Book Summary and Reviews of Cassandra in Reverse by Holly Smale

Cassandra in Reverse by Holly Smale

Cassandra in Reverse

A Reese's Book Club Pick – A Charming Adult Fantasy Novel of Second Chances and Time Travel

by Holly Smale

  • Published:
  • Jun 2023, 368 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

If you had the power to change the past…where would you start?

Cassandra Penelope Dankworth is a creature of habit. She likes what she likes (museums, jumpsuits, her boyfriend, Will) and strongly dislikes what she doesn't (mess, change, her boss drinking out of her mug). Her life runs in a pleasing, predictable order…until now.

- She's just been dumped.
- She's just been fired.
- Her local café has run out of banana muffins.

Then, something truly unexpected happens: Cassie discovers she can go back and change the past. One small rewind at a time, Cassie attempts to fix the life she accidentally obliterated, but soon she'll discover she's trying to fix all the wrong things.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Smale combines well-developed characters with laugh-out-loud humor as she slowly reveals truths about past events, current troubles, and her protagonist's undiagnosed autism. Readers will be drawn into Cassie's life and won't want to leave. This neurodiverse tale is ripe for discussion and makes a great read-alike for The Rosie Project (2013) by Graeme Simsion, Oona Out of Order (2020) by Margarita Montimore, and The Boys (2022) by Katie Hafner." —Booklist (starred review)

"A hilarious, introspective, time-hopping journey with an unforgettable, neurodivergent heroine ... Cassandra's first-person narration is caustic, vulnerable, and laugh-out-loud funny ... perfect for fans of imaginative, intelligent speculative fiction." —Shelf Awareness

"Witty, touching and totally absorbing. Cassandra is a funny and sharply-observed character who I loved spending time with." —Graeme Simsion, New York Times bestselling author of The Rosie Project

"A pure delight from start to finish. Cassandra Dankworth is a character as unique as she is endearing: hilariously prickly and unapologetically clever yet delicate and tragically misunderstood. Cassandra in Reverse is an unexpected take on time travel, exploring the challenges of human connection. Humorous and insightful, this is an absolute gem of a novel." —Margarita Montimore, USA Today bestselling author of Oona Out of Order

This information about Cassandra in Reverse was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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Author Information

Holly Smale

Holly Smale is the internationally bestselling, award-winning author of the Geek Girl and The Valentines teen series, which have sold 3.4 million copies worldwide. In January 2021, Holly was diagnosed autistic at the age of 39. Suddenly a lot of things made sense. Holly regularly shares, debates about, and celebrates neurodiversity on Twitter and Instagram @holsmale.

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