Book Review: If I Could Turn Back Time by Beth Harbison

If I Could Turn Back Time by Beth Harbison

Summary by Goodreads:

Told with Beth Harbison's wit and warmth, If I Could Turn Back Time is the fantasy of every woman who has ever thought, "If I could go back in time, knowing what I know now, I'd do things so differently..."

Thirty-seven year old Ramie Phillips has led a very successful life. She made her fortune and now she hob nobs with the very rich and occasionally the semi-famous, and she enjoys luxuries she only dreamed of as a middle-class kid growing up in Potomac, Maryland. But despite it all, she can't ignore the fact that she isn't necessarily happy. In fact, lately Ramie has begun to feel more than a little empty.

On a boat with friends off the Florida coast, she tries to fight her feelings of discontent with steel will and hard liquor. No one even notices as she gets up and goes to the diving board and dives off...

Suddenly Ramie is waking up, straining to understand a voice calling in the distance...It's her mother: "Wake up! You're going to be late for school again. I'm not writing a note this time..."

Ramie finds herself back on the eve of her eighteenth birthday, with a second chance to see the people she's lost and change the choices she regrets. How did she get back here? Has she gone off the deep end? Is she really back in time? Above all, she'll have to answer the question that no one else can: What it is that she really wants from the past, and for her future? 

My Thoughts:

I received a copy of Beth Harbison's new book, If I Could Turn Back Time, from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This is one of those books where I wish I could give an extra 1/2 star. This book deserves 3.5 stars vs 3 stars. I requested this one from NetGalley because the premise of the story interested me - a 37 year old woman has an opportunity to go back in time and redo some of the mistakes she made the first time. I think as we grow older, we all have times in our lives that we wish we could hit the "redo" button. I agree with another reviewer in that I loved the beginning of the story and loved the ending as well. The best part of the middle section was reading about how Ramie changed the time she spent with her father knowing that he would pass away a few years later. I do think there are others who will fall in love with this story so even though I gave it 3.5 stars, definitely give it a try!