The Time Traveler’s Wife meets Oona Out of Order in this imaginative and moving debut novel of a love more powerful than time. Melissa Baron’s time-crossed romance features a quintessentially endearing and brave protagonist, and an engrossing plot that will keep you turning pages until its breathtaking finish.

Mental illness, suicidal thoughts.

Isla has fled the city for small-town Missouri in the wake of a painful and exhausting year. With her chronic anxiety at a fever pitch, the last thing she expects is to meet a genuine romantic prospect. And she doesn’t. But she does get a text from a man who seems to think he’s her husband. Obviously, a wrong number—except when she points this out, the mystery texter sends back a picture. Of them—on their wedding day.

Isla cautiously starts up a texting relationship with her maybe-hoax, maybe-husband Ewan, who claims to be reaching out from a few years into the future. Ewan knows Isla incredibly well, and seems to love her exactly as she is, which she can hardly fathom. But he’s also grieving, because in the future, he and Isla are no longer together.

Ewan is texting back through time to save her from a fate he is unwilling to share—and all she can do to prevent that fate is to learn to be happy, now, in the body she has, with the mind she has. The only trouble is the steps she takes in that direction might be steps away from a future with Ewan.

Melissa Baron’s time-crossed romance features a quintessentially endearing and brave protagonist, and an engrossing plot that will keep you turning pages until its breathtaking finish.

Don't just take our word for it...

“Twice in a Lifetime is an epic, sweeping, gorgeous romance book that should be on everyone’s TBR list. I could not put this one down, and didn’t want it to end!”
—Erin La Rosa, author of For Butter or Worse

“Blending speculative fiction and romance . . . A good fit for readers interested in exploring a character’s inner life, dusted with a light amount of sci-fi.”
– Library Journal

“I adored this clever and touching novel about grief, hope, and the choices we make in the name of love. Funny, fresh, and at times heartbreaking, it kept me guessing right up to the final pages. By turns devastating and joyful—much like love—this is a truly special book.”
—Holly Miller, bestselling author of The Sight of You

Taste the very first page

The text came through at 8:33 pm.

Isla saw the notification pop up on her laptop and promptly ignored it. She didn’t recognize the number, and she was already on the phone anyway. And also busy logging back in to her work desktop, under extreme duress, to request time off.

“Did you do it?”

“Yes, m’lady,” Isla said. She had no idea why Willow had woken up this morning determined to lock down Isla’s plans for a birthday three months away, but a promise was a promise. “I will come back for my birthday. I just put in the time- off request.”

“Excellent. I’m making dinner reservations, and I need to do it now, because I’ll forget and then it’ll be too late to grab a table.”

“This sounds like a fancy date, Will.”

“For your thirtieth birthday? It has to be.”

Isla smiled, letting her closest friend’s warmth chase away the cool edges of gloom. “Are you still visiting me on Friday? I don’t have any fancy dinners planned, I’m afraid…

December 2022