Book Title: The Day Tripper
Author: James Goodhand
Narrator: James Meunier
Publisher: Harper Audio-Harlequin Audio
Genre: Time Travel/Romance
Pub Date: March 19, 2024
My Rating: 2.5 – rounded up
Pages: 368

When I read the blurb that this story was about getting caught in time travel; it got my attention. I enjoyed “The Time Travelers Wife”, “The Midnight Library’, and of course Diana Gabaldon’s “Outlander”. I was hoping to add this to my list..

In 1995, twenty year old Alex Dean is excited about heading off to Cambridge University, additionally he has Holly the love of his life. What could be better?

The next day when he wakes up, he finds he is wearing grimy clothes and is in a messy room he doesn’t recognize. He looks in the mirror and finds a thirty-six year old Alex looking back at him.
And so be begins.

Unfortunately the story was a struggle for me. I had a hard time connecting to Alex- I really didn’t care for him.
I love a good audiobook but didn’t like the narrator’s performance. So wasn’t sure if my dislike of Alex was due to this performance. As any audiobook fan knows that the narrator is super important in the enjoyment of the novel.
Perhaps I would have enjoyed this if I read it. I did finish but there were times I had a hard time keeping focused.

Want to thank NetGalley and Harper Audio- Harlequin Audio for this early Audiobook.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for March 19, 2024.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an opportunity to listen to this book in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own.
We meet London lad Alex at age 20. His life is full of promise: acceptance at Cambridge and a date with a beautiful girl who he adores and to his surprise seems to adore him. At the end of the date they visit a pub, where he meets his arch enemy and a fight ensues. Alex gets knocked out, and when he awakes ( and each time he awakes) he is a different age and it’s a decade later. The story has him moving back and forth in the timeline of his own life.
IMHO the concept only works when the reader is relating to or rooting for the main character. Unfortunately in this book- sweet shy Alex is a turd in every subsequent age- he slowly turns into a alcoholic, ne’er do well slacker . He hurts or lets down everyone he comes in contact with. He quickly realizes thats he can perhaps impact his future but instead knowingly proceeds onto pickle his liver despite experiencing the suffering he will endure a 20 years later. He is no fun to be with and this makes the book a slog. Sorry but I gave up at the 40% mark.
I did however like the narrator’s voice.

One of the dangers of writing books that play with time is that the story almost always becomes subservient to the concept, which rarely results in a good novel.

Such is a lot of the problem in The Day Tripper, which is so fixated on bending time that it sacrifices plot to the cause. I don’t mind fantasy novels that see characters traveling straight back or forward in time to participate in or alter an event, but that’s not what’s happening in this book, which is far more concerned with the manipulation of time than the events encountered.

The other major issue with this book is that it’s tragedy porn, which I find dull and manipulative. I was bored while reading for most of the story, endlessly waiting for something intriguing to happen and instead encountering nothing but story at cost of concept and a lot of wallowing in a depressing sequence of tragic events.

The writing itself is fine if a bit flat, and I always appreciate an author who tries to put a new spin on an old concept. This just wasn’t a successful attempt to do so.

I could see this becoming a book club pick which could trigger interesting conversations! The start is slow, but knowing the premise, I pushed through. Not everything is ideal in Alex's life, that keeps the story unique and enticing.