Imagine enjoying a beach vacation with your daughter, your attention wavers for just a minute, and she’s gone. One minute, she was frolicking in the ocean, and the next, she’s under the water, gone from view. This is the situation faced by Kate, when taking a beach vacation with her daughter, Olivia. This book focuses on the current moment, but in the next chapter, it acts as if that incident didn’t occur. It provides a mechanism for examining life from two different points of view. While interesting, I found it difficult to navigate between the two scenarios. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the advance review copy in exchange for my honest review.

The parallel storyline follows Kate and her daughter Liv on a 2 week holiday to the seaside. One storyline has Liv swimming in the sea and drowns and the other she goes under but comes back up.

Follow along as the 2 paths deal with love, loss, grief and heartache to love, happiness and friendships but all paths are leading to the same outcome.

You will cry, laugh but each chapter has 2 versions and leave you guessing what will happen next.

Firs time reader from this author.

ALL THE FEELS! What if life takes you down one path or a different one. The author takes us there with two stories in one. Two different paths. Both full of love, heartbreak, rediscovery and a lot of emotion. I’ve always loved this authors books and I absolutely super loved this one. Thanks for writing this for us Rea Frey (I read authors note)!
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC

My appreciation goes to author Rea Frey and the publishers at Harper Muse and NetGalley for this advanced copy of The Other Year in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

This was such a unique book. There are parallel timelines. Both start with Kate and her daughter Olivia visiting their favourite swimming spot on a two-week beach vacation. In one timeline, Olivia gets pulled under the waves- Kate is terrified, but she rejoices when she sees her pop back up.

In the other, Olivia does not pop back up.
Each timeline moves forward from there. Each is mixed with emotion, her work situation and family/friend dynamics. Also within each, Kate is faced with a dilemma of who to pursue a romantic relationship with - her ex-husband, Olivia's father OR her best friend in the world.

The terror of looking away for a moment and losing the one you love. This book pulls in all the feels. I moved from the depths of grief with Kate to the joy of motherhood, the excitement of new beginnings and the confusion of purpose.

I thoroughly enjoyed this, and look forward to reading more of Rea's books!

An incredible book of what ifs…

In one timeline Kate loses her daughter Liv to drowning in the ocean. In the timeline we follow her journey through grief and a rebirth of herself.
In the other timeline Liv does not drown and we follow the mother & daughter duo through new challenges in a life post divorce.

I really enjoyed both timelines and how they were written. While the subject matter was heavy, the book was an easy read.

I look forward to reading more of Rea Frey’s work. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Told in parallel timelines, The Other Year is a creative telling of how the results of a single moment change the course of a mother's life. In one moment her child disappears under a wave, and we get to see a full year of after effects of the two possible outcomes - the daughter survives, and the daughter doesn't survive. This story is heart wrenching in both timelines as it deals with grief and loss of various kinds; however, we also get to see the love and hope that come out of the difficult situations that mom, Kate, endures. Ultimately it's a reminder to enjoy every moment, love your people well, and steer your own ship. Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for the advanced copy to review. All opinions are my own.

Wheewwww love, love lost, love found, heartbreak, love tragic, happy moments.
So many words to describe what is happening in this book.
It's written in two timeliness.. one where the accident didnt happen and one where it did.
I have to say at the beginning of this I was confused but quickly caught on what was happening
So well written that you won't want to put it down, leaves you breathless.

Thanks to the author, the publisher and NetGalley for an early release of this book.

Thank you to Harper Muse and NetGalley for an advance read in exchange for this review.

Kate and her young daughter, Liv, are vacationing on a beach. Suddenly, Liv vanishes while in the water. She resurfaces a few moments later like nothing happened.

In an alternate timeline, Liv never resurfaces alive. She drowns.

Told in two timelines, Kate maneuvers two different journeys. One filled with grief and rebirth, the other filled with new and old love.

What interesting and fantastic writing! It was quite interesting to read about Kate's parallel lives and how she navigated different challenges she faced. The timeline where her daughter drowns is so sad, and her grief gutted me. In the other timeline, I was frustrated with her as she navigated where to steer her love life. The author does such a wonderful job separating and at the same time intertwining both timelines. I enjoyed it!

In THE OTHER YEAR, a parallel timelines trope women’s fiction novel, Kate is a single mother who in alternate chapters experiences a year where in one reality, her daughter dies after a day swimming out in the ocean where she let herself get distracted while scrolling on her phone, and in the other reality, her daughter lives, and they go through the next year having mother daughter conflicts. I am a big fan of Frey’s writing and the way she always asks interesting questions. The way she wrote Kate’s grief and the chapters after Olivia passed were heart wrenching. Then in the other timeline where Olivia is alive, you see her as a tween and all is not necessarily rosy as there is conflict between mother and daughter and Kate is forced to ask if it is better for her daughter to live with her father (they’re divorced) even if that means giving her up. I found the parenting questions and grief questions were my very, very favorite parts of the book and written in a very compelling way. There was in the second half a pretty strong focus on romance with three men all vying to be Kate’s romantic partner. This, I’ll confess, held my attention less than the parts of the novel about motherhood and grief and I honestly didn’t really care one way or another for the person she ended up with. 5/5 stars.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary ARC copy of this book from Harper Muse and NetGalley for review purposes.

This is book #5 for my by Rea Frey and I was excited to see she has a new book coming out in August 2023. A mothers worse nightmare happens while at the beach with her daughter Liv. Liv gets in an undercurrent and can’t get out. Paramedics come. Then she’s fine. But wait! This is a different scenario now. Luv is perfectly ok. She’s in her room listening to her IPod. Flipping back and forth from each story line was genius! This was unlike anything I’ve ever read before. Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Muse for this advance copy in exchange for my honest opinion. To be published August 2023.

What an incredible, eye-opening story!
The message we learn from within these heart stopping, emotional pages is "Savor each moment for life can change at any second".
The novel is told from two parallel timelines that alternate chapters.
Kate, a single Mom tries to take care of her nine year old daughter and must live with guilt, anguish, fear and challenges in both timelines, each so different yet, so much the same.

This is now my new favorite Rea Frey book-it is good!

Thank you to #NetGalley and to #Harper Muse for this ARC and allowing me to read and provide my own review.

“ I chastise myself from going down the rabbit hole of what is not instead of what is”

This book takes the “what if’s”
in life to the next level.
Kate is away with her daughter Olivia, when Olivia drowns in the ocean… The book proceeds to give us two chapter ones, two chapter twos and so on… Each chapter focusing on if she drowned, versus if she lived

Written, so heartbreakingly beautiful… as only this author can do, she has a way of ripping your heart out of your body, making you think the bigger questions, and appreciating all you have, when you have it!

I laughed, I cried, I vowed to love deeper and slow down and appreciate all I have.

This author always has a way of making you dig deep… And this book was written with her entire soul spilling out on every page

This is a MUST~READ! Rea Freys most recent novel, based in a parallel timeline takes you down 2 paths, One scenario in which Kate loses her daughter, Olivia, who’s 9 years old, from drowning in the ocean while on their yearly vacation at the beach, and the other, where Olivia resurfaces from the waves and is okay. In both timelines you are taken down the treacherous path of losing a child and on the other path , the challenges and rewards of raising a daughter. Wretched with an unspeakable loss, Kate has to learn how to move forward in addition to handling a divorce, the love of Jason-her best friend and wondering if love is ever possible again. Rea doesn’t leave out any detail when describing Kates loss and what one goes through in such an unthinkable situation.

Rea Frey is an award winning best- selling author in several women’s non~fiction and suspense novels. Her most recent fiction novel leaves no stone unturned! “ The Other Year” will be published August15th, 2023. Pre-order available on Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

I cried a lot , I laughed and couldn’t put it down ! Rea was able to describe what’s it’s like to lose a daughter and the fear, heartbreak and sheer sickness Kate went through. On the 2nd parallel , she describes the joys, challenges and memories Kate has from raising her daughter. Rea is able to bring both parallels to closure, they meet, and we as the reader get to decide how we want to believe Kates story ends or continues. This novel not only brings to surface some really sad feelings but most importantly that we have this one life to live in the best way we can! I’ll be thinking about this novel for a while!
In the meantime, love harder, play longer and enjoy each other, these are the memories we get to remember.

This was an enjoyable read. I'm always interested in 'Sliding Doors' - type stories, and the premise of this one grabbed my attention. I was surprised at how much it focused on romance, and there were a few plot points I questioned, but I think it will appeal to many readers.

I truly enjoy reading about moms and daughters. Frey's memoir was a good one! Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. Four stars. Good writing and I was invested in the relationship storyline between these women.

An incredible mother daughter story told on two separate timelines. Weaving in and out of the what if’s that occur after Olivia disappears under the beach water. The story is told as if she resurfaces AND as if she doesn’t. Incredible flow to this dual timelines story.

I have read other books from this author and was expecting more of the same. However this book is more a romance novel. Although not a book I would normally read, since I received it from netgalley I chose to go ahead and read it. As far as the writing and storyline I found it to be an enjoyable read which I would recommend to others.

The synopsis for "The Other Year" was too good to pass up, a sort of "Sliding Doors" story in which the protagonist lives two lives, one in which her daughter dies and one in which she lives. The story is well written and engaging. I didn't realize until after finishing that this author wrote another book I really loved, "Not Her Daughter." Her writing is gentle and authentic. Highly recommended for thoughtful readers and those who just love a good story. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.