Alfie Logan's mom died when he was just a youngster. The trauma of losing his mom turned on a strange power in him. Alfie woke up the next morning and discovered his mom hadn't actually died. She noticed his confusion and knew what had happened because she had the same ability, an ability that gave the possessor the power to travel back in time and get a redo. As she explained it, "This is something you're going to be able to do the rest of your life. Get second chances...It's a gift. A power. Some people in our family get it...But it won't fix everything, Alfie. The second time won't always be better than the first. Don't try to change everything, OK? Don't correct every mistake. Don't take advantage of people. Don't use your power for money. Be careful."
So do something stupid? Jump back before the stupid action and just not do that. But you only do that for each event once. So if you went back and changed something and it didn't work out you couldn't go back again.
Alfie's grandmother also had this time travel ability. And she warned Alfie that if he cheats on a lover and then tries to time jump to set things right, the person he cheated on would never love him again, no matter what.
Given that Alfie inherited this ability at a very young age, he naturally used it for silly things. But he also found out that he could not prevent someone from dying. No matter how he changed the circumstances, the person will still die. Of a different cause, but they would still die. He learned this when he tried to save a friend who enlisted in the military. The man was up for two positions, one on a ship and the other at a training center. He chose the ship duty because it sounded more exciting. But that ship was attacked and he died. So Alfie went back in time and talked his friend in signing up for the training position instead. But friend died anyway, in an accident, on the same day and at the same time.
Back when Alfie was a kid, he had a friend who was a girl that he really liked but her family moved away. But they reconnected as teens and Alfie fell in love with her and used his power to get closer to her, but not particularly successfully. Eventually though, it all worked out and they moved in together. Marriage followed and then the girl, Gianna started talking about wanting to have kids. Alfie was not keen on the idea, though. They cooled off toward each other.
Alfie got involved with another woman and when that affair ended, he did his usual time jump to reset everything but discovered his grandmother was right. Gianna no longer cared about him and had reconnected with an old boyfriend. The marriage was over.
Forward a few years and Alfie is in trouble with the police because he used his time travel ability to win big at a casino to the tune of two million dollars and he had wired the two million dollars to his ex-wife, Gianna, implicating her what the police viewed as cheating trick pulled on the casino. Now they are both being questioned by the police, even though Alfie assures them she is not involved. Gianna denies all knowledge of Alfie's casino shenanigans but also says she and Alfie were never lovers, were never married and she has no idea why he would wire all that money to her.
The whole story is framed inside a notebook written by Alfie, the story of his life. The times he used his magic power to reset time, to improve his life, to correct mistakes but mainly to pursue and win the love of Gianna that he stupidly threw away for a faithless other woman. He presents this notebook to the investigator who is interviewing him after the casino incident. As he is led away in handcuffs he tells the detective to finish reading the notebook and it will answer all his questions about the money and the casino and why it all happened.
This was a fascinating story about how even second chances are not enough to make things right. I think the author gave this story a lot of thought. He made his hero a person of good character because, in the hands of an evil person, a power like Alfie's could cause a lot of chaos in the world. Alfie uses his power in fairly harmless ways. For instance to impress a girl who is likes a certain song, he time jumps back to learn the song and how to play the piano so that when he encounters this girl later, he can impress her by playing and singing it for her.
I really enjoyed this story even though the premise is so wacky.
The author is a very successful writer and several of his books have been made into movies. It is in the works for Twice to also be made into a movie.
Here is a review of the book by Kirkus Reviews.
