This book was such a pleasant surprise! I truly loved how it had so much more depth than the magical realism. I also loved how the fmc and her husband stayed together, her realizing that she was lucky to have what she did with him!

Mary Mulligan is in her 50's, starting to regret the life she is living with an uninterested husband. She suddenly develops pain in her wisdom teeth and is about to have them removed when her cousin warns her about the Mulligan Curse, telling Mary that when she has her wisdom teeth out, she'll be returned to the same age she was when her biggest regret occurred. Mary doesn't listen and wakes up as a 25-year-old in the same exact present-day timeline, which makes NO SENSE, and the only one that remembers the old Mary is her cousin. This book really irritated me. Spoiler that probably doesn't matter because of course this is what happens, but Mary realizes she really wanted her old life after all and she was just as much to blame for things being the way they were and blah blah blah and she is desperate to return back but, shock, finds out she is stuck. I am just so tired of books that give someone a second chance only to have the moral of the story be that they are happiest in their original life and you should just be grateful for your personal misery, I guess, or have a better attitude. 2 stars.

I cool concept but it wasn't my favorite. It reminded me of the movie About Time which is VERY problematic. Mary was kind of a whiner and the repetitiveness got repetitive.

Is Darbi (what a stupid spelling) the most infuriatingly cold character to ever exist? If not, there’s certainly a strong case here… a problem that could’ve been entirely avoided by communicating not once but twice. I couldn’t understand why Mary even liked her as she seemed to revel in her displeasure. The ending letter fake out was just lazy writing. This was a miss for me.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A predictable if comforting read. This one was an easy time pass. One for the lounger by the pool and that is in no way a complaint. I feel as if the author could have done more with it but a happy ending is a happy ending.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for granting my request to read this e-ARC and provide my honest opinions.

Who wouldn't want to go back in time and change one of the life-changing decisions? Who wouldn't want to see how life should've turned out if you took an alternate path?

Mary Mulligam has been having some pains in her mouth due to the recent emergence of her wisdom tooth; this scenario should have been perfectly normal had it been Mary Mulligan wasn't in her fifties. So now you see what drew me into the story—who doesn't love a good time travel novel?

The plot was set right; the emergence of Mary's wisdom tooth is due to her having some serious life regrets; she thinks she has not done enough with her life. Now she is old and lonely; her husband doesn't have enough time for her, and her only daughter is moving to a different continent. Her crazy cousin Darbi warns more, like said it in passing, not to have her wisdom tooth removed, but Mary doesn't believe in that nonsense her cousin is spewing, so she gets her tooth removed, and the rest they say is history.

Honestly, I wanted to love it, but there were a lot of holes in the plot, in my opinion, that kept tugging at my mind. I felt disconnected to the story as I felt Mary tried so hard to make her husband look like the bad person; after some time I stopped rooting for her, and what is with the attitude of Darbi after Mary went back in time? The whole going back in time scenario made no sense to me at some point.

What I did love was the lessons this book had to give; it made me look at life differently. Sure, you will have some or a lot of regrets, a lot of things you should have done and shouldn't have, but that is life. Enjoy it, and you never know who is looking up to you just by being yourself. In marriage, communication is very important; talk about what you need and what you don't need; speak to your partner. And I also learned that falling in love with your partner again is very important, as it is easy to lose sight of what is important.

Thank you once again to Netgalley and the author for this e-ARC.

⭐️⭐️⭐️From Lake Union Publishing: Mary Mulligan has two problems: her wisdom teeth…and everything else. Her only daughter is moving overseas. Her husband would rather go golfing than spend time with her. And Mary’s left to wonder why she abandoned her career ambitions when loneliness is all she has to show for it.
Plus her teeth really, really hurt.
But that’s one problem she can fix—never mind the stories that say if she gets her wisdom teeth removed, the last thirty years of her life will be erased. In fact, Mary wouldn’t mind if the Mulligan curse were actually true.
Turns out, it is.
The world around her hasn’t changed, but Mary is suddenly twenty-four again, with the life she once dreamed of still ahead of her. As she embarks on this new beginning, Mary comes to realize that those dreams aren’t nearly as important as everything she once had. If only she knew how to get it all back.
************************
My review: I love time travel and time loop stories so I had high hopes for this novel. It definitely kept my interest but I was frustrated with Mary. She worked so hard in her alternate life to regain what she "lost". If some of this effort was put into her regular life she may have been a happier person. Yeah, I know...then there wouldn't have been a novel and Mary wouldn't have learned a lesson. Cousin Darbi I also found annoying. If she had actually communicated with Mary at the start Mary wouldn't have had such different expectations about the alternate life.

That being said, I do like in books like this seeing how one person and their choices can change things for others. James was a fun periphery character in that regard. Dean and Kendra seemed so indifferent to Mary in her regular life but was that due to Mary's lack of effort or their selfishness? Overall, no one was super engaging or wonderful in this book except maybe Brady and Kimberly. I was interested in Brady's connection in the alternate life. Plus, his dog had a great name.

Liked this but didn't love it.

⭐️⭐️⭐️Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for an advance digital copy in exchange for my review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for this ARC.

Mary, 54, is not content with her life. Her husband Dean is in insurance and does nothing but play golf in his spare time, neglecting her. Her daughter Kendra is planning to move to London shortly with her boyfriend Nate. Mary has menopausal symptoms and on top of that she regrets throwing away her career in TV reporting for becoming a mother and housewife. When she sees a magazine article about popular TV anchor Liz she thinks it should have been her and suddenly her wisdom teeth start hurting in response.

Then her cousin Darbi tells her a weird story - her wisdom teeth are coming through because she regrets a decision in her life and if she gets them taken out she will be the age again she was when she made the decision she now regrets. First she encourages Mary, saying it worked to reset her own life by seven years by allowing her to marry her wife Jacqui but when she hears that Mary would be a whole 30 years younger, she tries to discourage her.

This story is based on a hefty dose of magical realism, which I normally don't have a problem with. However, the reset confused me - it seemed odd that she was now 24 but everyone else was the same age. Would that not cause perception problems with other people? Even now that I write about it I can't get my head around it. Give me "normal" time travel any time!

This novel suffers from a lot of repetition. There are three things being repeated ad nauseam:

1. Mary wants to become a famous TV anchor at a major national news network, but not for serious news just feel-good fluff pieces.
2. You only appreciate what you had once it's gone. Before she becomes younger, Mary does nothing but complain about Dean and her wasted life. The moment she gets her wisdom teeth out, she regrets it and finds only the good in him and her old life. I almost got whiplash, it was so sudden!
3. Mary doesn't understand she can't return to her old life. She has reset her life by 30 years and must live them again. She is not in an alternative world, she's simply 30 years younger and there is no known way of returning to the life she left behind.

"Taking a mulligan" is an expression used in golf to describe when a player is allowed to replay a stroke after a poor shot. Giving Mary the last name Mulligan is a clever play on this expression and explains that Mary gets to replay the last 30 years, and that it's rather a curse to her than a blessing.

This is such a frustrating read. Mary stubbornly assumes things, doesn't listen to Darbi's warnings, constantly repeats what she would do when she got back to her old life and just blunders into situations without thinking. Darbi isn't a real help though - she has plenty of opportunities to explain to Mary the repercussions of her decision but always chickens out and lies by omission.

Mary at one point opines that "She couldn’t believe she’d ever thought a career at a news station would fulfill her. Only the love of her family and friends could do that."

To me that is a deeply problematic statement, that a woman shouldn't attempt a career as only being a wife and mother would give her life happiness and meaning.

This, coupled with the weird magical realism rules and Mary's stubborn stupidity put me off this story. This is a unique story about regrets but it wasn't for me.

Romantic, ambitious, and heartfelt in turns, The Mulligan Curse centers a likeable, hardworking older woman, and her regrets. When she goes back in time and erasing her seemingly small life, the book delves into her realizations of the true impact of every choice she made the first time around, and the choices that others made around her. This is always my favorite to think about and read about: all those miniscule actions that, if we choose to do differently, shape lives into completely new directions; what we choose to do, now, is currently, persistently, always shaping lives, ours and others, in ways we might never fully understand. Having a look at that through Mary's slowly shifting lens was a delight. A refreshing, second-chance-magic novel.

Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for allowing me to read an ARC of The Mulligan Curse by Diane Barnes, in exchange for my honest review.

Sometimes, we need to step back and look at our lives from a different perspective.

This was a well-written, enjoyable read, with a relatable, not always likeable, main character.

I look forward to reading more by Diane Barnes.

If you could erase years of your life would you want to, even if it means it would change everything? That’s the question Mary Mulligan has to answer. Sounds intriguing right? Wrong! I had so many problems with this book, believe the low rating. The first problem I had was Mary herself, she was just so damn unlikeable. The other problem was the plot, it had no surprises and I knew exactly where it was heading. Mary’s supposed to be a menopausal, middle-aged woman but she was so gullible and ignorant and she used no common sense. I didn’t like Mary’s cousin Darbi at all either. She lied by omission to Mary and didn’t tell Mary the important repercussions of erasing her life.

If you’ve read any of my reviews you know repetitiveness is a pet peeve of mine and this book was really repetitive. Over and over again Mary goes into her head thinking of the past and I became bored to tears. I felt like Joe Biden when he debated Trump the first time, “Will you shut up, man!” With books like this, magical realism, you have to have characters that work or are at least likable to some degree. I found Mary to be a whining complainer, you know the “woe is me” type. Add to that her cousin Darbi being untrustworthy and the repetitive plot this is a flop in my opinion. A much-used trope with nothing new or different to add to the genre.

The Mulligan Curse by Diane Barnes is, in essence, an updated version of It's a Wonderful Life, with the protagonist learning the important lessons being a woman, and the events of the book taking part in modern day.
Mary Mulligan has been cursed, or blessed depending on your point of view, with de-aging to the point in time when she made the decision that led to her greatest regret. That regret is deciding to follow her heart instead of accepting a promotion, which eventually saw her age into a somewhat bitter, angry, and unhappy empty nester of a housewife.
The book is well-written, with plenty of relatable instances as Mary deals with the consequences of getting her do-over. As the book unfolds, she sees how different her life, and the lives of those to whom she made a difference without realizing the importance of her effect, would have been had she accepted that job so many years ago. Of course, the reader cannot help but put themselves in her shoes, and wonder what would have changed had they could change their largest regret in life.
While Mary is often relatable, at other times she is irritatingly needy, stubborn, and selfish, refusing to listen to other people even when it has been proven that she should, or to take the feelings of others into consideration. Sadly, the irritating parts, and her internal woe-is-me meltdowns, are quite repetitive, and I found myself skipping entire paragraphs after a while.
Overall, however, the book contains a good premise and makes the readers reflect on their own regrets.
Thank you for the ARC of #TheMulliganCurse to #NetGalley.

Highly entertaining! I love books that have a slightly wacky hook and that embrace a family curse so this book was right up my street. It was such an easy and enjoyable read. Relatable, loveable characters made it impossible to put down and I kept finding myself smiling throughout - even when things weren't going according to plan for Mary. Needless to say, I loved it!

I read this to the end, but I have to say that I found the main character just too annoying and full of themselves, refusing to listen to anyone else or their opinions. I can see that they meant well, but you just want to give them a shake and tell them to shut up and listen. Very self absorbed and a little irritating. Having said that, I did enjoy the story.

A story about a woman who wonders whether she should take the opportunity to embrace her family curse and go back in time to her younger self, make different choices and live the life she always wanted. While this sounds good in theory, Mary comes to learn that what she thought she wanted isn't quite as good as she thought it would be and she finds herself longing to go back to her old life. I felt a little sorry for Mary and understood why she felt the way she did about her life however I was also frustrated with the way she dealt with her situation.

A lightheaded and entertaining read which doesn't have any real surprises but which, at least superficially, deals with themes that many of us in the 2nd half of our lives have probably given thought to at some point. It's a good reminder to be careful what you wish for and appreciate the life you have.

This book took the generational curse theory to another level. I appreciated the twist on the do-over aspect, and the connection to the wisdom teeth issue is quite quirky. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the book.

This was a lovely little read, especially for people who are regretting their life choices. I have to admit it was quite compelling and I did enjoy how the Mary considered her move would be temporary, and her realisation that she was stuck in an alternate reality. This is a woman who is living with regret on a constant level.. So there’s part romance and part rediscovering yourself, whilst coming to terms with a somewhat traumatic situation.
I quite liked seeing how Mary had to live the life she had dreamed of whilst realising that actually it wasn’t what she wanted.
Thanks to #NetGalley for the opportunity to have read this ahead of publication and exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and lake Union Publishing for the advance egalley to read, all opinions expressed in this review are my own.

The Mulligan Curse follows the story of Mary, married to Dean and mother to Kendra. Mary is at a point in her life where she has begun to feel as though she is stuck in a rut. Mary looks back to her dreams and aspirations as a twenty something, and begins to feel resentment towards her husband and her life.

Mary experiences pain in her wisdom teeth and her cousin Darby tells her of 'The Mulligan Curse' which Mary finds ridiculous.... there is an element of magical realism in this book, a trope that I really enjoy, and when Mary finds herself once again as the twenty something she had been reminiscing about, the story starts to open up.

I enjoyed the message that was being conveyed through the story; you don't know what you've got until it's gone.... I was hoping that Mary would realise that she had a great life, even if it was different to her younger self's aspirations, and was really really hoping she could make it back.

I liked the mention of the butterfly effect; how changing one thing can have an effect. I could relate to Mary's character, as a wife and mum it is easy to feel lost. I found Darbi a little mysterious at times.

Two quotes from the book that stuck with me:
'Life isn't about winning. It's about being in the moment and enjoying it.'
'Love always leads you back.'

I quite enjoyed this story, it was one I could resonate with a little thank you.

**Book Review: _The Mulligan Curse_ by Diane Barnes**

_Diane Barnes' _The Mulligan Curse_ is a captivating family drama filled with secrets, humor, and heartfelt moments. Barnes skillfully unravels the complexities of family dynamics and the legacies that shape our lives, creating a narrative that is both relatable and deeply moving. The characters are vivid and well-drawn, each carrying their own burdens and dreams, making readers invested in their journeys.

With her engaging prose and sharp insights, Barnes explores themes of love, forgiveness, and the courage to break free from the past. _The Mulligan Curse_ is a beautifully written novel that leaves you reflecting on the power of family ties and the possibility of change.

I just couldn't get to grips with this book, I liked Mary the main character to start with and how her life was like many other women in their mid fifties, whose children have flown the nest and whose husband is more interested in golf. But when she has her painful wisdom teeth removed and turns back into her twenty something self I couldn't quite keep in touch with how the story continued.