THIS TIME AROUND
by
Kimberly Packard
Time Travel Romance / Contemporary Women’s Fiction / Romantic Comedy
Publisher: Abalos Publishing
Date of Publication: June 11, 2024
Number of Pages: 286 pages
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Most of us would jump at a chance for a do-over of our teenage years…but what if our worst mistakes lead to our happily-ever-after?
Josie Gardner’s life revolves around her amazing children and her career. But, when her husband threatens to take her kids in their divorce, and the business she’s put most of her passion, time and money into building is at risk of failing, a panic attack shatters her grip on reality… and the present.
Josie wakes up in her teenage bedroom, thirty years in the past. She’s forced to relive her emotionally devastating senior year of high school — the year she cut her father out of her life, caused one of her best friends to sever ties, and turned away the boy she loved.
Determined to get back to her children in her own time, Josie tries to fix the mistakes she made, in the hope that righting wrongs will send her back to the present. But when tempted by her high school crush Josie faces the real possibility of losing her future for good.
Would you take a second chance for love…even if it meant losing everything?
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“At this moment, we are the past, the present, and the future.”
This Time Around by Kimberly Packard is a fantastic second-chance romance/comedy that will surely delight and cause you to ponder a what-if scenario that includes reliving your senior year of high school.
It’s 2024 in Austin, Texas, and forty-seven-year-old Josie Gardner (née Berry) is desperately trying to hold her life and her job together as her ex-husband seeks custody of their two children and as her hard-earned business teeters on the brink of disaster. What’s a woman to do except stare at a framed drawing of herself from thirty years ago and spiral into the abyss, otherwise known as senior year 1993/1994.
While This Time Around is a time-traveling romance about one woman’s crisis in 2024 and her teen shenanigans in the 1990s, it is way more than that. Going back decades to relive a pivotal time and maybe prevent bad things from happening might not be possible, but what if? This story is about stepping outside of your past self’s teen bubble and viewing that same life through a lens polished by maturity, motherhood, and choices. What Josie discovers is that some things can be changed or prevented, while other things can’t or even shouldn’t be altered.
Kimberly Packard does an excellent job with this impossible scenario, providing it with an air of believability, humor, and insight into how our past shapes our present and our future, no matter where we are on that timeline. For Josie, her focus is getting back to her kids in 2024 and hoping nothing she does in 1993 and 1994 erases them from her life. But what if she has a second chance to choose her long-time neighbor and best friend, Daniel, who gave her that drawing after graduation and then disappeared from her life forever? What if marriages and lives can be saved and broken bones that destroy a career can be prevented? What if unlikely friendships can be formed this time around that will help and bring joy in the future? What if?
This wonderful story is fast paced and fun, with so many well-developed and interesting characters and with an ending that will make you laugh and maybe shed a tear or two. One thing is clear, This Time Around will probably make you think about your own past and the choices that have shaped your life and wonder if anything could or should be changed. Maybe it is simply adjusting how you perceive people and your own slice of the world around you and how you treat others so that your future self will be proud of you and thank you. This is quite a heavy but important idea nestled in this enchanting story.
“Are you still you?”
Enter the giveaway below on or before June 21, 2024, for a chance to win a signed copy or an eBook of This Time Around by Kimberly Packard.
I received a free copy of this book from Lone Star Book Blog Tours in exchange for my honest review.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kimberly Packard is an award-winning author of women’s fiction.
When she isn’t writing, she can be found planning her next trip, asking her dog what’s in his mouth or curled up with a book. She resides in Texas with her husband Colby, a clever cat named Oliver and a precocious black lab named Tully.
Her debut novel, Phoenix, was awarded as Best General Fiction of 2013 by the Texas Association of Authors. She is also the author of a Christmas novella, The Crazy Yates, and the sequels to Phoenix, Pardon Falls and Prospera Pass, and her stand-alone titles Vortex, Dire’s Club and This Time Around. She was honored as one of the Top 10 Haute Young Authors by Southern Methodist University in 2019. Vortex was the 2019 winner of the Pencraft award in Women’s Fiction, and Dire’s Club, was awarded the 2021 General Fiction of the Year by the North Texas Book Festival.
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