The following version of the book was used to create the guide: Smale, Holly. Cassandra in Reverse. Mira, 2023.

Holly Smale’s first person narrative, Cassandra in Reverse, follows the life of Cassandra Penelope Dankworth, after she is dumped and fired. On a demoralizing Wednesday afternoon, Cassandra leaves the office after being let go and walks onto the busy London street. As she navigates the busy city, she begins to panic and curls up in the doorway of a pub. When she wakes up, she feels less escalated and wends her way home. That evening, Cassandra is startled when her boyfriend, Will, who dumped her that morning arrives for a date. He seems to have no recollection of the events and Cassandra attempts to convince herself that she overreacted. However, at dinner, teases her for suggesting that they have been to the restaurant before and insists that he never told her about India. The next morning, he once again lists her attributes and tells her he sees no future together. Cassandra is initially confused and disoriented by the time travel. She is unsure how she can navigate living the same miserable day on repeat. However, at the office, when a planter breaks, she realizes that she can manipulate and interact with her own fate; she does not need to repeat the patterns of the past.

Cassandra attempts to go back in time to save her parents from dying in a car crash. However, when she wakes up on the sidewalk, she is only four months in the past. She resolves to use her new power to fix the mistakes in her relationship with Will and ensure that they have a future together. When she goes back to the day that they met, she replays their meet cute until he finally sits at the table, in the manner he did in their first interaction. As the days progress, Cassandra continues to reset time when she makes a social blunder, answers too bluntly, or upsets her boss. However, the more she manipulates her timeline the more difficult it is to remember what happened in her present continuum. When she gets angry at Will for not arriving for a date, she remembers that she never arranged the date in this reality. Later, when they sleep together, Cassandra replays the evening until they have satisfying sex. However, she begins to question the ethics of her time travel when she resets to ensure Will does not see her having a panic attack. She wants to protect him from seeing her in distress but wonders if she is being manipulative.

As the narrative progresses, Cassandra continues to avoid her sister who shows up at the gallery, the museum, and outside her apartment. However, when Will breaks up with her on their fourth date, she realizes that he met someone else. The evening she did not go to the gallery, Artemis attended the show to find her and ended up meeting Will. When she finds Artemis at Will’s office and the sisters begin to talk, Cassandra realizes that Artemis is not nefariously trying to steal her boyfriend. Both Artemis and Will are ignorant to the connection. After they talk at the pub for hours, the sisters go on holiday together and soon resume their familiar dynamic. Cassandra recognizes that the universe was urging her to fix this relationship not her romance with Will. Later, the protagonist is lauded for her work at Fawcett PR but she decides to quit to pursue a degree in Greek mythology. Toward the close of the novel, Cassandra resets time once more to ensure that Artemis and Will can have a chance for love.