Maybe This Time

I’ll admit, I rolled my eyes at the ‘teacher gets zapped to the future’ setup—until about 10 minutes in, when June Flint’s deadpan reaction to discovering her dream job no longer exists (‘*Wait, they replaced Shakespeare with holographic TikTok monologues?*’) had me laughing out loud. Bastone’s writing is *that* sharp, and the audiobook’s full-cast execution sells every joke. Zoë Chao’s narration is the glue here; she makes June’s prickly charm feel earned, not forced, and her chemistry with Noah Reid’s smarmy-but-sincere love interest crackles. The supporting cast is equally impressive—Beata Pozniak’s futuristic matchmaker is a standout, delivering lines with the cold precision of a corporate HR bot who’s *just* human enough to be terrifying. That said, the pacing stumbles slightly in the second act when the plot pivots to a more traditional rom-com beat, and a few of the future-world details (like the sudden ubiquity of ‘emotion pods’) feel undercooked. But the production more than compensates: the use of layered narration during June’s internal monologues is brilliant, and the sound design—subtle futuristic bleeps, the occasional distorted voice—keeps the tone light without veering into camp. My only real gripe? At 5 hours and 45 minutes, it ends just as the worldbuilding hits its stride. Still, for listeners who love rom-coms with teeth, a heroine who’s flawed but never dumb, and narration that feels like a top-tier comedy podcast, this is a home run. Just don’t expect a tidy happily-ever-after—this story’s too clever for that.