I loved the idea of this book as it starts off well showing us Josie and her life. Josie felt realistic and her problems in each timeline allowed me to easily connect with her. It was the flow of the story that I struggled with as it felt like we only saw snippets of her life. The story jumped from one holiday to the next and we didn’t get to see much of her every day life. I didn’t really get to see the connections between her and her love interests but I liked seeing how different her life could have been with just one change. Overall, I think the relationship was far too much of a focus and didn’t allow us to see more beyond her. It made all the side characters feel flat. With the characters around her lacking depth it hurt the impact of the story. It was a decent read but lacked deeper connections and made everything revolve around Josie. I’d still recommend others read it as it was interesting and creative.

Thanks NetGalley and the Publisher for the ARC.

Oh my goodness, when I saw The Love Of My Other Life by C.J Connolly as a read now option on NetGalley, I was instantly curious. I generally find alternate universe stories fairly hit or miss, but I absolutely loved this!

I smiled, I laughed, and I cried. There were so many overlaps between Josie and Other Josie’s lives, but also something huge missing in both universes, it was absolutely very interesting to see how each version of Josie was dealing with being in a completely different version of her life.

I loved the way each adapted into her new life, and I truly loved the way this ended! I will be truly recommending this to all my romance lover friends!

I loved this story line, it's definitely not something I've read lately. I kept reading because I was invested and had to know what would happen next.

When Josie crashes her bike on the way to her 36th birthday dinner and wakes up in a hospital, she's relieved to not be injured... but also confused. Who is this man here who is calling himself her husband? And why does everyone believe it? In an alternate-universe romance with a twist, Josie must figure out if she's ready to sacrifice what she loved about her old life for her new "perfect" life and potential soulmate.

This book was a letdown to me in large part due to the insensitive and triggering comments about weight and food. I really couldn't get past all of that and it made me not like Josie very much. A really frustrating and disappointing reading experience.

What would you do if you work up in the life that you dreamed of but soon realises that it wasn’t exactly how you thought it would be? Josie is 36 and single, living in Brooklyn. After an accident, she wakes up to find herself married to Rob, and living a dream life in Manhattan, where she is slim and has a great job in real estate. But all is not as it should be.
This story projects Josie with her two lives and switches between the two quite easily, I enjoyed reading about Josie as she struggles with her life, with all its different experiences. Without giving away the storyline, this book was cleverly written whereby, I felt myself drawn into the complexities of Josie’s life and her struggle to make the right choices. The romance was subtle and the plot twist entertaining. A good read overall.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley and Joffe Books. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thanks to Netgalley and Joffe Books for the ARC of this!

I adore a Sliding Doors scenario, and this was no exception. I loved seeing Josie figuring out her lives, what was the same and what had changed, and the idea that they could swap back was very interesting. I really liked the romance, a “forgotten” husband, and I liked that she found someone to confide in in both timelines. The idea that they kind of knew what the other was doing really had me thinking. The end was really surprising to me! Perfect for fans of Maybe in Another Life, the writing duo Liz Fenton & Lisa Steinke, and Sliding Doors.

Thank you to NetGalley or the eARC of The Love of My Other Life.

I love a good dual POV story, and this one really had a great premise. The synopsis really pulled me toward the novel. I was rooting for our girl Josie and hoping she was able to make the decision that would be best for her.

I think the novel ended up being okay. It certainly wasn't my favorite but it was an enjoyable read.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of this novel. I... did not enjoy this novel. The conceit of switching places with your alternate self, like in Fringe, seems very up my alley but Josie was so annoying to me. I am glad she stuck to her guns in knowing this was not her world or her life but I could not sympathize with her. I wonder if I may have enjoyed this more if the alternate Josie's switched back and forth each chapter but that is not what I got. This book was just not for me. I appreciate the chance to have read it but can't recommend this for others.

I will start by caveating this rating and review by saying I don’t love Sliding Doors as a concept. This was probably never going to be five stars for me for that reason alone!

That said, I was intrigued by the comparisons in the publisher’s blurb and the cover on NetGalley and was excited to receive an e-copy to review!

I really enjoyed CJ Connolly’s writing - a great debut. This book reminded me of Josie Silver and Rebecca Serle, with a dash of Sophie Cousens.

The plot follows Josie, a British expat who lives in Brooklyn, hosts a real estate radio show, and nurses a semi-requited crush on her fellow choir member Peter. On her 36th birthday, a bike accident results in Josie waking up in another version of her life, where she’s married to handsome, wealthy real estate mogul Rob and living in Manhattan - but her brother/BFF is dead. Josie feels like an imposter in her own life as she wrestled with being someone else in her own (slightly different body). And what is happened to the Josie of this new life - is she back in Brooklyn?

I (mostly) liked Josie as a main character, and Connolly does a great job connecting the reader with the complex emotions of her situation (both Josies). Josie isn’t always happy even when she should be - and she’s happy sometimes when she feels she shouldn’t be. The cast of characters is really lovely and honestly I thought Rob was pretty swoony (though he has issues of his own).

My two gripes:
1. The book started a bit slow, but like Josie’s bike, it accelerated at the 25% mark then really revved up about halfway through. The very end, while absolutely perfect and right and what I knew and hoped would happen, felt too fast!
2. This is a bit silly but I felt some of the American characters used British-isms (Rob calling his mother Mum for instance) and vice versa.

I would flag a content warning on weight talk in the duality of Josie’s lives.

If you like a multiverse concept with a contemporary romance vibe, I would definitely check this out! I'd give it above 3 stars, but it's not quite 4 stars.

To be honest, the synopsis of the book is what really made me want to read it. The concept was so unique and interesting, however, I felt that the execution was not as strong as I had hoped. Some of the positives for me that kept me engaged was the dual POVs between the two Josies. That was genius and kept me wanting more!

However, overall, I felt that this book was okay. I did not connect with any of the characters unfortunately, but I did appreciate some moments with some of them. I will also be honest that the dialogue felt like it dragged on and was the only approach the author took to describe what was happening in the plot.

Overall, I found the book to be just okay. It was just not my favorite.

Thank you NetGalley and Joffe Books for my eARC in exchange for my honest opinion!

I love these types of stories. It seems like it never gets old but i geel like it needed a bit of a difference than any other book.

3.5* The synopsis was sooo appealing I just had to read it, and I wasn’t disappointed. It’s a really original idea to introduce a Multiverse (and also Marvel references) but not a fantasy world, because it has the appeal of a different concept but it keeps the freshness of a contemporary book. It’s mostly and easygoing book. It could use an update of the time it’s set on, as reading about 2017 in 2022 is a bit odd, as well as a bit of editing. Apart from that and the selfishness of both Josies, I enjoyed it and I definitely recommend it!

[Thanks to NetGalley and Joffe Books for providing me with a free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest opinion!]

"

Imagine you woke up to a life to the perfect life - but it wasn’t yours. Today is Josie’s 36th birthday - she is single, British women living in New York City and is working at a radio show that is finally starting to pick up some steam. The guy she likes from her choir group broke up with his girlfriend and she is so excited for SoHo birthday party dinner. She zipping through the crazy NYC traffic on her bike, when is crashes and Josies’s world goes black.

When she wakes up in the hospital, the handsome stranger by her bedside telling her he loves her is Rob. Her husband of two years that she has no recollection of. This new life is everything Josie has ever dreamed of - she lives in a chic Manhattan apartment, her closest is full of designer dresses and she works in real estate. But there is one thing missing in this new, perfect life: her brother, David is dead. Josie deeply regrets not being able to say goodbye properly. So now she must decide: should she go back to her single life in Brooklyn, or stay with the love of her life?


______

I went into this book thinking It was going to be similar to “Maybe in Another Life’ by Taylor Jenkins Reid (which by the way, is my most favorite TJR book!) but unfortunately this book fell so insanely flat for me. I wasn’t emotionally invested in Josie’s or Rob’s story at all. The only character I did like was Josie’s brother, David because his sub plot story line was the only interesting part of the book to me. I REALLY wanted to enjoy this book - because I loved the premise of an alternate life, and seeing how your life would be if certain situations unfolded differently. I didn’t like how Josie body shamed herself and how she felt like her appearance defined her self worth. At the halfway point, I got really bored and I was hoping there would be some major revelation.

I just found this book to be repetitive and predictable and just not for me.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to read and review "The Love of My Other Life" by C.J. Connolly, scheduled to release on June 30th, 2022.

Overall, I will say that I thoroughly enjoyed this book - the first 90% of it. That makes me rate it a 4 out of 5 stars! The last 10% of the book kind of made my head hurt, though - I'm not ashamed to say, it got kind of confusing. And the last 10% of the novel also reminded me somewhat of "Layla" by Colleen Hoover. However, I will say that I was intrigued the whole time.

This book tells the story of Josie, who is celebrating her 36th birthday and gets into a bike accident before going out to dinner with her friends. When she wakes up, she has no idea who the man holding her hand is - her husband Rob, whom she is fairly certain she was not with beforehand. We, as the reader, get to experience two different versions of Josie's life...and how the two of them collide (no pun intended) at the end.

Josie is a young, single woman who lives in New York. The day of her birthday she has a bike accident. And when she wakes up in hospital her world is completely different.
Family, work and status changes. But mainly there is a handsome man, Rob, who claims to be her husband.
She soon realizes something weird has happened. That is not her life anymore. But does she want to go back to her old life?
I found the plot really original. And I mostly enjoyed it. Although I didn't particularly like some twists. Or reactions.

This story introduces us to Josie, a British woman now living in New York. Her life is okay - she works for a local radio station and lives in a tiny apartment, but she misses her family back home. She does have a major crush on a guy called Peter. Peter is seeing someone, but he is on the verge of leaving her, and Josie feels this is her chance to be with him! On her way to meet her friends, she has an accident, and when she wakes up, she discovers she is married to Rob and lives in a big, impressive New York penthouse! She doesn’t know Rob though, or this life that she’s woken up in! Her new life seems perfect in so many ways, but equally there are so many things missing. How does Josie get back to her old life, and does she really want to?

On first impressions this book sounded great – very Sliding Doors! The storyline switched between the two Josie’s lives but it was very easy to understand which Josie you were with, which I was glad about! The new Josie (I’ll call her penthouse Josie for ease!) takes the first part of the book and then we switch back between the two for the rest. I enjoyed both alternative lives, but usually in stories such as these, I would have a favourite and for some reason I struggled to work out which life I preferred! Josie’s original life did probably sound a little better for her, but it didn’t have Rob in it. But then again, penthouse Josie’s life sounded amazing, but there were so many other things missing from that as well!

I have to admit I found the storyline a little slow at times (in both lives) and felt that things could have been moving along a lot faster. The idea of two Josie’s who’d switched over into their alternate lives (as opposed to one Josie living both lives!) was a little confusing but it was written as uncomplicatedly as it could be (unlike this review!). I did like both Josie’s characters though and found myself being empathetic and equally frustrated with both of them. This is a really difficult book to review without giving anyway too many spoilers, and whilst there were a few little niggly things with both storylines, I have to admit that I did enjoy the book and loved the characters and location! The ending for me was absolutely perfect and with it being very reminiscent of Sliding Doors – if it’s meant to be, it’ll happen one way or the other!

Magical realism and multiverse stories are my guilty pleasure. Which is why I had to read this book after I glance at the cover and the description, and I must confess that it didn't let me down. It was a great read and at times, I wanted to be Josie.
It's a great summer read.

💫 The Love of My Other Life 💫
By CJ Connolly
Publisher: Joffe Books (June 30.2022)
Genre: Contemporary Romance

“You get to fall in love all over again. And that’s the best feeling in the world”.

Just like the book I feel split into two half’s. one part of me loved it, was refreshingly changing the pages, in love with Rob and Josie finding each other after the accident.

And then on the flip, I was slightly confused on what Josie it was at what part of the book.

The multiverse genre is one that is hit or miss for me. And it all comes down to whether I can keep the characters straight in my head.

So while this review may feel confusing, it feels true to how I felt about the book.

Part of me loved it so much (ugh, the love of Rob is a dream)… and part of me was confused and trying to keep the story straight in my head. Perhaps the most at the end.

I loved it and disliked parts. The writing was fresh and smooth; and so I think I would recommend this to ppl who enjoy the two universes colliding books. Because I can see how some may not.

3.5-4 ⭐️ for me. I enjoyed it and appreciate the chance to read and review it!

This is a story that requires readers willingness to buy into the story’s premise. This is that Jose, an ex-pat living in Brooklyn, wakes to a completely different life following a crash. Which life should Josie pick? What would you do?

Follow along with Josie in this debut novel. It is not perfect but those who enjoy alternate lives may enjoy it.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Joffe Books for this title. All opinions are my own.

Pub date: 30 June 2022

I could not put this book down. It was a real page-turner. I was so invested in these characters. I ran the gamut from laughing to crying, to joy and hope. It was well written, the characters were developed, and the premise was unique.