Opposite of Always

Jack King is a nerdy high school senior with a long-running crush on Jillian, who is dating his best friend Franny. Then he meets Kate at a party, and the two fall hard for each other. When Kate dies of sickle cell disease, Jack finds himself pulled back to the night they met, and then pulled back again each time he fails to save her. Nobody else remembers the earlier versions, so every reset means meeting the people he loves for the first time.

As the loops pile up, Jack tries everything he can think of, including raising money for an experimental treatment through choices that test his ethics and his friendships. Each change has consequences, and one of them costs someone else close to him.

Justin A. Reynolds's debut is a young adult romance with a science fiction hook, aimed at readers around 14 and up. It handles grief, loyalty and Kate's illness with warmth and humour, and asks what you owe the people you love when you get to do the worst night of your life over and over.