What an interesting unique read. I thought the plot line was unique and the two story lines played out in way I hand't read before. I loved the characters. About half way through I knew where the story was going, but I really enjoyed the journey. I felt it was a bit long, but still ready the book in a weeks time. Thank you.

I received an ARC of this novel from Ballentine Books via Netgalley in exchange for my review. All opinions are my own. After reading One Day in December also written by Josie Silver, which was my favorite book last year, I was really looking forward to the next book she wrote. The Two Lives of Lydia Bird, was a very creative and unusual book which tells the love story of Lydia and Freddie, which was cut short when Freddie dies unexpectedly. They had been together forever and Lydia can't imagine her life without Freddie. When Lydia is offered sleeping pills to help with her insomnia, they actually allow her to "see" her life continuing with Freddie. At some point, Lydia has to make a choice-move on without Freddie or stay locked in the past with him.

This story was at times heartbreaking and unbelievable. It dragged in the middle a bit and that is the only thing that prevented me from giving 5 stars.

Id forgotten the premise when I started this and was immediately filled with dread to spend a whole book with this grieving woman. Man, I'm glad I did though! Its a story well told and I adored Lydia and following her path thru her horrible loss.

Such a heartbreaking story. Told in alternate perspectives, Lydia awake and Lydia asleep after the death of her beloved fiancé, Freddie.
This book was utterly heart wrenching and I just can’t imagine being in her position. Lydia is craving seeing Freddie so much, all she wants is to be in that alternate universe.

Josie Silver has done it again.

Round up to 3.5.

This is a lovely book, with a true “dreamy” quality - causing it to feel as though it went on just a bit too long. All of it was enjoyable, but felt perhaps over-experienced. Hard to describe. It’s fairly clear early on where things will go, and how it will end, but the author does throw in a few steps to throw you off the scent.

I truly enjoyed the story, I just can’t picture telling anyone “you have to read this.”

Josie Silver has done it again! She has written a unique love story that you become totally immersed in from the very beginning. She loses her fiancé Freddie in a car accident and is unable to get on with her life until she is persuaded to start taking sleeping pills. Two different worlds are presented and the reader quickly becomes involved in both of them. I love the author’s unique perspective presented in this book. Highly recommend! #TheTwoLivesOfLydiaBird #JosieSilver #NetGalley

A delight that stole my day :)

This book was unputdownable for me. I enjoyed how the two timelines worked as Lydia processed her grief.

I only wish that the Jonah storyline had unfolded a bit earlier in the story. I would have loved for something to happen with them in the Asleep time line or to see that the marriage to Freddie had failed and she'd ended up with Jonah anyway. I was waiting for half the book to see their romance unfold and it all happened in like the last 2% of the story.

Hopefully there will be a sequel or companion story?

i read the two lives of lydia bird in one gulp. lydia and jonah were friends from childhood until free spirited, bigger than-life, freddie came along and they were both pulled into freddie’s orbit. until freddie was no longer there.

Why is it when I read a great love story I immediately want to equate it with a comparable movie? Other genres can exist on their own without the endless need to tie it to a movie so why must we with love stories? I give up so will continue... There is a movie I loved and have NEVER gotten over & it starred one of my favorite actors of all time, the irreplaceable Alan Rickman. If you haven’t seen it - well you simply must find it... Truly, Madly Deeply. This story took me back to my love for that film. Thank goodness I don’t know Josie Silver as she would say you talked more about the film than my book! How about this—I feel I, not Reese Witherspoon discovered Josie—I received such an early advance copy of One Day in December and loved that story so much it made me forever devoted to whatever JS writes!! I love this too!! Also if you haven’t read One Day in December don’t let the month in the title throw you as truly it’s a delicious read all year long! xo President of the Josie Silver Fan Club ✨❤️ #fridayreads

I would probably give this 2 1/2 stars. I liked Lydia's story and her family plus her friendship with Jonah. However, the "two lives" part didn't make sense and wasn't ever really explained.

I requested this book on @netgalley because I loved #onedayindecember. I didn’t really even read the blurb because I rarely get approved for romance books. Once I got approved and read what the book was about, I was NOT interested. It sounded like a strange sliding doors + a melancholy study in grief. I started to read it though, and was instantly sucked in by Silver’s witty writing. Her characters are fleshed out and believable; their dialogue real and charming. I ended up liking the somewhat ~magical~ plot, even if it did move a bit slowly at times. Lydia Bird is an excellent and endearing protagonist, and I enjoyed reading about her two worlds.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for an ARC. Sadly, this was just ok for me. After reading the author’s 5 ⭐️ debut, I couldn’t wait to read her followup. But this story was boring. I loved the characters and I love the author’s writing but the story was boring, especially when Lydia was “asleep.” I found myself skimming. But I’m not giving up on this author and hope her next one is more on par with her debut.

I was really looking forward to this book based on the description, because my husband died last year and I thought I would find it an enriching journey. Sadly although I kept with it for a long time I just couldn't keep reading any further. The main character did nothing but wallow in her grief for her dead husband, drink and pop sleeping pills, and have fantasy dreams about him being alive again -- what are we supposed to learn from that? If indeed there was to be any character growth it was way too long in happening and I gave up. I gave it 2 stars because the writing style was good, but in truth it felt like a 1 star. (Sorry!)

I am sorry to say I could not get into this book at all. The parallel universe of Freddy and Lydia just did not vibe with me, I could not see the purpose of it. The "awake" chapters were better, but even then they did not hold my interest. I was expecting more of a typical romance and this book was not it for me. However, fans of Josie Silver and contemporary romances may like it and should read it.

I really liked this. Nice fun read. Lots of humor but also a bit sad. I loved her first book and like this one just as well. Will definitely recommend for purchase!

4.5⭐ The book started off a little slow, but once it picked up, it was SO good. We journey through grief with Lydia after her fiance, Freddie, dies in a car accident, and see her coming to terms with this new life, sans the man she's been involved with since she was 14.

She is prescribed sleeping pills that, when she falls asleep in this world, is transported to another one, where Freddie is alive. So she is trying to function and move forward in her "awake" life, while still seeing Freddie in her other life. The best thing about the other life is that it isn't some idealized world. Things still go wrong, and life isn't perfect.

What she goes through in both worlds feels so real and raw. It's hard to say much without being spoilery, but I think anyone who has suffered grief (whether it's the loss of a partner, good friend, or family member) will resonate with the emotions Lydia goes through as she grieves.

"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." One of my favorite lines of all time.

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine Books for the ARC in exchange of an honest review.

All I can say is OMG!! this book is so awesome.
You will cry like a baby.

This book is about losing the person you love, learning to live without them, finding yourself again and finding love again.

This book is so well written. There wasn't a boring word in the whole book and never one time did I ever think about putting it down.

It is so good. I almost didn't request this book but I read the reviews and thought I would give it a try. I'm so glad I did. It is one of my favorite books I have read for sure.

I will be looking for more books by this author!
Five stars!!

What a clever idea for a novel! Who doesn't wonder what their other life could be if things went differently? I felt like Lydia was a fully developed character as was Jonah but I didn't see what the appeal of Freddie was. When they stayed together in her "sleep", they didn't seem to have anything in common or a good relationship at all. The book was well written but I didn't get any sense why they were a couple beyond that they had been together since they were young teenagers.

I also thought it was weird she never once questioned how the pills worked or talked to her doctor about it. It was some experimental drug she took a fair amount yet she never returned to the doctor or seemed to get a refill at any point despite her very unusual circumstances! I had thought that would have entered into the book more---either there were other people involved in the study (I had thought Jonah might have been) or finding out it wasn't the pills at all or something. It was odd to use it as a plot device and then not really address any details.

That said I really enjoyed it! The author seems to have some issues around men traveling for business internationally--it was a major plot point in both of her (unrelated) novels.

So, in retrospect, a book in which the love of the main character's live does on page 1 is probably NOT the <i>best</i> choice for a honeymoon read?

But, I love <i>One Day in December</i> by Silver so much I kept on with this one anyway. And I'm glad I did. It was sad, sure - it was kind of "P.S. I Love You" meets <i>Maybe in Another Life</i> a little bit? Except still it's own thing.

Silver does a great job of taking the reader on a journey with Lydia through her grief over losing Freddie, the man she has loved since she was 14. She's heartbroken and angry - at Freddie for dying, at their closest friend Jonah for being the reason Freddie detoured on his way home, at the world for taking him away from her - but she also needs to find a way to move forward because she is still here.

The whole book is Lydia trying to come to terms with living a life that no longer includes Freddie. Early on in her grief, she is prescribed sleeping pills to help her rest. Lydia discovers when she takes the pills, she falls asleep in this world, but wakes up in one where Freddie is still alive, and their life is still moving forward.

So Lydia balances trying to function normally in her daily life with the knowledge that she has a means of escaping it, seeing Freddie again when she wants or needs to.

This concept could be cheesy or feel overwrought, but somehow it doesn't. Somehow it all....works. I think because the characters are well-crafted, and you see Lydia make hard, brave choices and evolve throughout the book. Lydia and the other core characters feel very real and genuine. Nothing really feels forced or fake. They're all just people trying to navigate the challenges that life brings.

And even Lydia's "other" life isn't perfect. Things take place there that are hard and unexpected. Helping Lydia understand that even if Freddie were still alive, life wouldn't just be sunshine and roses. She acknowledges that his premature death makes it easy for her to imagine a future for them that is perfect and rosy and wonderful - but her brief forays into her alternate life with Freddie remind her that that just isn't how the world works.

I saw the very end telegraphed early on in the book, which I thought would bother me more than it did. But even that somehow worked. Maybe I'm being generous, but maybe it's further testament to how Silver made her characters earn the ending that felt right in the end.

Thanks to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book!

I just loved this book. Lydia, Freddie and Jonah, all great friends since grade school. I loved their relationship. It is a little sad but there are very funny scenes. Lydia and her sister and mother are laugh out loud funny. It's a little bit of a tear jerker, but I still loved it. I also loved Josie Silver's other book, One Day in December.