A review by lisibee815
The Backtrack by Erin La Rosa

4.0

Sam and Damon were close friends in high school; Damon wanted to be closer but Sam was afraid of breaking his heart when she inevitably felt compelled to leave town just like her estranged mother. Now she's back home to help her grandmother move out of the family home, and Sam finds her old CD player with the last mix tape Damon made for her inside. Turns out it is a time-travel/possessed/haunted CD player showing Sam an alternate timeline with Damon. (Suspend disbelief, please, you'll have a lot more fun than over-analyzing why or how this is happening, especially since it's never explained.) Over time and as Sam is shown various stages of their alternate timeline romance, she realizes that she may have had a happier life if she'd made a different choice with Damon back in high school. But is that really true, and is it ever too late for happiness? I'm sure we all have those things or people we wonder "What if?" about, and I absolutely loved this concept! I also loved the idea of music being the vehicle of choice for showing the alternate timeline, and the author captured the feel of the early 'aughts very well. The childhood friends to lovers trope is my kryptonite, and it works well here. And while this isn't a second chance romance in the traditional sense I think it was close enough to make this a wonderful redemptive romance. Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC of this story in exchange for my honest review! I gave it 4 stars here but it's closer to 4.5 stars.