5-STAR REVIEW: THE BACKTRACK by Erin La Rosa

Publication Date: July 16, 2024

Life, rewound…

Nearly twenty years ago, Sam Leto left her small hometown of Tybee Island, Georgia, to pursue her dreams of becoming a pilot. While she’d prefer to keep flying away from her painful childhood memories, her beloved grandmother Pearl decides it’s time to sell the family home. Reluctantly, Sam is summoned back to pack up the house.

The 2000s nostalgia from Sam’s old bedroom hits immediately: Fall Out Boy posters, drawers of roll-on body glitter and even her favorite CD player with a mixtape from her best friend, Damon Rocha. Damon was always a safe place and Sam often wonders what if her teenage self admitted her feelings for him back then…

Mysteriously, the CD player still works all these years later. And somehow it has the power to show Sam an alternate version of her life.

Song by song, Sam receives flashbacks from her past—senior prom, graduation, leaving home. But the memories aren’t as she remembers them; they show what could have been. Suddenly, Sam knows exactly what would have happened if she’d taken a chance with Damon—and she can’t help feeling she made a terrible mistake leaving Tybee all those years ago.

It’s been over a decade since Sam Leto visited her hometown of Tybee Island and faced her best friend after their almost kiss. Now, she is heading home to help her grandmother and face Damon, who had randomly texted her.

Author Erin La Rosa sets the stage for a second-chance romance in The Backtrack. As the story unfolds, snippets from the past underscore the close bond between the two, especially regarding music.

However, Sam’s pressing goal was to leave home. As a successful pilot, she returns to find Damon has made his own mark with his brewery. The sparks are just as intense between the two.

Discovering a mixed tape from Damon among her teen belongings brings an onslaught of nostalgia that resonates with readers. As Sam hears the songs, she gains a better understanding of what her future could have looked like.

The Backtrack highlights the bond of friendship interrupted by time but given a second chance to blossom into something more.

ERIN LA ROSA is the author of For Butter or Worse, and on her way to writing romance, she’s also published two humorous nonfiction books, Womanskills and The Big Redhead Book. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and four daughters (two humans, two felines).