Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the arc of this book. All Opinions are my own.

This was good! I enjoyed it. I read a lot of romance, but I always love new to me authors and this was one. I enjoyed the writing style and think this was super good! Definitely intrigued to read more.

I will admit, I am sometimes guilty of judging a book way too quickly by what's under its cover but I'm glad I didn't this time!
The first couple of pages, I wasn't sure this was a book for me but I'm so glad I stuck with it! It was one of my favorite books so far this year.
You connect with all the main characters, you want to know what happens to them and what brought them to this place in their life.
It was so well written, had me sucked in and I finished it way too quickly!

This book is hitting right in the middle for me. There were parts of this book that I enjoyed, while other parts not so much. I think overall the concept was great but in the end this book ended up just being ok for me. I liked this author's "Lenny Marks" book better than this one but I appreciate the original storyline. I'll continue to read future works by this author.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a book with a lot going on from the get-go, and
it keeps,going to the very last page! Once you are on
board with the twins and the year 2050, every single
character is well written and you’ll have conflicting
feelings on every front. I call this a mystery because
we do not really get every question answered, and
I kept hoping. I enjoy the subtleties of the foreign
characters because they are so polite and their
vocabulary (of just everyday speech) is fun.
Unfortunately, as much as I wanted to,love the
story, I don’t have the excitement for which I
was hopeful. I think my friends and book
mates will be an even split, so I will still
recommend the book.
My thanks to St Martin’s Press for the
download copy of the book for review purposes.

The girls have long believed they are vital to the future and must stay hidden to stay safe. Joy has told them that their impending 21st birthday is significant; they will step into their roles as daughters of the future revolution and life as they know it will change. Joy was right - everything will change, just not in the way the expected. On Andie and Cassie’s birthday, Joy Moody is found dead and her girls face a world they are not prepared for without their mother.

I honestly am not sure what I expected from this book, but I can say I was pleasantly surprised. The quirkiness is definitely there but not overdone, rather endearing. I enjoyed the writing style. Making it a quick and entertaining read. The characters (or rather most of them) are relatable in one way or another. The book invokes unexpected emotions of sisterhood, motherhood, and life. Highly recommend adding this to your TBR.

This book was very much not my genre, but was well-written and very original. The struggles that the girls go through were hard to read and some characters were hard to like. Even having all the information at the end didn't make me bond with her like I wished I could.

this bookfollows Joy Moody, who has spent years hiding the truth from her twin daughters, Cassie and Andie, about their importance to an impending revolution. As the girls approach their twenty-first birthday, the truth starts to unravel, and after Joy's sudden death, they must face a world they’re unprepared for, unsure of what their mother’s cryptic teachings really meant.

2.5/5 rounded up.

This was a pretty quick book to read, but it was pretty lackluster for me. I can definitely see the potential here (hence why I read it), but it didn't quite land the way I wish it had.

This follows the owner of a laundromat and her twin daughters. Joy (the mother and laundromat owner) is found dead and her daughters have to try and solve the mystery of her death. To do this, they kind of have to work backwards, learning bits and pieces about her past to create the full picture of her life (and therefore, death).

I can see a lot of people liking this, especially fans of the film Everything Everywhere All at Once (hence why I wanted to read it). But it just fell a bit flat for me. I found the switching of timelines to be quite confusing, I do tend to struggle with keeping track of what is when.

Thanks to NetGalley for the e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review! My Goodreads review is up and my TikTok (Zoe_Lipman) review will be up at then end of the month with my monthly reading wrap-up.

i came into this predisposed to love this book as i loved the first book of hers that I read. This one had a very interesting premise, a mother who has kept her twin daughters isolated and believing they are from the future and will return there for their 21st birthday. It had some heartwarming moments and some quirky moments so overall i liked it but at times i wasn't sure. 3.5

I loved this author’s debut and was over the moon to read her latest.  I’m afraid I’m going to be a bit of an outlier here because I just didn’t love it as much as I’d hoped. 
 
I did enjoy the quirkiness, but it was just a bit outlandish for me without a payoff at the end. 
 
I will say that I have seen others review it very favorably, so give it a try for yourself.

I was excited to be offered an advanced copy of “Joy Moody is Out of Time” because Mayne’s debut novel was one of my favorites last year. It just missed the mark for me. While she still wrote and gave us some quirky characters, some of the plot was especially cringy. Even though I was making faces at my Kindle while reading, I finished it quickly which gave it an extra star from me.

★★★☆☆ – Disappointing Compared to Lenny Marks**

I had high hopes for *Joy Moody is Out of Time* after loving *Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder*, but this one didn’t land the same way. The story tried to frame Joy’s actions around her brain tumor, but that felt like a weak excuse for the much more troubling choice of keeping the girls when they were born—especially with what happened to Brittany. It left a bad taste and made it hard to connect with or forgive the character. A compelling premise, but ultimately, a letdown.

The last 20% of the book redeemed the book for me. I love how Joy's small community of neighbors rallied around the girls.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

For much of their lives, Joy has been lying to Cassie and Andie. What started as a colorful tale to explain how the twins came to live with her grew over the years and was always something she meant to set straight. Joy really did think she had more time. Worse still, Joy is struggling to define the truth from the lies.

The girls have long believed they are vital to the future and must stay hidden to stay safe. Joy has told them that their impending 21st birthday is significant; they will step into their roles as daughters of the future revolution and life as they know it will change. Joy was right - everything will change, just not in the way the expected. On Andie and Cassie’s birthday, Joy Moody is found dead and her girls face a world they are not prepared for without their mother. Joy Moody is out of time… in more ways than one.

I loved Lenny Marks Gets Away With Murder, her debut novel, so I was excited to receive this one. I'm not sure if it was just the timing, mood, content...but I could not get into this one at all. I devoured her debut, but I rode the struggle bus for days with this one. While it had the quirky characters and good feels on Lenny Marks, I was just not as invested in Joy Moody or the twins and found them all to be annoying.

2.5 ⭐ rounded to 3
Thank You to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and the author for a DRC of this book.
Publication date: August 19, 2025

I received a complimentary copy of this book "Joy Moody is Out of Time" and all opinions expressed are my own. I did like the authors first book. This one just didn't do it for me. I found myself skipping a bit. Towards the end it did get better but overall just okay.

I was excited to read an advance of this book after loving Kerryn Mayne's debut novel “Lenny Marks Gets Away With Murder”. The premise was peculiar yet intriguing - Joy has told her twin daughters that at 4:39pm on the date of their 21st birthday, they will be transported back to the year 2050, the year in which they escaped war through a portal to the present day 2023. We learn from the beginning that things did not go according to plan - there was no time travel back to the future. Circumstances are revealed - Joy has been an overprotective mother to the girls to hide the secret of their birth story and the twins lead a highly sheltered life. Joy also has some secrets about her own health - she is hiding a terminal brain tumor. Is the tumor causing her to tell these fantastical tales to the twins or is is for another reason?

When I got to the halfway point of the book, things mostly seemed resolved and I wondered what else the author could do for the remainder. The book got really slow at that point - a bit of a mushy middle - and only picked up a bit in the last section. Grateful to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me an advance read of this sophomore novel and will watch for other books from this author to see if she captures the same magic of her debut.

Having enjoyed Kerryn Mayne's debut, Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder, I was excited to dive into Joy Moody is Out of Time. While distinct in their narratives, both novels showcase Mayne's talent for crafting uniquely compelling plots populated by a cast of endearingly quirky yet intricately layered characters. This was another hit in my book!
In Joy Moody is Out of Time, we are introduced to Joy, the owner of the laundromat "Joyful Suds," and her twin daughters, Cassie and Andie. Joy has raised them on an elaborate lie: they're time travelers from 2050, returning home on their 21st birthday. From the start, we know Joy isn't their biological mother, and her intense belief in her own delusion, fueled in part by a developing brain tumor, is evident. How has Joy come to raise the twins? Why has she built their entire lives around a deeply seated lie?
The twins' twenty-first birthday takes a dark turn when Joy is discovered dead. This sudden tragedy shatters Cassie and Andie's carefully constructed reality, forcing them to grapple not only with grief but with the crumbling foundations of their entire lives. As they begin piecing together fragmented memories and deciphering Joy's secrets, they uncover a far more complicated truth than their fantastical upbringing.
Mayne possesses a remarkable ability to create unconventional characters who, despite their flaws and questionable decisions, evoke a fierce protectiveness from readers.
While the initial pacing is deliberate, the narrative steadily drew me in, and I became deeply invested in this unconventional found family. Kerryn Mayne is quickly solidifying her place as an auto-buy author for me, and Joy Moody is Out of Time further cements that status.
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Publishing Group for providing me with an eARC for review! All opinions are my own.

This one was out there, and mostly in a good way. I wasn’t sure if I would like the book when it started, based on the premise of time travel. But the book is so much more and it was quite endearing. If you liked the author’s first book I recommend you give Joy, Cassie, and Andie a chance too.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc.

I absolutey loved Kerryn Mayne's debut, "Lenny Marks Gets Away With Murder", and couldn't wait to read her sophomore effort, "Joy Moody Is Out Of Time". (Great titles!) I didn't know if she would be able to replicate the magical quirky characters she had in her debut novel but she absolutely did!

I love to read mysteries, and these are technically a mystery, but that is almost beside the point. The author creates an immersive world you dive into and wish you could really meet these astounding characters. These books are a sort of palate cleanser for me, when I need something a bit deeper and more inventive than your average mystery. Here the characters and the drama of their lives is the thing, and yes, there is a mystery too.

I'm not going to explain the plot. It sounds crazy, but it works! It takes a lot to stand out for me, and I'm a voracious reader, but Mayne's books are definitely one-of-a-kind, in the best way!

Thank you to NetGalley, Kerryn Mayne and St. Martin's Press for allowing me to read an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Joy Moody Is Out of Time by Kerryn Mayne is another unique novel by Ms. Mayne, who I've come to enjoy! Her first novel, Lenny Marks Gets Away With Murder was delightful and this one is just as a fun.

Cassie and Andie are Joy Moody's twin daughters. They've been told their entire lives that they are important to the future and must be hidden to keep them safe because on their 18th birthday, people from the future will be coming to get them. She told them this to explain how they came to her for protection as babies, since they aren't really her children. When they turn 18, she told them she'd received a missive saying they would be collected when they're 21. Well, now they're 21 and waiting for someone to show up. Joy's quirkiness as she runs the laundromat that they live behind, her raising of the girls and what the girls believe (and don't believe) makes this a fun and enjoyable novel. A well fleshed out cast of characters you will love are the icing on the cake. Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.