little bit different story for me which I enjoyed. I was pulled into the story from the beginning by the author's use of details giving the story a realistic feel. This is a well written story about time travel and waking up in a younger body of yourself. The characters are relateable and I enjoyed how they gave the story life. I also enjoyed watching the growth throughout the story. I found this story to be fast paced and just a great easy to read story. Maria wakes up in her seventeen year old body and now all she wants is to get back to the present. As the story goes she knows things are going to happen to her husband but can she change things and be given a second chance? A story of life struggles and concesquences of choices we make. I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it.

“No purpose is insignificant. The choices we make every day are not just about us. They impact everyone around us in ways that you can’t even imagine.” ~ Sarah Adlakha

I'm going to have to take a moment to collect my thoughts after finishing She Wouldn't Change a Thing. What a rollercoaster of a story and emotional ending! A mix between Inception and The Midnight Library, Sarah Adlakha tackles life, choice, love, and eternity in her dazzling debut novel.

Would you change the past if you were given a chance, even if it meant giving up your future?

Maria Forssmann is a well-known psychologist who loves what she does. Despite being days away from giving birth to her son, nothing can stop Maria from going to work; however, on a day that should've been as normal as any, a woman walks into her life knowing things about Maria that she hasn't told anyone - even her husband. In a plea to save her life, the stranger tries to warn Maria of the danger that's awaiting her around the corner; but, disbelieving the clearly deranged woman, Maria does her best to shrug the haunting words out of her mind, that is, until she wakes up twenty-two years in the past in her seventeen-year-old body!

Will Maria find her way back to her family and meet her unborn son, or will the purpose that brought her back in time pull her further into the world she's found herself in?

"I’m not seventeen-year-old Maria Bethe. I’m thirty-nine-year-old Maria Forssmann. I’m a wife and a mother, and that will never change." ~ Sarah Adlakha

"He would love her either way, she was sure of it, but could she ever love herself again if she let the little girl die? Could she even live with herself?" ~ Sarah Adlakha

She Wouldn't Change a Thing is one of those novels that stays on your mind long after you've read the last page. Having recently read The Midnight Library, I was struck by the stark similarities between the two books. However, where spirituality lacked in Matt Haig's narrative, it prospered in Sarah Adlakha's world.

"And now, after all those years and all her headstrong certainty that God and spirits and the supernatural were for people who weren’t strong enough to shoulder their own burdens and grief, there was a crack in Maria’s armor." ~ Sarah Adlakha

I thoroughly enjoyed reading She Wouldn't Change a Thing! Not expecting such a mysterious and suspenseful plot, my attention held throughout, and I found myself unable to put down my Kindle - especially the last quarter. I also liked that this was a clean read that shared the important and everlasting effect of love and sacrifice without explicit detail. If this is Sarah Adlakha's first novel, I can only impatiently wait in anticipation for her upcoming releases, which are sure to be more home runs!

*Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a pre-release copy of this book. My thoughts and opinions are entirely my own!*

Positive content: 3.5⭐️
Language: 0.5⭐️
Sexual content: 1⭐️
Violence: 2⭐️
Age: 16+ (mental health trigger warning: suicide and abortion)

I received this as an ARC through Netgalley. She Wouldn't Change A Thing, is an intriguing look at time travel, density and fate. Maria has an impossible choice to make when she wakes up in her 17 year old body with her men memories of being a 39 year old married women. Can she make it back to her family or is there a reason she was sent back in time?

I have to admit to almost giving up on this read several times, but convinced myself to finish it…and I am so glad I did. The concept of time travel is so hard for me to fathom and I found myself getting lost with the storylines of the various characters and confused with their seeming lack of connection but about 2/3 into the story it all began making sense. Such a dilemma for any mother to be faced with, giving up the family you love to save the younger sister of your husband after being transported back in time. None of the characters will remain in my mind or my heart but it was great storytelling at the end. So loved the ending and the epilogue with Blaise.
Many thanks to Sarah Adlakha, Forge Books, and NetGalley for affording me the opportunity to read an arc of this just published book.

3.5 Time Travel Stars

This one is tricky to review without giving away important details! I think I can best describe it as a sliding doors/time travel story. I really had to think on this one and I’m still not sure I completely know what happened!

We meet Maria Forssmann when she is 39, a busy career woman with two girls and a little boy about to be born. There is some intrigue with one of her patients and the next thing we know, she is in her 17-year-old body.

She eventually figures out what needs to happen next, but it is a very difficult choice, and I wasn’t happy that she had to make this choice at all!

There is another parallel story with Jenny and Hank and the reader eventually learns how all these stories connect.

This one does end with a terrific epilogue, but I just couldn’t wrap my head around it enough to really enjoy it.

I did enjoy my discussion with Marilyn on this one as I tried to puzzle through some details.

SHE WOULDN'T CHANGE A THING by Sarah Adlakha tells the story of a woman given the opportunity to change the past to save a life at the cost of her own current, happy life. Maria is living a happily married, full, and chaotic life of small children with another baby on the way when a strange series of events hurtles her through time to impossible ethical choices between the lives of others versus the one that you want for yourself. Totally absorbing and well-written, this story transported me into the infinite possibilities that change every time we make a choice. There are wild, smart, wonderful twists throughout the story and throughout the palpable sense of love and what our ultimate purpose is here on earth. Thought-provoking, wise, and heartfelt, this story grabbed me by the throat and didn't let go long after I finished reading. I received an advance reader copy of this book in exchange for my unbiased review.

In She Wouldn’t Change a Thing, time travel is less a fantasy element and more of a nightmarish trap that sends a person back into their own earlier life.

Maria is close to her due date for her third child, married mostly happily but also incredibly frazzled, mother to two adorable daughters, and a successful psychiatrist, when a strange new patient shows up in her office. Sylvia comes with disjointed warnings and rambles on about having a purpose. She gives Maria a warning about her own life, and tries to gain Maria’s understanding — but Maria naturally sees Sylvia as delusional and offers medication and follow-up visits.

Later, Maria learns that Sylvia has killed herself, and has left a note for Maria. She can’t shake Sylvia’s words, and despite knowing she should ignore the warning, follows up. I won’t go into details on what happens next, but after a terrible encounter, Maria wakes to find that she’s back in her childhood home, in her 17-year-old body.

Completely frantic, Maria’s parents believe she’s having a breakdown, and Maria soon finds herself confined to a psych ward. Maria knows that she’s not schizophrenic, but who would believe a teen girl who claims to be a pregnant 39-year-old needing to return to her husband and children?

Time travel in this book, as we learn, is typically triggered by a death or a violent event which propels the person back to an earlier point in their lives — with a purpose. There’s something they have to accomplish, and it’s typically at great cost. For Maria, once she realizes her purpose, there’s an understanding that accomplishing her purpose will change events so completely that she and her husband will never meet. And while she thinks she may have a way to get back to her own life, it would mean ignoring this purpose, and ignoring the chance to save an innocent life. She has to decide — does she give up her “real” life to do the right thing, or put her need to be back with her family above everything else?

I’m a fan of well-conceived time travel plots, and can even accept far-fetched scenarios — but something about this concept of being sent back with a purpose really set my nerves on edge. I suppose if you believe in higher beings and deities and predestination, maybe this might be more appealing, but for me, it just smacks of quasi-religious mumbo jumbo.

There’s no good “why” to all of this. Okay, fine, there’s a purpose… but why these people and not others? Why doesn’t every unfair death get deleted and reversed? Why isn’t the world overrun with people from the future?

In Maria’s story, there are overlaps and revisions in her life, and we see characters from her own time transformed and changed by the actions she takes once she goes back. Some of the convergences are interesting, but for the most part, most of this plot felt forced and illogical to me.

As I said, I love a good time travel story. Sure, I can buy the idea of a woman wandering into a stone circle and being transported 200 years back in time (as happens in a certain favorite series…), but in She Wouldn’t Change a Thing, the mechanics and reasons and the higher purpose elements of the story just didn’t work for me at all.

Beyond the plot falling flat for me, the writing style is often awkward and clunky, and certain lines and stylistic choices took me right out of the plot. Overall, not a great reading experience for me… your mileage may vary.

4.5 stars

I thought this was a really unique book and I loved the multi-dimensional storylines and characters.

Maria Forssman is a psychiatrist who receives a warning from one of her patients, and while Maria has little to go one, the revelation leaves her feeling unsettled. Then one morning she wakes up as her seventeen-year-old self in her childhood home with no recollection as to how she got there. All she wants to do is get back to her husband, daughters, and unborn son, but now she has the opportunity to prevent a tragedy that occurred well before Will was even on her radar. Now she is faced with choosing to return to the family and life she loves, and giving it all up to save the life of someone she’s never met.

The dilemma throughout this story was truly heartbreaking. Maria was given an impossible choice, and it brought into question what our purposes are in life. If you discovered what you were destined to do, but it didn’t match up with what you wanted, what path would you choose? I’m not sure if I was surprised by Maria’s choice because either outcome would’ve resulted in some heartache, but overall I loved how the story panned out and I highly recommend this book!

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4155663072

I would like to thank Netgalley and Forge Books for providing me an eARC of this book.

Books about time travel haven’t really been my thing; as mysterious and fun as the concept sounds, I haven’t been drawn to it. However, when I read the excerpt for Sarah Adlakha’s 𝘚𝘩𝘦 𝘞𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘯’𝘵 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘢 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨, it sounded interesting. The book is about Maria Forssmann who is a successful psychiatrist and happily married with two kids and a third one on the way. On a usually hectic morning, she comes across a patient who tells her things that are about to change her life drastically, the one question is–is it for the better or for the worst? This story is fascinating because of Adlakha’s interesting writing style, the complex development of the concept of time travel, and the dynamic between the characters. There are some issues within these aspects, but it does not completely take away from the plot development and the moral of the story.

𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐖𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐒𝐭𝐲𝐥𝐞

Adlakha’s writing style is gripping to the extent it keeps the reader’s nose in the book. Her third person narrator not only delves into the feelings of the characters, but her metaphors and similes perfectly depict the dilemmas and inner thoughts of the characters. This is also important because the figurative language enhances the complexities of the personalities of the people in the story. Moreover, the author does not meticulously detail the characters’ surroundings, she just describes those spaces for what they provoke in the characters and what they signify for them. This kind of writing personifies these spaces and gives them character, rather than them just existing for their physicality. For these reasons, Adlakha’s writing style is riveting to the extent that you cannot keep the book down.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐱𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐥

The theme of time travel is well-written. In this story, this concept has many facets, but they are not all dumped on the reader at once. Instead, these aspects are slowly revealed alongside the progression of the story, which helps readers understand it fully. Some particular aspects that I liked about time travel in this book is reincarnation, travelling from one time period to another, and the concept of reliving with a new purpose; these concepts are nicely written out, there is no fantasy element to it; Adlakha seems to have dealt with the overall theme from a scientific point of view. It might seem boring without any magic, but I felt that it made it more thrilling and unique from time travel stories I have usually come across. Nevertheless, there are aspects of the time travel plot that I was confused by, therefore they didn’t appeal to me, for example, living in one reality, but dying in another; if there are multiple realities, why does one have to be in a particular one? Don’t different versions of a person exist in each? Nonetheless, the book is a nerve-wrecking, yet exciting account about time-travel.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐲𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐜 𝐁𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬

In addition to the writing style and the theme of time travel, the relationship dynamic between characters is intricately developed. The story follows two characters-Maria and Jenny and it was surprising to discover the connection between the two characters and how one’s choices shapes the other’s life. Furthermore, the overall dynamic between all the characters is heavily influenced by the theme of time travel, so it is exciting to read about because the reader has no idea how the character’s relations and overall lives will be shaped by this phenomena. It is also interesting to read about her relationship with her parents that changes completely because of the time travelling experience because one expects her to react differently. Overall, the dynamic between the characters has interesting complexities that are well-developed with the progression of the story.

From Adlakha’s gripping writing style to the unique take on time travel and to the intricately developed dynamic between the characters, She Wouldn’t Change a Thing by Sarah Adlakha is book that you’ve got to read if you’re thrilled by the prospect of reliving the past!

If you got a chance to go back and redo some decisions in your life, would you change a thing? You might say no because whatever you went through made you who you are today. But you might even say yes because you want to erase some painful memories or regretful actions from your past. Whatever your answer, you know that this is not an easy decision to make as it has a lot of repercussions. But what if you are not given a choice? That’s the situation faced by the protagonist in this story.

Story:
39 year old psychiatrist Maria is living a busy life managing her home, career and two young children with a third on the way. One day, she has a strange encounter with a new patient named Sylvie, who possesses a lot of knowledge on Maria’s life and warns her to stay away from her assistant Rachel. Soon after, because of certain events I don’t want to reveal here, Maria finds herself back in time in her 17 year old self. How will she get back? Why has she been sent back? Can she reunite herself with her family? Can she change the past? Should she change the past? With a lot of confusion, questions, and choices facing Maria, you need to read the book to know what happens next.

The author’s style of plot structuring is quite different. As there is time travel involved, there are obviously two timelines. But even in between the chapters of the same timeline, there are minor time jumps in the story. So when the missing jumped part gets revealed casually in the subsequent chapter, you get a jolt of shock. The writing is quite lyrical and descriptive, which takes away a little from the pace of the story but is still a treat to read. What raises the bar is the author’s choice of ending. That’s how a plot ought to fulfil its logical destiny. Well done, indeed!

While the writing style is a treat, the pacing and character development left a little to be desired. The book started off really well and I was hooked onto it at first. But soon the content changed from action-oriented to musing-oriented, thereby dragging the pace of the story down. In addition, there are numerous characters and numerous interconnections across the characters. After a point, I gave up on figuring out their role in the character hierarchy and just went with the flow. Luckily, this doesn’t hinder the comprehension of the story. But because these characters don’t have a detailed background provided, you won’t be able to connect with most of them. Some of the characters felt superfluous to the plotline for this very reason. I would have loved to know more of Maria’s relationship with her husband Will. Whatever little was there in the story was sweet but left me wanting to know more.

PLOT SPOILERS AHEAD:
<spoiler>
There are some plot ideas that stay unexplained till the end.
• Why was Sylvia sent back to Maria? What was her connection to Maria’s family? AFAIR, this was revealed at all.
• Why were people being sent back to change things they had nothing to do with? As I said above, Sylvia had nothing to do with Rachel’s actions. Maria had nothing to do with Beth’s killing. It seemed strange that they were given a purpose of changing someone else’s life with whom they had no direct connection.
• How did George recognise Maria if he had met her only as a child? Why does Johnstone say that he has been a part of Maria’s whole life?
As is evident, all of these are missing bits of information related to the time travel part of the plot and all show how little we know of the character connections even after reading the whole book.
</spoiler>

Understanding the exact nitty-gritties of the time travel in this book is a complex journey I initially attempted but later gave up on. As with every time travel book, there are procedural loopholes and so I just carried on tying to ignore them. If you decide to pick this up, keep aside your logic about theoretical time travel because the book deals more with the philosophical side of the topic.

For a debut work, the scope of the book is grand. And to a great extent, the author does justice to her idea. Her creativity is evident in the book, and I’m sure that she’ll be an author to look forward to in future.

This is an interesting book to read, no doubt. Pick it up when you are in the mood for something slow and contemplative. It’s more like sci-fi literary fiction than a sci-fi thriller. Keep your expectations in accordance with this.

3.75 stars, rounding up.

Thank you, NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge Books, for the ARC of the book in exchange for an honest review.

One thing I have learned about myself as a reader is that although I'm not a big fan of fantasy, I love an element of time travel, and this book was no exception. I thought the author did a great job of taking a unique concept and weaving a really interesting story into it.

What worked for me:
-the time travel element
-the reactions of Maria's family, which I felt were appropriate and believable for the situation
-the supporting characters. I really liked several of them and the different roles they played in Maria's life.
-I love that she got to see people from her present day in the past, before she ever knew them. How neat would that be to be able to go back in time and meet your own parents as teenagers (this did not happen in the book, I'm just expanding on the idea), or meet your spouse as a child?
-the way it made me feel the anguish of having to make such a difficult, life-altering decision (I'm purposely being vague so as not to give away any spoilers)
-I love the way things twisted and turned and shifted and tied together in the end.

What could've been better:
-I would've liked to have spent a little more time with Maria and her family in the current day so that as a reader, we could feel that connection to and concern for those characters
-I figured out one "twist" fairly early on, which I suppose was somewhat intentional, given all the foreshadowing. But I guess I felt that it would've packed a bigger punch if it hadn't been as obvious.
-There are certain aspects of the plot that I am not sure really "worked", but trying to think too hard about it is making my brain hurt.

Overall, I found it to be a really good read that was very hard to put down. I was so eager to find out how it would end. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone that enjoys books with a time travel element or likes to think about how one different decision could have changed the entire course of your life, or even affect other people's lives in unimaginable ways.

Thank you to NetGalley and Forge Books for the arc of this book.

Somehow I've found myself reading a number of time travel books this year, and this was one of the better ones for sure. In "She Wouldn't Change a Thing," a tragic event shakes 39-year-old Maria back in time into her 17-year-old life. Maria is faced with the agonizing choice between changing history to save a life or letting tragedy strike another in order to get back to her 39-year-old self, her husband, and their children.

Despite alternating POVs and alternating timelines, I thought the vast majority of this novel was easy to follow. I read it entirely in one sitting! I did find myself confused by some connections in the last 10%, and I honestly think I could have used a buddy reader to talk it out with. It was a bit of a bummer to feel confused at the end and did take some of the enjoyment out of the novel, but other readers may not experience that like I did.

Ultimately, this was a solid novel that was very thought-provoking. If you like reading or talking about fate, free will, the purpose of life, and/or the possibility of multiple realities or reincarnation, I think this would be a good book for you!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I love psychological books and this certainly was that. The book also involved some time travel, but not in the same way as other books I have read. A quote from the book that means a lot is "I know how hard it will be, but I need you to be the strong one." . Maria was a very strong person and went through a lot in this book. It was well written, kept me reading long into the night and I loved it. I did need to write down the main characters because I was mixing them up, that helped a lot. I love how the author weaved some of the different people into different parts of the book. I will definitely follow this author.

Time Travel, decisions, and the effect of choices.

"...if you must have regrets in life, let them be for the things you've done and not the things you wish you'd done."

Fans of time travel and complex books saddle up and enjoy this ride.

Thirty-nine-year-old Maria Forssmann is a psychiatrist, wife, and pregnant mother of two in 2010. After a meeting with a new client, things drastically change for Maria. What would have happened if she had listened to her husband and did not go to their storage unit????

After said visit to storage, Maria wakes up in 1988 in her seventeen-year-old body. Her parents can't understand why she is acting strangely. She must be sick! That would explain things! But alas, she is not sick, she time traveled. But why and for what purpose? Maria is just as confused as her parents initially. She can't understand why she is no longer pregnant, where her husband and children are. Everyone is befuddled and confused.

"It's important to always do the right thing, Maria, even if you suffer the consequences."

Maria has a purpose and a decision to make. I HUGE decision. It's a whopper! How will she choose? What would you do? Do nothing or make a decision that will have lasting effects on others and on your future? Would you serve your purpose? Whew!

I must say I was confused when Jenny and Hank were introduced to the story initially. "Um, what?" Hang in there folks, you have to stick this one out. That is all I am saying.

"Every day people make choices without knowing the outcome. Can you imagine though, if you knew the outcome before you made the choice?"

Suspend some disbelief and dive into this book. Make sure to give it your full attention. This one took a little brain power (at least for me it did). I loved the "what if" questions this book brought up. What if you could go back in time to your teenage years? What if you knew about a tragic sad event and could change it? What would you sacrifice to right a wrong? Would you change a thing???

This was a compelling, complex, and thought-provoking book. It is also unique, and I was invested in the story and the outcome. This would make a great book for book clubs. There is a lot to discuss in this book. A very interesting premise which kept me on my toes!

Complex, thought provoking and well thought out.

Thank you to Macmillan-Tor/Forge and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

What if you could go back in time and fix a wrong? What if it then changed the whole life you had created in the future? Would you do it? After being shot, Maria is in a coma in the hospital, exactly in that situation. Does she right the wrong and lose the life she loves or does she walk away and live out that life? I found the plot of this book quite intriguing. The first part of the book was riveting, but as it progressed it lagged a bit and by the end it was difficult to follow at times. An interesting read and listen nonetheless.

Thanks NetGalley and Sarah Adlakha for an ARC to review.
When I first started this book I wasn't expecting where the storyline took me! At first I thought it was a typical domestic family drama where a middle aged couple second guess their life choices
Maria has to face the toughest choice ever and face the consequences thereafter
I absolutely loved it

She Wouldn't Change a Thing was a very unique novel and kept me intrigued until the last page. When I started this book I didn't know what to expect, which is good because I like to be surprised. The story is told from two POVs, which confused me at first but the connection between the characters was revealed step by step. In the beginning I had a hard time connecting to the main character Maria Forssmann, but the further I got into the story the more I could relate to her. She had to make some very difficult decisions that I hope no one has to make. But I admired her resilience and determination.

I love it when the author keeps me guessing and on my toes. The writing was done really well. It had a great flow and was easy to read. I loved how everything came together in the end, and I personally found the ending to be beautiful even if it was a bit heartbreaking in a way. I do wish there was more interaction between certain characters but overall I was still very satisfied with how everything developed. I enjoyed Sarah Adlakha's debut novel She Wouldn't Change a Thing and definitely look forward to her next book.

Sarah Adlakha's "She Wouldn't Change a Thing" is one of the strangest books that I have read in some time. It opens in Bienville, Mississippi, in 2010. Dr. Maria Forssmann is a thirty-nine-year-old psychiatrist who has two daughters, ages five and three, and is expecting a baby any day now. She adores her handsome and goodhearted husband, Will, who is a surgeon, but she is too stressed out to count her blessings. Maria can afford to hire a cleaning lady and/or a part-time babysitter, but she is too proud to admit that she cannot successfully handle her professional responsibilities, run a busy household, and prepare for the impending birth of her third child.

Without knowing the story's trajectory in advance, I expected Maria to do a bit of serious soul-searching. Why is she too stubborn to get her life in order? Instead, Adlakha goes off into a very different and bizarre direction that involves time travel, revisiting the past, and fulfilling one's mission on earth. Although this is not what I was expecting, I could have set aside my preconceived notions and gone with the flow had the narrative been more coherent. Alas, instead of focusing on Maria's plight, the author introduces additional characters for reasons that are, at first, unclear. One key figure is Jenny Fontaine, who lives in Louisiana, is married to an oil rig worker, and has a grown son. Somehow, Jenny and Maria's destinies become closely intertwined.

In the final third of this muddled and confusing tale, I lost the thread binding the plot lines together but, nevertheless, I soldiered on to see how everyone would fare at the end. Adlakha overcomplicates matters and leaves us wondering what this unusual work of fiction is meant to convey. One possible theme is that certain choices we make may have far-reaching and unforeseen consequences. I would add that, although we may think that we are in control of our destinies, this is an illusion. Whom we marry, the vocations we pursue, and how much satisfaction we derive from our lives may be as much a result of luck and fate as they are of our carefully laid-plans.

She Wouldn't Change a Thing by Sarah Adlakha

Thirty-nine year old Maria Forssmann lives an extremely busy life and she's always running behind, leaving things undone, knowing she will never be able to catch up with all she has to do. She is a psychiatrist, wife, mother of two girls, and nine months pregnant. Then something happens and she wakes as a seventeen year old again. Now, the things that a patient said to her before the patient committed suicide seem to have meaning. Maria wants her old life back, to be with her husband, daughters and her soon to be born son.

We also follow Jenny and Hank who are interconnected with Maria in ways that are hard to understand. I had to just go with the flow and not overthink this story because it's too complicated to figure out at times. Maria is forced choose what she is going to do in her new seventeen year old timeline and no matter what choice she makes it will have lasting ramifications that will affect people, not only in her present timeline but in her old timeline. Color me confused but I did enjoy the story.

Thank you to Macmillan-Tor/Forge and NetGalley for this ARC.