In Hello, Rest of My Life by Rick Lenz, Danny Maytree believes he is living a settled middle age in Los Angeles when he wakes up to discover he is physically young again and living in 1974, with the memory of a future marriage to a woman named Samantha who does not yet know him. His former house is intact, his acting career is active again, and his agent treats the year as an ordinary fact. Danny realizes that every professional choice he once made is now available to repeat or change, yet he also understands that any deviation could erase the life he remembers sharing with Samantha. As he works on a film project meant to anchor him, he encounters people and events that suggest time is unstable and responsive. The story follows Danny’s attempt to move through this altered present while preserving the specific sequence that once led him to the woman he loves.

Rick Lenz’s Hello, Rest of My Life is a literary time travel story, and one of the most comfortable, organic shifts into an altered timeline I have come across in ages. Time distortion arrives through an everyday, albeit chemically assisted, shift, using no machinery, only lived consciousness. I love how his dog, Tali, runs off and then returns carrying Dead Sea mud, desert sand, and ocean shells that geologists identify as impossible. Danny Maytree is a lead you want to root for, imperfect in the way any person would be, but aware of how every decision is totally critical to his singular goal. He turns down and walks away from things in the 70s that he wouldn't have dreamed of without foresight of the future. The settings are pure nostalgia, and I loved them. The Benedict Canyon house has shag carpeting, a rotary phone, period television stations, and furniture frozen in 1974. Well written and just plain easy to read, this is perfect for readers who enjoy thoughtful speculative fiction, Hollywood history, and love tested across decades.

What would you do if you were an old man who was given the opportunity to be young again, and what would you not want to lose from the older years of your life? This question is skillfully explored in Rick Lenz's time-slip novel Hello, Rest of My Life. Seventy-five-year-old Danny Maytree is thrust back in time to 1974 after a pharmaceutical mishap and finds himself living in Benedict Canyon after his divorce from his first wife, Fleury. Now he is twenty-seven years old, full of energy yet disoriented. What will it take to find and reconnect with his beloved Samantha? While confronting the realities of his past, he encounters an eclectic cast of characters, including Valory Valentine, a woman who knows his life. He also meets the precocious Rue, whose intelligence sheds light on his path, and of course, there is Tali, a dog that appears across timelines. Danny is determined to create a low-budget film about himself, and while shooting the film in Sherman Oaks Park, something dramatic happens, leading to an unexpected denouement.

Rick Lenz's novel was a delight to read, and I enjoyed the characterization. The idea of finding oneself in one’s past, and younger, was particularly intriguing, and the author did a wonderful job of creating twists in the relationships and introducing characters that affect the hero’s future. The Los Angeles setting is well thought out and described with such vividness that readers can feel every aspect of it. The contrast between the 2021 pandemic landscapes and the analog intimacy of 1974 is highlighted. I love flawed characters, and Danny will definitely stay in my mind for a while. His relationship with his time-traveling dog, Tali, is wonderful, and it is intriguing how they communicate. Thematically, the author develops the idea that consciousness shapes existence. Overall, Hello, Rest of My Life is an exceptionally written story.

Hello, Rest of My Life by Rick Lenz is a paranormal romance that follows Danny’s journey to finding love once again. Danny Maytree, a retired actor and filmmaker, was reeling after losing his wife, Samantha. Nothing excited him about his stagnant life until one day he was transported back to 1974. Given a second chance to relive his younger years, Danny grabs the opportunity to face his guilty feelings head-on. Taking this as another chance to reunite with Samantha, Danny starts his new life by producing a low-budget movie that strangely reflects his life. Before he knows it, memory and reality begin to blur, and Danny has to confront his emotions before he loses everything all over again. But before he can relive his life, he needs to first forgive himself. Can Danny forgive himself and find his way back to his family before it is too late?

Author Rick Lenz created a self-reflective and thoughtful romance that made me fall in love with Danny. He wasn’t really a complicated character; he was more unsure of life. He didn’t make the best decisions in the past, but life gave him a chance to do better, and he did. Authors often misuse the time travel trope, but Rick did a fantastic job. I enjoyed the shock, the drama, and then the second chance at love. The story was incredible, emotional, and touching. I loved Danny’s character. He was very self-aware, understood his flaws, and was ready to right the wrongs. I loved his interactions with Tali, his dog! Rue was smart, and Valory was very sharp. In fact, all the characters were integral to the story and Danny’s journey. I highly recommend Hello, Rest of My Life!

Hello, Rest of My Life by Rick Lenz is a time-travel odyssey with some unique quirks. Danny, a former actor, is in his seventies and happily living in Los Angeles with Samantha, his wife of many years. Without warning, Danny suddenly finds himself thrust back to when he was a twenty-seven-year-old actor just starting in Hollywood. Back in his old house and just after his first wife had left him, Danny’s only concern was how he possibly could make it back to his own time. Countering his burning desire to return to Sam, though, was the possibility that he could get a do-over and make amends for all the life mistakes he made back then. Young, attractive, and the object of a beautiful young woman’s desire, there was plenty to tempt him to try to do a better job of his life this time around. Most importantly, he could make a success of his career. But was life even worth reliving if there was no Samantha in it?

Hello, Rest of My Life offers an interesting premise that will have readers asking themselves what they would do in similar circumstances. I particularly appreciated the scene setting and descriptive writing style that conveyed the backdrop to this story and also allowed readers to travel with Danny back to the 1970s. There was an underlying premise that perhaps Danny’s time travel was not actually reality, that it was all in Danny’s mind, somehow. This gave the narrative an entirely new dimension that the author was able to explore. I thoroughly enjoyed the metaphysical and spiritual musings threaded through the entire book that aligned with my own thinking, and gave the story a deeper, more reflective element than just an exciting adventure. There is much to unpack from Danny’s experience, but perhaps the greatest takeaway is that we must live in the moment and relish our lives because we’re unlikely to get a second chance to correct the mistakes and missed opportunities we made the first time around. This is a unique and fresh approach to a well-loved literary premise, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I highly recommend this book.