Read If You Like:
• Time-loop romances with a whimsical twist
• Explorations of “what if” scenarios in love and life
• Stories set against vibrant international backdrops
• Protagonists on journeys of self-discovery
• magical realism

Lena Westbrook has meticulously planned every facet of her life. So when her boyfriend of two years breaks up with her on the night she anticipates a proposal, her world unravels. Seeking solace, Lena retreats to her aunt’s home on Bainbridge Island. However, upon waking the next morning, she finds herself in Paris, in bed with a man who believes he’s her husband.   

Thus begins Lena’s unexpected journey through a series of alternate realities, each presenting a different version of her life with past romantic interests. From the charming streets of Kinsale, Ireland, to the bustling avenues of New York City, Lena experiences the myriad paths her life could have taken. Each day offers a new setting and a new partner, prompting her to reflect on her choices and the true meaning of love and fulfillment.  

Thank you so much to the publisher for my gifted ALC and ARC!

I loved the premise of this novel—each alternate reality the protagonist wakes up in was imaginative and emotionally compelling. Sarah Jio has a real gift for weaving warmth and wistfulness into even the most fantastical setups. The story offered a much-needed break from some of the heavier content I usually read, and I really appreciated its lighter, reflective tone. That said, the ending leaned a little too heavily on exposition. Not every revelation needs to be spelled out for the reader—some moments would have been more powerful if left to resonate quietly. Still, a charming and thoughtful read overall.

Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley for the advance copy. All opinions are entirely my own.

Overall, this was a cute book with also a good lesson to learn.

In the story, Lena is faced with the consequences of her decisions with both her professional and personal life. When her carefully laid out plan for her life is upended, she finds herself at her Aunt's house, nursing her wounds. But then she has the opportunity to see the "what if's" in life.

There is definitely a fun cast of characters throughout this book, as well as some shady ones. Overall a good story, easy read.

I received an advance reader copy of this book from Netgalley and really glad that I read it.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this ARC publication for an honest review.

This was a unique premise with a twist on the "time loop" theme. Lena who is a workaholic with a life plan mapped out is suddenly dumped by her boyfriend instead of the proposal she expected. While visiting her aunt, Lena falls asleep in the cottage only to wake up each morning to an "insignificant man" from her past who is now a significant other due to choosing a different path in this new timeline. Each morning is someone new! While I enjoyed how the story progressed and the ultimate end, there were a few of the insignificant others (one in particular!) that would have been a good life, and I was sad for him to see how his life was affected when in a different timeline Lena had picked someone else. This book makes you think of all the ways your life could be changed if you went on a different path...

4 stars

Sarah Jio is one of the first authors that really got me into romance reading. I read The Look of Love in 2014 and fell in love with her writing.

When Insignificant Others came out and it was described as an escapist timeslip novel I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it!

If you are a fan of the movie Sliding Doors, you are really going to love this one.

You get to meet Lena, an endearing woman that is looking for what we all are, someone that loves her for exactly who she is. She has prioritized her work life over all else and has started to realize how stuck she really is. You get to see her slip between multiple realities, trying on a bunch of different relationships that gave me the feel of Julia Roberts in the Runaway Bride.

I think what I loved most about this story was Lena’s character and how much she grows and learns about herself. I found myself so invested in how this was all going to end!

Thank you so much @williammorrowbooks for the early reading copy!

4.25 stars

For fans of when the coffee gets cold or the musical maybe happy ending, similar vibes and comfort level... Will definatlly keep an eye on this author

Thanks for the gifted e-arc @williammorrowbooks.

What would you do if you had a second chance to say yes to the one who got away? That’s the premise of Sarah Jio’s heartfelt new love story, Insignificant Others.

When we meet Lena, she believes that her boyfriend of two years is about to propose to her. When he instead shows up with Coldplay concert tickets and acts like he’s doing her a huge favor even though she doesn’t even like Coldplay, they fight and break up. Lena, confused and heartbroken, starts to question not just her relationship but everything about the path her life is on.

She heads to see her beloved Aunt Rosie on Bainbridge Island in Seattle, knowing she can stay in her guest cottage and regroup, but when she wakes up the next morning, she finds herself in Paris married to a sexy Frenchman.

Thus begins a time loop Lena finds herself in where every morning she wakes up in a new location with a new man in her life. Sometimes it’s a stranger, sometimes it’s someone she has known from an earlier time in her life. Some of the encounters are magical, some are adventures, while others are downright heartbreaking.

What each has in common is that it provides Lena with a snapshot of what her life might have looked like if she had made different choices.

I love a good time loop story and I loved how the author used the premise in such a unique way here to show Lena all of these “what ifs” in her life. It just had me so invested in Lena’s journey and eager for her to wake up each day to see if today’s path might be the one that would stick. In her journey through all of these insignificant others, who would turn out to be significant?

This one is perfect for fans of time loop stories, magical realism, and second chances.

4 1/2 stars

Ok I was really into this right from the start but it was ruined by the best friend and best friend’s husband thing. I don’t want to read about something like that. Boooo

A fresh, fun take on a time loop romance. I adored Sarah Jio’s latest, in which a broken hearted workaholic explores what could have been with a myriad of her former romantic prospects. I’ve read Jio’s full backlist, and Insignificant Others is among her most engaging and entertaining stories.

Highly recommended to Jio’s many devoted readers and to romance genre fans seeking a few hours escaping into a delightful and insightful novel.

Many thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for the privilege of a complimentary ARC. Opinions are my own.

I liked the idea of this book and loved the magical realism element to it. I always love when you can see how one choice can alter your entire life. Loved that!
I think the thing I didn’t love was that there were so many possible lives. I appreciate all the different examples of a relationship she could have had but I think I would have liked it more if we just spent a little more time with some of them. I feel like that made it a little hard to see Lena actually grow and change from those experiences because we were thrown in and out of them so quickly.
I also wish we maybe had a little more of ‘the real world’ in the end as well. More time with the real Rosie and with the real Frankie and Christian.

I did enjoy it overall. It kind of felt like a romcom movie from the 2000s or something. I would still recommend it. It is a fun premise and a relatively short read.

Workaholic Lena thinks tonight is the big night—her boyfriend is going to propose. That doesn’t happen and she ends up dumping him and heading to her Aunt Rosie‘s home on Bainbridge Island in Washington. When she wakes up the next morning, She finds herself in an alternate reality. She’s in a new home with a new man, her husband. Day after day, Lena finds herself in a new relationship with a new man in a new location. She learns about herself along the way and what she really values in a relationship.

This is a fun idea but I did feel the execution got a bit tiresome. There were a lot of different scenarios with different characters, and I wasn’t necessarily invested in them in anyway. I kind of just wanted Lena to find “the one.”

Thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for a copy of this book.

ᴀᴜᴅɪᴏʙᴏᴏᴋ ʀᴇᴠɪᴇᴡ || INSIGNIFICANT OTHERS [thank you to William Morrow and Harper Audio for my #gifted copies!]

Title: Insignificant Others
Author: Sarah Jio
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Format: audio
Star Rating: ★★★☆☆
Narrator: Brittany Presley
Narration: ★★★★★

ᴍʏ ᴛʜᴏᴜɢʜᴛꜱ:
If you’ve ever looked back on your life and wondered: how did I get here? What if I’d made a different choice? Then this is the book for you!

In this book, I think the FMC enters about 8 or 9 different alternate realities - each one centered around a man that she met in her past (no matter how brief their previous involvement) and each one ending with her learning something about herself and what she’s looking for in a partner.

Looking at her life, Lena has checked off all the boxes she thought she was supposed to. She’s dating the “perfect” guy, she has a “perfect” (albeit demanding and draining) job, and a best friend who’s stuck by her through everything…but she’s still unhappy. She dreads going to work, she doesn’t actually love the man she’s been dating for 2 years, and she’s stuck.

But watching her go through each alternative reality and just seeing her being willing to take on and do anything that was asked of her in that timeline (sort of adultery) was really refreshing to see. A lot of timeline or time loop stories you spend a great deal of time watching the MC being confused and rejecting the reality that they’re in -- but not here, Lena jumped right in, and I loved that!

🎧 Pressley can do no wrong in my opinion, and she’s the main reason I ended up requesting this in audiobook format. She was so easy to listen to and really highlighted the variety of feelings and situations that Lena found herself in. 100% read this one via audio — you won’t regret it.

ʀᴇᴀᴅ ɪꜰ ʏᴏᴜ ʟɪᴋᴇ:
The Good Part by Sophie Cousins
The Second Chance Year by Melissa Wiesner
Time Travel Romance
What If
Multiple Timelines

ᴅᴇᴛᴀɪʟꜱ:
GR: 3.85⭐️
# of Hours: 9 hours, 11 minutes
Pub Date: April 1, 2025

Sara Jio was a new author to me, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I was actually more impressed than I thought I would be from the description of the story. It made me pause and reflect back on my own previous relationships and the roads not taken. I will definitely be checking out her other books. Thanks to NetGalley, William Morrow and the author for a copy to read and review.

Insignificant Others is a poignant time loop story that packs a mighty emotional punch. It makes you examine the “what if’s” and analyze whether the grass is really greener given how life’s paths diverge.

Call it divine intervention, but when main character Lena Westbrook wakes up the morning after breaking up with her long term (if not boring) boyfriend to find herself living in an alternate version of her life, she takes it as a sign. As the days go by, Lena continues to awake in different locations, catching glimpses at what her reality would have looked like had she chosen differently in her past. From Paris, to Ireland, to New York City, Lena will learn about herself and what she truly wants all in the hopes of carving out a life she can be proud of.

The strongest aspect of this book is its expert pacing. We are plopped into each vignette for only a day’s worth of time so the plot moves quickly. Despite only dropping in for a short amount of time, each reality was properly fleshed out, with Lena’s lives feeling fully realized in each one. Refraining from spoilers, but there are a few vignettes that achieve incredible emotional impact and I had a hard time deciding where I wanted Lena’s happy ending to lead to. I enjoyed the mystery of finding out what each of Lena’s lives looked like and it made the reading experience so much more enticing with each discovery.

I think the most important message to take away from this book is that friendship is life’s constant. Lena has real platonic loves in Frankie and Aunt Rosie and we see her immediately search for them in every reality. Lena’s relationships with both women were influential in her character growth and I adored how their love for each other never wavered even when different realities caused strain on their connection. It was very apparent that these women were Lena’s safe haven and I recognized my own relationships mirrored in them.

I simply adored this book, hardly coming up for air as I devoured it. It’s a reckoning for those who can’t help considering the “what if’s” and it made me examine my own needs and desires. I think this story is incredibly engaging and the message at the heart of the narrative struck a chord.

Thank you William Morrow and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Insignificant Others is a love letter to the people who float in and out of our lives — the friends, flings, almosts, and “what even was that?” connections. It’s a reminder that love doesn’t just live in grand romances — it’s hiding in the everyday, in missed calls, shared playlists, and weirdly specific inside jokes.

That said, I think it could’ve focused on fewer men and instead gone deeper into the relationships that were always there — especially her connection to her mom and the grief she was carrying. Those parts hit the hardest.

One quote that really stuck with me: “Never for a second think your path is predestined to follow in anyone else’s footsteps.” A beautiful reminder to live every moment with intention and tenderness, especially with the people right in front of us.

Loved this one. 3.5 stars

Imagine if you had to chance to spend a day with all of the guys who got away during your life to see what your life would have been like if you had stayed with them. This new book by Sarah Jio looks at that scenario using a bit of magical realism to give her main character a look at the "WHAT IFs" in her life.

Lena is workaholic. She has been dating the same man for over two years and he checks all the boxes on her list of what would make a good husband. She has a feeling that he's going to propose tonight so she buys a new dress and gets her hair done so she can look her best. Instead of proposing, he breaks up with her. She is crushed and confused and heads to her aunt's home on Bainbridge Island near Seattle, to heal her broken heart and try to figure out what she needs to do next. She falls asleep in the guest house but when she wakes up, she is in a fancy apartment in Paris, in bed with a handsome Frenchman who refers to Lena as his wife. She remembers that he was a man she met at a wedding years before where they discussed the futility of marriage. She's confused but she gets through that day, only to wake up in the morning on a farm 'married' to a man that she had several dates with years before. Over the next several days she wakes up with husbands in Ireland, New York City, downtown Seattle and one morning with the man that she expected to propose at the beginning of her adventure. At each stop, she learns more about the man that got away -- some of them were really bad candidates for relationships but several of the others seemed like they would have been a good catch and given her a happily ever after life. Lena learns more about herself and how she wants to live her life at each stop she makes but will she realize exactly what kind of man she needs for a happy relationship?

Lena started out the novel as a very pretentious and structured person and it was easy to dislike her. But by the end, she has changed so much that I was really hoping she would figure out what she wanted out of life and who, if anyone, could provide her with a happy life.

This book was an interesting read and it was fun to look at the 'what ifs' in someone's life. Checking all of the boxes on what would make a good husband is not the best way to find happiness - Lena had to understand what she truly wanted out of life and where she would find love before she could find her happy ending.

I look forward to the annual release of Sarah Jio’s new book. I settled into a comfy chair looking forward to becoming immersed in Insignificant Others. Unfortunately, this failed to happen. Insignificant Others is different from Sarah Jio’s other novels. The story kept jumping from one potential life to another. There were too many characters and settings. The story felt rushed, which made it hard to relate to the characters. I was not a fan of the main character, Lena Westbrook. She was not a likeable character. Lena is a woman who has mapped out her life (work and personal). Her focus is on herself, though, she does love her aunt. Lena’s self-discovery journey was more about Lena finding the right guy instead of her becoming a better person. I did not understand how some of the men qualified as romantic partners when they were random men that she had only met once. I can understand wondering “what if” with a man you had known for years (a friend, some with whom you had worked with, a member of your book club, etc.), but not just once (that is more dream material). The ending was not believable and anti-climactic (it was a letdown). The story felt long and there were repetitive details. I felt that Insignificant Others lacked substance (it reminds me of a bread dough that failed to rise). I found myself skimming to reach the end. Insignificant Others didn't appeal to me, but I'm looking forward to Sarah Jio's next novel.

Sarah Jio is an author where I'm automatically going to read everything she writes. I have yet to read one of her books and not love it, and Insignificant Others is no exception. I love romance books with time travel/alternate universe plots, so I was really excited to read this book. It was funny, heartwarming, romantic, and the perfect summer read. Without giving anything away, I absolutely love the ending and think that everything was tied up so perfectly at the end. If you haven't discovered Sarah Jio yet, this book is an excellent place to start. I already can't wait for her next one! I received a copy of this book from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

Lena is ticking all the boxes and knows her boyfriend is going to propose. They've discussed it and they make sense! On paper... so when he doesn't, she breaks it off with him and takes a much needed break at her aunt's house only to wake up in another man's bed, a ring on her finger, and no idea how she got there.
This concept was super interesting and I think it's a book that I'll carry with me. I loved the twist on a Groundhog day format but that the setting and characters constantly change in a carousel of WHAT IF?? One minor change in direction and a whole life looks completely different. Some of the men were cringey, some were terribly sweet, and some could have been perfect. Lena is very likeable and her character arc was fantastic as she realized there's more to life than idealism.

Thank you to William Morrow for the gifted copy. All thoughts are my own.

Why it wasn't a five star (SPOILERS potentially ahead): I wish there was a day where the end game guy had more page time just to see more of them together. I like that we as the reader can interpret how we want BUT I'd have liked more fodder for me to root for them. Also it was very "tell me" and less "show me".

Story full of scenarios and "what if?" Count me in! Lena, on the night she thought was the most important of her life, finds herself alone and heartbroken, decides to escape from real life and take refuge in her aunt's cottage. But this escape from reality is perhaps more real than reality itself. She finds herself catapulted into different scenarios, different locations, and we with her try to understand what it is that Lena really wants. The theme is not seen often, but it has a bit of an aftertaste of the early 2000s, those rom coms a bit obvious, but they have their reason. Thanks to the author, the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this story in preview.