OONA OUT OF ORDER is an extremely charming and surprisingly moving novel, reminiscent of 13 Going on 30, with lots of fun musical and pop culture references.

Oona Out of Order has such a unique premise, that upon hearing it, I immediate sought out requesting an advanced copy on Netgalley.
On the strike of midnight on NYE in 1982, which happens to be Oona’s 19th birthday, she experiences an unexpected out-of-body experience, where she wakes up in 2015 in her 51 year old body. Thus begins this strange phenomenon where she lives her life out of order – jumping to a different year at midnight on NYE every year.

As a huge fan of both contemporary “women’s fiction” and sci-fi/”speculative fiction” – this book was the perfect marriage of those two genres. However, I would advise readers that this book is much heavier on the contemporary/light fiction aspect. There is never an explanation or exploration of why this is happening to her – the novel instead focuses on how complicated this makes her life and how she is able to cope. It also sets up some really fun- and at times heart-breaking- situations that I immensely enjoyed reading.

I found this book to be compelling, it really held my attention. I constantly wanted to know what would happen next, and relished in finding out where each jump would take her. It also packed an emotional punch that I enjoy in my novels, and had a hopeful ending.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

I loved the notion of this book: a woman travels through various years of her life every birthday, i.e. experiencing her 40th year when internally only 19. At first, it was fun and different, but quickly became a bit tedious. The notion seemed overwhelming, for the reader and especially the author. How would we manage through her life this way?

The author chose to only explore seven years of her life, managing to arrive at a 'happy ending' despite the reader knowing Oona's unfortunate circumstances would continue as before.

Thank you to Margarita Montimore, Flatiron Books, and Netgalley for the early access.

When the clock strikes midnight every New Year’s Eve, Oona wakes up in a new year of her life...not the next new year, but a random year - from 1983 to 2015 and everywhere in between, Oona lives her life never knowing who will be there next year, who will not, who she’ll be at that stage of her age. Along the way, she copes with loss, emotional changes, and relationship dramas.

Oona Out of Order’s premise had me eager to read it, but the plot would’ve benefited greatly by wit - it tries too hard to be quirky, but it feels awkward and disengaged.

Move over, Eleanor Oliphant and Bernadette. Make way for Oona. Montimore's novel is women's fiction on the level of "Bridget Jones's Diary" or "Confessions of a Shopaholic."

Keep the tissues handy, and pick a stretch of time when you can enjoy this book from cover to cover. Nothing about the novel feels rushed or forced, and with every reason in the world to be as stilted, choppy, and discombobulating as Oona's bizarre time-hopping existence, the novel has impeccable rhythm and flow. The novel is set in New York City, which also undergoes amazing transformations every decade (as any native or frequent visitor knows) and is never the same city twice.

"Oona" provides nonstop enjoyment, with delicious dialogue and well-drawn characters, and is also deep and insightful, affirming the gift of time and the preciousness of family. Oona often leaves herself good advice for when she arrives in a certain year, but Oona often rebels against her own wisdom, or finds the advice when it's too late to follow it, which makes the book an occasional thrill ride. One of the time leaps in the middle of the book, concerning Oona's marriage, is sheer genius on Montimore's part and sets this novel apart from other time travel stories.

Oona learns that while you can't take human progress for granted, neither should you blindly accept whatever it brings. Every period of Oona's life and each decade of history has its own delights. . .and pitfalls. Five stars.

I received an advanced readers copy of this book from Flatiron Books and was encouraged to submit a review.

Ooooh, Oona! This may be one of the most popular books of 2020. It has been quite a ride and I am so happy I had the privilege of finishing on the very day when Oona anticipates her next leap. This time-jumping debut novel turned my brain into a pretzel. I can't wait for my bookish friends to catch up so we can discuss the book. An overarching theme of time travel gives Oona the bittersweet knowledge of a past she has skipped and a future she is not yet ready for. As we leap with Oona we have a front row seat to an emotional rollercoaster that begins with denial when her 19-year-old self discovers out she is already 51. Talk about whiplash! Montimore does an excellent job keeping the reader anchored in Oona's timeline by giving us the "inside age"/"outside age" with each new leap. Will definitely appeal to fans of Audrey Niffenegger, Taylor Jenkins Reid, and Liane Moriarty. Highly recommended!

A big thank you to James Melia at Flat Iron Books for sending me a VERY early copy for my review. Also to NetGalley for approving my digital ARC request.

It's New Years Eve, 1982: Oona is at a house party with her band and her boyfriend, Dale. She's about to turn 19 with her whole life ahead of her on the up and up.
Suddenly there's a rumbling - just at the stroke of midnight. Oona faints and wakes up in 2015 as a 51-year-old. Oona soon learns that at the start of every year, she travels in time through different parts of her life.

It's fun to follow Oona through the years. Very Benjamin Button-esque. What a cool, unique narrative! It helps make life a little more interesting. I like how music is such a big part of her life, and that is at least one constant for her throughout the years.

If you believe in fate, then you know you don't always have control over it. Living life as it comes to you is the best way to do it! Oona was constantly tested with the burden of time, the importance of loved ones by your side for comfort and support, and fighting for the love you want.

4.5 stars.

I loved this book.

I loved the idea of the plot, I loved the way the writer executed it, I loved the characters, I loved how it came together and fell apart and came together again. I loved how you thought you knew what was coming and then you were wrong but not shocked in a way that made you angry at the author. I loved how Oona was so far from perfect and yet I felt protective of her and rooted for her.

I read this book in one sitting. It made me happy and it was the perfect book for my 400th book of the year. Now I'm going to have to go read her other book, too.

Thank you netgalley and Flatiron Books for an advanced copy in return for an honest review.

Its New Years Eve and Oona is about to turn 20. The clock strikes midnight and Oona is suddenly….51? This is when Oona finds out that she lives her life out of order. Every New Years at the stroke of midnight much like the rest of the world, Oona moves into a new year. Except for Oona, it’s not the next year. She could go from 20 to 51, to 30, and so on and so forth. Though she is older on the outside, Oona is still young at heart and learning to navigate her new normal.

OMG this book. I’ve recently been finding that a lot of books are becoming a bit predictable. You know what I mean….Wife (she’s crazy)+husband (because gaslighting)=murder or some other crazy storyline. This book was such a unique idea and story and I AM ALL FOR IT! The day I began this one started with me dnf’ing two books. I was hoping this one would make up for them and it did not disappoint! I stayed up WAY too late reading this book because I could not put it down. I absolutely loved Oona and her story. The characters were fabulous, the story was unique and amazing, and it kept me wanting more. What more could one ask for from a book? This is definitely one of my favorite recent reads! If this one is not on your radar, you need to fix that ASAP!

This is one time travel book you don’t want to miss!

“Now let’s take a break from finding order and do something a little wild.”

Oona Lockhart lives her life out of order. Every year on her birthday - which falls on New Years - she time travels to different years in her life. Her time leaps are inexplicable and Oona must learn how to live in whichever year she ends up in, sometimes with no memory of the people in her life. Oona always leaves herself a letter updating herself on what’s going on that year, but the "leap" version of herself doesn’t always heed the information provided in these letters.

“You’re mastering the art of living in the moment.” I loved the message about living in the moment, something we all need to be reminded of from time to time. While trying to figure out how to live her life out of chronological order, Oona learns many valuable lessons. “Make your life more about letting in the good things than preventing the bad things.” Not all years are full of sunshine and rainbows and Oona must decide how to handle the tough years. “Stop micromanaging your life and just live it; joy and meaning will follow.”

I don’t want to give away any more of the details of this thought-provoking story - my recommendation is absolutely add this book to your 2020 reading list!
*There is a fair amount of foul language, descriptive sex scenes and drug use, so the book may not be suitable for everyone.*

Thank you to NetGalley and Flatiron Books for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest reviews. My review will also be posted on Goodreads and Instagram @rosetree_bookreviewer

'Each year her body was hers, but her mind was out of sync with her reflection. Always playing catch-up, trying to rearrange the scrambled pieces of her life.'

Oona Lockhart is out of order, at least according to the timeline of her entire life. It begins at a party in Brooklyn on New Year’s Eve, on the precipice of turning nineteen and making a big decision that is guaranteed to alter her future. She is struggling with her heart and mind. Oona has the opportunity to go to London to study economics or stay behind with the love of her young life Dale who wants to go on tour, this could be the big break they need in the music industry! Dale doesn’t know about London, neither does her liberal mother who could use a lesson in setting boundaries, providing structure in her daughter’s life. She would like to keep it that way, thank you, until she is sure of her decision. With her best friend pushing her to make the wise choice that will certainly ‘open doors’, all Oona wants is a night to enjoy the moment, not have to think about the looming choice she is wrestling with. Whose dream is it, what will she choose? She wishes she didn’t have to, maybe she doesn’t! A strange feeling overwhelms her as the countdown towards midnight, and her nineteenth birthday begins. Before she can figure out if she is dying or ill, she is out…

When Oona ‘comes to’ it is no longer 1982, it is now 2015 and there is a stranger helping her remember what happened, where she is, who she is now. Apparently she is a 52 year old woman who, though definitely still herself, is a complete stranger! An older man, but somehow younger than her seems to know her better than she knows herself, helps to ease her into this terrifying world, just what is going on? Who is he? Where is she? This is just the beginning of her time jumps, and her life is a puzzle she has to put back together every single time she experiences a hop. Can she learn to avoid mistakes, to change her future by fixing the past, make a fortune with stock tips? What about love, how much better can it be when you have seen the future… will she avoid love traps or learn to take whatever is offered and go with it, whether it ends in disaster or not.

Oona is out of order, much as we all are. Maybe it’s my age but it had me thinking about memory, how in some ways life is always a puzzle even when it seems to run in a straight line… that’s really just an illusion. This novel is about the game of hindsight for me, we all read different stories as we base it on our own emotional state, age… there will come a time, if you are lucky to live long enough, that you will feel like you’re looking at a stranger in the mirror. We are many people, many ages in one body, always. The older I get, the more I know everything is a gamble, the ‘safe’ option never existed. Other people are always the independent variable, because in a blink anything can and often will change. There is no set formula for any life, ever.

Oona must learn to set anchor on whatever shore of time she makes land and live her life to the fullest going on scant information. Any time it seems she is figuring things out, comfortable in the now (though still longing for her first love Dale) time change is coming with the new year. In a way they are like small deaths. There is a line “You know how messed up it is to be told what you’re like by someone who’s a stranger to you?” that I find incredibly insightful, because don’t we at some point live with people telling us who we are? Isn’t that happening already at the start when she has her best friend telling her she wants to go to London, and her boyfriend selling her his dream so she stays because of her love for him? For Oona, even her older self is a stranger telling her who she is and what to do, or not do, same thing! She will try and love who she is with, both friends and partners alike, while relying on clues from her future and past self. I really loved the surprise, it has so much heart. One moment she’s 19, the next 52, and on and on it goes. Does the order matter? Can a life be lived lost in time, so to speak?

Sure, we all do it now, winging it despite our best laid plans and what an adventure!

Publication Date: February 25, 2020 (unless you’re Oona then it could be 1982, 2015…)

Flatiron Books

Oh boy, WTH I just finished! My head should stop spinning! What’s that smell? Did I burn the dinner again? Oh, no I haven’t cooked anything for 2 years. There is an alarm sensing my footsteps as I take only one step in the kitchen. So it can’t be!

What a minute! This is coming from my brain cells! They’re burning! I overused them. What a mind bending, innovative, unconventional, complex reading I had! Wow! After reading this, I got a NewYearsEvephobia!
Imagine yourself as nineteen years old (I probably punched that version of myself because she was too know-it-all, pretentious prick!) celebrating your birthday and New Year’s Eve, feeling dizzy and passing out and when you open your eyes, finding yourself trapped in 51 years old version of yourself! Yes, the story starts like different version of Jen Garner’s “13 going on 30” but this is absolutely another kind of brain cells destroying story to catch what’s gonna happen next!

This is about Oona who is waking up different phase of her life at every New Year’s Eve. Yes, complicated right! Imagine finding yourself in an old body, living in a mansion (yes so loaded, uber rich, that is only best part of your condition) and as you look for the love of your life, he is nowhere to be seen.

So we catch different phases of Oona’s life and her self-discovery story! At some levels she was so mature for the body she’s trapped or vice versa.

How the system works: 1) Her mother knows her secret and she meets different versions of her daughter at every year. Madeleine is a hippy, down to earth, entertaining, nuts, sarcastic, vivid , so much lovable character (at some parts I loved her more than Oona) so she doesn’t question too much this paranormally awkward situation. She just adapts and prepares her daughter for her new year.

2) Oona’s future self always leaves her a letter to warn her what she’s getting through that year( giving a chance to a nice guy, making things up for her mother, being kind to her new husband etc.)

3) She never thinks about money because time travelling helps her to invest for the perfect stock portfolio and bet for the right teams.

What I liked about this book: The author’s intelligence to play with our minds and usage of the details effectively. You gotta give your full concentration because any small detail serves you as an important revelation about the next year of Oona’s life.

What I didn’t like about it: We don’t know the exact reason why this is happening to Oona. And without working or discovering her own passion to achieve something in the world, she does drugs, travels around the world, has heartbreaks and suffers from loneliness but sometimes her lack of holding something passionately (instead of taking guitar lesson but she resumes it to flirt with the teacher so it doesn’t count) made me think she is just acting like an aimless, dull vessel.

But I thought that she was only 19 when she started her own journey so it is understandable that she got lost after bombardment of too much new information about her future life. The author just decided to give us some part of her journey but don’t worry, at those parts she learned so much life lessons and got so many experiences for her own age.

OVERALL: It’s fresh, complex, definitely grey cell killer, Unique, original, provocative, mind blowing kind of great story earned my 4 time travel, experiencing you new age, forming wonderful relationship with your mother stars!

Special thanks to Netgalley and Flatiron Books to share this mind spinning ARC COPY with me in exchange my honest review.

This was the first book I've read from this author and I really enjoyed it. The story was different from anything I've read recently and really captured my attention.

Oona has some things to figure out, like why she is moving back and forth across the timeline of her own life. My favorite parts of this book come from knowing what Oona doesn't as she flips back in time. Especially as we struggle to warn her about one person in particular! You wouldn't think this would put you on the edge of your seat, but it sure did for me. #teamoona
Can't wait to put this into the hands of our patrons.
Thanks so much for the galley.

A unique approach to time travel, Oona’s birthday is New Years Day, and every New Year’s Eve she wakes up to a new year of her life. Not chronological, which makes it more interesting, and contributes to her understanding of what life is about, through boyfriends, lovers, but mainly through the relationship with her Mother. Well written and appealing, I recommend this book. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

Have you ever wanted to go back in time to teach your younger self important lessons? Oona gets to do that but every year on her birthday. On New Years Eve, Oon's birthday, Oona time travels to a year of her life but she never knows how old she'll be. She might be actually 20 but travel to the year she is 52. She has to learn about life while learning how her life plays out before she's ready.

I really, really enjoyed this book. Oona is a normal teen/almost adult who has to quickly grow up because her life is turned upside down. I loved the concept of the book and felt like I had never read anything like it before. I really hope there is another one!

Oona out of order follows the titular Oona on her bizarre journey through life. Bizarre because Oona’s life does not happen chronologically. Each year on New Year’s Day (her birthday), she wakes up surrounded by people she may or may not know in a body she may or may not recognize. For some unexplained reason (seriously, it’s never explained), even though Oona is one year older, she wakes up at a different age. In her first “jump,” she turns 19 but wakes up in her 51 year old body. She has no idea what is going on, but luckily, 50 year old Oona left a letter to explain it on. And so on and so forth...er back... through the years. Her mother and her assistant know about her leaps are able to help her through the rough first couple of days. She uses her travelling knowledge to not have to worry about money.

There, we have the necessary details outlined. This novel works because you are figuring (or not, depending on the year) things out with Oona. Together, you and Oona live through 7 years together this way. It is a character-driven story with just enough plot to make you want to see where time will take you at the end of the year. There was an intriguing twist about halfway through that gave all of the time-jumping more purpose and made it more of an enjoyable read.

The constants throughout her life are her mother and music. If I was more into music, I think that this book would have resonated with me more.

I read this book in one day and had I not been able to do so, I would have been thinking about when I would be able to get back to it. I was so drawn into her displaced life and wanted to know how old she was going to be, what she was going to be like, and who she was going to meet - just like Oona near the end of each year. The writing was great - Montimore did a great job showing Oona who was supposed to be through the actions of those around her. It hurt my brain a little bit to think about what she knew when and how but in an enjoyable way.

Thank you NetGalley and Flatiron books for this advanced copy. This was provided in exchange for an honest review. The publication date is March of 2020 and if you want a cute, quick read, this should be on your radar!!

Oona Out of Order has a unique premise and I was surprised the author pulled it off. It was entertaining and interesting.

Oona Out Of Order is the story of a woman who finds herself displaced in time.

It’s what I like to call a “domestic time travel” story in the vein of The Time Traveler’s Wife where the time travel is biological and inexplicable, set in a familiar world. Oona’s time travel works mysteriously – at the end of each year, she’s thrust into another random year of her life, sometimes moving forward and sometimes backward, while constantly playing guessing games and engaging in power struggles with her future all-knowing self.

This is the perfect kind of monkey’s-paw-thought-experiment fiction, where half the fun is considering how I’d handle it and whether I’d want it. You could predict stock outcomes and lottery winnings! You’d get to see old friends, experience your youth again in old age! You could go through life with the hindsight knowledge that everyone craves – but your life is disjointed, uncontrollable, and messy. Relationships that were important to another version of you get destroyed in an instant, secrets are kept to protect you, and you spend so much of your life feeling like an imposter. It’s an excellent study on our own relationships with the past and future, how we evolve as people (are we really growing up if we don’t cringe at our old social media posts?), and what to do with what’s left of the life we are given.

I have to admit that the premise alone hooked me – I’m a total sucker for reality with a twist – but this book comes packed with a lot of character and heart as well. I found myself finishing it and wishing it wasn’t over quite yet: the way Oona spends every year, the way we all should.

Oona Lockhart faints on her 19th birthday and wakes up 32 years later in her 51-year-old body. She's understandably freaked out, but she's greeted by a man who says he's her personal assistant and friend Kenzie. He explains that she's a time traveler of a very unique sort: Every year on her birthday, she faints and wakes up in a different year of her life. It can be any year she's never lived before, and she has no way to control it or decide which year it will be.

And so, Oona experiences her life out of order, with no predictable pattern of how the years will go. She's a young soul in a body of all different ages. Sometimes the year is a good one, sometimes it's a painful one. There's love and loss and sometimes a horrible sense of knowing something is going to happen and not being able to prevent it. She has her beloved mother and Kenzie to help her through the weirdness of her life, but there are times where she's very much alone.

I thought this was a really interesting concept for time travel. The idea of living your life out of order provides a lot of emotional resonance. Oona is a great character. She's strong and resilient, and she learns to embrace a life of uncertainty and enjoy the good moments, of which there are many. Although time travel is a central element to this book, there's no science fiction explanation here. The time travel just exists, and Oona doesn't know why it happens, just that it does. This may be unsatisfying for some readers, but I thought that it worked really well for the plot in this case.