A very unique approach to dealing with her fiance's death and the effects it has on Lydia's life. When Lydia is awake life goes on without her fiance but when she is asleep her dream life continues with her fiance alive and well. I finished the book, but I never really connected with the way the story was presented. Has received high marks and positive reviews...but not for me.

Get ready for an emotional ride when reading this book. I found myself in tears multiple times. I wasn’t expecting such a heavy feeling. Josie Silver weaves a tale that many women fear and can imagine experiencing. My next read will definitely be lighthearted.

I loved this book! this my second book by this author! received this copy from Netgalley! I can not wait to read more from this author!
I really love this cover and I loved the characters.

A strange story of a young woman Lydia who loses her fiance Freddie only to find him again in a parallel universe. Lydia struggles when "awake" to face reality, but escapes when "asleep" to continue her life with Freddie.

This book was an interesting one for me. I stayed up late multiple nights reading it - its melancholy message and tone wrung me out. It’s a book about grief and healing and hope, but it’s cutesy cover doesn’t do the message justice. I’d seen the cover floating around so much I requested it from @netgalley just based on the hype. Its actual content held a lot of depth and sadness. Normally I’m a big fan of emotional reads, but after this one, I might set aside those heavier books for now.

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<p><em>The Two Lives of Lydia Bird</em> starts with tragedy. Driving to Lydia's birthday dinner, Freddie is in a car accident that takes his life. Lydia's world is destroyed. She and Freddie, engaged to be married, have been together for over ten years, really ever since meeting as teens. He was her first and only love... and then suddenly, he was gone.</p>
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<p>Lydia is left to pick up the pieces of her shattered world, and where this book excels is in its depiction of grief and loss. Lydia's pain is not pretty or dignified -- she's a mess, and she remains a mess for a long, long time. Grief doesn't have a timetable. There's no quick fix or set number of months that the mourning should take. Lydia simply has to go through it, and fortunately, she has an incredibly giving and loving sister by her side every step of the way.</p>
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<p>Lydia also has a secret: The unusual pink pills that her mother gave her to help her sleep have a decidedly odd effect: When she takes a pill and falls asleep, Lydia is pulled into a different version of her own life, one in which the accident never happened and Freddie is very much alive. Soon, Lydia is torn between her bleak waking world and the promise of escape into a world that she knows can't be real -- but it's a world where she gets time with Freddie, gets to plan their wedding and enjoy their promised life together.</p>
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I liked The Two Lives of Lydia Bird very much, and would happily recommend it to anyone looking for a slightly different take on love and finding meaning in life.

This was a super slow read with the alternating points ,but the end was great . This book was graciously provided by the publisher via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Josie Silver’s warmth and humor make this a compelling read. Lydia Bird’s life takes a tragic turn when her fiancé, Freddie, is killed on her 28th Birthday. Her grief weighs heavy until she discovers an alternate reality where Freddie and her life with him still exists. She finds that there are trade offs, however, and living two lives partially is not as fulfilling as living one life fully. A lovely story about finding one’s way out of the darkness and finding one’s self along the way.

I enjoyed this book, but it did drag a bit in the middle for me. At the 60% point I considered not finishing it because I felt like the story wasn't going to move passed her grief. Instead of moving on, she spent all of that time wallowing and trying to stay in the past. Luckily, it changed not long after, and I started to enjoy it again. It ends as a heartfelt story about moving on and learning what people can mean in your life. Josie Silver is creating a fascinating niche for herself that I think will make her popular with readers for years to come.

The Two Lives of Lydia Bird follows Lydia Bird as she navigates her grief after losing her fiance Freddie in a car accident. Nearly a month after his death, Lydia is still struggling from losing the love of her life, staying in her pajamas for days at a time, not leaving the house, barely sleeping. After some intervening on her mother’s part, Lydia is prescribed a new sleeping pill from her doctor to help her sleep. With her family’s insistence, Lydia enters her bedroom for the first time since Freddie died and falls asleep thanks to her new sleeping pills. She dreams of Freddie, vividly, like he’s still alive, and soon, Lydia starts to believe that her dreams are taking her to a world where Freddie is still alive. From there, the book alternates between Lydia’s days in a world without Freddie, and her nights in a world where he’s still alive.
This book had an intriguing premise and lovely writing, but I just couldn’t get into it. Unfortunately, I had to DNF it after only a few chapters. I loved that it kicked into the story right away, with Lydia quickly entering her dreams of Freddie within the first couple chapters, but the story still felt like it was dragging. I like books that are exciting and have more going on, but this one just couldn’t hold my interest. There would be pages at a time of just Lydia’s thoughts and no interactions with anyone.
I feel like this is a book where you just have to sit down and READ, with nothing else to do, to make it through. I’m a college student and pretty busy so I had to continuously pick it up and put it down, but there didn’t seem to be anything drawing me in each time, making it hard to continue. I do feel like if I had more time, I would pick this one up again and try to get through it, so if it sounds interesting to you, I would still definitely give it a chance.

*takes a deep breath and dries tears*
This book will make you feel all the feels. Some of it (ok, a lot) is sad but please don’t shy away from it because of that. It’s so freaking good and you’ll miss out. This book definitely made me want to hold those I love a little tighter.
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Lydia is an amazing character and I just loved her! Her grief over the death of her fiancé is heart wrenching. What is conveyed throughout this story is that it’s ok to grieve and there’s no time limit on grief. I loved that her family was there for her and while they nudged her toward getting back to her life, they didn’t rush her or tell her she needed to get over it. There was not one character in this book that I didn’t like.
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When Lydia starts having these dreams in which Freddie is alive and their lives are moving on normally, the effect it has on her is heartbreaking. She just gets stuck in this limbo between what her life is and seeing what could’ve been via these dreams. She gets to a point where she knows she can’t live like that and that she’ll have to make some tough choices. That realization sends her on a journey of self discovery and causes her to realize all that she still has and all the happiness still ahead.
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Everything about this book was perfect: the plot, the characters, the overall message. There isn’t a right or wrong way to make your way through grief and really, we don’t ever completely stop feeling the loss of someone we love. But it’s ok that eventually the loss stops stinging so badly, you’re not forgetting that person. They’d want you to keep moving towards that light at the end of the tunnel.
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As you can tell, I’d definitely recommend this book.

Lydia and Freddie have been together for over a decade and are engaged to be married. It’s Lydia’s birthday and Freddie is rushing to her birthday dinner when he gets into a car accident and dies. Now her entire world is flipped upside down as she has to cope with the death of the love of her life. While trying to cope with her loss she finds a way to be with Freddie in an alternate life. What if he didn’t die? This is what her life could have been like. Now she lives in two worlds, one with Freddie and one without.

I really loved this book. You know right from the beginning that Freddie is going to die since it’s in the synopsis of the book, yet I still felt horrible for Lydia when it happened. I felt her grief so much and I even cried a few times with her. Every emotion she was going through I really felt. I was so proud when she was trying things and I felt so bad for her when there were days she just couldn’t handle life.

I thought there was going to be more romance in this book than there was but honestly I’m happy there wasn’t. It was more about Lydia going through the grief process and trying to continue her life. She has a strong support group that helped her through everything and I really loved them all. Her Mom, sister Elle and Jonah were all great characters and all helped Lydia in different ways. This was such a fantastic book that I’ll be thinking about for quite some time.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4 stars- I'm surprised I liked this as much as I did because I got off to a slow start with it. The writing flows and I felt everything our characters felt. Looking forward to more by this author.

—l y d i a b i r d—
TW/CW: grief/loss, miscarriage
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This book really grew on me. I have to be honest, I disliked the first half altogether. It was a downright struggle to get through. Part of that is that I generally don’t do well in this genre - romance isn’t my thing (except with a very specific few books). Part of it is that this book is challenging, particularly in the beginning, as it slogs through thick, visceral, unending grief.
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This is to Josie Silver’s credit: I felt Lydia’s grief. I have lost close family members before and so much of her grief was relatable (almost too much!). The parallel lives that Lydia experiences (this is not a spoiler but in one, her fiancé is dead, in the other, he is very much alive) are interesting as they require her to grapple with the immense feelings associated with loss. What worked here was how in touch Silver was with Lydia’s grief. Her love of Freddie felt very real. Her relationships with her sister and mother were also strengths of this novel and deeply complex and captivating.
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What didn’t work was a number of things - some aspects of the plot were dropped too quickly and easily and did not really seem to help move things (I don’t want to spoil, so I won’t name them). There were also plot points that seemed to come from nowhere that I found somewhat perplexing.
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In all, this is an engaging story and worth sticking around on. I almost DNF’ed a couple times. I am so glad I got to the ending which was, in my opinion, perfection.
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Thank you to @netgalley and @penguinrandomhouse for a digital copy in exchange for an honest review! Appreciate ya!
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3.5⭐️

The Two Lives of Lydia Bird by Josie Silver was a captivating read. What happens if your finance dies? What happens if you can answer the "what if" questions if he didn't die?

The Two Lives of Lydia Bird was at times heartbreaking, you could feel the pain from the pages, but you could also feel the characters. I would recommend it.

My rating is 4 out of 5 stars as the ending felt rushed vs the rest of the pace of the book.

"It was never about getting over Freddie Hunter. It doesn't work that way, despite what my doctor's chart might say. There isn't a handy grief blueprint. You don't get over losing someone you love in six months or two years or twenty, but you do have to find a way to carry on living without feeling as if everything that comes afterward is second best...Everyone has to find their own way back, and if they're lucky they'll have people who love them to hold their hand."

Ok, guys, I'm not crying, you're crying. Well, honestly, I probably got caught crying at least a few times throughout this book. Lydia and I have a lot in common, so I was a little nervous about reading her story, but I really wanted to see where she went with this. I was happy that while she does flip back and forth between the two worlds, SHE controls when she does that and life in her alternate world isn't all sunshine and rainbows. Losing someone you love is hard and messy and difficult to work through and I definitely relived so many feelings along with Lydia. I found this to be an amazing representation of how it felt to me. I actually stopped reading at like 92% through to go to bed and save just a little for the next day to stretch out the story a bit, since I wasn't quite ready to leave them. A definite must-read.

I received an ARC from the publisher through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely loved Josie Silver's One Day in December and vividly remember tearing up while reading it, so I was beyond thrilled to receive an ARC of her newest novel The Two Lives of Lydia Bird.

And it did not disappoint.

Silver's writing makes you feel Lydia's grief as strongly as she does but you're also lucky enough to share in all of her successes - in both her real life and the sleeping-pill-induced fantasy life she lives with her late fiance. Watching Lydia (and Jonah overcome - and not forget - the pain of her past was so inspiring.

There was less romance than I expected, but honestly, it wasn't necessary anyway. This was about the emotional (and often heartbreaking) journey of a woman trying to navigate an entirely new life.

You won't want to put this funny, yet heart-wrenching story down! Lydia Bird is thrilled to be marrying the love of her life, Freddie Hunter, in just a few short months when he dies in a car accident. The story line follows two paths, one where Lydia struggles to figure out who she is without Freddie and one where she is able to continue on her path as if nothing ever happened and Freddie Hunter is still alive and well.

I absolutely fell in love with Lydia and was cheering for her successes and crying through her struggles. This book reminded me of "Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine" with the loveable, yet broken main character and "What Alice Forgot" where the main character is struggling between two "realities".

Thank you to Ballantine Books and NetGalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Lydia Bird's life is exactly how she likes it. She has a great relationship her family, she loves her house (and her fancy bed), she lives in the town she grew up in with her fiance, Freddie, who she has been in love with since they were teens. When Freddie dies unexpectedly, Lydia's life is thrown into complete turmoil. She can't seem to find the will to move forward without him, and in the interim she is prescribed sleeping pills so she can at least rest. However, Lydia learns that when she takes a sleeping pill she is taken to a reality in which Freddie never died, in which nothing had to change. As time moves forward and Lydia's waking life continues on, she must decide what path to take: the "dream life" she may have been expecting or the real life full of people who need her- namely herself.

Let me start by taking a big cathartic sigh and saying this: Wow. I felt for Lydia. I felt all the feelings: happy, worried, concerned, gut wrenchingly sad. Josie Silver did a terrific job in making even side characters complex people you wanted to know more about.

There were several points in this book when I applauded Lydia for her sheer ability to keep going when I honestly don't know if I could. I feel like her character was so rounded out and believable, it was like the story was based on real events. I found myself ugly crying several times because my heart just could not take the pain she was in and I was so proud of her on so many occasions.

Based on the synopsis I read before starting this book I expected a romance, but the book focuses more on the progression of Lydia's grief as well as the way time will inevitably change things. I really loved the point made that people can have more than one happy ending.

In sum, this book was fantastic. I will absolutely be reading more by Josie Silver and am very thankful to have had the opportunity to read this book. Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine for a copy of this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Wow. Its been a while since I read a book that made me really feel all of the emotions the characters were feeling. I was crushed when Freddie died, and that was on the first few pages! I laughed, I cried, and I wanted to hug them all.

The beginning chapters read a little slower for me. I kept asking myself - how could this end? Where is this going to go? I kept making assumptions about it being just a typical romance or story of grief, but it was surprising and wonderful and made me want to do something crazy and go to Croatia right this second.

I loved Josie Silver’s first book, but I think this one was even better! Thank you, NetGalley for letting me read this one.

(Also, spoiler - I just have to say it, I loved that she didn't beat herself up for being "with" someone new. I was not looking forward to that storyline if it happened.)