See You Yesterday by Rachel Lynn Solomon

The quick cut: Two strangers in the same college physics class are stuck living the same first day and work together to make it to tomorrow.

A real review:

Anyone who's seen the last Avengers movie knows that time travel is tricky with lots of rules that are often broken by media interpretations. For Barrett and Miles, it's rules they have to learn quickly to make it to their second day of freshman classes in college.

Barrett is having the worst first day of college possible. She ended up with a roommate she ended high school with on bad terms and completely messed up her interview for the college newspaper. It's almost enough to make her not see tomorrow... until she can't seem to get to tomorrow. She keeps waking up to the same morning with her new roommate. And the only other person experiencing it is the annoying guy named Miles in physics class. How can they make it to tomorrow?

Time travel is an element that a lot of people are using right now, so it's hard to do anything truly memorable with it. While this is at its core a cute contemporary story, I found myself just as exasperated about the time loop as Barrett and Miles were.

Barrett never seems to be able to get on the right foot, which I can sort of relate to. Sometimes everything just goes the wrong direction. Her frustrations are a combination of making enemies and then being annoyed with the consequences. That sort of behavior makes it hard to emphasize with her struggles.

Miles is hilarious, even if at first he's a jerk. Once you discover why, it's easy to understand how he got that way. He very much is a good antithesis to Barrett and it's what makes them play well off each other.

I found the slow paced start and long page count a frustrating combination, but that's my reading style. Anyone who loves to take their time will relish this story.

A time loop story missing a fresh take.

My rating: 3.5 out of 5