Book ~ "Twice" (2025) Mitch Albom

From Goodreads ~ When he is eight years old, Alfie Logan discovers the magical ability to get a second chance at everything. He can undo any moment and live it again. The one catch: he must accept the consequences of his second try - for better or worse.

He grows up correcting his mistakes and saving himself from adolescent embarrassments. He even takes foolishly dangerous risks, just to see what it’s like to come close to death, before tapping back to safety.

Eventually, Alfie turns his gift to his love life, studying his crushes and going back to make himself more appealing. In time, he falls deeply in love with Gianna, the woman he believes is the one. He seems to find contentment.

But as the years pass, Alfie’s eye begins to wander. Which is when he learns a lone caveat to his power: once he undoes a love, that person can never fall in love with him again. Knowing if he gives into to temptation, he will risk losing what he has with Gianna, Alfie makes a choice that changes his life forever.

The book begins many years later, after an ailing Alfie is arrested for allegedly cheating and winning millions at a casino roulette wheel. As a curious detective interrogates him, he slowly uncovers Alfie’s incredible story, and its most unlikely conclusion.

Alfie has a secret ... ever since his missionary mother passed away when he was a kid in Kenya, he’s been able to relive any moment of his life twice. All he has to do is tap his body and say the word “twice” and he gets a do-over. The first time he lives something, the second time he knows what’s coming and can try to change it. At first, Alfie uses his ability for small stuff ... fixing mistakes, avoiding embarrassment, etc. Eventually he meets and falls in love with Gianna and tries to use his power to make their relationship perfect, which he finds isn't possible.

It's been a lot of years since I've read a Mitch Albom story and I thought this one was okay. It's written in third person perspective with an interesting twist ... it's also first person perspective in Alfie's voice when his composition book about his lives is being read. The story starts off in his present, where he’s been arrested for supposedly cheating in a casino in the Bahamas and then jumps back and forth from Alfie’s past to the present day (the chapters are labeled). I like time travel stories so it appealed to me as it has that aspect.