If you’re a fan of Groundhog Day, you may like this novel by Jackie Lau, a time-loop romance set in Toronto. Noelle Tom leaves her job late on June 20, as she always does, and this time she heads to the night market. After eating some questionable dumplings, she finds she wakes up the next morning to the same day. The dumpling woman said the dumplings would give her “what she needs most” so she tries to figure out what she needs to do to get out of the time loop.
She learns that anything good or bad that happens that day will reset the next morning. She takes up crocheting but it always starts over the next day. Things she would normally worry about like cleaning and money have become completely irrelevant. She can dye her hair any color, eat anything she wants, say anything she wants, and it all gets reset and no one will remember. No one, that is, except Avery, a woman she meets in the night market who’s caught in the same situation.
In the loop, she starts running into a guy in multiple places around town. Cam is thoughtful and funny and cute, but he never remembers her the next day, except some vague sense they’ve met before. At first, that’s kind of a blessing, because Noelle is a terrible flirt and can barely make conversation. She can embarrass herself without consequence. As she gets better at banter, their relationship starts to build, but it still starts over the next day.
Cam might be the key to getting out of the loop – only it’s clear there are other issues she needs to resolve. She’s underpaid and overworked at her job, and she has a difficult relationship with her sister. While Noelle has always been the responsible sibling, her sister is unstable and doesn’t make good decisions.
I liked the time loop story a lot, for many of the reasons I love Groundhog Day. Noelle has all the time in the world to explore and try new things, but I can also see her frustration of having none of those things matter.
I could relate to Noelle quite a bit. She’s awkward and insecure, and the time loop shows her she doesn’t have to live by the same script every day. Maybe time loop stories appeal to those of us who worry too much and generally follow the rules – Noelle is free to skip work and take chances she wouldn’t otherwise. This resonated because my days feel a little that way too, since I’m not working.
Two things I liked most about the book were Noelle’s friendship with Avery and her relationship with her sister. I think these were more compelling than the romance itself. I wish Avery had been more developed; at times she felt like she was there so Noelle had someone to talk to, and Avery always had it worse than Noelle. But I appreciated that a lot of this book was about Noelle learning to be more giving of herself and more open to others.
Lau writes a lot about food and beer, which I enjoyed, even though I often didn’t know the foods she was describing. I liked the details about Asian holidays and food, and I imagine Asian readers will appreciate that.
In the last third or so of the book, Lau throws a wrench into the time loop formula, in that she explores the aftermath of the loop. I liked her approach to this, though I won’t say more about it.
However, something about the writing in the last part of the book felt very stilted to me, not like the rest of the book, which I flew through. Some of the very short chapters are told from Cam’s point of view, and I found these incredibly distracting, and they didn’t advance the story at all.
I also didn’t care for the ending, though I can’t tell you why. I can say it’s a pet peeve of mine that might not bother other readers.
The book owes a lot to Groundhog Day, and I was very surprised it wasn’t mentioned, especially as Noelle starts reading and watching time loop stories to come up with ideas for getting out. I honestly can’t think of a similar time loop story. If you know of any, please share!
In reading other reviews, some readers found the time loop story way too repetitive. I didn’t, but then I like repetition and patterns. I don’t love stories that have lots of time jumping, that just makes my head hurt (Ministry of Time was one of those). I enjoyed the idea that every day starts out the same, and Noelle has an opportunity every day to try something different. If that sounds maddening to you, or you hated seeing the same things over and over again in Groundhog Day, you probably won’t enjoy this book.
Note: I received an advanced review copy of this book from NetGalley and publisher Atria Books. This book publishes May 6, 2025.
