A lovely, emotional look at the importance of everyday joys and appreciating what’s in front of you.
A long-married couple stumble on a time machine and relive crucial scenes from their lives.
Adam and Jules have been together for 25 years and have begun to take each other for granted. Their lives are stale, and their grown children are sullen and living at home. Adam is plugging away at a job he can’t stand, while Jules is struggling to make her catering business work and secretly drowning in credit card debt. When Jules tries to throw out a box of old mixtapes, Adam can’t bear to see them go—to him, the tapes signify how much they’ve always meant to each other, even if they haven’t shared one (or properly connected) in years. He pops one into his ancient stereo and is, surprisingly, yanked back in time to the moment he gave Jules the tape. Soon he and Jules are both traveling in time and re-experiencing moments from their pasts. They promise not to alter anything, but neither of them can help making what, at first, are tiny changes—Adam convinces his past self to start a workout routine, while Jules tells past Adam not to grow a beard. Soon, though, they’re making bigger changes to give themselves the lives they deserve, and those changes create massive, unanticipated shifts in their current reality. Is it possible they’ve created a life where they don’t even end up together? Co-writers Lloyd and Rees create a touching portrait of a marriage in crisis as Adam and Jules relive their best and worst moments and watch their children grow up in the blink of an eye. They’re forced to reexamine their biggest regrets and decide if living through horrible things actually helped them become the people they are. Ultimately, the story is a reminder to live in the present and appreciate the tiny moments that make up a life—as one character tells Jules, “Happiness is learning to love what you already have.”
A lovely, emotional look at the importance of everyday joys and appreciating what’s in front of you.Pub Date: Feb. 10, 2026
ISBN: 9798217177073
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.
A lifetime’s worth of letters combine to portray a singular character.
Sybil Van Antwerp, a cantankerous but exceedingly well-mannered septuagenarian, is the titular correspondent in Evans’ debut novel. Sybil has retired from a beloved job as chief clerk to a judge with whom she had previously been in private legal practice. She is the divorced mother of two living adult children and one who died when he was 8. She is a reader of novels, a gardener, and a keen observer of human nature. But the most distinguishing thing about Sybil is her lifelong practice of letter writing. As advancing vision problems threaten Sybil’s carefully constructed way of life—in which letters take the place of personal contact and engagement—she must reckon with unaddressed issues from her past that threaten the house of cards (letters, really) she has built around herself. Sybil’s relationships are gradually revealed in the series of letters sent to and received from, among others, her brother, sister-in-law, children, former work associates, and, intriguingly, literary icons including Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry. Perhaps most affecting is the series of missives Sybil writes but never mails to a shadowy figure from her past. Thoughtful musings on the value and immortal quality of letters and the written word populate one of Sybil’s notes to a young correspondent while other messages are laugh-out-loud funny, tinged with her characteristic blunt tartness. Evans has created a brusque and quirky yet endearing main character with no shortage of opinions and advice for others but who fails to excavate the knotty difficulties of her own life. As Sybil grows into a delayed self-awareness, her letters serve as a chronicle of fitful growth.
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780593798430
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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