For my second post of the day I’m pleased to welcome you to my stop on the blog tour for tense and emotive thriller Once Again by Catherine Wallace Hope. Thank you to Anne Cater and Alcove Press for giving me the opportunity to read and review this outstanding book.
About the book:
What if you had the chance to save someone you lost?
Isolated in the aftermath of tragedy, Erin Fullarton has felt barely alive since the loss of her young daughter, Korrie. She tries to mark the milestones her therapist suggests – like this day: the five hundredth – but moving through grief is like swimming against a dark current.
Her estranged husband, Zac, a brilliant astrophysicist, seems to be coping better. Lost in his work, he’s perfecting his model of a stunning cosmological phenomenon, one he predicts will occur on this same day – an event so rare, it keeps him from being able to acknowledge this milestone alongside Erin.
But when Erin receives a phone call from her daughter’s school, the same call she received five hundred days earlier when Karrie was still alive, Erin realises something is happening. Or happening again. Struggling to understand the sudden shifts in time, she pieces together that the phenomenon Zac is tracking may have presented her with the gift of a lifetime: the chance to save her daughter.
As Erin is swept through time, she’s unable to reach Zac or convince the authorities of what is happening. Forced to find the answer on her own, Erin must battle to keep the past from repeating – or risk losing her daughter for good.
About the author:
Award-winner Catherine Wallace Hope grew up in Colorado, the setting for her thriller Once Again. She earned her degree in creative writing at the University of Colorado. She also delved into dance in New York and art and psychology in California. When she returned to Colorado, she became an instructor at the renowned Lighthouse Writers Workshop, offering creativity workshops for writers. Currently, she and her family are living on an island in the Pacific Northwest where they serve at the pleasure of two astonishingly spoiled dogs.
Twitter @catwallacehope
Instagram @catwallacehope
My Review:
As I’ve mentioned many times before on my blog, Time Travel fiction is one of my favourite genres of books to read. And recently I’ve been lucky enough to have been given the opportunity to read several new books with a time travel element, all of which have been wonderful stories in their own right. But oh my goodness, Once Again by Catherine Wallace Hope is completely different to any other book I’ve ever read. It combines a fast paced and exciting thriller with themes of grief and loss, making for an exceptionally well written and emotive read that had me gripped from beginning to end.
The book begins 500 days after the tragic loss of Erin’s daughter, Korrie. Struggling to come to terms with her grief, Erin takes her therapists advice and tries to mark each milestone of her loss. But Erin feels as though she’s drowning in her grief and doesn’t know how she will ever be able to move forward with her life. Her pain is palpable as she desperately tries to cope with not only the death of her young daughter, but also the unimaginable way she died. I don’t want to say too much for fear of spoiling the story, but I felt the rawness of Erin’s loss, my heart aching for her as she tries to cling on to the memory of her daughter.
Erin is now estranged from her husband, a brilliant astrophysicist, who on the surface appears to be coping better with the loss of his daughter. Lost in his work, he is perfecting his model of a stunning cosmological phenomenon, one he predicts will occur on the 500th day of Korrie’s death, an event that prevents him from being able to acknowledge this milestone alongside his devastated wife.
But then Erin receives a phone call from Korrie’s school, the exact same call she received five hundred days earlier when her daughter was still alive. Struggling to understand what is happening, she comes to the realisation that the phenomenon Zac is tracking may have presented her with the gift of a lifetime, a gift she can hardly believe is actually happening: the chance to save her daughter.
What follows is a tense and gripping thriller that had me on the edge of my seat throughout. Will Erin be able to save Korrie? Or is she about to lose her daughter all over again? Unable to convince anyone that time is repeating, Erin has only herself to rely on as she does everything in her power to prevent the unimaginable from happening to her daughter once again.
Oh wow, what a suspense filled and emotive read Once Again is! Catherine Wallace Hope’s writing is powerful as we are swept away on a tsunami of fear and emotion, feeling every second of Erin’s desperation as she clings on to the hope that maybe, just maybe, things will turn out differently this time. I was breathless with anticipation as Erin is swept through time, with the past, present and future all blurring together, sometimes all at the same time. I have to admit I didn’t understand the astrophysics behind what was happening, but that really didn’t matter as the story was so powerful I couldn’t stop reading until the very last page had been turned.
Once Again is a unique and exciting debut thriller that I absolutely adored! Catherine Wallace Hope is an author I will most definitely be looking out for in the future. I can’t wait to read whatever she comes up with next! A stunning read that I would highly recommend.
Once Again by Catherine Wallace Hope is available to purchase now: Amazon UK
Check out what these other wonderful bloggers have to say about this book:
Cal Turner Reviews 
@calturner, after a gloomy morning with wind and drizzle, the sun has finally come out here on the island where I live — at the same time that I’m reading your review. Coincidence? 🙂 Seriously, I thank you so much for your thoughts about Once Again. It’s so reassuring for an author to read encouraging words like yours. I’m so grateful.
—cwh
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Thanks for the blog tour support Cal x
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