A review by cakt1991
The Backtrack by Erin La Rosa

4.0

 I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley. Review based on final copy. All opinions are my own. 

The Backtrack is another fun romance from Erin La Rosa with a solid, fairly unique premise. With the rise of nostalgic, time-warp romances in the vein of 13 Going on 30, I’ve often felt they’ve been missing the mutual character and romantic development on both leads’ part, and worse, rendering a lot of the progress moot. This one, while still more in the vein of the “modern romcom,” in being single POV, subverted this through the power of a magic CD player and mixtape, allowing for brief glimpses into an alternate reality to see what might have been, without completely dispensing with the “real” reality entirely. And as someone who was mildly into alternative music as a teenager and has embraced it more with the revival of pop-punk today, I loved the references to bands of the time, and how they literally provided a portal to the past. 

Sam is easy to root for. She’s moved away from her town, but she’s summoned back when her Grandma Pearl is injured. She has a lot of painful childhood memories she’s been running from that she’s now forced to confront, and I appreciate how this particular plotline was discussed. 

While the reader isn’t given insights into Damon’s perspective, I think it works here, and he felt fairly well fleshed out. Through Sam, I understood her complex feelings about Damon, and her questions about “what if?” The flashbacks, exploring what could have happened if she’d made a different choice, and how things might have turned out for them further contextualized their relationship in actual reality in a beautiful way, and made me root for them the second time around. 

This was an enjoyable read that pleasantly surprised me. I’d recommend it to readers looking for a contemporary romance that captures the nostalgic vibes of the 2000s.