In the Love of My Other Life, the main character Josie is on her way to celebrate her 36th birthday with friends. Along the way, she gets into a biking accident and the trajectory of her life changes. She wakes up to a life that is not hers - living in Manhattan, married, and working for a successful real estate company.

I love the idea of a "what if" point of view - where the character has two different lives and the decisions they make. I loved the character Josie and really empathized with the her as she tried to sort out these two lives. There were some parts of the book that were a little slow, but the novel was beautifully written, and the plot flowed smoothly

Thank you, C.J. Connolly, Joffe Books, and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for my honest review!

THE LOVE OF MY OTHER LIFE
BY
C.J. CONNOLLY.

Josie is in her mid thirties. Her life is ok, she lives in New York, has an ok job and a small apartment. She hasn’t quite hooked the man of her dreams, but all in all, things could be worse.
On her way to meet friends to celebrate her birthday, Josie is involved in an accident.
The next thing Josie is aware of is waking up in hospital, but she doesn’t wake up to the life she had before the accident. For starters there is a rather handsome man sat at her bedside and apparently he is her husband. This new life seems to be everything that her old life isn’t, but at what cost does the new life come?
Will Josie choose to go back or will her new life be enough to make her want to stay?

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I loved the premise of the story and I’m always drawn to a sliding doors style storyline.

This is an emotional read - there were tears!

The Love Of My Other life is so well written. It has real depth and some endearing characters.
It’s full of love, finding strength and seeking acceptance.

A beautiful read.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Out now on all formats.

With thanks to Netgalley and Joffe Books for a digital arc of this title.

You know when you’re going through something, and then you read a book and it brings up those emotions and makes you ball like a baby? That was this book for me.

Summary
On Josie’s 36th birthday she gets into an accident and upon awakening realizes she’s in some alternate reality. Gone is her job at the radio station, her choir group, the man she had been pining after, her house, her body, and so much more. In its place is an elevated, wealthier, skinnier, more successful version of herself. She the last 3 years of her life are completely different, and the biggest change of them all is a husband. As she begins to navigate this new life she realizes that all her wildest dreams have been handed to her on a platter, and now she must decide if this flashy new life is worth all that she would lose by giving up on her old one.

Thoughts
Ugh this was SO much better than what I was expecting. The Love of my Other Life deviates from the typical structure of alternate universe stories (not that I've read many), but I enjoyed the questions it brought up and how Josie really has few reasons to go back to her own life but still questioned her decision to stay because she knew this life belonged to some other version of herself. I loved how the choice to stay in the alternate reality wasn't an easy one because the cost of what Josie would giving up was priceless, but at the same time she would get everything she's always dreamed up in return for this sacrifice. The parallel between the two Josie's, their similarities and differences was an interesting juxtaposition. I think her husband was a little too perfect, but last few chapters brought some intriguing complexity to his character which I wish had been explored further. Overall, this was a well-paced, wonderfully complex story the author weaved that aroused many questions and prompted me to reflect on what I would do if faced with the same challenges as Josie.

Rating: 5/5
Spice: 1/5

Characteristics
- Alternate universe/parallel realities
- Millionaire H
- Push/pull
- Marriage in trouble
- Forced proximity
- Mutual Pining

Great story, really enjoyed this plot. I'd recommend this book to people who enjoyed the time Travelers wive or the lake house. Parallel live where there are points where they crossover.

Beautifully written, I'll definitely buy more from this author.

This book was amazing and very hard to put down. It's difficult to pull off the two timelines mixed with some magic and make it seem plausible but this author did it. I loved the pacing and the premise and would highly recommend it. Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Could not finish, the main character was just not likeable. She was spoiled and rude and not relatable at all.

Josie had an accident and wake up in completely new reality. Before, she was a single woman living in a small flat, with no great prospect for the future and after, she is married woman, living in the penthouse and on the magaiznes' covers. What a change!

Jodie is lost. She suffers from the memory lost, so she feel insecure, absent in her life. Then, she starts to remember... but remember her live before the accident. And anyone believes her... She decide to find out what happend.

And here is the moment when everything in this book went wrong.

Her ideas, actions and explanation what had happend are unreal. This is full of holes, repeating all over again and it just started to be boring. I struggled to get to the end to get the ending that I don't like at all.

I expected this story to move in complete different direction, so I found it unnnatural and I don’t buy it at all

I've read other books with a similar plot line, but this one just didn't seem to pull me in. I may pick it up and try again, but for now it moves to the bottom of the virtual pile.

I love anything to do with time travel or multiverse, so this book was right up my alley. It’s very well written and easy to follow. ( sometimes they are not ) I enjoyed the two timelines as they were very different. I didn’t love Josie 2. I felt like she was very different to number 1. She wasn’t terrible, but definitely not as good a person. (Which is interesting if you think about it) overall I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading the author again soon.

The Love of my Other Life was such a fun twist on the alternative reality trope! Josie gets in a crash on her 36th birthday and wakes up as an another version of herself in an alternative reality. She has to get used to living in a reality that isn’t hers and then has to decide if she should stay or try to go back to her real life.

The interesting part for me was that Josie switched places with the Josie whose reality she took over. It has several parts, going between the two. It really explores the idea of what makes your life fulfilling. It also makes you think about how your life might have been different if you did one thing differently.

I really enjoyed this book overall but did find parts of the ending a little strange. It is a little predictable and slow at times but overall I would recommend it!

The Love of My Other Life is another book that has recently blown me away with how much I’ve enjoyed it. So much so that I think this one will be in my top ten of the year. I loved the cover and the setting of New York is hands down one of my favourite fictional settings to read so I truly did love this one.

This is a Sliding Doors-esque romance that honestly had me questioning how the characters were going to make it back to where they belonged. The story follows main character Josie. She’s a British ex-pat living in New York who wakes up after an accident on her pedal bike in someone else’s life. Everyone around her seems to think she belongs there and that her amnesia will eventually clear. I don’t want to say much else but what comes up later on blew my mind, literal gasping occurred!

Are time travel and fate plot trends year? I feel like I’ve read a few books with similar plots and storylines but that sometimes happens doesn’t it! The others I’m thinking of are Time After Time by Louise Pentland, Meant to be Mine by Hannah Orenstein and Dream On by Angie Hockman.

Wow this is the best debut novel i have read in a long time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I loved this story and found myself falling in love with all of these characters and rooting for them all. Truly an amazing love story of finding love and re-finding your soul mate in another life. Truly beautiful story.

Josie gets in a crash on her 36th birthday and wakes up with a perfect life. It may be what Josie had dreamed of, but she can’t let go of feeling like it’s not really hers. What will she do?

I really enjoyed this book! It had some light sci-fi elements in regards to how this change happened. That element ended up being a pleasant surprise to me and set it apart from other romances that may seem similar. Josie was not only focused on her new romance as the title may imply, but she spent a lot of time struggling with changes in herself, her family, and her work in this new life. This added a depth to the story that I wasn’t expecting but made the book even better as it seemed the proper response to everything happening to her.
There were some narrator shifts in this book that I can’t go into without spoiling things. While I definitely enjoyed one narrator over the other, I thought this story-telling device did add to the book as a whole.
I will definitely be interested in what CJ writes next.
4.5⭐️
*Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC

Thrilling read! I was able to connect with all of the characters and throughly enjoyed the story the author painted.

I enjoyed this book, I thought the premise was quirky and well executed, I liked the characters and thought the ending was great! Quite fluffy and great for a holiday read, I would definitely recommend this x

I was excited to read this book based on the synopsis and the concept of the book. However, this one fell somewhat flat for me. I did not particularly connect with the MC, and I think that had a lot to do with it. It wasnt bad, but it was definitely not my favorite. I think it was just ok.

I read 70% of the story but sadly then gave up. I felt the book was taking a long time to get anywhere and I really didn’t like the characters that much. There wasn’t a lot of depth to them or the plot and I sadly just lost interest. Such a shame as the synopsis sounded so good and Reminiscent of the film Sliding Doors.

If you are looking for a cute and easy to read book. This would be the book for you. It's easy to follow along and an enjoyable read.

Read and reviewed in exchange for a free copy from NetGalley. This was an enjoyable, easy read. I was engaged with the parallel worlds premise, and enjoyed how the author created two similar but distinct personalities for the two versions of the main protagonist. The setting and imagery was crafted well.

This was a first time read for me by this author. The story was entertaining and unique and was a fun and enjoyable read. The premise of an alternate universe was interesting, and there was a strong emotional aspect as well, which made the characters more relatable and realistic. They were well-developed and I enjoyed getting to know them and follow their story. The story was creatively written and very entertaining. I would definitely like to read more by this author. Overall, this was an enjoyable and entertaining book and I am glad to have had the opportunity to read it.
I received a complimentary copy from Netgalley and am voluntarily leaving my review.