Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for this ARC.

Mary, 54, is not content with her life. Her husband Dean is in insurance and does nothing but play golf in his spare time, neglecting her. Her daughter Kendra is planning to move to London shortly with her boyfriend Nate. Mary has menopausal symptoms and on top of that she regrets throwing away her career in TV reporting for becoming a mother and housewife. When she sees a magazine article about popular TV anchor Liz she thinks it should have been her and suddenly her wisdom teeth start hurting in response.

Then her cousin Darbi tells her a weird story - her wisdom teeth are coming through because she regrets a decision in her life and if she gets them taken out she will be the age again she was when she made the decision she now regrets. First she encourages Mary, saying it worked to reset her own life by seven years by allowing her to marry her wife Jacqui but when she hears that Mary would be a whole 30 years younger, she tries to discourage her.

This story is based on a hefty dose of magical realism, which I normally don't have a problem with. However, the reset confused me - it seemed odd that she was now 24 but everyone else was the same age. Would that not cause perception problems with other people? Even now that I write about it I can't get my head around it. Give me "normal" time travel any time!

This novel suffers from a lot of repetition. There are three things being repeated ad nauseam:

1. Mary wants to become a famous TV anchor at a major national news network, but not for serious news just feel-good fluff pieces. 
2. You only appreciate what you had once it's gone. Before she becomes younger, Mary does nothing but complain about Dean and her wasted life. The moment she gets her wisdom teeth out, she regrets it and finds only the good in him and her old life. I almost got whiplash, it was so sudden!
3. Mary doesn't understand she can't return to her old life. She has reset her life by 30 years and must live them again. She is not in an alternative world, she's simply 30 years younger and there is no known way of returning to the life she left behind.

"Taking a mulligan" is an expression used in golf to describe when a player is allowed to replay a stroke after a poor shot. Giving Mary the last name Mulligan is a clever play on this expression and  explains that Mary gets to replay the last 30 years, and that it's rather a curse to her than a blessing.

This is such a frustrating read. Mary stubbornly assumes things, doesn't listen to Darbi's warnings, constantly repeats what she would do when she got back to her old life and just blunders into situations without thinking. Darbi isn't a real help though - she has plenty of opportunities to explain to Mary the repercussions of her decision but always chickens out and lies by omission.

Mary at one point opines that "She couldn’t believe she’d ever thought a career at a news station would fulfill her. Only the love of her family and friends could do that."

To me that is a deeply problematic statement, that a woman shouldn't attempt a career as only being a wife and mother would give her life happiness and meaning.

This, coupled with the weird magical realism rules and Mary's stubborn stupidity put me off this story. This is a unique story about regrets but it wasn't for me.