Back to the Start

Written by Monica McCallan

Narrated by Lori Prince

When Remy's grandmother dies, it means leaving her life in San Francisco and returning to a town she swore she'd never revisit, forced to confront a world she'd worked hard to put behind her over the last twelve years.



She's not expecting that the first girl to ever steal her heart, the pretty, popular Fallon Lewis is still around, and in a town this small, their paths continue to cross much to Remy's dismay. It's hard enough seeing her first love, but it's exponentially more difficult when she can barely stand to look at the woman.



Remy's trip back has the possibility to open up doors she believed were shut long ago, but she's never planned on staying, and she definitely never planned on letting Fallon back into her life.



If she thought being a teenager in a small town was hard, she's about to find out how much harder life is when there's no one but herself to blame for her problems.



Contains mature themes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: May 31, 2022
• ISBN: 9781666199123

Reviews for Back to the Start

[MJ Boutin · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

So much use of “the blonde” and “the brunette.” I wanted to scream by the middle of the book. These characters have names, for heavens sake, USE THEM. I ultimately didn’t finish the entire book because the constant descriptors were just too distracting from a story that wasn’t super compelling to begin with. This author’s books are all the same. Two beautiful Caucasian girls, one blonde and one brunette, meet in a small town. One is an elitist snob who comes to appreciate the charm of small town life while the other is a homegrown girl happy to show her how good life can be in small town U-S-of-A. They fall in love, have some vanilla sexy times, decide to make a life together, and that’s it. It’s not a bad formula. It’s just that after a while, it feels like if you’ve read one of her books, you’ve read them all.

[Natale Michaud · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Remy held so much anger for 12 years. If she would have just confronted Fallon before running, it would have saved her from all that anger, but Fallon was right in that she probably wouldn't have listened. First love for both and it was almost 13 years before they truly had their HEA.

[Uchechi Adiuku · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I can only say thanks to Claire….. Wonderful love story!!!

[Rosemary J. Stanek · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

“Back to the Start” is an enjoyable romance with a great balance of joy and heartbreak. The pace, and length seem perfect. The MCs, Remy and Fallon, are both well developed, and sympathetic characters. Lori Prince does a good job narrating. Listening to the audiobook does require close attention, because it’s not always easy to discern who is speaking during MCs’ dialogue. Ms. Prince ‘s french while brief was delicious.

[emily · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

3.75 stars. Feeling generous enough to round up.

This isn’t my favorite by McCallan (still Then and Now, I think) but it was solidly fun. I liked both MCs and v the side character of Fallon’s younger sister, Claire a lot. The pace felt nice and the dynamic fleshed out. My only real complaints were that I tend to prefer povs from all sides of a romance, and would have liked to get into Fallons head, too. And I haaaate the whole usage of ‘the blonde’ ‘the brunette’ ‘the taller girl’ etc. it’s a thing I remember being really prevalent in fanfic about a decade ago (did it myself, iirc) but it gets annoying. I don’t recall mccallan using it in other books, so that’s good.

Lori Prince was as wonderful as always, and her Remy voice is one of my favs of hers. Def rec, but there are better ones by this author for sure. I think this is one of her earliest ones and she’s really hit her grove with newer ones.

[CHERYL SHROCK · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great love story. MC's are sexy and interesting. I will be reading more of Mccallan"s books.
I listened to the audiobook, narrated wonderfully by Lori Prince.