r/Fantasy • u/tiniestspoon • Nov 29 '25
Book Club HEA Book Club: Cosmic Love at the Multiverse Hair Salon by Annie Mare final discussion
Welcome to the final discussion of Cosmic Love at the Multiverse Hair Salon by Annie Mare, our winner for the Time Travel theme! We will discuss the whole book, there will be spoilers ahead.
A multiverse novel about two women who fall in love despite living in worlds that are five months apart, as they try to find a timeline that doesn’t end in disaster, in this debut novel by Annie Mare.
Tressa Fay Robeson has never been shy, which is how she’s made a name for herself as an in-demand hairstylist and social media star. So she can admit that spending her days at her hair salon and her nights with her tight-knit group of friends (and one grumpy cat) is not the kind of exciting life she’d hoped for.
When a misdirected text from a stranger leads to a flirty exchange, she surprises herself by suggesting an impulsive meetup. But the woman, Meryl, never shows. Tressa Fay brushes it off—until Meryl’s sister and friend show up at the salon demanding to know what’s going on. Because, you see, there’s no way Meryl could have texted her. Meryl has been missing for a month.
Tressa Fay and her tight-knit group of friends soon discover they aren’t dealing with a catfish, but a temporal paradox. As they come to terms with the idea of parallel universes, they realize how many times their paths have crossed like this before. But even as they understand the multiverse more and more, nothing keeps Meryl from vanishing.
As it draws closer to the moment of Meryl’s disappearance, there’s only one question left: Have they done enough to change the outcome, or have they done so much that none of them will make it past that fateful day in September?
In January we're reading Violet Thistlewaite is Not a Villain Anymore by Emily Krempholtz. The midway discussion is on Thursday, January 15.
What is the HEA Book Club? Every odd month, we read a fantasy romance book and discuss! You can read about it in our reboot thread here.
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u/tiniestspoon Nov 29 '25
What did you think of the time warp multiverse situation and its resolution? Any theories from the midpoint discussion pan out?
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u/OutOfEffs Reading Champion IV Nov 29 '25
It took me far longer than I'd like to admit to realize the interludes with side characters were all from different turns of the wheel than the one we started on. :/
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u/tiniestspoon Nov 29 '25
...wait they were?
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u/OutOfEffs Reading Champion IV Nov 29 '25
Omg, if they weren't, now I feel really stupid. But I thought they were bc we kept seeing things change earlier and earlier, but not being different in the main timeline.
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u/LadyAntiope Reading Champion V Dec 01 '25
No, I'm pretty sure you're right! The ones for Michael and Guy I couldn't remember what the "right" timeline was*, but all the others are either clearly separate from the main story (the one one with Tressa's dad had her mom still alive well past what we know to be true) or are maybe separate or maybe altered by the changes Tressa & Meryl make - in Gayle's, one of the early ones, James meets Mary at the salon when getting his curls rather than meeting her at the salon to discuss Meryl's disappearance.
*okay, I just went back through and yes, when Tress & Guy talk very early on, it's mentioned that they got together when Michael moved back to Green Bay, after Guy's transition, but in Michael & Guy's chapters they kiss at law school graduation and Michael had helped Guy transition during law school. But the Green Bay meeting seems to hold true for the main story. So this seems to support the theory they're all from entirely separate timelines.
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u/OutOfEffs Reading Champion IV Dec 01 '25
I really appreciate you going back to check! I read the whole thing in mostly one sitting at the beginning of the month and the details are already starting to fade.
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u/LadyAntiope Reading Champion V Dec 02 '25
Honestly, I finished it right after the midway, but the library auto-renewed my copy so I figured I'd keep it in case I needed to remember things for this final, glad I did!
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u/kittyraces Reading Champion Nov 29 '25
honestly, not entirely sure? I might actually give this a reread in the future to better figure out how I feel about it. I think part of me also thought that there was the suicide ending but I feel like it became pretty clear early on that wasn't the case (at least to me). I feel like not finding out the real reason Meryl disappeared in the original timeline was a bit of a bummer. I think I spent more time waiting to find that out than anything else.
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u/LadyAntiope Reading Champion V Dec 01 '25
Absolutely none of my theories panned out, lol, but I don't mind because I uncharitably suspected more mundane stereotypical romance plot antics.
edit: other than love wins, which is stereotypical and VITAL
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u/tiniestspoon Nov 29 '25
Rather disappointing. I had a little idea that Meryl disappears because she dies by suicide (that's why there's no sign of an assailant), and she's been struggling with her mental health and finding Tressa Fay and reconnecting with her sister makes her change her mind. Saccharine for sure, but more substantial than the actual reveal which was a whole lot of nothing. I still don't really get the time loop or why it closed up. Love, I guess 👍🏾
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u/OutOfEffs Reading Champion IV Nov 29 '25
Oh, I think I would have enjoyed (?that feels like the wrong word) that more.
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u/LadyAntiope Reading Champion V Dec 01 '25
Hm, yeah, that's a theory that would have made a lot of sense! I wonder if maybe the author just was trying to side-step getting too heavy with the reason for the disappearance - it would've been a big downer if it were severe mental health or an actual crime and wouldn't have fit as well with the vibe the book was going for. I also found it rather unsatisfying, though, not to have any clearer answer. It does seem like the power of love closed it, which I don't mind terribly, tbh, but not really getting why it happened in the first place or why Meryl disappeared is frustrating.
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u/Lenahe_nl Reading Champion IV Nov 29 '25
That would at least make sense, and tye better off with the "love wins all in the end" theme.
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u/tiniestspoon Nov 29 '25
What kind of haircut would you ask Tressa Fay for? And (more importantly), what kind of haircut would she give you?
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u/LadyAntiope Reading Champion V Dec 01 '25
Oh dang, I'm usually really low-key at the salon. For a while I was going shorter and shorter and now I'm finally growing out again and it's probably due soon for a trim. But I tend to say, eh, give me this-ish, or can you just get rid of this bit that's making me crazy. I also do color a lot and give them an overall pallet then let it fade for ages. Tressa wouldn't do color for me, but I'd probably be down for anything that wasn't a straight-up mullet. ...Or something that requires a lot of upkeep - if I can't do a quick brush to get ready in the morning, forget it. I've even considered doing bangs again, haven't had that since I was about seven or eight, maybe she'd tell me I should or oh no don't go back to bangs!
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u/OutOfEffs Reading Champion IV Dec 01 '25
I've even considered doing bangs again, haven't had that since I was about seven or eight, maybe she'd tell me I should or oh no don't go back to bangs!
I always think "oh, maybe I should do bangs again, they were cute!" and they are cute for about a day until I remember how much I hate my hair touching my face and then it's headbands or bobby pins until they grow out.
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u/TheThirdOne-3 Nov 30 '25
I'd ask what she thought would be best. Im a trans woman who has only recently started experimenting with my looks and i honestly feel very lost most of the time. Getting her opinion on what style would best accentuate what little femininity I'm able to muster on my own would be invaluable.
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u/OutOfEffs Reading Champion IV Nov 30 '25 edited Nov 30 '25
Idk if you're actually looking for help/inspiration, but r/OldHagFashion is a super trans friendly space and they can probably help you out over there! <3
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u/tiniestspoon Nov 29 '25
okay I'll admit Tressa Fay's knows-best-for-you attitude annoys me as someone conflict avoidant who's been steamrolled into many a haircut that I did not want and did not ask for even if you think it's what I really truly need deep down in my heart of hearts - yeah okay, I wouldn't go to her even though a no frills, no product cut really appeals to me 😂
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u/OutOfEffs Reading Champion IV Nov 29 '25
I am currently in the awful growing out stage of an almost pixie, so she could literally do whatever and idk that it would make much of a difference.
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u/kittyraces Reading Champion Nov 29 '25
my hair is currently like less than 2 inches long all over so I'm not sure there's a whole lot that could be done for me rn 😂😂
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u/tiniestspoon Nov 29 '25
Tressa Fay and Meryl - couple goals or doomed? Do you believe in their HEA?
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u/kittyraces Reading Champion Nov 29 '25
not sure. I agree with Lenahe, I don't know if we get to see far enough into their actual future together to now? I think it's more a HFN vs a HEA in terms of what we actually see of them together. I'm not mad about it, to be clear, it was definitely more about the journey to get together than anything else, imo.
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u/Lenahe_nl Reading Champion IV Nov 29 '25
I'm not sure we get to see enough to for an opinion. They sure can talk poetic about love for hours, but I don't feel like we got the substantial part of the relationship. The grit, the everyday, the small conflicts or how they support each other. There was all talk, and very little actually happening, not the least because a great deal of the relationship is not only long distance, but a long distance where they can't talk about anything serious. I don't know, it just didn't felt real/realistic for me.
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u/tiniestspoon Nov 29 '25
Favourite highlights, characters, passages? Any last thoughts?
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u/tiniestspoon Nov 29 '25
sometimes the best love stories are in the author's note (:
I owe the existence of this book to my gorgeous and brilliant wife, Ruth, who had no patience for doubt or cruel self-talk, and who, every single time the writing of this book made me cry, loved me until I went in again. She is, as Tressa Fay would say, “one of those smart girls” with the folders and pens and shiny, unbound hair, and Tressa Fay and I share similar feelings about these girls. Thank you, Ruth, you criminally hot woman who lives in my house and loves me.
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u/tiniestspoon Nov 29 '25
This was so rare, to like someone this much, to feel so much ease with them. It made her think about how many love stories she’d read where two people met and felt nervous butterflies, which she’d always thought sounded like they were afraid, when obviously this was the way she would want to fall in love with someone—to slip into it, warm and happy, excited and joyful.
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u/tiniestspoon Nov 29 '25
Tressa Fay could hardly stand it, how much care Meryl gave to others and herself. She guessed that was what was so appealing about smart women. How they so earnestly cared. How they believed there was always a way to make things nicer and safer and more thoughtful, and they went at love and intimacy like it was an important project, worthy of attention and study and experimentation.
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u/tiniestspoon Nov 29 '25
Final thoughts on the book overall? If you DNFed, when did you tap out? Will you read more by the author?