She agrees to go but then never shows up. Jack is heartbroken until he learns Kate missed prom because she was in the hospital. She has sickle cell anemia, and though she knows of a doctor who’s developed promising cutting-edge treatments, her family can’t afford them.

At it’s heart, Opposite of Always is a romantic comedy with a slice of science fiction-ness mixed in. And I loved it for it. Jack is just an average geeky teenager in the last few months of his senior year when he meets Kate, who is just as geeky, during a college visit.

September 10, 2020 - Kate comes to the anniversary party this time. She goes home for the night. This is the night that she always dies. In the middle of the night Jack gets a call from her. She says she doesn’t feel good. He rushes over to her. He thinks she needs the second injection.

Forty-five minutes earlier, police officers stop Jack King as he tries to enter the emergency room. Handcuffed, he pleads for the police officers to let him see his dying girlfriend for five minutes. They escort Jack to Kate’s room, where he tells her she’s going to be okay and then injects her with a syringe he hid in his shoe.

Because after meeting Kate, his mind, his body, his soul, his whatever else breathed Kate. Kate was on the brain, on the heart, in the phone, in every place he looked. Kate was his new Jillian. Because Jack’s always thinking about Kate and spending more time with her, he hardly hung out with his friends or his family anymore.

But even worse, he can't figure out what he's supposed to learn by having to live the same few months over and over again. And when he tries to make even more drastic changes, he winds up causing more hurt and anger in others' lives, and even putting those he loves at risk. The Opposite of Always is a fascinating, thought-provoking, poignant book, one I enjoyed tremendously.

October 16, 2021 - Opposite of Always feels like an awkward mash-up of Groundhog Day, (500) Days of Summer, and A Walk to Remember. Not only does it feature a time loop like that in the Bill Murray film, but Jack also has Tom Hanson’s obsessive, self-pitying ...

March 1, 2019 - Opposite of Always is tender, emotional, and profound. Jack’s character immediately hooks you with his awkwardness, his cleverness, and his gentle heart. Because at the end of the day, Jack, the king of almosts, just wants to get this right.

March 8, 2019 - Parents need to know that Opposite of Always, Justin A. Reynolds' debut novel, is a bittersweet fantasy tale about a teen caught in a loop in time between the day he meets his girlfriend and the day she dies a few months later. Jack doesn't travel through time deliberately.

July 19, 2020 - Rating: ★★★ When Jack and Kate meet at a party, bonding until sunrise over their mutual love for cereal, Jack knows he's falling in love - hard and fast. Kate isn't like anyone else he's met before.

July 16, 2020 - Blurb: When Jack and Kate meet at a party, bonding until sunrise over their mutual love of Froot Loops and their favorite flicks, Jack knows he’s falling—hard. Soon she’s meeting his best friends, Jillian and Franny, and Kate wins them over as easily as she did Jack.

the idea of time travel to continue to save someone who is on the path of dying...well, aren't you just being a little selfish? you're trying to elongate their life (and pain?) just to be happy for a little bit longer. obviously, this story is about a lot more like the emotions and sacrifices ...

January 11, 2020 - Opposite of Always offers you a story about a guy (Jack) who is stuck with time-travelling and has to repeat the same four months of his life when he meets Kate, the girl whom Jack thinks need to be saved.

Justin A. Reynolds has always wanted to be a writer. Opposite of Always, his debut YA novel, was an Indies Introduce selection and a School Library Journal Best Book and has been translated into nineteen languages. His second YA novel, Early Departures, was a Kirkus Reviews Best YA Book of the Year.

November 16, 2023 - Jack’s ability to travel through time creates a series of paradoxes and complications that make it difficult for him to understand the true nature of his relationship with Kate. He is forced to grapple with questions about fate, free will, and the true meaning of love. This highlights the idea that love is not always straightforward, and that time can complicate even the simplest of

And it’s not like he has a choice—he keeps getting tossed back through this loop no matter what changes he makes. He starts to wonder if he can save everyone—or, heck, if he can even save anyone. He’ll make mistakes and different choices each time, but is he doomed to spend eternity living the same few months and always losing Kate?

Romeo and Juliet meets Groundhog Day and Love Story in this wonderfully romantic story of teenage love and second chances.

December 13, 2019 - Combining a touch of the movie About Time with a little bit of The Fault in Our Stars and a heaping helping of charm, Opposite of Always is a story about true love that examines all the things we discover on our way to happily ever after.

September 19, 2019 - I knew I’d remember some words from this book when the female love interest, Kate, made up the word ‘craugh’ which means crying and laughing at the same time. It immediately became one of my top ten favorite words. Then, page 225 rolled around, and this book got logged into the ‘will still be

December 15, 2019 - Opposite of Always follows Jack King, a boy who always comes second.