My Second Impression of You | ARC Review

Sixteen-year-old Maggie is having the worst day ever. Her perfect boyfriend, Theo, breaks up with her, and then she literally breaks a leg (well, foot), preventing her from starring in the school play. When she receives a text offering her the chance to relive her best day ever – the day she and Theo met – she decides to take the leap. Everything would be better if she could figure out how to win him back. Only, there’s a catch. She doesn’t just relive the day; she gets everyone else’s perspectives, too. The information – not only about Theo, but her family, her best friend, and even Theo’s obnoxious buddy Carson (who is suddenly… nice?) – is more than she bargained for.

As she learns about all the minor details – and major ones – she missed the first time around, she finds herself transported back to reality with a completely new perspective and a big opportunity to decide how to move forward on her own terms.

Michelle I. Mason offers another heartfelt and relatable YA novel with a twist, diving into big questions of what we’d do differently if we only had the chance… or whether we can trust things to turn out just the way they’re meant to be. 

I had really hoped for more from this book but it just didn’t live up. It had fun app time travel vibes (similar to The Retake by Jen Calonita) and made lots of musical theater references, but there was lots of not love as well.

First, I’ll start with the fun idea behind the book. I loved that Maggie was able to go back in time to the “best day ever” and get a new perspective on things. She’d always put Theo on this pedestal and so it was nice to see her view of that day and her ex-boyfriend in general change. I was also very intrigued with the story every time she used the app. It gave lots of interesting insights into Maggie’s friends and family and was fun as a reader to create assumptions and connect all the dots at the end.

Maggie had a nice character arc. It was pretty obvious and not super deep, but I appreciate the effort the author put into changing Maggie into a more rounded character. I also appreciated that Maggie sounded and thought like a teenager. She didn’t feel like an adult writing a teenager.

Now moving on…

Carson was spineless. I’m glad he loved his friend and supported him enough to not go after his girl, but come on. Speaking of Carson, we only really start to get to know him in the second half of the book. we see some glimpses of him as Maggie relives her best day ever, but we don’t really get time with him until pretty far into the book. There was a positive interaction between him and Maggie at the beginning of the book, which was nice, but I needed more of him.

Now for the whole Rayna/Maggie feud. Honestly, I was kinda with Maggie. Maggie deserved to be mad at Rayna. Rayna had been lying to her for months so it really wasn’t fair for Rayna to get mad at Maggie for getting mad at her. Rayna had her reasons for the way things went down, which I understand, but I was kinda mad at Rayna too so I didn’t blame Maggie.

This is in the lower YA age group so it’s totally “safe” for all ages. It was a fun plot/idea that was just missing some things. I kept wishing for better writing and a better-paced plot and characters that were a little less surface. Maybe it would be more enjoyable for younger YA-aged people.

Disclaimer: I voluntarily read and reviewed a gifted and advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Rating

To check out my other reviews, click here. Or to check out more books by Michelle I. Mason, go to her GoodReads profile or her website.