This is the story of Kate who is widowed quite suddenly She is depressed and feels that there is no point to her life anymore. One night she falls asleep and wakes up as her 18 year old self with the chance to change fate.

For me this book was straight down the middle. There were parts that I loved such as Kate’s strong personality especially with regards to her work. I really wish that the whole of this book was based around her work. I also loved the references when she was talking about our present time. On the other hand there were parts particularly in the first half of the book that I found boring. Time travel is one of my favourite tropes in a book but there are so many more books that do it better.

This book was about Kate, a 40ish woman struggling to come to terms with the sudden death of her husband. It turns out he had a brain tumour, undetected for most of his adult life and after deciding to end her life, Kate actually find herself waking up back in 1992. On her first day at Uni and on the very day she met her husband. Can she change the past to give her husband a longer future?

I thought this idea seemed like an entertaining premise for a book and Web writes 90s student life really well. I found these chapters and characters witty and engaging. It felt like it took quite a long time for the “time travel” to take place but once it did the pace picked up.

That’s not to say that the other chapters aren’t without merit. The pain and anger of Kate’s grief feels very honest and real too. The problem really comes with the subplot - Russian gangsters, spies and incriminating memory sticks. If I’m completely honest, Come Again feels a bit like two ideas glued together. Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice to have a female character in this type of story who can take on a group of gangsters with her medal winning karate moves, I just think it would have been a stronger novel if it had stuck to the romantic comedy plot. But it’s definitely a good choice for a holiday/lockdown read where some bonkers escapism is the key.

It pains me to only give this book a 2 star review.

The book was split into 3 parts, part 1 and 2 were wonderful to read, it was interesting to see the format and the characters as they experienced the story.

Part 3 then ruined the book by having an unnecessary side plot and a confusing ending of not knowing what was going on.
I was so disappointed as it took the first half of the book and destroyed it.

I will say it was an easy read but I cannot forgive the last part of the book for betraying what have been a 5 star book so badly.

The start and middle of this book were excellent and absolute 5 star. The ending has destroyed it for me. Destroyed an enjoyment or want to reread or even remember the book.

A gréât thriller in Robert Webb’s great style. Will leave you wondering and brings together a love story with some political intrigue. Fully recommend

This was a delightful book !

Kate is grieving for her husband Luke -who she has been with for 28 years.
He died of a brain tumour which unknown to him - had lain in wait since he was a teenager .
As Kate contemplates ending her life -something extraordinary happens . She wakes up to find herself transported back to the day she first met Luke at university. Can she alter the course of history and keep Luke safe .?
This book brought out a whole load of emotions and had me laughing and crying -the characters were so likeable -I didn't want it to end !

Thank-you NetGalley for an ARC in return for an honest review

Honestly, I feel like I've read a different book in comparison with the reviews on here.... I just wasn't impressed.

Come Again feels as if the author, Robert Webb, wasn't quite sure what theme he was going for - heart-wrenching grief and emotion or light-hearted dark comedy. Whilst the first quarter of the book was the most exquisite descriptor of grief, I just don't feel like the rest of the book followed. In fact, the last half of the book felt like I was reading a spy novel and was so far removed from the first quarter that you could separate them and make completely different books out of them.

This just wasn't for me at all.

What to say about this book? It seemed to be a fairly straightforward story about about a woman who’s husband had died suddenly. It quickly moved into time travelling and them into a chase scene with Russian hitmen! It is great fun, rather silly and doesn’t really fit into any genre. I wish I had time to read it in one go, I think it might have made more sense. There were a few times I picked up again and had no idea where I was or what was going on as the story flips around so quickly. One for the sun lounger I think.

Come Again appealed to me as a middle aged woman, but I also loved the time traveling (really) bits back to university life, which were totally reminiscent of my youth. It made me laugh (a lot) cry (ditto) and I cheered on our heroine Kate in her quest to save her husband and to beat a gang of Russian gangsters. (Again, really!)
This book is mad, but good mad. I would definitely recommend it, for men and women of all ages. It would also make a really good film.
Thank you to #NetGalley, the publishers and the author Robert Webb for the opportunity to review #ComeAgain

I struggled to get into this book. The first half is a bit bleak and slow to get going. I enjoyed the second half much more though!

Loved this book. A time travel book which doesn’t get itself hung up on the apparent logic of the impossible. Manages to be very funny at the same time as pulling no punches about the misery and guilt of grief. Great writing and a joy to read.

This book has everything you could possibly wish for. Emotionally invested from the first few pages, yes it’s a wild ride but I was here for it all the way. As a Uni of York alum I loved all the references and I love the characters and their stories, as insane as they are. Perfect. Brilliant.

Oddly enough, I picked up three different books about the main character returning to their own past in the same week. This, by Robert Webb, The Two Lives of Lydia Bird, by Josie Silver, and All About Us, by Tom Ellen. So apparently this is the plot device of the year. Well, it beats a global pandemic.
I thoroughly enjoyed Robert Webb's autobiography, How Not To Be A Boy, which I read last month, so when I saw that Webb was venturing into fiction, I was excited to read this offering. And the plot did sound really interesting. Still reeling from the loss of her husband of decades, Kate is deep, deep in depression. Mired in self-loathing and unable to see any joy, she's pushed away all of her friends and is very close to the edge. Then she wakes up in her teenaged uni bedroom in York, and realises that it's the first day of Freshers' Week. Her husband, who was killed by a slow-growing tumour in his brain, is still alive, and she knows how to save him. She just has to convince him that she knows what she's talking about...

I really wanted to like this book. It has some really wonderfully written and wonderfully imagined elements in it. The first third of the book is bleak and horrendous, a vicious portrait of depression and the deep, dark fog that surrounds it. Kate is isolated, furious, grieving, and doesn't see any way out of it.
The second third of the book is funny and light-hearted. Kate, now forty-six, wakes up in her freshers' bedroom and experiences the disconcerting experience of trying to relive her teenagerhood in exactly the same way - except she's not even close to exactly the same person. And her amazement, amusement, and massive ballsing up of everything, is really very funny. Plus, there's a lot to be said for how lovingly Webb draws his obnoxious teenaged characters. Kate, looking at them with cynical adult eyes, sees how they're desperate to fit in, to stand out, to look cool, and sees them with the half-loving, half-exasperated patina of nostalgia. And it's actually lovely, this section, seeing Kate try to figure out what she's doing, fit in, stand out, and figure out if she can save the pretentious eighteen-year-old that has left such a huge hole in her heart later on.
The final third of the book is wildly different to the two which came before it. It's a humorous action thriller, with high stakes and high action, and surprising depths being revealed to old relationships and connections.

None of these three sections, individually, was bad. Tragedy, Comedy, Thriller, they all had lots going for them. But they didn't make sense to me. There was no underlying net woven between them, drawing the threads together. While I think that would be understandable between the first and second parts - as the concept of time travel necessitates some disjointedness - it really became clear in the final third, when everything is driving to its resolution. There are too many threads left undone from the first third which aren't picked up again (like Kate's depression so numbing she was on the verge of suicide?) and it left me feeling disconcerted, as the rapid changes in tone were unsettling. Then, finally, the epilogue created a paradox which was left... entirely unexplained?

All in all, although there were many elements of this that I enjoyed, and I think Robert Webb is incredibly skilled at writing about mental health, masculinity, traditional male/female gender roles, and grief (as well as doing a solid line in obnoxious teenagers), this book doesn't quite hit the right note. Rather, in trying to hit too many notes, it jangles discordantly in the brain, leaving a disappointing feeling of being underwhelmed, which is the opposite of what I was expecting.

Interesting if entirely unbelievable premise, which made it a little difficult to take the story seriously! A fun (if not a little silly) and easy read

“you can only fall in love for the first time once….”

I certainly fell in love with Come Again. It is the perfect mixture of romantic love story, sarky humour and madcap action. I especially liked the fact that most of the story was set at York University during the 1990’s – a period when I lived and worked there - and I have to say that Mr Webb has got it off to a tee - the colleges, the nightclubs, the Geese! I hope that if they make the book into a film or tv series the action isn’t transferred to Cambridge or London, because I think it would lose a lot of its charm.

Many thanks to Canongate Books, to Robert Webb and to NetGalley for letting me read and review this tremendous novel - I’m sure it’s going to be a huge bestseller.

Really enjoyed this book.

It starts off slowly but drags you in for the ride that gets progressively more intense!

Great concept for a book and so relatable and well written.

I was fortunate to receive a copy of this to read from NetGalley.

I was very confused during the first part of this, the second part got better and I enjoyed all the 80s and 90s references! I found the involvement of the Russians a bit far fetched. Overall it felt like a cross between One Day and The Time Traveller's Wife. It just wasn't what I was expecting!

Kate has been widowed less than a year and isn’t coping. Her husband Luke was the love of her life who she met at university. She’s lost her job and considering suicide when she wakes up in her old room at university, she’s 18 again but can still remember the life she’s had. The book follows her meeting Luke again for the first time but things pan out in a different way. It leads to the thrilling, unexpected climax at the end of the story.

I was really excited about the premise of this novel, but unfortunately it just didn’t click for me. I couldn’t bring myself to care enough about the characters and the storylines were too disjointed. Some genuinely witty moments though which helped - but it was a bit of a slog.

This book came highly recommended to me and I can see why. Loved the switch of pace and setting, loved the characters. Wasn’t so sure about some parts of the ending.

Interesting premise however, not for me.

I liked the main character Kate and empathised with her, the other characters however were rather dull and not developed enough. The sub plot involving the Russians was disjointed and almost felt like a separate story - definitely not as the synopsis described!

An easy read but not one I will go back to.

Thanks to Canongate Books and Netgalley for the ARC.