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The Cassandra Complex - Holly Smale

 



Description

'This book is a treasure ... Everyone should read it and everyone will love it' Lindsey Kelk
'Witty, touching and totally absorbing' Graeme Simsion
'Sharp, funny, quirky, insightful and so very, very relatable' Joanne Harris
'Deeply human, wildly original, and gut-warmingly funny' Emma Jane Unsworth
'A brilliantly clever, twisty story that dazzles with its wit whilst touching our hearts' Sarah Haywood
___________________

Cassandra Penelope Dankworth is a creature of habit.

She likes what she likes (museums, jumpsuits, her boyfriend Will) and strongly dislikes what she doesn't (mess, change, her boss drinking out of her mug). Her life runs in a pleasing, predictable order. Until now.

She's just been dumped.
She's just been fired.
Her local café has run out of banana muffins.

Then, something truly unexpected happens: Cassie discovers she can go back and change the past.

Now, Cassie should be able to find a way to fix the life she accidentally obliterated. And with time on her side, how hard can it be...?

The hotly anticipated adult novel from the multi-million-copy bestselling author of Geek Girl, Holly Smale.

Review

A slow start, but turns into a beautiful gem of a book.

I love time travel books. When this book began it was more in the vein of GroundHog Day, of which I am less of a fan. It's been done before and it gets tedious re reading the same day over. Except it turned out that it didn't happen like that in this book at all.

The main character Cassandra does what a lot of people would like to do, and tells it like it is, literally to everyone. She's just been dumped and fired, so by going back in time she can change that, and make sure there are banana muffins. The book also references a lot of Greek mythology in relation to the plot line, which I found really interesting.
 
Then came the butterfly effect. Do the things she changes when she goes back in time affect the future time line. Considering at times she goes back every few minutes it certainly gets confusing for her. How can she remember what happened the first, second or third time she altered the past? Maybe she should just channel her Greek namesake and let everyone know the future that awaits them?

I love it when a book becomes so good you just can't put it down, and that's exactly what happened with this one. Cassandra is a joy but a little sad at times. As I finished the book I realised just how thought provoking it was and that Cassandra will stay with me for a very long time.

I'm giving this book 5 out of 5 stars.

The Cassandra Complex is published on 11 May. My thanks to negalley for the ARC to review.

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