Come Again

A beautiful and magical tale of grief. <br /><br />Come Again tells the story of Kate, the IT department head for a company that does Online Reputational Management. Basically, they are responsible to make bad press ''disappear'' using SEO and other algorithms, so when you search someone on Google, the bad stuff will be far back and a lot of new shiny and interesting information will appear on top.<br /><br />But, Kate has been struggling a lot lately, she's extremely depressed after she lost her husband of 28 years. Luke had a brain tumor, one that was barely noticeable and that grew and grew symptomless until he collapsed on their kitchen floor after unloading the dishwasher. <br /><br />Now, Kate has come across a new file at work that is a game-changer of epic proportions, only if she could care about anything other than drinking herself to sleep.<br /><br />Come Again is divided into three parts, the first one (described briefly above) is the set-up of: here's Kate, this is why she is grieving and not coping, also, some crazy stuff happens at her job. This is the most emotional part and Robert Webb does a great job of immersing you in her story while adding some dry humor to keep this interesting.<br /><br />Part 2 is where the element of magical realism/time-travel is introduced. On the night that Kate is giving up on her life she falls asleep instead to wake up on the exact night she met her husband when she was 18-years-old and attending the University of York.<br /><br />Although this part didn't go quite the way I was expecting it to, it was refreshing and super funny to see Kate interacting with her young husband and friends. You see, she might have woken up in the body of an 18-year-old, but her brain is very much 45, and she had zero patience for the silly games these teenagers are playing, also - she's now back to 1992 and that means no cellphones, internet or any modern-day technologies.<br /><br />Unfortunately, Part 3 is just not well executed at all. It seems like the parts are disjointed, almost like they could each be a story on their own (or that they were written by two completely different people), and then it fails to bring the different plots together in a satisfying resolution.<br /><br /><input type="checkbox" class="spoiler__control" aria-label="The following text has been marked spoiler. Toggle checkbox to reveal or hide." onchange="this.labels[0].setAttribute('aria-hidden', !this.checked);" id="1e5c19aa-ba1e-4f7b-a007-0b9822a16d13" /><label aria-hidden="true" class="spoiler" for="1e5c19aa-ba1e-4f7b-a007-0b9822a16d13">When Kate wakes up back in the present I was expecting the story to either: acknowledge the time-traveling element with consequences, i.e. she changed the current timeline, she altered something important, etc. Or, (and this is what I would have preferred) this is a way that her brain helped her cope and understand that she was seeing her husband through rose-tinted glasses and that she is alive and needs to move on. <br /><br />However, we're thrown into a James-Bond-style car chase that doesn't really fit the mellow and deep tone of the story so far, and then we get an explanation for Luke that just doesn't make sense - not even in sci-fi, not even in common time-traveling tropes.</label><br /><br />I do have to praise the writing though - many times Come Again made me laugh out loud or have tears in my eyes. It was beautifully nostalgic and I highlighted many quotes that will definitely stick with me for a while. And even though the book didn't quite take the paths I was expecting (or wanted) it was certainly gifted with bright pockets of cleverness and wisdom.<br /><br />This was ARC provided by the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Oh how I loved Come Again ❤️ Actor and comedian Robert Webb has written an emotional and witty story of grief, self discovery and time travel and I couldn’t put it down. <br /><br />The characters in this book are wonderful. The main character Kate begins the book in a very dark place, grieving the loss of her husband Luke. 9 months earlier he died suddenly and she still has not come to terms with it. She has pushed her loved ones away, she has been fired from her job and she spends her days and nights drinking herself to sleep. <br /><br />When she wakes one morning back in her 1992 college dorm room she sees a chance to save Luke. She knows that he was sick back then, as a 19 years old student. And this is the day that she firsts meets her future husband. <br /><br />Kate learns a lot about herself, family and friends through this journey. What she has always believed to be true is not exactly how things were. The trip back in time is hilarious, with Kate meeting her friends all over again and trying not to talk about anything that hasn’t already happened in this time period. 90’s fashion and music galore... it is a step back in time for all.<br /><br />A big thank you to Allen and Unwin for my copy of this book to read. All opinions are my own and are in no way biased

Come Again is a cute book. The book starts with Kate's husband, Luke dying. She then wakes up the day she first met Luke. She tries to save him from dying. Can Kate save Luke? Can Kate and Luke fall in love twice even though they are both different people the second time around?<br /><br />Fans of The Two Lives of Lydia Bird will probably like Come Again.<br /><br />Olivia Coleman did a good job narrating and I loved the British accent. Her voice worked well with the story.<br /><br />Thank you NetGalley and Hachette Audio for this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

<img src="https://images.gr-assets.com/hostedimages/1600614552ra/30131669.gif" width="480" height="270" alt="description" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"><br><br><b>UNPOPULAR OPINION COMING THROUGH.</b> <br><br><b>Come Again</b> is <i>supposedly</i> about a woman who loses her husband who she is madly in love with. She accidentally goes back in time, and has to make her husband fall in love with her again, while also trying to save his life from a tumour growing in his brain. The key word is "supposedly," because truthfully, the synopsis only describes about 10% of the book and the events within this section are much different than what we expect to conspire. <b>I would like to say that I <i>at least</i> enjoyed this 10% of the book, but then I'd be lying.</b> <br><br><b>There’s random chunks of information EVERYWHERE,</b> and there’s so many character’s and all of them have a super complex background that takes up like three pages. I love getting to know characters, BUT THEY ARE LITERALLY IN THE BOOK FOR 2 1/2 PAGES, WHY DO I NEED TO KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT THEM? <b>And holy, how, HOW, can these characters still manage to be SO one dimensional when all of this information is given?</b><br><br>In the book, there’s a part where Kate insults her husbands book (he's an author) and says the reason it sucks is because it has no meaning or plot, and in that moment, I just thought, “wow, maybe this book is aware that the exact same thing is happening here.” BECAUSE IT IS. THERE IS NO PLOT OR MEANING, ONE SECOND THERE'S THE RUSSIAN MAFIA, THEN THERE'S SOME DUDE WHO'S SUPPOSEDLY IN LOVE WITH THE MAIN CHARACTER (I did not sign up for a love triangle) AND THEN THERE'S A BUNCH OF RANDOM CHARACTERS THAT DO NOT EFFECT THE PLOT NOR CHARACTERS IN ANY WAY.<br><br><b>In the beginning, I felt this was a spy novel, in the middle, I thought it might be a badly written romance, but in the end, I realized this was just a mess.</b><br><br>I can’t even start to talk about part 3 of this book because I don’t think I’ve ever read anything messier, and let me remind you that I began writing when I was 12, so I’ve read a lot of terrible plotless stuff, but this definitely took the cake.<br><br>I hate writing negative reviews because I know authors pour their souls into their work, but I really feel this needs to be revised WAY more and some irrelevant parts really need to be cut down (70% of this book is info dumps that the reader doesn't need). Aspects need to be more subtle, I knew what the end result would be 20% into the novel which is never a good sign, and foreshadowing should definitely be used. The writing is not like that of a novel. I LOVE descriptions, they really help me dive deeper into the book, and I feel like a movie is playing in my mind as I read, but the descriptions were so plain and boring, I felt as if I were reading a text book, and the movie in my head was non-existent.<br><br>I also don’t think this should be branded to be a romance, but rather, a general fiction because nothing about this book is romance. Seriously, I do not know what was happening. I will not mention anything here because I don’t want to spoil anything, but MANY aspects of the non-existent “romance” (and I mean this quite literally, it was non-existent) was rushed and it was so painfully obvious. <br><br><b>I did like the concept, though I didn’t like how it was executed, but it was still a cool idea and that’s why I requested this book from netgalley in the first place. It's just that I was not given what was promised in the synopsis, and this book felt like it was struggling to find a genre it could conform to.</b> <br><br>After this book, I am officially taking a break from romance books (though as I said previously, I wouldn't classify this as a romance). Well, technically, after I finish reading <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/53174679.Instant_Karma" title="Instant Karma by Marissa Meyer" rel="noopener">Instant Karma</a> by <a href="https://goodreads.com/author/show/4684322.Marissa_Meyer" title="Marissa Meyer" rel="noopener">Marissa Meyer</a> (I can’t resist). Any recommendations for other genres (I'll read anything as long as it's interesting) are welcomed!<br><br><b> <i>Trigger warning: <input type="checkbox" class="spoiler__control" aria-label="The following text has been marked spoiler. Toggle checkbox to reveal or hide." onchange="this.labels[0].setAttribute('aria-hidden', !this.checked);" id="aedea64d-4bad-4a5d-9ab4-76d7bf3df971" /><label aria-hidden="true" class="spoiler" for="aedea64d-4bad-4a5d-9ab4-76d7bf3df971">cheating (technically?)</label>, suicidal thoughts, depression...etc. </i> </b> <br><br><i>Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a review copy. All opinions are my own. </i><br><br><b><a href="https://www.instagram.com/havenofink/" rel="nofollow noopener">instagram</a> | <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/102337987-rayne-ig-havenofink" rel="nofollow noopener">goodreads</a></b></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]>

Come Again is the first novel by award-winning British actor, comedian and author, Robert Webb. Nine months widowed, and all Kate Marsden wants to do is drink herself daily into oblivion, where at least she can dream of Luke. If the dream of their first encounter is never quite right, her memories always are. <br /><br />Since Luke was suddenly taken by a sneaky, slow-growing tumour he’d had since before they met, Kate has withdrawn, merely existed, worked her IT job on auto-pilot. But when her mourning fog momentarily lifts, she uncovers an explosive piece of information: something with far-reaching effects for the world. Trouble is, deciding what to do when you are grief-stricken, suicidal and half-drunk is an undertaking she’s not sure she can face.<br /><br />On reaching the milestone of ten thousand days since they first met, Kate decides the appropriate step is to stop living; just one more Luke dream, and then she’ll take the pills and the vodka. But when Kate wakes, it’s in her single bed in Benedict College, in her eighteen-year-old body, on the day she first met Luke Fairbright, back in October 1992. It’s not a dream. <br /><br />Her immediate instinct is to save Luke: “it was perfectly straightforward. She was going to convince Luke that she was from the future and he needed to get a tumour removed from his brain otherwise he would drop dead at the age of forty-seven in his kitchen, which was incidentally also her kitchen because she was his wife. Fine.”<br /><br />And if that’s not challenge enough, another tiny problem becomes apparent: her forty-five-year-old brain is more irritated than charmed by nineteen-year-old Luke, his lies, affectations and his pretentious manuscript. For his part, Luke is both sceptical and angry about the bizarre and rather disturbing revelations this (clearly crazy) total stranger dumps on him.<br /><br />What an absolute treat Webb’s first novel is! He gives the reader a clever plot, marvellous characters, witty dialogue and an action-packed finale that features Russian thugs, a car chase involving a fleet of London cabbies, an avant-garde Shakespeare production, MI5 and quite a lot of karate. It is filled with generous helpings of brilliant British humour, much of it quite black, especially the insults, though some readers may object to the expletives.<br /><br />Webb’s descriptive prose is wonderfully evocative: “The main body of the bar was the setting of a vast, ongoing brawl between broken tiles, strip-lighting and chipped Formica. The walls were brown, but with that hint of yellow that gives horse manure its element of drama. Around the edges were a series of semi-circular ‘booths’ featuring red plastic banquettes and tiny, quivering tables guaranteed to immediately spill any drink they came into contact with. The metal chair legs had all lost their rubber stoppers years ago and the effect of a hundred of them scraping against the ‘terracotta’ floor was – until you learned to tune it out – what insanity might sound like if it lived with a dentist. It was a room that couldn’t hear itself think and which understood no smells but tobacco and last night’s beer. Kate felt immediately at home.”<br />This is an outstanding debut novel and whatever Webb puts his hand to next will be eagerly anticipated. <br />This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by Allen &amp; Unwin.

It pains me to only give this book a 2 star review.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Part 1: Kate being depressed and suicidal following the death of her husband who she loves with all of her heart. Before deciding to kill herself she has one last sleep....<br /><br />Part 2: Kate awakens back in her 18 year old body, on the day she first meets Luke. She then attempts to repeat all of the same actions but with one difference, this time she will save his life.<br />An excellent story seeing mess ups lead to an appropriate and perfect conclusion.<br /><br />Part 3: This is where it all goes wrong. Kate wakes up present day, she got the tumour removed from luke as a student. BUT LIKE IS STILL DEAD? It changed nothing.<br />THEN a good few chapters were spent on a high speed car chase and fight in a theatre with spies and cabbies and Russian heavies. Totally different from the main thread and frankly had no place in the story.<br />THEN!!! It turns out whilst her husband Luke did die, there's another Luke in America. The same luke but different who is a doctor with a new family and remembers the incident in part 2. Nobody else remembers is in the present only him.<br />AND WHY IS KATE WHO LOVES HIM NOT WITH HIM.<br /><br />IT MAKES NO SENSE.<br />She tries to save his life, does it, her husband is still dead but a new version of her husband is alive with a family in America.... Like what the hell???<br /><br />I expected the book to go 1 of 2 ways<br />1. She will save luke and they'll live happily ever after as he's alive.<br />2. She'll realise she can't save him, go back to find out he's dead still and move on rather than be suicidal.<br /><br /><br />NOPE. LET'S MAKE THE DEAD HUSBAND STILL ALIVE BUT DEAD BUT ALIVE BUT IT'S OKAY BECAUSE YOU HAVE A NEW BOYFRIEND.<br /><br />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.

I was really excited to read Robert Webb's first novel as I'm a fan of his and I really liked How Not To Be A Boy. So I went in fully on his side and hoping to enjoy it, and it was going well.<br /><br />And then he got rid of the one actually interesting plot point (a USB stick with a damning video on it).<br />And I was like <i>mkayy</i><br /><br />And then there was some very on-the-nose political commentary, which kept cropping up.<br />And I was like <i>mkaayy</i><br /><br />And then there was some pretty cringey dialogue.<br />And I was like <i>mkaaayy</i><br /><br />And then the main character travelled back in time.<br />And I was like <i>mkaaaayy</i><br /><br />And then the main character, who's supposed to be really smart, started acting like she was fucking stupid.<br />And I was like <i>mkaaaaayy</i><br /><br />And then York was described as the countryside.<br />And I was like <i>mkaaaayyyy</i><br /><br />And then there was a quick string of pretty bad writing, ending with the main character fainting for no apparent reason. And at that point the penny dropped that unfortunately, Robert Webb just isn't that good at novel-writing, and should probably stick to what he's best at. So I DNFed it. Sorry Robert.

I could just about deal with some of the clunky writing and two-dimensional characters as the initial premise of the story was intriguing. However, it feels very much like the last section of this book was written as a deadline rapidly approached. The tonal shift it undergoes is ill-advised and unsuccessful. It felt as if Webb was trying to throw everything at his narrative in the hope that some of it would be good. A shame, this book could have been so much better.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book but, I was pleasantly surprised. It was a lovely story, very different and the subject matter was a completely different idea. Although at times this book could be sad it didn’t put me off it. The story flowed along well and I found myself picking it up to read a bit more during the day. My thanks to my lovely daughter for lending me this book she said I would enjoy it and she was right.<br /><br /><br />

This is a review of the audiobook for Come Again by Robert Webb, narrated by Olivia Coleman.<br /><br />Come Again is the story of Kate, who has lost her husband to cancer and is reeling from mind-numbing grief. Kate's grief is well written here, and well portrayed by Olivia Coleman. There is an honesty that comes out of raw grief, when you say what's on your mind because you know that nothing but truth really matters anyway. This is captured perfectly in the book. <br /><br />The second part of the book shows Kate, who has attempted suicide, traveling back in time to her 18 year old self. As a time travel fiction buff, I was a little disappointed that the means of time travel was not really shown or discussed. Kate meets her husband all over again. This is a fascinating study of the age old question, "if you could go back again, knowing what you know now, what would you do?" <br /><br />The third part of the book is a sort of spy/thriller, but it does not come out of nowhere as it was set up in part one. <br /><br />I enjoyed this book very much and Olivia Coleman did a great job of portraying the emotions throughout: Heart stopping grief in part one, shock, wonder, and confusion in part two, and then danger and terror in part three.<br /><br />The epilogue was a little confusing and, again, broke some rules of time travel fiction and left some things unexplained.<br /><br />Overall, this is a well written book. The grief of losing a spouse is especially well portrayed. This is a very British book, so I was surprised and a little annoyed at the American political commentary thrown in for no apparent reason . Olivia Coleman does a fantastic job with the narration and gets 5 stars. <br /><br />Overall: 4 stars.<br /><br />I received a free copy of this audiobook from Netgalley. My review is voluntary.