content warnings: car accident, infidelity, death of an unborn baby
representation: side black character

I'm so glad TJR books kept getting recommended to me because otherwise I would have never read this. This is a book about twenty-nine year old Hannah who's moving back to LA, where she grew up, because her life is at a standstill. That night, she goes out drinking with her best friend and meets up with a high school boyfriend. At the close of the night, Hannah must choose: go home with Gabby, or go home with Ethan. You then follow her through both these timelines, which are both incredibly different and similar.

This book was beautiful. Everything is so well-crafted, which is good because with an alternating-timelines plot it has the possibility to get very messy, very quickly, but TJR handles it so effortlessly. It's near impossible to get confused between the two plots because they diverge so drastically within pages, which I think was a smart move. I genuinely loved both timelines, but the one where she went home with Gabby was my favourite purely because I liked the love interest more.

Spoiler

I also loved that she was happy at the conclusion of both timelines, and I think ending them on lines that were identical save for one positive adjective was a great way to close both of them.

Even though the timelines are different, there were still prominent plot points throughout both; Mark and Gabby's relationship, Hannah's parents, the possibility of moving to London, Hannah's career, Jesse Flint, LACMA, and so many more. It was really interesting to see the different ways these plot points would be brought up depending on the timeline, and how it affected the characters differently. LACMA, in particular, was an incredibly major plot point in one and a ridiculously minor one in another, and Hannah has a drastically different reaction in both. I just can't get over how well-done the general plot of this book is!

My favourite aspect of this book was how messy the characters are, Hannah in particular. She fucks up, and she does it often. But she always learns from the mistakes she makes, and by the end of the book she hasn't changed in a drastic way but she's still different in both timelines. She gets her shit together in both timelines, even if it is under very different circumstances, and I think that's a testament to how well TJR created her protagonist.

Now, the description of this book makes it sound like it's about Hannah falling in love with two different guys in two different timelines, and that is a prominent aspect of the book. But the most important relationship in the book is Hannah's with Gabby, her best friend. In both timelines, these two women do nothing but support one another, no matter what happens or how much the other one screws up. My favourite quote of the book came from their beautiful relationship: "I'd do anything for you, do you know that? Does it help? To know that I'd move mountains for you? That I'd part seas?" ... "I love you," I tell her. "And I believe in you. I believe in Gabby Hudson. I believe she can do anything."

Spoiler

And the fact that in both timelines Hannah named her daughter after Gabby just makes my black, dead heart melt a whole lot

This book isn't perfect, I'm aware. But I loved it so much, and TJR is now a new favourite author of mine.