Time loop stories are not my favorite genre so when Jackie Lau announced last year that Time Loops & Meet Cutes would be the title of her next book published by Atria Books, I took note but hadn’t planned on prioritizing it in my reading. Then I was sent an ARC and my curiosity and trust in Lau pushed me to accept it and get reading.
When we meet Noelle Tom, she is an overworked, underpaid, chronically in her own head person who doesn’t have a strong support system and just wants something to eat. Unfortunately for her, the dumplings she buys at the night market cause her to get stuck in a time loop, reliving the same day. Initially I wasn’t sure if it was going to work for me since by necessity the time loop structure meant spending a lot of time going over very similar ground with Noelle as she comes to terms with being stuck reliving June 20th over and over again and seemingly being the only one who knows what is happening. Each night the day resets – all work undone, all money back in bank accounts, all other people having no recollection of the previous 24 hours that Noelle lived – and within those resets Noelle has to figure out what it is she needs to get out of this experience, both literally and figuratively.
But eventually it did work, and I was glad to have had the patience to see what Lau was creating. Emmalita messaged me when she saw I had the ARC and told me she thought it was perhaps the best thing Lau has ever written, and I knew I wanted to see what made her have that opinion, and I could start to see the strings of the story coming together as Lau introduced Avery, someone else who was stuck in the loop with Noelle. While this is clearly a Romance book, it takes much of the usual structures of the genre and throws them out the window, because while the titular meet cutes are happening with Cam, the lovely brewery owner who Noelle keeps running into, the emotional heft of the first half of the book is in the friendship that Avery and Noelle form as they try to understand this experience together.
This is an emotionally resonant book with characters who are going through it. Lau uses the time loop structure to broaden Noelle’s understanding of herself and others. By putting her in a position where she is at the mercy of so many things out of her control it gives Noelle the ability to relate to others in a new way, and it is incredibly poignant in her relationship with her sister. Honestly, the metaphor that Lau creates around mental health here is great stuff and an excellent reason to go over into the fantasy side of things a bit.
On the romance side of the equation this one reminds me of another Lau book, Love, Lies, and Cherry Pie in that the emotional beats of the story lean hard into the characters senses of self-worth and ways in which our assumptions about others are a form of self-sabotage. In the first half of the book as Noelle has her series of meet cutes and first dates with Cam she is able to get out of her own way a bit, but once she’s out of the loop she must trust herself, and him, as she approaches him for the first time with real consequences. But because Lau structured the previous interactions in a way that always had Cam responding positively, and having some vague memory of Noelle, that when things don’t go exactly as she hopes she has the knowledge and confidence to try more. Which eventually leads to them deciding if they have it in themselves to be open, to be known, and to be loved. It really is maybe the best thing Lau has written, but maybe not my favorite – not that I’m sure what my favorite is either. I’ve read a lot of Lau since 2019, and I hope more people will pick up this one and see what it has to offer.
I received an Advanced Reader Copy of this book from Atria Books and NetGalley; it has not affected my review, only its timing. Time Loops & Meet Cutes is available now.