Story for the Week
I take a certain amount of twisted pleasure in stealing my daughter’s friends. At this moment, she has three friends she texts regularly who we also have multiple group texts with, AND I have individual texts with each of those friends without Corinne. 🤫 She knows I text them. I just like to give her a hard time about it.
Stolen friend #1 is Aly, who grew up two houses down from ours. She has been such a presence in our lives that she calls me “segunda madre” (second mother)…even has me programmed in her phone that way. She IS like a daughter to me and a sister to Corinne. My husband Dennis even had a special greeting for her, and she used to tease him about his “Victoria’s Secret.” Over the years, she’s taken multiple vacations with us, and there are definitely more in our future.
In addition to my personal text chat with her, we have two group chats together—one for Survivor, which also includes Corinne and one of Aly’s best friends, and one for Disney cruises, which includes Corinne and my best friend.
When Aly and Corinne were younger (and before Sam’s Club had its Scan & Go feature or curbside pickup), I liked to go for early shopping hours. I don’t like getting up early on a weekend, but I dislike crowds a whole lot more. Corinne never went with me. Aly always went with me.
Jakub, stolen friend #2, met Corinne in middle school, and they didn’t really like each other. Now, they’re practically inseparable. In fact, during a recent bout of bad weather when Jakub’s power was out at home and it was brutally hot, he came over here and slept on our pull-out couch because we still had power and AC.
He has been our go-to a couple of times to keep an eye on the dogs when we’re on vacation. He sneaks into the house to leave flowers for me. And he and I hung out more than once while Corinne was in Liverpool for her semester abroad. He gave me the nickname Mumsy Nancy, and Corinne cringes anytime I call him Baby Jakub in response.
Besides my private text with Jakub, he, Corinne, and I have a group text together called “Mumsy and her favorites.” And we recently created a group chat called 2026 Disney cruise (also including my best friend) because, while Aly can’t go on the cruise we have planned next year, Jakub will be going.
My most recently stolen friend is Raena, who Corinne met during her semester in Liverpool. Raena attends a different school than Corinne, but they were both part of their respective school’s global program this year, and they became fast friends. Raena traveled to Poland with Corinne so she wouldn’t have to go alone, and we’re already planning some group activities.
Raena and Aly are both avid readers, so when I discovered that there’s a massive Barnes & Noble where Raena goes to school, I joked with Corinne that Aly, Jakub, and I would be planning a weekend, and if she couldn’t get the weekend off of work, we would go without her. I also recently saw a video of the Barnes & Noble that opened in Wicker Park in October 2024. Now Raena has a reason to come visit us in Chicago…besides coming to see me, of course.
I started texting Raena privately when I sent a Valentine’s Day gift to Corinne in Liverpool, and I wanted to make sure she picked it up. So I told Raena about it. Since then, we have regularly tortured Corinne by telling her how much we text privately and by sending one another embarrassing pictures we have of Corinne. As Corinne’s mom, I obviously have a lot of pictures to share. 😁
Even though my theft of Raena only occurred recently, we still have two group texts as well as a private text. With Corinne, Raena chose the name “Nancy 4 Life ✊🏼.” She also created a group text with everyone in their friend group called “Liverpool Family Chat,” and originally Corinne wasn’t allowed in. 🤣 So I guess, from that perspective, I stole Raena along with three other friends from Liverpool. And they all wished me a Happy Mother’s Day before Corinne did. 🤔
In a book I finished recently, the main character tells her father that she wanted to hang out with him, “not that I wanted you to steal my friends and follow me around New York.” I enjoy stealing Corinne’s friends…and I think she secretly enjoys it too. 😉
Book Review
⭐⭐⭐⭐
4 Stars for Rewind to Us by Molly Morris
336 pages
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Publication Date: June 17, 2025
I received an advance copy of this title from NetGalley and Wednesday Books.
Publisher’s Description
Dixie Mulligan only has one plan for her annual California vacation this summer—to tell her best friend Sawyer that she’s in love with him.
It doesn’t matter that things between them technically fell apart over spring break, and they haven’t spoken since—until Dixie arrives and realizes Sawyer has moved on (a fact made very apparent when she sees him kissing, um, someone else).
Luckily, Dixie and her family have each been gifted with a Rewind. All Dixie has to do is go back and redo the moment she thinks doomed hers and Sawyer’s relationship before it even began.
But when family secrets start pouring out, Dixie’s not so sure even her Rewind will be enough to save what she and Sawyer had. Is the damage already done, or can she turn back the clock and give them one more chance?
************
Main Characters:
- Dixie Mulligan – lives in New York, recently graduated high school with plans to study film at NYU in the fall along with her best friend Sawyer; spends her summers in Cielo Springs, California, with her aunt and cousin working in her aunt’s movie theater, The Triple Star (The Trip)
- Sawyer Cook – lives in Cielo Springs, he and Dixie met four years ago through her cousin and have been best friends ever since, also works at The Trip, plans to study at NYU
- Kate Mulligan – Dixie’s aunt who owns The Trip, mom to Bunny
- Bunny Mulligan – his real name is Benjamin, Kate’s son and Dixie’s cousin, also works at The Trip, a year behind Dixie in school even though their birthdays are only a few months apart, she gave him his nickname because everyone called him Benny
- Claire – goes to school with Bunny and Sawyer; works at The Trip; Dixie and Sawyer would always joke about how she went to Los Angeles for the Cats movie premiere, but Dixie thinks she’s nauseatingly sweet and perfect
- Harvey – Dixie’s dad’s assistant for the summer, painfully shy and awkward around Dixie
- Charlie and Mich Roman – married film stars who fell in love on the set of Dixie and Sawyer’s favorite film The Middle, Charlie wrote and directed the movie which Mich starred in, Dixie and Sawyer feel they have sold out to the streaming industry, recently signed an exclusive deal with a streaming company and said “the movie theater is dead”
I spend a lot of time reading adult fiction. (I am an adult, after all.) But there are times when I just want a fun, sweet read, and young adult fiction almost always delivers. I had not read Molly Morris before Rewind to Us, but she’ll definitely be added to my list of young adult authors. This story brings a little bit of romance, a little bit of magic, and a lot of teenage angst.
Dixie comes from the long line of the Mulligan clan, and their family’s secret history is based on the idea most of us would recognize as a golf term for “taking a mulligan”—an extra stroke that doesn’t count against your score. Everyone in the Mulligan family is eligible to take a single mulligan, which they call a Rewind.
“The fundamental rule of Rewinds is that each member of the Mulligan family gets only one. The purpose of allowing just a single chance to redo a moment from the last 365 days is meant to encourage careful consideration, though some argue it’s down to stinginess.”
There are additional rules for the Rewinds. Only members of the family who hold the last name Mulligan are eligible. A Mulligan must submit an application for their Rewind, which can only include a moment they were directly involved in. They must view a video of the outcome of their Rewind, but it only shows their point of view. Any Mulligan family member impacted by someone’s Rewind is delivered an Impact Report the day before the Rewind takes place. The Rewind automatically occurs four days after the video unless the original applicant cancels the request.
There’s enormous pressure to use your Rewind wisely. A Rewind will change the course of anything that happened after the moment of the Rewind. The Mulligans themselves may retain faint memories of the world as it was before the Rewind, but non-Mulligans have no recollection of a different reality. Talk about a butterfly effect!
Each chapter of the book starts with a short excerpt from the Mulligan family history, which is an effective way of introducing the power and impact of the Rewind. The story is told from Dixie’s first-person point of view, and she has a lot going on this last summer before college.
She and Sawyer haven’t spoken since she ghosted him in April, while he was in New York for a Spring Break trip. She had a huge blow-up with her parents before she left for Cielo Springs. There was a fire at The Trip, so everyone is going to spend the summer fixing things up so that Kate can re-open before Sawyer and Dixie head off to college. Oh…and Dixie has decided that she is finally going to tell Sawyer that she loves him.
Obviously there will be (at least) one Rewind. What could possibly go wrong?
There are quite a few surprises in this story, and I don’t want to give any of them away. I love the relationships between Dixie and Sawyer, Dixie and Bunny. Even Dixie and Kate have a few nice heart-to-hearts. There’s lots of movie talk since Dixie and Sawyer both love movies and Kate owns a movie theater, even though there’s a lot of disagreement about what to watch on movie nights.
At one point, Kate suggests going fully cliche, bad nineties or a musical. This is where the author shows off her talent with dialog.
“If you say Grease, I’m leaving right now,” I say.
My aunt knows every single word to that kitschy monstrosity, and has gone as Olivia Newton-John in her hot-girl phase for Halloween more times than I care to admit.
Kate gives me a look, “You know I’m gonna say Grease.”
“Barf,” Bunny, Sawyer, and I groan in unison.
“What’s wrong with Grease?” Kate huffs.
“Everything,” Sawyer says. “The songs suck, everybody looks like they’re forty, and the characters have the most basic, two-D personalities ever. One girl’s personality is just food. Literally. The only thing we know about her is she likes to eat.”
“Yeah, but it’s fun,” Kate says. “Can’t something just be about joy?”
I mean…none of them are wrong. 🤣
This story delves into family relationships, personal relationships, and even understanding yourself…how you view the world and how the world views you. Overlapped onto all of it is the idea of what someone would do if they could take one thing back. We’ve all had those moments, and it would be amazing to have that option. But if you only get one, how do you know if you’re choosing the right one?
It will make you smile. It will make you think. And it’s a really nice way to spend a few hours of your time. Pick this one up.
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