Once and Again by Rebecca Serle

 

Imagine you had a silver ticket that allowed you to take back one thing in your life.  Maybe a mistake?  Or the death of a loved one?  A chance to change the future.  But you can only use it once.  What if something more worthy of a take back happens after you've used your silver ticket.  But also what would you be giving up.  Would it change the way you live?  It's a blessing and a curse.

That's the case with Lauren.  She's known since a young age that she has a silver ticket - all the women in her family do.  Hers is locked in a safe at her parents place.  Lauren spends her days working as an accountant and going for treatments to help her have a baby with her husband Leo - something a silver ticket can't solve.  They don't have a lot of money because every penny goes towards treatments.  These treatments are beginning to weigh on her marriage.

It's tough to say more without giving the store away.  I really don't like when a story has aspects of magic or fantasy.  At first when I read about the silver ticket I didn't think this book was for me.  But I gave this story five stars.  I don't often give books five stars.  Even four stars are pretty reserved.  But this book really got me thinking.  I even discussed it with my husband last night over dinner.  Was there anything we would take back in our life?  Fortunately, the answer was no.  But it was an interesting conversation.  

I highly recommend Once and Again.  I think it would be a great pick for a book club as there is lots to discuss and debate about this book.  The only thing I found odd that wasn't really explained is that she calls her father "Dad" and her mother "Marcella".  It seemed odd.  But it really is such a minor thing and definitely didn't take away from the story.  It's just something that puzzled me about why the author chose that.

The Bookstore Diaries by Susan Mallery

 

The Bookstore Diaries is the story of the relationships of two sisters, Jax and Ryleigh.  Jax has been divorced for over a year now from Harris.  The relationship just wasn't meant to be but at least they have two beautiful children from the marriage.  Her and Harris work very hard at continuing to show up as a family and be good parents.  Jax has her work - she owns a bookstore, her kids, her sister and a pet Parrot named Ramon.  Life is good and she is definitely not looking for love.

Ryleigh, on the other hand, is very much looking for love.  Her clock is ticking and she wants a family.  After a recent breakup she's thinking maybe she needs to move cities.  There's very limited single guys in this town.  She hangs out with one single guy, Alex.  But his wife just passed away a year ago.  Ryleigh is just helping out.  Moving cities means not being near her sister, her niece and nephew,  and also Alex and his son Noah.  But she needs kids of her own and maybe she needs to sacrifice all her current relations to get it.

I really enjoyed The Bookstore Diaries.  I always love Susan Mallery books.  I did find this one a little bit too long and a little bit like they were going over the same thing over and over again.  But don't let that discourage you from reading it because it is a great story.  I really loved Ramon the parrot.  He quotes a lot of books and seems like a very cool bird.  I enjoyed reading about him.