Published by Gallery Books on July 7, 2026
Age/Genres: Adult, Time Travel, Romance
Rating:
Goodreads
For fans of The Love of My Afterlife and The Seven Year Slip, Reese’s LitUp Fellow Natalie Messier’s debut following a woman who gets a chance to relive her college years—with the opportunity to win back the one that got away—is “full of surprises and sneakily perceptive” (Yulin Kuang, USA TODAY bestselling author of How to End a Love Story).
Joey Vasquez’s life is the definition of good on paper. At thirty-two, she’s a Los Angeles lawyer on the cusp of making partner, but while she’s a professional success, she’s a personal disaster. Her social life mostly consists of nights spent watching TV with her elderly cat. Life isn’t quite what she dreamed when she was younger, but really, whose life is?
But a dinner party with the best friend she’s secretly pined after for years and its aftermath changes everything.
When Joey is given a second chance at life, she finds herself in college again. Armed with memories from her first life, Joey is certain she’s come back to finally convince the one man she ever loved to love her back—so why does she find herself strangely drawn to the man she thought she hated?
Where would you restart your life if you were given a second chance?
This was a choice Joey had to make after she died. She found herself with her "caseworker" who told her she was getting a second chance at life because she died with many regrets. She went back to the start of her freshman year armed with the knowledge and memories she accumulated during her 32 years of life and discovered her goals may have changed.
The concept of this book was phenomenal. It's not totally groundbreaking, but Messier really elevated it. The story was packed with thought provoking moments and a lot of surprises. There was a twist I did NOT see coming that made me gasp out loud. It was amazing! I pretty much had to force myself to put this book down (darn work!) and was thrilled with where the story went.
Overall: An engrossing and thoughtful (time-travel? Multiverse?) Romance.
Published by Pamela Dorman Books on October 8, 2019
Age/Genres: Adult, Historical, Fiction
Rating:
Goodreads
From the author of Me Before You, set in Depression-era America, a breathtaking story of five extraordinary women and their remarkable journey through the mountains of Kentucky and beyond.
Alice Wright marries handsome American Bennett Van Cleve hoping to escape her stifling life in England. But small-town Kentucky quickly proves equally claustrophobic, especially living alongside her overbearing father-in-law. So when a call goes out for a team of women to deliver books as part of Eleanor Roosevelt’s new traveling library, Alice signs on enthusiastically.
The leader, and soon Alice’s greatest ally, is Margery, a smart-talking, self-sufficient woman who’s never asked a man’s permission for anything. They will be joined by three other singular women who become known as the Packhorse Librarians of Kentucky.
What happens to them–and to the men they love–becomes an unforgettable drama of loyalty, justice, humanity and passion. These heroic women refuse to be cowed by men or by convention. And though they face all kinds of dangers in a landscape that is at times breathtakingly beautiful, at others brutal, they’re committed to their job: bringing books to people who have never had any, arming them with facts that will change their lives.
Based on a true story rooted in America’s past, The Giver of Stars is unparalleled in its scope and epic in its storytelling. Funny, heartbreaking, enthralling, it is destined to become a modern classic–a richly rewarding novel of women’s friendship, of true love, and of what happens when we reach beyond our grasp for the great beyond.
I am not a big historical fiction fan, but when I had to pick a book for a reading challenge, this one called to me. The Pack Horse Library Project was something I cannot say I knew much about, but it is definitely something I enjoyed delving into.
The story takes place during the 1930s when this project was established to help provide access to public library materials in rural areas. One such place that benefitted was a small coal mining town in Kentucky. There were so many aspects of this story that grabbed my attention, but what I really loved were the book ladies. The unlikely friendships plus women supporting women shined brightly as did the strength of character and the fortitude of each woman involved in this project.
Moyes deftly exposed what life was like for women back then, and there were things that made me rage. There were so many horrible men in this story, but there were some keepers too, and I was happy they were friends of the Library Project.
Overall: A throughly engrossing story of friendship, community, love, and books.
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