Book Review: SHE WOULDN'T CHANGE A THING by Sarah Adlakha

 

Title: SHE WOULDN’T CHANGE A THING

Author:  Sarah Adlakha

Publisher:  Macmillan-Tor / Forge

Read: February 2021

Expected publication: 10 August 2021

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟1/2

 

Book Description:

 

When thirty-nine year old Maria Forssmann wakes up in her seventeen-year-old body, she doesn’t know how she got there. All she does know is she has to get back: to her home in Bienville, Mississippi, to her job as a successful psychiatrist and, most importantly, to her husband, daughters, and unborn son.

But she also knows that, in only a few weeks, a devastating tragedy will strike her husband, a tragedy that will lead to their meeting each other.

Can she change time and still keep what it’s given her?

My musings:

 

There is something about time travel that is utterly intriguing, and I can rarely resist the temptation of a unique take on this subject. SHE WOULDN’T CHANGE A THING  held a special allure, because who has not wondered how their life would have turned out if they had had the opportunity to change an event that would ultimately change their life forever and propel them along on a certain path? This is the situation wife and mother Maria Fossman finds herself in when she suddenly wakes up in her seventeen-year-old body in her childhood home, but still with memories of her life as a thirty-nine-year-old. She doesn’t know how she got here and why, but she soon learns that she has been sent back for one purpose: to prevent a terrible tragedy that is soon about to befall her husband’s family, and which will have lasting effects on him in future.

 

The thought of stepping back in time and righting a wrong or changing history is an intriguing one, and I eagerly read on to see how the author would consolidate aspects of time travel we often hear about, such as the butterfly effect. In her current predicament, Maria is faced with a terrible decision: to right a wrong and maybe forfeit her future as wife and mother as she has known it, or do nothing and be returned to her old life. What would you do?

 

As with most time travel stories, some aspects here worked well for me and prompted reflection, and others were a bit confusing. I think I would have preferred if Maria had woken in her childhood body questioning whether her memories were real or delusions, because her adult self in a child’s body was just a little bit too strange for me and I had trouble putting myself in her situation and fully empathising with her. That said, it certainly was an intriguing and original concept I had not encountered before in any other time-travel themed books, and it kept my interest to the end. I also found the story’s conclusion satisfying, as the author stays away from stereotypes and yet manages to conclude her concept in a way that tied up most of the threads neatly in the end.

 

 

Summary:

 

In summary, if you enjoy books that revolve around moral quandaries, time travel, fate or reincarnation like themes, then SHE WOULDN’T CHANGE A THING will make for a refreshingly original and thought provoking read.

 

 

 

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan-Tor / Forge for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.