{"id":1687,"date":"2025-06-14T12:53:51","date_gmt":"2025-06-14T12:53:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2025\/06\/14\/getting-stuck-in-time-loops-meet-cutes-may-help-you-find-yourself\/"},"modified":"2025-06-14T12:53:56","modified_gmt":"2025-06-14T12:53:56","slug":"getting-stuck-in-time-loops-meet-cutes-may-help-you-find-yourself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2025\/06\/14\/getting-stuck-in-time-loops-meet-cutes-may-help-you-find-yourself\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting stuck in \u2018Time Loops &#038; Meet Cutes\u2019 may help you find yourself"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>From fake dating in \u201cLove, Lies, and Cherry Pie\u201d to forbidden lovers in \u201cThe Unmatchmakers\u201d and forced proximity in \u201cDonut Fall in Love,\u201d Jackie Lau is no stranger to conjuring up creative stories for all sorts of romantic comedy tropes. It seems she has exhausted every trope in the contemporary romance genre with her more than <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/author\/show\/17814757.Jackie_Lau\">20 romantic comedy publications<\/a>. What more could she possibly come up with?\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>With her newest novel, \u201cTime Loops &amp; Meet Cutes,\u201d Lau surprises us with something unpredictably refreshing, comedically witty and heartwarmingly romantic. This book contains the loveable hallmarks that define her novels \u2014 delicious descriptions of food, meddlesome yet endearing family members and quippy, reflective internal monologues from the main characters. However, this story also contains a sci-fi twist that distinguishes it from her previous works.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Written from a dual point of view, \u201cTime Loops &amp; Meet Cutes\u201d introduces us to Noelle Tom, a workaholic mechanical engineer who takes no risks in life, and Cam Huang, a brewery co-founder who gave up his previous job working as a lab researcher. The two initially meet at a night market, where Noelle takes a magical dumpling that sends her into a time loop \u2014 one that takes her through seven months\u2019 worth of Friday, June 20ths. The two then \u201cmeet\u201d again several times on the different iterations of June 20th, but Noelle is the only one who remembers their previous dates. To make matters worse, Cam repeatedly recalls she \u201clooks really familiar,\u201d but can\u2019t remember her name. What follows is a cleverly written story that blends the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=tpQVBKsAjfw&amp;ab_channel=dancer4lifelovesyou\">mystical Asian food<\/a> element from \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0322330\/\">Freaky Friday<\/a>,\u201d the time manipulation element from \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/book\/show\/44421460-before-the-coffee-gets-cold\">When the Coffee Gets Cold<\/a>\u201d and flourishing touches from Lau that create an all-around charismatic romance.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But this novel is more than two people getting together over meet cutes that are supernaturally engineered by a time loop. In fact, it is just as much about finding yourself when it seems your world has paused as it is about romantic love.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>The time loop sends Noelle on a coming-of-age journey at the age of 33, a time when she believes her life should be figured out. Noelle is someone who is uptight about everything: work, finances and romance. Thus, being placed in a vacuum where there are no consequences (as in, every day resets as if it never happened) causes her to question her identity, actions and lifestyle. Noelle was always the type of person to take on extra work, stay frugal with her finances no matter how much she made and avoid romantic relationships because of a bad experience back in university.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But if anything she finishes at work has to be redone anyway, why doesn\u2019t she try taking a break from it? If credit card transactions are erased the next day, why doesn\u2019t she learn to indulge herself in a small luxury? If any haircut grows back the next morning, why doesn\u2019t she try a new style? After reading about Noelle\u2019s experience, I began to feel more emboldened to loosen up and treat myself better in my own life, because what if one day, tomorrow doesn\u2019t come?\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>More important than experimenting with these new adventures, however, are the relationships she develops, especially her friendship with Avery and her chemistry with Cam. Noelle discovers Avery when she finds out she is trapped in the loop, too, and learns to commiserate with her as they build camaraderie over their unfortunate circumstances. When Noelle realizes she has a chance to catch up with her estranged family members given all the extra \u201cdays\u201d the time loop affords, she connects with her siblings and parents in a way she wouldn\u2019t have been able to in the \u201creal world.\u201d And as her relationship with Cam blossoms, Noelle starts to rethink the \u201cno relationship\u201d promise she made to herself after her first (and last) breakup. Throughout the pages of this book, Lau gives space for the reader to appreciate Noelle\u2019s growth from a closed-off workaholic to someone who grows to appreciate the parts of herself outside her office: a caring friend, an empathetic sister and a loving partner.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Despite the high possibility of this time loop concept getting chaotic quickly, Lau organizes it with clarity and precision, ensuring readers do not get confused by messy plot holes, tying the ending of the story together neatly. It is always clear what the \u201crules\u201d of this time loop are, like how everything resets at 3 A.M. every June 21st, the Wordle solution is \u201chappy\u201d every single time and everyone (except Avery) only remembers the version of her on the first June 20th iteration when she eventually does get out of the loop. Admittedly, I was skeptical of how a contemporary rom-com writer could pull off adding a metaphysical aspect to their novel, but I was pleasantly surprised by how concrete and down-to-earth Lau made it seem.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Another aspect of the novel I appreciated was the delicate balance between existentialism and humor. It\u2019s easy to get <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scientificamerican.com\/article\/time-s-passage-is-probably-an-illusion\/\">philosophical<\/a> about the passage of time (or lack thereof), but harder to talk about it casually or make jokes out of it. At the start of the time loop, Noelle tried to convince others she was stuck in a time loop, but mostly got the response that, in the working world, every day feels the same \u2014 a sentiment I am sure anyone who has worked a full-time internship or job can relate to. After her time in the loop, Noelle\u2019s perception of the passage of time transforms. She used to believe she had no \u201cfree time\u201d and that if she worked hard enough, she would be rewarded. Now, she values her work-life balance, picking up hobbies and finding loved ones to spend her evenings and weekends with.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-2    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>Many people wish they could rewind time or relive the best days of their lives for their own satisfaction. But if there\u2019s anything \u201cTime Loops &amp; Meet Cutes\u201d has taught me, it\u2019s to be grateful for memories for what they are. In an alternate reality, I may be the only one who remembers, and where\u2019s the joy in reminiscing alone?<\/p>\n<p><em>Daily Arts Writer Michelle Wu can be reached at <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/arts\/books\/getting-stuck-in-time-loops-meet-cutes-may-help-you-find-yourself\/mailto:michewu@umich.edu\"><em>michewu@umich.edu<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<aside>\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p><h3 class=\"jp-relatedposts-headline\"><em>Related articles<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From fake dating in \u201cLove, Lies, and Cherry Pie\u201d to forbidden lovers in \u201cThe Unmatchmakers\u201d and forced proximity in \u201cDonut Fall in Love,\u201d Jackie Lau is no stranger to conjuring up creative stories for all sorts of romantic comedy tropes. It seems she has exhausted every trope in the contemporary romance genre with her more [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1688,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[1898,1733,1897,326,30,403],"class_list":{"0":"post-1687","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-cutes","9":"tag-find","10":"tag-loops","11":"tag-meet","12":"tag-stuck","13":"tag-time"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1687"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1689,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1687\/revisions\/1689"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}