Popular YA author Holly Smale (the Geek Girl series) makes her adult debut with Cassandra in Reverse, a hilarious, introspective, time-hopping journey with an unforgettable, neurodivergent heroine. Cassandra Dankworth ("I sound like a cross between a Greek heroine and a killer's basement") has lost her job, her relationship, and her chance at a banana muffin, all in one day. Her coupled-up flatmates, Sal and Derek, want her to move out so they can have the place to themselves. The tendency to say exactly what she thinks and her inability to read the feelings of others have always made life difficult. This time she gets an unexpected chance at a do-over when she wakes up on what should be the next morning, only to find herself reliving the same day. She quickly learns that she can travel to moments in the recent past and change her choices. However, fixing her relationship and career isn't easy, given that she's not sure why they were broken, and she keeps crossing paths with a mysterious woman she's determined to avoid. As her failed restarts pile up, Cassandra begins to wonder if she's chasing a fresh start for the right reasons, or trying to force the world and herself into shapes that won't hold.
Cassandra's first-person narration is caustic, vulnerable, and laugh-out-loud funny as she time-jumps with a rapidity most people reserve for channel surfing. Smale's expanded take on the Groundhog Day concept is a wildly fun journey of self-discovery, perfect for fans of imaginative, intelligent speculative fiction. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads