The point of magic is not to understand it. The point is not to waste it…

Paige Larsen is riding high on her future when she drops into a bar on New Year’s Eve 2019 for a celebratory drink. Will Weber, too, is excited about his life’s direction. Despite clashing personalities—and unexpected physical attraction—they quickly become friends while grooving to 1970s music in this unique joint.

But when Paige and Will each try to find the bar the following day, they realize the night was even more magical than they believed. It seems this bar appears for only a handful of hours every two years in an abandoned city lot on December 31. What’s more, Paige and Will are living in different timelines two years apart.

Over a span of eight years and a multitude of life changes, Paige and Will connect deeply in a fantasy situation that allows them to be their messy, imperfect, vulnerable selves.

Then suddenly, the enchantment—and the bar—disappear for good. Can love offer the magic they need to create a real-life happy ever after?

Titles in the Any Time Now series include:  Every Other New Year’s Eve ~

This story may contain language, violence, and/or sexual situations intended for an adult 18+ audience.

Title:  Every Other New Year’s Eve
Series:  Any Time Now #1
Author:  Michelle Dayton
Published:  December 11, 2025
Publisher:  Tule Publishing
My Rating:  4.5 stars

Every Other New Year’s Eve begins the delightful time-slip/time-bending series, Any Time Now.  This one caught me off-guard with a slightly different spin on the time travel trope (which I loved, by the way), and a couple that I really wanted to find their way to each other in their “real life”.

Charley’s Bar is a magical place… literally.  It only appears to those who need it, and only every two years (every other year) on New Year’s Eve.  This night, Paige wandered in looking for a quick drink, alone, in a good, upbeat mood.  Will has also stopped in for a drink since the girl he loves and has recently become engaged to is visiting with her parents, and he’s alone on this last night of the year.  He strikes up a conversation with another person in the bar, feeling an uneasy attraction to her, but also finds their time together talking over every aspect of their lives, their opinions, and their dreams to be utterly charming.   After the clock strikes midnight, and they wrap up their time together, they vow to meet up later today (Jan. 1) to show others the great “dive” they found… only, Charley’s Bar isn’t there.  And for one person the year is 2017… and for the other it’s 2019.  What the heck?!?

I loved every aspect of Every Other New Year’s Eve by Michelle Dayton.  The story itself is intriguing, and kept me flipping pages as I was shown Paige’s and Will’s lives throughout the years.  The good, the bad, and the very ugly.  But through it all was their connection, their feeling of rightness with each other… if they could only get in the same time period.  I adored the secondary characters, and I’m crossing fingers and toes that they’ll also get their happy ending further on in the series.

Pagie and Will’s story is well-written, thought-provoking, emotional, and cute, with both laughter and tears along the way.  I enjoyed every moment in their world, and I cannot wait to return.  If you enjoy a time-travel trope romance with believable characters (in spite of the situation) and discovering a magical bar called Charley’s… then have I got a good book for you!

*I received an e-ARC of this novel from the author or the author’s team via Booksprout, and I sincerely thank them for their trust. It is my choice to leave a review, giving my personal opinion about this book.*

This title is available at Amazon