4 -5 stars rounded up. As Alice Stern's 40th birthday is fast approaching, she ruminates on the time it takes to die as she watches her beloved father, novelist Leonard doing exactly that. Without giving too much away she finds a portal which transports her back to her 16th birthday in 1996! I find myself deeply envious of the opportunities this affords Alice especially in her relationship with Leonard. I love Emma Straub’s books so I guess I am very much the target audience for this one! The quality of her writing, the wry tone, the incisive nature of Alice’s thoughts effortlessly pull you into her world and you find yourself totally accepting the concept of the novel. It’s a poignant and emotional story as Alice reflects and becomes introspective on her life and what she has and hasn’t achieved. Alice at 16 and at 40 are both wonderfully portrayed. It’s interesting seeing the decisions she makes , what leads to them and how she feels towards her peers as she peers through 40 year old eyes. All the characters are well fleshed out and so easy to visualise but the standout feature is the relationship between Alice and Leonard, what a wonderful man he is. I love that it gives her the chance to ask him the questions she never did as a 16-year-old, because why would you? I am envious that I haven’t the opportunity to do the same! The other ‘stars’ of the show are the 1990s and New York City. The back to the future style trip evokes wonderful and multiple memories especially of film and music, the 90s being all about Oasis for me! The setting in New York City especially Pomander Walk where her father lives is full of charm and atmosphere but it’s very much a love letter to this vibrant and exciting city. The author transports me back to my trip there! It’s a delightful journey, beautifully written and I finish it with a lump in my throat. You never know what’s coming and you just have to be happy with what is there.

Thank you to the publishers for this early review copy. So before I started to read the novel I knew that this was all about a father / daughter relationship and that it might involve a touch of time travel... I wasn't sure about the time travel element but having only heard great things I was keen to read. Firstly, it is beautifully written and the father / daughter relationship might even bring a tear to your eyes. This book is full of love, warmth and friendship, heart breaking in places but also heart warming. If this time travel opportunity was gifted to you how would you handle it? Would your try to convince people that you've seen the future? Would you try and change the future? This is a book that will touch so many hearts and leave you wondering what if you could, would you and what would you try and change? Absolutely recommended to all. I genuinely believe this is a book we are going to see on all the lists going forward.

This is a delightful, time travelling novel full of wry humour, pathos and emotion. Alice Stern is turning forty and spending much of her time caring for her beloved a dying dad. As she mourns his imminent passing she finds herself transported back to her sixteenth birthday. This gives her the opportunity to re-explore her relationship with her father. She has the chance to ask the questions a sixteen year old never would. The characters are beautifully created and the relationships between them really come alive. The background of New York from the 1990s onwards is evocatively described. This is an intelligent, entertaining and skillfully written book. I loved it.

A very quirky story, where the daughter of a SCI FI writer travels backwards and forwards in time, usually on an earlier birthday.. Apparently her father used to do the same on the day of his daughter birth. She hopes to change the course of her fathers life so he isn't lying in a bed and slowly dying. Very definitive conclusion.

Alice Stern lives in New York, works in a job she likes but finds unfulfilling, and hasn't managed to find a relationship that is right for her yet. Her father, Leonard, is in hospital and may not wake up again. About to turn 40, she stays the night at her old home, her father's home, and wakes up there the next day, not as a 40 year old but as a 16 year old. I came to This Time Tomorrow for the time travel element. I love the genre and whilst I didn't necessarily understand why it had happened for Alice, I just loved that it did happen and she got to see her father again as a younger man. The beginning of the book drew me right in and this was before the travel back in time. I enjoyed the scene-setting, getting to know Alice and her life before it was turned upside down. Even though I feel like the reader was supposed to think her life was flat and empty, it didn't really feel that way and I think Alice had a pretty good life apart from her father's ill-health. After she went back in time I did feel like it lost something along the way and my interest started to dip a little. Maybe I was just confused. This is quite a complex and poignant story of emotions and nostalgia, and I wasn’t entirely sure what Alice was doing, although I knew what she was aiming for: more time with her father. I thought This Time Tomorrow was a touching story of revisiting the past and I liked the father/daughter relationship between Leonard and Alice which felt really special. For the most part I enjoyed this book but I think it lacked the emotion I craved to really make me empathise with Alice's predicament.