Cover Image: Come Again

Come Again

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Member Reviews

I must firstly apologise for the amount of time it has taken me to provide a review of this book, my health was rather bad for quite some time, something that had me in hospital on numerous occasions and simply didnt leave me with the time I once had to do what I love most.

Unfortunately that does mean I have missed the archive date for many of these books, so It would feel unjust throwing any review together without being able to pay attention to each novel properly.

However, I am now back to reading as before and look forward to sharing my honest reviews as always going forward. I thank you f0r the patience and understanding throughout x

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This was a lot better than the average celebrity book. Robert Webb is a decent prose stylist and his characters were interesting. Ultimately the final third of the novel disappointed me and I did not find the ending satisfying. I have read much worse books but I think that I probably prefer Robert Webb as a comedian and actor than I do as a novelist. I enjoyed a lot of what I read about his views on toxic masculinity to be more engaging and this book ultimately felt like a slog to get through and I do not think I would pick one of his novels again. I will keep this review private (netgalley only) since it could not be more positive.

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Loved this book with its return to the 90s and all the wonderful emotions that came with Kate seeing her old friends again, including the husband she lost 28 years later months before. The dialogue was particularly good, no real surprise as Robert Webb is such a great comic, but it was also incredibly satisfying with a few 'OOH' twists thrown in too.

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Come Again is a hilarious, uplifting novel about second chances and loss. Kate is a mess; she’s drinking too much, has just been sacked and is pushing away all her friends. She is also grieving the sudden loss of her husband Luke, who had an undiagnosed brain tumour and dropped down dead while unloading the dishwasher. After falling asleep and waking up back in her halls of residence at York University, she attempts to warn Luke about his health problems by recreating their first meeting. Things go spectacularly wrong, but can she still achieve her aim?
I absolutely loved this book and I’m completely baffled by some of the harsh reviews. The style of it smacks of tongue in cheek and it’s essentially about time travel. As long as you take it for the humorous novel it is, (albeit with touches of real sadness) you’ll hopefully enjoy it as much as I did.

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I do love Robert Webb and this is immersed in his off beat humour. A funny read yet also full of heart and hope. I loved it

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I know Robert Webb was a previously published author but I was quite surprised to learn that "Come Again" was his first novel, as it does feel accomplished and has quite a distinctive voice. To be honest, the basic story itself is relatively standard ‘romcom’ territory, but the subject matter, touching on grief, loss, and the unbearable pain which comes from our inability to act on hindsight is handled in a way that is astute, believable and very real. And incredibly funny. And it is this unusually honest and surprisingly funny structure which is in turns both shocking and refreshing which lifts "Come Again" above the usual romcom crowd.

As can be the case with this ‘type’ of novel, it may not always be the most reality-based, but as readers, we are happy to suspend disbelief in certain areas and go with it as this forms the central narrative core. However, there is a quite a long section towards the end of the book where what is intended to be an adrenaline-fueled chase section totally loses its grip and takes us right out of the story for no perceivable reason. It wasn’t missing an espionage thriller edge up to this point so why add that now? It is a relatively short novel and I can only assume that the author was sent away by the publisher and told to produce another 20,000 words. I hate to bring this up as a negative point but I was so enjoying "Come Again" up to this point, that this extraneous section almost destroyed my enjoyment of the entire novel.
The author almost pulls it back by the end of the novel but the epilogue feels like a strangely rushed attempt to explain the premise of the novel and to tie up loose ends. If only those 20,000 words had been used to incorporate this section into the novel proper.

But anyway, much of this can be forgiven as "Come Again" handles the toughest of subjects in a real, believable and very non-Hollywood way. The pain feels real, the love feels real but the laughs are real too, even in the hard parts – just like life.

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I'm not sure what to write about this book..its the first in a while I'm not sure if I liked or not I'm afraid. Its confused me. The first half I enjoyed then mid bit I thought ok lets see where this goes then the end just baffled me!
We meet Kate who's husband has died of a brain tumour which he had growing slowly for years. She's in despair yet one night something strange happens. Can she change the future? If she does what happens?
I'll definitely be thinking about this for a while!

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Moving and packed full of emotion, Come Again is the tale of finding your first love when you thought you'd lost them forever. Romantic and tender, with funny moments throughout, I enjoyed reading this

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This book has it all. It’s humorous, adventurous, engaging, romantic and so much more. Absolutely brilliant read.

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This is a book in three parts, each quite different from the other. In part one we meet middle aged Kate, not long widowed and grieving for her husband Luke. Luke died very suddenly from an undiagnosed brain tumour and Kate can't help asking herself whether she should have spotted something and made him go to a doctor. She is depressed and suicidal. living in squalor, her only companion a mouse. She has pushed away all offers of help from friends and is in a pretty dreadful state. Part two moves away from this depiction of grief. She wakes up one morning and is back in the past, at York University in freshers' week just before she is due to meet Luke. Can she change the future? Part Three then moves into spy thriller mode which I'm not even going to try to describe. This was by far the poorest part of the novel and one which I didn't enjoy.

Overall this is very much an average read. The theme of going back to the past and reliving your youth is a well worn one and it has been done better elsewhere. The description of grief was well enough done and you did feel for Kate. But Part Three? Not for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and Canongate for the ARC.

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Come Again by Robert Webb is a book all about second chances. Grieving widow Kate is struggling to come to terms with the death of her husband , the man she loved since meeting him at college. She has distanced herself from family and friends and lost her job, and feels like she has nothing left to live for, but one morning she wakes up and everything has changed. She is back in her college room, it is 1992 and her body is eighteen again, but she still has all her memories. She is determined that this time she will save the man she loves, but when she meets the boy she fell for all those years ago, will her memories mess things up before they even have a chance?
I liked the concept of this book a lot, but I cannot say that I loved the execution. I enjoyed Kate as a character, and really liked how the author captured the era , as someone who also went to college in the 1990s it really felt spot on. However I felt like the secondary (espionage) plotline was distracting and didn't add anything to the book as a whole, and instead took me away from the aspects of the story I found most interesting and enjoyable.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

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An enjoyable three books in one! Part one we have Kate struggling desperately to cope with the sudden death of her husband Luke who was everything to her. Part two she is cast back to when they first met but retains the worldliness of the 45 year old she now is. Part three she's back in real time with a different perspective on everything and everyone. For anyone who would like the chance to go back, with today's head on, and revisit those first moments of passion, this is a must read. Clearly there is a lot more to the plot than I am revealing here but to say more would perhaps spoil your enjoyment. Suffice to say, part one is really sad, part two makes you laugh [ a lot!] and part three - well life's never straightforward.
Cleverly constructed, well written and above all enjoyable. All the ingredients of a good read.

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By turns funny, bleak, warm, and nostalgic, Webb's first fiction novel is a great read. I feel like I've read a million different takes on this sort of time-travel tale, but it's given new life in Come Again. Robert Webb is, of course, a very funny guy, and I was pleased by how well that translates into his narrative fiction writing. It's a genuinely funny book that had me laughing aloud multiple times, but still manages to have heart and talk about grief and loss without every becoming cloying. I really enjoyed this book and hope that Webb writes more novels in the future.

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Kate loses her beloved husband Luke thanks to a sudden death and spends the next nine months in a depression, she wants one more dream with him but when she wakes up it's in her 18 year old body... with her 45 year old mind.

This is a thoroughly enjoyable read. I loved the first two parts, where we saw Kate in the present and then Kate in the past - I was heartbroken for her over Luke and then I was laughing at her interactions with her friends. I just found the last section had a certain disconnect from the first two - like it could have been written at a different time or possible by a different person all together! It's still good to read, it's just so different that it doesn't fit.

The ending is also rather confusing!

I'd definitely recommend this to others.

<i>Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for an advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest review</i>

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Who hasn’t dreamed of going back in time knowing what we know now? It’s by no means the first time I’ve read books or watched films on this theme and I was intrigued to see what a talent of Robert Webb’s order would do with this idea. He did well. I thought he created some credible characters I came to care about and the action unfolded in an unexpected way, especially towards the end, but I was just able to suspend disbelief and enjoy the ride. His wit shines through the dialogue and situations Kate finds herself in, trying hard to fit into her 18-year-old self yet finding herself inclined towards different people and for different reasons than before. Hugely entertaining and to be recommended.

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I ended up really enjoying this one! The plot summary sounded a bit heavy at first, but I think this might be genuinely one of the funniest books I’ve read in a really long time, especially for a fiction book. Come Again is the story of a middle-aged woman grieving for her husband after his death a year prior, who is given the chance to go back in time to when they met at university as teenagers to do things differently a second time around. I’m not entirely sure how the author managed it so well, but Come Again is both an emotional and honest exploration of grief, mental illness and the illusion of nostalgia, whilst also being an incredibly funny and dry story that is interesting even when it isn’t focused on its central themes.
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I also think it’s quite good how Webb is able to write a book that seems to transcend genres in a lot of different ways, starting as a realist contemporary story, then becoming a science-fiction romance, and then pivoting into what I can only describe as something close to a political thriller? It’s interesting to see such a range of situations and genres in a single book, although I do think some people could find it a little bit jarring to flip between them as the novel goes on. Still, some parts are clearly not meant to be taken as seriously as others, and the humour definitely allows the author to experiment with that a little bit.
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I tore through this in just a couple of days, and although the structure isn’t perfect, it’s definitely one I’ll be recommending if I get the chance!

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