Day’s YA: SECONDS TO SPARE

SECONDS TO SPARE by Rachel Reiss
9781250366160
5/12/26
Wednesday Books
Ages 13-18

Egalley available on Edelweiss and NetGalley

Evelyn Werth is on a flight from hell. A screaming baby, turbulence, no wifi . . . and she’s the only person on the plane who is stuck in a time loop. Every 28 minutes, the same things happen: the wifi goes out, the plane hits turbulence, the woman in the last row passes out, and the plane begins to nosedive. But the plane never crashes, because the loop always restarts and Evelyn is thrust back to the beginning. When the book opens, Evelyn is on her 194th loop. She has tried everything she can think of to break the loop, but without fail, every 28 minutes, the plane starts careening toward the earth. But on her 383rd loop, something changes. The cute boy she met in the airport—who has been asleep for the entirety of every loop—wakes up, causing a shift. Suddenly, Rion is stuck in the loop with Evelyn, and the two must work together to uncover clues and solve the puzzle, before it’s too late to save the lives of everyone on board.

Phew! This book was a rollercoaster from the very first page. I did a little bit of math, and all told, Evelyn spent over a week stuck on that airplane living the same 28 minutes over and over, and I felt like I was right there with her. On every page I was rooting for her to figure it out so we could get off that plane together. In Rachel Reiss’s first book, OUT OF AIR, the characters were stuck in an underwater nightmare, and now, in SECONDS TO SPARE, they’re locked in the air. Basically she turns everyone’s worst fears into chilling, claustrophobic thrillers (and she’s so good at it!). There are red herrings galore, which kept me guessing, and lots of twists, which kept me turning the pages. Reiss expertly builds the tension on the page, creating an atmosphere that is desperately suffocating. And amidst all the chaos, watching Evelyn and Rion’s romance bloom was a breath of fresh air as they grew closer and learned to trust each other, loop after loop. This is a fast-paced combo of thriller, speculative fiction, and romance—perfect for anyone looking for a book that will keep your heart racing.

Happy reading!
<3 Emily

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