What a great premise that turned a little too formulaic for my taste. Author did a great job keeping the timelines straight.

I had high hopes for this book with a time travel plot and a neurodivergent lead! It gave major Groundhog Day vibes in the beginning which I enjoyed but quickly became repetitive and boring. Cassandra, the main character, discovers she can go back and change events in her life she doesn't like. She uses this to redo things at work as well as attempt to fix an old relationship with an ex-boyfriend. Where things started to become boring and almost became annoyed with the main character was that I didn't feel like she was learning anything from each attempt to change the past. Thank you NetGally for the ARC.

When I began reading Cassandra, I thought, the author is either autistic or has spent the last 10 years researching this topic. Smale knows the thought process. The legendary Cassandra was cursed to be able to foretell the future—but no one believed her. This modern Cassandra can time travel, and so she does, trying to perfect her present by modification. Only to discover, any change might create a greater disaster. Again and again, events are repeated; again and again, her romance falters. Cassandra is honestly trying to understand the world, but she is reluctant to accept she does not understand herself. This theme resonates with a young adult audience. While laced with both naivety and humor, Cassandra's story is also one of great sadness—that of a lonely woman, who has been programmed from the beginning to be thought of as 'other.' The ending, like life, is uncertain. On one hand, Cassandra has gained strength to see herself as she is. On the other, the reader is left wondering what next? Cassandra's journey is a poignant exploration of identity and resilience, leaving readers to contemplate the complexities of life and the importance of self-acceptance."

Full disclosure: I received this ARC from netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review. Thank you.

I knew from the beginning of this book that the main character, Cassandra, is on the autism spectrum. She seems to think, feel and perceive things differently than the people around her. She struggles with reading the meanings behind what others say and do. She hasn’t a clue to understanding people’s body language or to know when someone is being sarcastic. Sounds and sights and touches overwhelm her. Everything appears to too loud, too bright, too close. She avoids physical contact and struggles to look people in their eyes. She feels that she is broken and that something is wrong with her, but no matter how hard she tries and how much she struggles, she never seems to fit in anywhere. Yet it isn’t until the book’s final chapter that Cassandra discovers this for herself. However, all of the fun in reading this book resides in the twists and turns, starts and stops, do-overs and repeats, pivots and spins, and constant loops leading Cassandra to the final realization of her truth.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and found it to be an extremely interesting and different take on exploring autism and how a person on the spectrum thinks and feels. It’s not the first novel regarding autism that I’ve read, but it certainly is the most clever and inventive. Prior to the debut of “Cassandra in Reverse,” author Holly Smale’s first published adult novel, Ms. Smale won many awards for her hugely prolific and successful “Geek Girl” series of young adult novels. I am happy she finally has ventured into the world of adult novels and hope to read more inventive and entertaining stories from her in the future.

I received an advanced readers copy of “Cassandra in Reverse” from NetGalley and am grateful to them, to Ms. Smale, and to her publisher, MIRA, for giving it to me. HOWEVER, not remembering I already had a copy, I PURCHASED the published book upon learning it was highly rated and had been picked by Reese Witherspoon for her book club. It was a wise choice for both Reese and me.

Felt like Sliding Doors meets The Midnight Library - time traveling and what-ifs abound in this quick, easy to read novel. I enjoyed the pace and the storyline, I think this could adapt to screen well too, though it may be better suited to a YA audience? The Greek Mythology undertones weren't for me, but I think if you like that then you'd appreciate this and find more Easter eggs!

What a clever read! It reminded me of the movie “Click” starring Adam Sandler. With an interesting main character this book took the theme of time travel and made it relatable. If somethings not done exactly how I’d want it I wish I could time travel too.

I didn't love this. I loved the neurodivergent main character, however, everything in this novel felt flat to me.

This was a fun trip through time
Everyone has had a bad day - or an especially bad day
But what if you could go back in time?
Fans of Matt Haig will enjoy this book

I really enjoyed Cassandra in Reverse. I loved how while Cassandra thought it was about fixing her romance with Will it was really about finding herself and accepting herself for who she is and rebuilding her relationship with someone from her past. I loved the way everything unfolded. While I saw some of myself in Cassandra (I too am quite literal) I found myself often thinking of the students I've taught with autism over the years.

Highly recommend!

This book got repetitive pretty quickly and I just couldn't get through it. Fun premise, reminded me of Oona Out of Order. Would recommend something else instead of this!

I enjoy time travel / looper books but they have to make sense. There are rules that go along with Time travel. This book didn't have any rules, Cassandra just closed her eyes and boom time travelled. I didn't appreciate that.

I didn't really like reading about the main character, and to think that her only 3 problems in life that she needed to fix was a job she wasn't suited for, a boyfriend who wasn't' meant for her and a roommate situation. She spent so much time trying to fix her relationship with Will, trying to change herself into what he wanted. I just didn't understand what the take away from this book was suppose to be.

Also the mass amounts of mythology references were annoying. They were long and drawn out, I think this was a way to show another symptom on the autism spectrum, but I didn't enjoy the way it was done, it was very jarring and took me out of the story.

Maybe this just wasn't made for me, the writing was good, but hard for me to love a book when I don't love any of the characters.

I loved this book! It's well-written, enjoyable, and a great read. The author did a great job of writing in a way that captures the readers attention, and makes you not want to put it down until you're finished! Holly Smale came up with such a fun concept for this book! I would highly recommend it!

I love time loop books. However, they have to be done in a way that makes sense. There has to be a reason that is clear. The main character has to use this ability in new or interesting ways. And yet none of that happened here. Cassandra is wholly unlikeable. She is clearly autistic, although somehow this is a mystery to her. But that's not what makes her unlikeable. She is so focused on hiding herself and changing herself for other people instead of finding out who she is or what she wants.

She has a rough day - her boyfriend breaks up with her and she is fired. She has a breakdown and then discovers she can go back in time. She first goes back a day, which was strange and took her a bit to figure out. Then she goes back four months, to the day she first met her (ex?) boyfriend. Then she used time travel for what seemed like 500 pages to try to make a relationship work that clearly wasn't going to.

Add in the constant comparisons to Greek mythology, which didn't add anything to the story and it just dragged on. There was some incident that she referenced from her past that took way too long to be revealed. In fact, that was kind of annoying about this as well. There was an incident with her roommates that also took too long to be revealed. I'm not sure what the purpose of this book was. Or the reason that she could time travel. Or how she just figured it out. But it was way too long.

I love a great time travel story! I look forward to reading more by this author. Thank you for the opportunity to read this e-galley.

The story was not a unique one, it’s a groundhog tale, but what made it unique was the ending, and that brought it up to three stars. This book was entirely too long, the editor was asleep at the wheel. Many details could’ve been left out bringing the story to a quicker end and making it a more pleasurable experience. The audio kept me going. I was ready to give up at the half way mark. There was one trigger warning missing in the details, there is mental health in the storyline.

Thank you NetGAlley and MIRA for the advance copy.

I honestly had no idea what to expect when I jumped into this one and I ended up loving it! I found myself listening everywhere I could and I walked around the grocery store with a huge smile on my face as I was towards the end.
Cassandra isn’t understood by anyone around her, but she doesn’t understand them either, so she lives life in mutual confusion. When she loses the job she hates and the boyfriend she loves less than 24 hours apart, she has a slight meltdown in which she discovers she can travel back in time. She decides to go back in time until she can set things right in all aspects of her life.
While I ultimately loved this book, it took some time to get into it. I found myself wondering if this was meant to be a romcom because the narrator didn’t have any comedic tone in her narration. As things continued, though, I realized she was reading this is Cassandra’s voice perfectly.
I normally don’t like books that are realistic with fantasy thrown in, but the time travel worked perfectly in this scenario. My daughter is neurodivergent, and I believe I am as well, so having a neurodivergent protagonist was a breath of fresh air. Watching Cassandra navigate her life with all of the ups and downs and going back to change a situation based on what she now knew was brilliant. This is the first book of Holly Smale’s that I’ve read, but it certainly won’t be the last!

Cassandra in Reverse by Holly Smale was one that I enjoyed but also thought it could've been had better potential. The idea is great but it took a long time to get there and I found myself skimming (yikes). The second half of the book was better than the first and I did find some good quotes from the narrative.

In all honestly - I started reading this book months ago, and put it down because it just didn't grab me right away. Something made me come back to it, and I am beyond glad that I did - Cassandra in Reverse was amazing. This is a story about finding yourself, and mending your broken familial relationships, masquerading as a romance, and honestly, the romance piece was the part that I found to be the weakest. Cassandra's interpersonal relationships with just about everyone else she runs across are so much more interesting, so much more compelling (and I get that that is sort of the point), and she herself is so smart at understanding herself, I think I just found it hard to believe that she would attach so strongly to someone who was sort of a dud, and definitely a mismatch for her. Anyway, once i got past that. this story grabbed me and really hit me in all the right ways. Highly recommend.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this novel. Unfortunately, I was not able to finish the novel so I won't be leaving a full review.

I received this book in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. Unfortunately I decided to abandon this book at around 15%. I just couldn’t connect with the main character or her relationship.