The Memo by Rachel Dodes, Lauren Mechling

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Rating: 3.5/5

Spice: 0

Primary Genre: Women’s Fiction

Plot: 4.5/5

Trigger Warnings: Emotional abuse, toxic relationship, toxic friendship, abandonment, drug use

Favorite Quote: No matter how hard I pounded the dough, I was never quite able to knead away the sense that I was committed to a guy who would never be fully committed to me.

Blurb:

If you could rewrite your life story, would you dare? That’s the question at the heart of this charming and propulsive debut novel about love, life, and a woman finding herself and what it means to be happy and successful. Do you ever feel like your life doesn’t measure up to everyone else’s—and wonder if you just didn’t get the memo helping you make the right choices? Jenny Green dreads her upcoming college reunion. Once top of her class, the thirty-five-year-old finds herself stuck in a life that isn’t the one she expected. Her promising career has flamed out (literally) and her deadbeat boyfriend is cheating on her (again). All her friends seem to have it all figured it out, enjoying glittering lives and careers that she can only envy from the sidelines. Did she just not get the memo they all did? As it turns out, she didn’t! When she arrives at her alma mater for the festivities, she receives a text from an unlisted number. “Jenny please collect your memo.” Somewhere on campus, a discreet female-led organization provides comprehensive memos to select students, a set of instructions that are a blueprint for success. The first time around, Jenny didn’t receive hers. Now, she’s being given the second chance she wants—an opportunity to relive her life and make all the right decisions this time around. But at what price? Smart, addictive, bittersweet, and ultimately triumphant, The Memo will enchant readers of In Five Years and Cassandra in Reverse as well as fans of Emma Straub and Maria Semple.

The Good:

* I found this book to be very smart and witty. While I didn’t necessarily feel like I “liked” the characters, I was certainly entertained by them.

* I really liked the time travel element of being able to go back in time and change certain past events to improve the future. It was interesting to see the side effects of what Jenny does in the past and how it effects her present.

* I loved the female support and friendship themes throughout the book

* There’s some pretty amazing character development for Jenny in this book. She comes a long way in her relationship with her mother, as well as becoming willing to let go of her toxic relationship

The Meh: 

* I wish that the timehops were more in depth, they seemed to be abbreviated at times and I felt like they could have been explored more deeply

* I don’t really understand Jenny reconciling with Leigh’s character. The past and present interactions with Leigh seem mostly negative. If she were my college friend, I’d probably just let that friendship go. Especially with the whole doing drugs/selling drugs thing.

* I would have liked to see some gold old-fashioned vengeance regarding how the Consortium seems to have grossly mishandled several lives.

Bottom Line: 

I thoroughly enjoyed this read. It’s always an interesting concept to consider. If you could go back and change things, would you? I think that this was really well done. Self-deprecating yet funny. Not incredibly sad or depressing with a focus on the power of friendship. I would definitely recommend, especially to someone who likes time travel books.

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