REVIEW: Five First Chances by Sarah Jost

Five First Chances by Sarah Jost: In a ground-hog day meets back to the love future fashion, we explore Lou’s life as she navigates a time loop of self-discovery, love and difficult choices that will hopefully shape her into the human she believes she can become.

Beginning at Nick’s funeral, Lou stumbles her way through trying to not feel like the imposter she is and before long is absorbed by a panic attack that thrusts her back in time to the moment she initially believes her life went pear shaped. Interestingly though, her perfect happily ever after is not the journey she ends up choosing for herself, and with a complex combo of tears and laughter, we explore what it means to truly find yourself.

With a bit of a stilted start and what appeared to be a fairly banal central character, this slow burn took unpredictable turns and managed to cover some dark thematic scope that certainly wasn’t evident in the first 4 -5 chapters. In this sense, it is recommended that you plow on through as Lou’s character develops along-side each thread of choices, and it isn’t until the last few chapters that the full sense of who she is and what she is really about comes to light.

Whilst not easy by any stretch, this one does have some challenging moments and with some management of care, sisterhood, romance and terminal illness, there are no stones unturned and sadly, not punches pulled. If you can navigate the start and fall into the can’t-put-it-down rhythm this one is definitely worth it.

Book Info:

Publication: 18th April 2023 | Sourcebooks Landmark |

Lou feels like she is stuck on the wrong path: alone, in a city far from home, watching other people be happy. When the man she’s in love with announces his engagement to someone else, Lou is consumed by ‘what ifs’.

That’s when she finds herself slipping back in time to a night two years ago, where one small decision changed everything…

Suddenly, Lou has a chance to fix her mistakes. But as her choices lead her down roads she never could have imagined, she finds herself stuck in a time loop of her own making. And with each slip, Lou notices her life intersecting with one person again and again. A friend of a friend who once lived on the periphery, who is slowly becoming the one person who makes her feel like she might finally be on the right track.

Lou is about to realize that our greatest love stories aren’t always the ones we expected, but are the ones we choose to fight for.