Paris on Repeat, by Amy Bearce, for Timeslip Tuesday

Paris on Repeat, by Amy Bearce (July 2020, Jolly Fish Press) is both a really fun and somewhat heart wrenchingly realistic upper- middle grade ground-hog day time slip story.

Eve, a military kid, is determined she'll make the most of her 8th grade trip to Paris.  She going to get over her inhibitions, and give a note to the boy she likes, Jace, telling him how she feels about him.  But before she screws up her courage to do so, she sees Jace and her best friend, Reggie, kissing in the Eiffel Tower.  Sure, Reggie challenged Jace with dare to do it, but as the day goes on, Eve watches in horrified jealous anger as they realize they really do like each other.  They even decide to put a lock on the famous bridge of love to seal the deal.  The rather mysterious old lady who sells them the lock gives Eve the key, and when Jace and Reggie aren't looking, she unlocks it and throws it into the river.

And then the next morning Eve wakes up to find she's living the same day over again!  It's another chance to tell Jace how she feels, and so she does her best to keep him and Reggie apart, but it doesn't work. She changes a few things to make her horrible day better, but the next morning, she repeating it all over again.  The old lady lets her know that the changes she needs to make are bigger than the small things....and Eve finds that ending one day by pushing Reggie into the river is not the change she needs to make!  When Reggie wakes up repeating the day alongside Eve, Eve has to come clean about how she really feels about Jace.  In the end she realizes that her friendship with Reggie is more important than her crush (which turns out to be unrequited in any event), and she becomes a braver, more open person, sharing her anger and sadness about her parents planned divorce, and realizing that she doesn't have to monopolize Reggie's friendship, making room in her mind to cultivate another friendship with a girl she's previously seen only as a rival for Reggie's attention.

Though it's the same day over and over, Eve's impressions of the sights of Paris change along with her feelings towards Reggie and Jace, and it doesn't get at all repetitive!  In fact, because Eve is becoming more thoughtful and mature, and more likeable and relatable as a result, it becomes more interesting every day (and also the suspense of Eve trying to figure out what she needs to change adds interest!).

The angst, the drama, and the growing up are all so typically, painfully middle grade that it's easy to imagine kids loving this one, especially older mg kids starting to get romance on their minds.  Paris is beautifully described too!  I really enjoyed it, and it made me happy when I marked it as read on Goodreads to see that is "Wish and Wander, book 1."  A teaser at the end points to Rome for the next book....I look forward to it!