THE LOVE OF MY OTHER LIFE was a really good book. The main character in the story, Josie, was very likable. I don’t read a lot of romance but this book just pulled me in. The storyline worked for me and I was very engaged throughout the entire book and turning the pages quickie. The characters were very well developed and I was routing for Josie the whole time. I don’t want to say too much without spoiling this one for others, but I did feel the ending was satisfying. This book is sure to be a hit this summer! I would definitely recommend this book to others.

Thank you to Netgalley and to the publisher for the ARC.

This book wasn't my cup of tea. Young woman gets into an bike accident and wakes up to find her life isn't what it used to be. I didn't like the twist but I did like the epilogue at the end.

Yes it’s been done before, Yes it reminded me of 13 going on 30 or Freaky Friday, Sliding Doors or any number of other films. But I really enjoyed this book and flew through it. Was a nice bit of escapism.
But there is no way my husband would believe me if I said I wasn’t really me but a different version of me.
Well worth a reaD

Actually a decent take on the sliding doors genres. It took me aback me in a good way. I expected a traditional romcom but this dealt with the pain and frustration of finding yourself in a life you don't remember, along with that journey of rediscovery.

I didn't always feel taken along for the ride of Josie and Rob's relationship. It's full of time jumps and sometimes that felt like we were missing out on the progression. But overall this was a pleasant surprise. Plus I read it in one sitting so that's always a good sign.

I was unable to finish this book and thus will not be posting a full review on my blog. I made it to around 60% and was just bored to tears. The story was off and I could not connect with either version of Josie. Thank you for the opportunity.

It took me alittle while to fully get into this as I watched 'real Josie' and 'other life Josie' navigate their new surroundings. But once I did I was transfixed.

This is another book that gave me real sliding doors vibe and I've always loved books like that. I find it fascinating to know you could be out there living a different life to the one you now have.
This gave me very bittersweet feelings.

Whilst difficult to write alot about the actual story without it being spoiled, it can be confusing for reviewers reading this review when I speak about 'real Josie' and 'other Josie' so I apologise for that! But if you read this book, you'll totally get what i mean.

Until then, just know, The author does a wonderful job of pulling on alot of emotions.
I felt the devastation, anguish, hurt and confusion as everyone had to learn how to live with what had happened. It was like starting all over again.
Rob, Josies husband really does deserve his own shout out! Give the man a pat on the back!

Living an alternative life may sound exciting, but after reading about Josies journey back to happiness I think I'm content just to live in the moment!
This very sweet, poignant book will be one to watch this year I think and I'm so glad I got to read it!

💌 Thankyou Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book.

Josie, a single Brit, living in Brooklyn has a radio show that is growing in popularity, is an active choir member and great friends. However, she crushes on a guy in a relationship (though on the precipice of breaking up!) and misses her family, especially her brother, back home in England. One day whilst rushing to meet her friends for dinner she crashes her bike.. and wakes up in the hospital with a handsome stranger by her side claiming to be her husband! They apparently live a life she could only dream of: Manhattan penthouse, lavish parties and she is her ideal weight. But is this new life really everything she wants?

This story is a wild ride! Perfect for anybody who questions if there are alternative universes or wishes their life had progressed in a different manner. Major Sliding Doors vibes.

My favourite elements:
- Female Brit in NYC - as a female Brit who moved to NYC I 100% understood the conflict Josie felt about loving her life in NYC but hating being so far away from her family in England, especially her brother who she is really close with
- the exploration of two alternative realities and Josie learning what she loved about each life and what she ultimately wasn't willing to sacrifice.
- writing style - the chapters flowed nicely and the focus from each "Josie" for a bulk of chapters at a time allowed you really connect and understand each "Josie" much easier than a back and forth each chapter
- depth -the story covers some heavy topics and at times really tugged on the heart strings which made this much more than a lighthearted romance.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I do feel like there was an "OG" Josie who we were waiting to see which life she'd choose. I personally didn't really care for "alternate world" Josie, didn't feel the same connection to her but I did like that it gave us a parallel to view how time progressed linear in both worlds though.

I adored this one, I'm impressed it was a debut novel - it's one of my fave books this year ! It's perfect for fans of Maybe In Another Life, Sliding Doors and What Alice Forgot.

On Josie's 36th birthday, she gets in a bike accident and wakes up in the hospital, with her husband by her side. The only thing is, Josie isn't married. At least not in her regular life, but she seems to have woken up in a new life where everything that happened in the last 3 years is completely different than her memories. Her friends and family think it's amnesia, but her memories are so vivid and detailed that Josie starts to think she awoke in an alternate reality. I was completely invested right from the first chapter until the very last page.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Imagine you woke up with a perfect life... but it wasn't yours. This book was quite interesting with a plot that really captures your attention. It was quite mesmerizing and a great take on the "what if" universe. It kinda plays into that multiverse of madness era. It was an cool read and i enjoyed it!

I thought this book was going to be a cute romcom book with a cute twist. I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of depth and substance in this book. Each and every character felt real and 3 dimensional. They had their own lives and weren't just plot devices to move the story along. The author did a very good job at switching from first person to third person which made it easier to be able to tell which parallel universe you were in.
This book is very much character driven rather than plot driven so the pacing is slower.
I enjoyed the diversity that was in this book. Especially with the main love interest being indigenous and the amount of actual effort put into his life and how he talked about his culture and growing up. There was also positive LGBTQ+ representation with the side characters in this book. Mainly gay representation. None of the characters really seemed to play off of stereotypes. (Except for the British loving tea one)
The only things I didn't like about the book is the amount of slut shaming comments that were made in the 1st half. After the first two or so made it started to leave a bad taste in my mouth.
Overall, it is definitely a good book to read if you don't mind the slow pacing of it.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4755406900

I couldn't get past the first couple of chapters because it was hard for me to get into. No one cheated at that point but I was expecting cheaters and therefore had to quit.

This is a story, or rather TWO stories about 36-year-old Josie. The two stories are two versions of the life of Josie; in one she's single. lives in Brooklyn and works at a radio station, in the other she's married, lives a luxurious life and works in a high-flying marketing role.
The plot twist making this an extraordinary story, is when Josie is cycling to meet her friends for dinner but suddenly hears screeching of brakes and she crashes her bike. When she wakes up, she's thrown into a life which isn't the same as she was living before the crash.

Throughout the book we follow the lives of the two versions of Josie. Both are told in an engaging way, but personally I struggled with the parallell universe / multiverse approache it never feels believable.

However, if you love stories like Sliding Doors (with Gwyneth Paltrow in the film adaptation) your are in for a treat!

Josie has an average life, a normal job, mildly successful love life and a close best friend,
But in an alternate universe, another Josie has her dream job, dream husband, overall dream life.
After a biking accident the two Josie's switch lives, freaky friday-esque, and each woman has to settle into their new lives with their past memories.

I personally enjoyed the book, especially during the middle chapters when the plot wasn't dragging on and everything had purpose. It was a bit of a slow start but it had a solid build up with nice ending.

The characters were alright, the original Josie was much more likeable than the other Josie, who often sounded pretentious and whiny. Some of the characters annoyed me (looking at Rob) while the majority of side characters just weren't explored enough for me to have an opinion.

I did like the distinction between the two Josie's by having them alternate 1st and 3rd person, it allowed each character to shine in their own chapters. The rest of the writing was well done, nothing phenomenal but it wasn't bad by any means.

I would definitely recommend this book if you like the plot synopsis or just generally a contemporary romance fan.

Thank you NetGalley and Joffe books for the ARC.

I really enjoyed this story although, really preferred reading about Josie and Rob.
Towards the end the multiverse storyline dragged a little.
All in all a quick easy going read.

Wow! Loved this book. This premise is interesting - she gets in an accident and ends up in a parallel life from her own - seemingly split from the life she knows by an accident she had 3 years ago (but didn't have in this other life - veering her life in a different direction). The idea of the book is fascinating and I've read a few other books in a similar vein to this one. But - this was one of the best. Truly, hard to put down. This type of plot can be hard to execute just right, but C.J. Connolly did it. I'm looking forward to seeing what she writes next!

”There are many ways people can be right for each other. Just because you can be happy with a quiet, gentle man doesn’t mean you can’t also be happy with an outgoing, charismatic joker.

In a different life.

Or maybe even both in the same life.”


SUMMARY
Josie Cavendish is a single, British woman with a job she enjoys at a radio station and a blossoming romance with a fellow choir member. On her 36th birthday, she gets into an accident and wakes in the body of herself but in an alternate timeline. Josie wakes up with a rich, handsome husband, a well paying job, skinny, with hair extensions. Although there are things missing in her new life that lead to her needing to go back to her own timeline.

OPINION
I thought this would be reminiscent of Sophie Kinsella’s Remember Me? Which is one of my favourite romcom’s of all time. But they are indeed very different stories.

This author decided to write a romance but make it ✨multiverse✨ themed. I’m not sure how I feel about the story to be honest. The dual split POV of Main Josie and Other Josie felt repetitive at times.

Honestly I was a little bored with it by the 80% mark. I wish it all got resolved a bit faster because I was really over both Josie’s complaining about their respective lives.

I did actually really enjoy the ending though. I like the notion that different versions of oneself attract different people, job prospects, and experiences.

RECOMMENDATION
Those who like contemporary romance with a Freaky Friday twist or Dr Strange’s multiverse theory might like this one.

This book was a very fun, fast-paced and unique take on classic tropes made popular from films such as Sliding Doors and Freaky Friday.

On the way to her 36th birthday celebration, Josie bikes over to the restaurant, excited about her potential new romance with her crush Peter, and spending time with her choir friends. However, her journey there is cut short by an accident. She wakes in the hospital to find an attractive unknown man at her bedside, who seems completely too concerned about her well-being considering they don’t know each other. But the truth is, they very much know each other. The man, Rob, is her husband of 2 years and she is forced to live an entirely new life where another Josie once was. In Josie’s old world, the other Josie is now spending time with her brother, getting to know Peter, and dealing with being away from her husband.

Some things that I really enjoyed about the book was Josie’s character, as she was a very relatable yet funny character. I connected with Josie a lot, and found her journey alongside Rob very heartbreaking but sweet. Unfortunately, whilst Other Josie is the same character, they were very boring and unlikable. Whilst the fact that Connolly was able to create two such distinct voices was impressive, the life that Other Josie was living was very lackluster and uninteresting when juxtaposed against Josie’s new life with Rob.

My main issue was the structure of the novel and the pacing of the novel. I wish we got to see a bit of Josie’s life before we transitioned at the end of chapter one. It made it difficult to grasp her emotional state as she is dropped into the new world, because we didn’t have time to acclimate to her old life, or understand her relationships with the people left behind.

Similarly, the format between the two storylines slowed down the pacing of the novel and made it quite repetitive by the end. I really enjoyed that the first part was quite long, because I was presently surprised to suddenly find myself in the other Josie’s life. I think that after having the bigger sections at the beginning, the book would have benefited from having a chapter or two from each perspective before changing up. This would have created more tension between the two characters as they adapted to their lives. The scenes in Williamsburg dragged quite a bit as they were really long sections despite not featuring many enjoyable scenes. If there were breaks between this perspective, I think I would have enjoyed the novel a lot more.

Overall, this is definitely a fun novel that would be perfect for an easy summer read. I did enjoy this book although it did have a few aspects that decreased my excitement about it. I would be interested to pick up another CJ Connolly book in the future!

Ok, I didn't expect this at all. The blurb lets you believe you get a character thrown into another life, but instead we embark in a multiverse story about faith and parallel universes.

Josie is a single choir singer and radio show host who gets in a bike accident 3 years after she almost had another one in the same exact place and that triggers a rip in the fabric of her world, ending with her waking up to a brand new husband, house and job she didn't have yesterday. We get to see both her lives being played out throughout the book as both versions of the main character try to find their footing in this new world they were thrown in.

What I liked:
- the idea of the "sliding doors" was there and it was carried well, keeping an alternating POV between the Josies. I think it was a nice touch to separate the two universes by changing the perspective from a first to a third person.
- the plotline with her brother, which reminded me a bit of The Midnight Library by Matt Haig as it goes to show how much your life can change if a split-second decision had not been made.

What I didn't like:
- Rob is "other" Josie's husband and he is genuinely one of the most laid-back characters I read about. And that was a bit boring. He is understanding of her supposed amnesia from the first second, gets her home and is ok with them being roommates. No questions, no pushing her towards getting her memories back, nothing.

- Even though it felt like something "real" Josie kind of wanted, I didn't like the fact that "other" Josie was like 30 pounds slimmer. We're not in The Princess Diaries, you don't need to straighten your hair, get rid of your glasses and braces to be pretty.
- "other" Josie was not likeable at all. Unlike "real" Josie, who tried to make the best out of her situation and get used to the idea that if she never goes back to her old life, this one is pretty good, "other" Josie b*tched about it and never tried to see what this life could possibly offer.
- what ultimately made me decide to rate this only a 3/5 stars was the pacing. The book focused mainly on dialogue and didn't really develop the characters' thoughts and emotions, so I didn't connect with any of them. I didn't really root for one outcome or the other,

Thank you Netgalley and Joffe Books for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

We have all seen the Hallmark movies where the main character gets in an accident or goes to sleep and wakes up with a different life. She has the perfect man and life that she wanted. But, she either has amnesia or remembers her "old life" but starts to fall for the guy and the life.

This book has all that and a twist. Josie is in a bike accident and now there are two Josies. "Me" is who we are introduced to in the beginning ends up with a husband and a fancy life. She remembers only her old life. "Her" is the Josie that had the husband. She ends up in the place of the Josie who was single. Sound confusing? It was for a second, but you catch on fast.

While I know that these characters are both technically Josie, I am a bigger fan of "Me" Josie. I'm not sure what about "Her" Josie didn't sit well. There are some moral/ethical issues brought up since the version of Josie with Rob (the husband) isn’t technically the one that married him. I’m glad that was addressed. My only complaint about the book is that Rob and Josie call each other "baby" constantly.

Thanks to NetGalley and Joffe Books for my advance copy!

This is a multi verse romance reminiscent of Sliding Doors. The plot is very interesting, but the execution fell a bit short for me. My main issue is that Josie's situation is very emotional, but I couldn't actually feel her emotions, it was more of a surface level where her feelings are described, but not conveyed. I also didn't feel the chemistry with Rob or with Peter. it all just felt rushed and superficial, when the premise had so much more potential.