This Time Around by Kimberly Packard – Review by Christie Mitchum

This Time Around by Kimberly Packard
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This Time Around is not only one of my favorite reads of the year but also an all-time favorite. It’s definitely a 5-star read for me!

How often have you thought you would like to return to your teenage years? That is precisely the predicament Josie Gardner has found herself in after a panic attack sends her back to the beginning of her senior year in high school, a year full of pain for her. She endured her parent’s divorce, closing her father out of her life, a friendship that doesn’t stand the test of time, and breaking the heart of the boy she was in love with.

She is still 47 but in an 18-year-old’s body. She has no aches and pains, and her body hasn’t endured the changes that come with having children and aging. I loved that she viewed her return with the wisdom of a mature woman. She tried to right some wrongs that occurred. I loved how she looked at her parents’ divorce; the time she spent with her parents was so endearing and heart-warming.

Josie was incredibly relatable. While she enjoyed her time with her family and friends, she desperately wanted to return to her children. While her heart ached as she remembered holding her children for the first time, I found myself doing the same. You think that time of no sleep and wiping runny noses will last forever, but it’s gone in the blink of an eye.

While she has a chance to make things right with Daniel, she has to ask herself how that affects her current life. Will she choose the unknown road with Daniel or the path she knows is fraught with joy and sadness (her impending divorce from her husband)? She has to do some soul-searching and ask herself some fundamental questions.

“That’s the thing about life. It’s the sum total of the choices, the mistakes, the right calls, that we make up until that moment. If you change one of those–turn left instead of right, go out with Mr. Football instead of the geeky guy in your class, or choose a different college–it completely changes who you are. Who you become.”

There were so many things I enjoyed about this book. I loved some of the new relationships Josie built outside of her usual group of friends. In addition, it took me back to a simpler time before the internet exploded…a time when you had to go to a library and use the card catalog to look up information…a time when you talked face-to-face with people instead of over a screen.

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