The Repeat Year
Written by Andrea Lochen
Narrated by Amy McFadden
3.5/5
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About this audiobook
Everyone has days, weeks, even months they wish they could do over—but what about an entire year? After living through the worst twelve months of her life, intensive care nurse Olive Watson is given a second chance to relive her past and attempt to discover where she went wrong.…
After a year of hardships, including a messy breakup with her longtime boyfriend, Phil, the prospect of her mother’s remarriage, and heartbreaking patient losses at the hospital, Olive is ready to start fresh. But when she wakes up in her ex-boyfriend’s bed on New Year’s Day 2011—a day she has already lived—Olive’s world is turned upside down.
Shouldering a year of memories that no one else can recall, even Olive begins to question herself—until she discovers that she is not alone. Upon crossing paths with Sherry Witan, an experienced “repeater,” Olive learns that she has the chance to rewrite her future. Given the opportunity of a lifetime, Olive has to decide what she really wants. Should she make different choices, or accept her life as she knows it, flaws and all?
Andrea Lochen
Andrea Lochen earned her Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Michigan. While there, she won a Hopwood Novel Award for a draft of The Repeat Year. She currently lives in suburban Milwaukee with her husband and teaches Creative Writing at the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha.
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Reviews for The Repeat Year
22 ratings6 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I received a copy of The Repeat Year: A Novel by Andrea Lochen in exchange for an honest review.
Olive woke up on New Year’s Day of 2011 – but it should really be 2012… What a concept, don’t we sometimes wish that we could do that, get a chance to do over a really bad year, I bet most of us have had at least one of those!
The concept of this book was really wonderful and I liked that there were some twists that I could not have predicted, but I found it hard to understand Olive’s behavior and actually I found she was quite selfish sometimes, but at least she had the opportunity to put it right somewhat. Olive’s boyfriend Phil was one of the more likeable characters in the book, as well as Olive’s mom Kathy, who was trying to keep her children happy while trying to move on after the death of her husband.
The characters were well developed and I would totally recommend this book to anyone, it puts a lot of life into perspective. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I received a copy of The Repeat Year: A Novel by Andrea Lochen in exchange for an honest review.
Olive woke up on New Year’s Day of 2011 – but it should really be 2012… What a concept, don’t we sometimes wish that we could do that, get a chance to do over a really bad year, I bet most of us have had at least one of those!
The concept of this book was really wonderful and I liked that there were some twists that I could not have predicted, but I found it hard to understand Olive’s behavior and actually I found she was quite selfish sometimes, but at least she had the opportunity to put it right somewhat. Olive’s boyfriend Phil was one of the more likeable characters in the book, as well as Olive’s mom Kathy, who was trying to keep her children happy while trying to move on after the death of her husband.
The characters were well developed and I would totally recommend this book to anyone, it puts a lot of life into perspective. - Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Life normally doesn't come with "do-overs" or second chances, but Olive Watson and Sherry Witan are given the opportunity to relive one year, 2011. Will they be able to make the most of this second chance or will they make the same mistakes all over again in The Repeat Year by Andrea Lochen.Olive Watson is a young twenty-something. She's relatively debt-free, has a well-paying job as a nurse in the intensive care unit at a local hospital. She has close friends, a loving boyfriend, and is close to her mother and brother. Olive has been dating Phil for almost four years, but a series of incidents led to a separation then breakup. This was followed by her mother's engagement announcement and remarriage, which Olive doesn't take very well since it's only been a few short years after her father's death. Olive goes to bed on New Year's Eve 2011 in what was admittedly the worst year of her life after the year her father died. She expects to awaken on January 1, 2012 but awakens to January 1, 2011. At first she thinks she's crazy and just experiencing a weird deja vu moment, but she quickly learns that she is repeating 2011 . . . her nightmare year. Fortunately, there's someone to provide her with a little guidance, her mother's friend - Sherry Witan. Sherry tells Olive that she isn't quite sure why these repeat years or second chances are offered, but she's being given an opportunity to change the mistakes of the past and hopefully move forward to a better year.I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I started reading The Repeat Year. At first I thought it was going to be like the movie Groundhog Day with Bill Murray, but this isn't repeating the same day over-and-over to get it right. Olive is forced to relive an entire year and hopefully make better choices. After I overcame my preconceived notions of what to expect, I actually enjoyed The Repeat Year. Olive and Sherry aren’t perfect women. They are simply people that have made mistakes, some large, some small, and some life-changing. But unlike most of us, they've been allowed the opportunity to correct those mistakes, stop being judgmental (of themselves more so than anyone else) and to accept life and love with all of the inherent flaws. I found The Repeat Year to be a fast-paced read about self-discovery, acceptance, and tolerance. The characters were well developed and quite realistic. If you want a great read for a lazy afternoon, then I suggest The Repeat Year. Ms. Lochen has provided a story that offers a little bit of romance, a little bit of humor, some soul searching, and some family drama in an entertaining package.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A unique story of second chances in another dimension.What would you do if you awoke one day and realized you were given a chance to repeat your previous year, without having a choice in the matter? Meet Olive Watson in The Repeat Year, a single just out of college ICU nurse who wakes up New Year's Day in what is supposed to be 2012, only to learn after much confusion and distress that she is repeating the previous year. The year when she cheated on her boyfriend Phil, a school teacher who never forgave her for destroying their relationship. The year when her mother a widow, who has been grieving for a few years marries Harry, a man who just doesn't live up to Olive's expectations or her dead father. But will Olive actually repeat this year exactly as her last?In this novel Lochen gives the reader a thought-provoking story which leaves the reader wondering what Olive might do differently throughout her repeat year. Will she be tempted with the same fate? Will her relationships remain the same? Because Olive has full memory of her previous year it strains her relationship with her boyfriend, as well as the relationship of her best friend Kerrigan.I really like this story and its uniqueness is what drew me in from the start. I found the characters being well-developed by Lochen and she gives the reader plenty of time with each character throughout the story to form a connection. What we are left with is a sense that even during a repeat year, life can be just as difficult as the previous. That truly the most important aspects of life are our relationships with others and that how we treat others during our lifetime is what matters most in the end.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Won this in a GR giveaway. Easy read. Found the ending predictable but cannot understand the immediate understanding and forgiveness of Kerrigan. I couldn't get my mind to stop wanting to have the concept of "repeat years" concretely explained.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Repeat Year is Andrea Lochen's debut novel. Olive Watson wakes up on what she thinks is New Year's Day 2012. But it seems that somehow it's January 1 2011 - again. Olive has already lived this year - and it wasn't her finest. She made some mistakes, hurt some people, damaged some friendships and struggled at work. If it's really a repeat year, can she go back and do things the way she should have? Make sure she doesn't make the same mistakes? Will her changes affect other's lives? For the better? Or worse? Lochen has come up with a good premise. What would you change if you could go back and redo a year? Olive's focus is her relationship with her boyfriend Phil. She made a mistake that cost her this relationship the first time around and is determined to not lose him this year. But, somehow I just never connected with Olive. All the right character attributes are there, but I found her to be selfish and self absorbed despite her avowal of setting things rights. Another 'repeater' (and I must say I found this just a tad too serendipitous) with connections to Olive's family is battling cancer. Olive promises to check in on her many times, but forgets or doesn't bother more than once. The characters I did enjoy were Phil and Olive's mother Kathy. They seemed truly interested in other's feelings and more 'real'. Kathy seems to have moved forward after the death of her husband with grace. While I initially enjoyed the light hearted friend Kerrigan, her actions towards Olive at the end of the book seemed to be too easily accepted and explained away. I'm quite pragmatic, so I did have a problem with everyone accepting that this repeat year was something that could actually happen. But, the Repeat Year does spark the reader's own 'what if' scenarios. So, although we can't go back in time, going forward and making reparations is an alternative. Tuck this one in your beach bag for some light summer reading.