Do You Remember the First Time? by Jenny Colgan is her first foray into the paranormal although she has been one of my favourite authors for a several years now.  (Yes I do read other books besides paranormals!)

I was not entirely sure where to place this particular novel in my site and decided to place it in this section as it seemed to be the best one.  The time travel aspect of the story was only for the period of one month and the magical aspect of being younger seemed to be the more prominent aspect of the story.  So this is where I am placing the book. 

Now that explanations are out of the way, on with the review.

Flora Scurrison is 32 years old and unhappy with how her life is turning out.  Even though she is in a stable relationship with Olly and has a good, if boring, career as an accountant, she still feels that there is something she has missed out on.

At her best friend Tashy's wedding she comes face to face with John Clelland her first boyfriend who had left her to go to University and who she has not seen for sixteen years.  He is the boy who broke her heart and she knows that even though Olly is ready to propose to her now she has never gotten over the broken heart that Clelland left her with.

As the cake is cut Flora makes a wish that she was sixteen years old again.  The next morning she finds that she is.

At first she thinks that she has gone back in time but things are not right.  The boy band posters on her wall are modern groups and not the ones that she remembers having.  She soon realises that she has gone back in time to just one month before the wedding and that things are very confusing.

Her parents have also grown younger and are back together, they had previously broken up when Flora was sixteen years old. 

She has a new best friend who she knows nothing about and no one can remember her being older except for her best friend Tashy, her boyfriend Olly and her ex Clelland.  All of whom have different opinions on what Flora should do about her predicament.

Flora meanwhile is finding that being sixteen again is not all it's cracked up to be.  She has to go back to school where she finds that she is as unpopular as she was the first time around.  She has homework again (and very amusingly scores high marks as she is the only student who does not think to use the internet to cheat). 

However she does find that having the knowledge of when she was older helps out a little.  She is soon settling into her life again and becomes friends with Clelland's younger brother Justin. 

Justin does not remember the older Flora at all but certainly wants to get to know his school friend better.  If only Flora didn't have a crush on Ethan, the hottest boy in the school.  At least the Flora he knew did.  The new Flora he is getting to know is not as he imagined.

The longer Flora is reliving her younger days  the more she realises that being grown up is not all it's cracked up to be either.

Unfortunately hanging over her is the knowledge that she has to make the choice whether to wish herself grown up again at the fast approaching wedding.  Flora also realises that she is not the only one affected by her decision.  Clelland still has feelings for her but is now too old for her.  Being young again means that she can try and help save her parents' marriage.  Not to mention her teenage hormones are running riot and she is starting to have feelings for Justin too. 

Finally Tashy and her fiancé Max are not in the most stable relationship and if Flora wants to return to her grown up life Tashy will have to go through with the wedding a second time.  Flora was not around to see how bad things were between them the first time around but this time she is present often enough for Tashy to realise the gravity of the problems in the relationship. 

This novel is lots of fun and can be both extremely amusing and touchingly poignant.  Jenny Colgan is crossed into the paranormal genre with her own individual style. 

Would you want to be 16 again?  Click here for the debate.

RATING : 
(if you need an explanation of the hearts ratings see my homepage)

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Also by Jenny Colgan:  Talking to Addison, Amanda's Wedding, Looking for Andrew McCarthy and Working Wonders.