Separated by several states at Christmastime, Georgie and Neal talk on the phone every night. There's just one quirk: Georgie's nighttime calls from the landline in her old room at her mother's house don't reach Neal as she knows him in 2013. Instead of talking to her husband and the father of their two small daughters, Georgie finds herself talking to a Neal from the past, during a Christmas break when they'd broken up, days before Neal showed up to pop the question.
Neal thinks he's talking to the Georgie from his time and wants to fix their fight, but present-day Georgie knows their marriage turned out far from perfect. The opportunity to relive their past casts Georgie's mistakes in sharp relief, but she's not sure if she's supposed to use the opportunity to repair her relationship or end her marriage before it begins.
Rowell (Eleanor & Park; Fangirl) gives this seemingly fluffy concept a thoughtful treatment. Slipping effortlessly between Georgie and Neal's slow-blooming courtship and their complicated present, she explores how the seeds of strife are sometimes sown in the happy beginnings of a relationship when one partner sacrifices too much for love. At the same time, she reaffirms the power of love and shared history; Georgie imagines divorce as "lying side by side... while a team of doctors tried to unthread their vascular systems." Georgie may have the chance to right the wrongs of the past by simply undoing it, but readers will hope she instead has the bravery to fight for a rare and believable love. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads