Book Review: The Rewind by Allison Winn Scotch
The Rewind by Allison Winn Scotch
Publisher: Berkley
Publication Date: November 1, 2022
My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
When college sweethearts Frankie and Ezra broke up before graduation, they vowed to never speak to each other again. Ten years later, on the eve of the new millennium, they find themselves back on their snowy, picturesque New England campus together for the first time for the wedding of mutual friends. Frankie’s on the rise as a music manager for the hottest bands of the late ’90s, and Ezra’s ready to propose to his girlfriend after the wedding. Everything is going to plan—they just have to avoid the chasm of emotions brought up when they inevitably come face to face.
But when they wake up in bed next to each other the following morning with Ezra’s grandmother’s diamond on Frankie’s finger, they have zero memory of how they got there—or about any of the events that transpired the night before. Now Frankie and Ezra have to put aside old grievances in order to figure out what happened, what didn’t happen…and to ask themselves the most troubling question of all: what if they both got it wrong the first time around?
College sweethearts Frankie and Ezra broke up on the day of their college graduation. They’ve hated each other ever since and have not spoken in the ten years since then. They both come back to their college town on for the wedding of mutual friends, which is on New Year’s Eve of 1999.
The morning after the rehearsal dinner, they wake up in bed together in one of the college’s dorm rooms. The engagement ring that Ezra intended to propose to his current girlfriend with is on Frankie’s finger. Neither of them can remember what happened.
I cannot get over the unrealistic premise of this book. After Frankie and Ezra wake up in bed together, they think they must have gotten married because Ezra’s grandmother’s wedding ring is on Frankie’s finger and Ezra has a gold band on his. Neither can remember anything from the night before so they set off on a journey retracing their steps around town to see if they can jog their memories and find out if they are really married.
Hello?! They are in New England, not Las Vegas. You need a marriage license to get legally married and I’m pretty sure you can’t get one at midnight. Are they dumb? Ezra went to law school for Christ’s sake! All I could think about while reading this book was how stupid they both are.
Additionally, Frankie is not a nice person, and I never felt that she redeemed herself. I was rooting for them NOT to get back together. They hated each other up until the last couple of chapters. This was a romance with no romance.
From the publisher’s description, I thought that this was going to be a time-loop novel and that they woke up in bed together because they were transported back to their college days. That’s on me I suppose for not reading the description close enough. But it was still disappointing.
You can skip The Rewind. If you’re looking for a cute romance set around New Year’s Eve, check out The Second Chance Year by Melissa Wiesner.
