The Romance Rewind

Everett (Some Other Now) blends speculative dreamscape shenanigans with 1990s rom-com elements across a buoyant love story in the vein of While You Were Sleeping. Seventeen-year-old Zadie seems to have it all: stellar grades, a likely Princeton acceptance, and a picture-perfect boyfriend, Jason, captain of the soccer team. That image shatters when Jason abruptly breaks up with her on their anniversary—and the night ends with a car accident that leaves him in a coma. Reluctant to reveal their split, Zadie claims that Jason gave her a promise ring prior to the incident, a tale everyone believes, except Jason’s cousin Marcus. Complications mount when Zadie and Marcus begin having shared dreams, during which they revisit the arc of Zadie and Jason’s relationship. Marcus begrudgingly agrees to help Zadie uncover what went wrong between her and Jason before he wakes, and through these nocturnal adventures, Zadie begins to question her feelings for Jason, confronts what she truly wants in love, and realizes she may have been chasing the wrong guy all along. Language that is equal parts humorous, fantastical, and heartening renders Zadie’s fully realized first-person POV, along which she grapples with matters of the heart as well as grief. Zadie is Black; Jason and Marcus cue as white. Ages 14–up. Agent: Suzie Townsend, New Leaf Literary. (June)