Book Review: "Once and Again" by Rebecca Serle

In the Acknowledgements of her powerfully thought-provoking new book, Rebecca Serle said, “[This] is the first book that does not ask the question ‘How will it turn out?’ but instead ponders: ‘How do I sit with what has happened?’” I feel like that really sums up the core of this story.

The women of the Novak family have been given an extraordinary gift. Each has the opportunity to turn back time, once, to erase or redo something. When Lauren was 15, she learned about this gift, as her mother Marcella used hers to save Lauren’s father, who died in a car accident.

Once Marcella chose her moment to redo, although she felt relief, she also felt a great weight placed on her. Now she had no chance for a do-over, which made her more cautious and nervous about everything, particularly her husband’s actions. This definitely strains her relationship with Lauren.

Lauren and her husband Leo have been struggling with fertility issues. When Leo gets a job in NYC for the summer, he moves there, while Lauren returns to her childhood home on the Malibu shores. She misses Leo, although not the constant stress of IVF, and she enjoys surfing with her father and spending time with her grandmother, Sylvia. And Lauren still doesn’t understand why she and her mother can’t get along.

To her surprise, Lauren’s first love, Stone, returns home to care for his dying stepmother. As she watches his grief and reconnects with him for the first time in 10 years, Lauren’s feelings become jumbled. To rediscover her happiness, is there an opportunity to redo something?

Rebecca Serle always knows how to touch my emotions and get me thinking. I definitely cried a bit as I pondered what I would change if I had the chance—or would I? This really would be an excellent book club book, and it’ll certainly be on my mind for a long time!

Book Review: "The Swell" by Allie Reynolds

This thriller doesn’t let up, from start to finish.

Well, after Allie Reynolds took the locked-room thriller to the top of a snowy glacier with Shiver, she’s back, but in the Australian surf this time.

When Kenna learns that her childhood best friend Mikki is engaged to a man Kenna has never met, she leaves her home in the UK and flies to Australia. She hopes to see if the creepy feeling she gets about this guy continues, and if so, she hopes to bring Mikki back to the UK with her.

Kenna finds that while the love between them might not be intense, their love of surfing is definitely mutual. They convince Kenna to join them on a trip to Sorrow Bay, an isolated paradise on the coast, that they, along with some friends, think of as “their place.”

This group of extremely talented and competitive surfers think of themselves as a tribe, and will stop at nothing to keep strangers from finding out about their place. They’re definitely thrill-seekers, risking everything for excitement and victory.

But there are things that don’t seem to add up for Kenna. Why is Mikki acting strangely? If people who have left “The Tribe” did so out of free will, why are some of those same people being reported missing? Someone in the group will stop at nothing to keep those secrets, and Kenna has to fight for her life.

This was definitely a book I had been eagerly anticipating and it definitely lived up to the hype. It feels a little like The Beach but with twists all its own. Reynolds has definitely become a go-to thriller author for me!!