HOW TO SAVE A LIFE

A 34-year-old San Diego man is on a date with his ex-fiancee, whom he has never gotten over, when she dies horribly. He then relives the same day over and over again, each time trying to save her life.

Dominic Suarez fell hard for Mia Bell and proposed to her when they were in their early 20s. But then he derailed both their lives by breaking off the engagement. She fled to Chicago and became a teacher; he stayed in San Diego and became a TV producer. Ten years later, he's still obsessed with the one who got away. A chance encounter after she moves back to town leads to a date at the San Diego County Fair. That date goes perfectly—that is, until the ride they are on suffers a catastrophic failure and Mia is killed in a 54 foot fall. Dom is broken by the loss. But when he wakes up the next morning, it is once again the day of their date. He enters a time loop—à la the 1993 movie classic Groundhog Day—where he dedicates himself to helping everyone he comes across and tries to keep Mia from dying, only to fail to save her every day. Authors Fenton and Steinke have created a realistic look at the trauma that reliving the same events multiple times might cause a person as they try to come to terms with the impossible. They also explore the meaning of love, compatibility, and how a person might change—yet remain the same—over the course of a decade or even just a week. Their storytelling is on point, and each version is told from a new angle as Dom mentally works through the situation he's in, trying to grapple with how he can become a better man.

A well-told story that leaves some questions unanswered—but in a good way.