A Sliding Doors type story about a young woman who has been running from the death of her childhood best friend for a decade. This book caught me off guard; I was expecting something on the lighter side, but its emotional depth got me in my feels and the story took some interesting directions. Meg is a television actress who appears to have it all - a hit show, a famous actor boyfriend, fame and fortune. When she has a small breakdown at her thirtieth birthday party, Meg decides to take a spontaneous vacation to the small village in Ireland that represents the path not taken - the drama school admission that she turned down to follow her best friend, Aimee, to a rather miserable university experience in Florida. When Meg arrives, she's completely confused to find herself in a different reality, one where she has a different (wonderful!) best friend, a hot on-again-off-again bartender boyfriend, and her dead best friend Aimee miraculously still alive - but the former friends are now completely estranged. As Meg navigates this alternate life path, she finally starts dealing with her long-bottled-up feelings and figuring herself out. The question is, will she be able to pick the life she wants? Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a digital review copy.

Meg is a successful actress living in LA, but she's not fully happy with her life. After her 30th birthday party, she makes a spontaneous decision to buy a plane ticket to Avalon, Ireland. As a high schooler, Meg and her best friend Aimee dreamed of going to college in Avalon, a dream that ended abruptly when Aimee died in a tragic accident. When she arrives in Avalon, Meg quickly discovers that she is living in an alternate reality where she had gone to Avalon, and Aimee survived.

There were so many great things about this book. The setting was amazing, and the characters were so fun. I especially enjoyed Keira's character and thought she was the perfect addition to balance out Meg and Aimee's situation. Meg had a lot of character growth throughout the book and I think the author did a really good job with her.

I would have loved to see a little more of Meg and Cillian, but this story was definitely more focused on the friendship aspect than the romance.

It's a bit of a tear jerker, so be prepared for that, but it also has a lot of fun parts in there.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the arc.

I love stories that show how deeply connected we can be to our friends and the lasting impact those relationships have on our soul. I know most of us wonder, “what if” I made this decision instead how that would’ve changed my path. Throughout this novel we get to watch Meg live out her biggest “what if” moment then snap back into reality.

90% through the book I was outraged with what happened, but I don’t think I could’ve loved the ending anymore than I do.

10/10

Thank you NetGalley, Macmillan Audio & St. Martin’s Press for the advance read & listen!

I loved this book! The sliding doors concept with the magical realism was right up my alley, but what I didn't necessarily expect was the depth and emotional punch this one had. I will be thinking about this book for a long time - highly recommend!

The Other Side of Now by Paige Harbison is outstanding! The characters are beautiful, the story is heartwarming and moving, and the writing is fabulous!
I laughed and I cried while reading. I highly recommend this book to anyone that enjoys stories about friendship, grief, and a touch of magical realism!

Thank you St. Martins Press and NetGalley for a copy of this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Sometimes a book takes you so completely by surprise that you have to sit with your emotions for a while. This is that book. The premise asks the eternal question — What would life be like if we made different choices along the way? Paige Harbison explores the concept without bogging the reader down with overly complicated explanations and allows the focus to remain on the emotional impact. There’s more WHAT than HOW and that’s just how I like it.

I don’t want to cheat other readers out of the journey I experienced while reading this book. You can read the synopsis for a brief plot summary. Instead, I wish to focus the spotlight on a few of the major themes. 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗢𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗥 𝗦𝗜𝗗𝗘 𝗢𝗙 𝗡𝗢𝗪 looks at grief, forgiveness, self-discovery, and friendship. There’s an emphasis on relationships; with friends, with family, with lovers, with self. Allow yourself the privilege of suspending your disbelief and immerse yourself in this utterly lovely story. You won’t regret it.

This book will make you think and make you feel.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advance copy. All opinions are my own.

You know that feeling you get when the writing of a book transports you to the place you’re reading about, and you imagine yourself walking through the green grass of a small Ireland town, or feeling the salty air? This is exactly what it was like reading this story. The fact that this book will be released June 3rd, but I devoured it in 2 days back in January should tell you how good it was.

Guys, I stopped reading Onyx Storm to read this one instead. If this doesn’t tell you it’s good, I’m not sure what will.

Also, did I google what living in Ireland is like? Yes, Yes I did.

This is a story about a girl (Meg) who loses someone very close to her, so she has to learn to navigate her life without that person. She decides to put her grieving aside to follow her dream of becoming an actress. What she doesn’t know though, it’s that sometimes our pain and grief make us do things we weren’t supposed to do, but we’re just blinded by all that hurt, so it seems like we’re doing the right thing.

This is exactly what happened to Meg; she thought she wanted fame, and to have a sophisticated life, but it turns out that when she gets a closer look at what her life could’ve been like if things would’ve happened differently in the past, she wishes she would’ve chosen a different path. She no longer wants the sophisticated Hollywood life. She wants to eat carbs and be happy. I honestly couldn’t be more like Meg. Also, she’s from Florida where I’m at, and it really made me smile when she mentioned Publix 🤭

Do you like reading about a parallel universe, or the feeling of Deja vu? Then this is the right story for you. Magical realism + romance sounds like such a good time, and I promise you it is.

“𝑰 𝒘𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝒊𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒊𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒅é𝒋à 𝒗𝒖 𝒊𝒔. 𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒇 𝒊𝒕’𝒔 𝒅𝒊𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒃𝒍𝒆𝒆𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉?”

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advanced readers copy. 🖤

I have read a few sliding-doors novels, and I find them utterly compelling. Paige Harbison took this concept, but still gave her story a unique, fresh approach.

Lana Lord has found success as an actress in Hollywood. It was her lifelong dream to become a famous actress, but despite her leading role on a soap opera-esque show, her A-list boyfriend, and her growing bank account, Lana is unsatisfied with her life. When she decides on a whim to take a one-week break and fly to Ireland, she believes that it is just the reset that she needs. However, when Lana arrives in Ireland, she is actually Meg Bryan again (her actual name). The people in Ireland know her, she isn’t the famous actress anymore, and her best friend is alive and well in the same town of Avalon, Ireland.

While there was a fair share of comedic moments in this novel, it also deals with the serious topic of grief. Meg was never able to fully get over the death of her best friend Aimee. Everyone has their own ways of dealing with loss, but for Meg, her solution was to run away from it, but we all know that you can’t run away from grief. It will follow you until you handle it head on.

I’m not going to lie; I much preferred the main character as she was in Ireland. Gone was the polished celebrity with the too-thin body and the smoothed out, altered face. In her place was the real Meg Bryan, who would eat carbs, drink wine, and not obsess over her appearance. She had close friends, an on-again, off-again boyfriend who was more than likely the love of her life, and she had an estranged friendship with Aimee. Why was their relationship on the outs? What had transpired to ever make them not as close as they once were when they were growing up in Florida? That’s what I wanted to find out.

While Meg didn’t know how she ended up in this parallel reality, she wanted to see what this life was like. She wanted to reconnect with Aimee again. As a reader, I could completely understand Meg’s frustration of not knowing how or why she was living in a parallel life or how she could get people to believe her farfetched story.

The Other Side of Now was an intriguing read. I wanted to know what was going to happen to Meg. I wanted her to find her peace with Aimee, to let herself heal, and to find what truly mattered to her in her own life. I was fully invested. I was in it with her.

The Other Side of Now had humor, heart, and plenty of emotions to go around.

*4 Stars

Charming, heartbreaking, thought provoking. A surprisingly engrossing read, with some plot elements that definitely require the reader to suspend all of their disbelief, but in the end I think it all works really well. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this ahead of publication.

Brief overview:

Lana, a tv actress, takes a vacation to Ireland after feeling trapped in her Hollywood life. When she arrives, she discovers she is in the life she would have had, had she made one different decision. Oh yeah, and her best friend is back from the dead.

My thoughts:

This story felt like a love letter to best friendships and an acceptance letter to grief. Anyone that has lost a friend will feel for Meg and understand the guilt and grief she deals with. Not all of us run from our feelings, but we can all relate to wanting to at some point or another. I will say, for the first half it was a bit slow going, but it was absolutely worth it in the end.

One Of The Hardest Hitting 'Glimpse' Tales I've Ever Come Across. This is one of those 'glimpse' tales - ala The Family Man (the 2000s era movie with Nic Cage and Tea Leoni) or It's A Wonderful Life, and yet in its specific mechanics, it hit me harder than any I've come across before it. There are really only two books I've come across before - that I believe I've written reviews for over the years - that even come close, but revealing which two gets way too close to spoiler territory. So read this book then look back through my reviews (available on Hardcover.app, BookHype.com, PageBound.co, TheStoryGraph, Goodreads, or my blog at BookAnon.com) and see if you can make the connection yourself. :D (Ok, so *no one* is going to do that. But it could be a fun challenge for someone who is particularly bored, maybe? :D) Also, don't forget to leave your own review of this book after you read it. *Then* go look through mine. :D

But seriously, this is an utterly hilarious book that happens to have a lot of heart - both of which are hallmarks of this type of tale, and both of which are done particularly well by Harbison.

The selection of exact characterization here helps - a regular girl from Florida who has two different dreams which ultimately become two different realities one day such that she gets to live through both and see what both are really like. Yes, there is a fair amount of Hollywood name dropping and commentary, but again, I've seen that in many other books with similar characters, and it works well to establish this exact characterization early, particularly since the real 'meat' of the book is actually the *other* life.

What made this hit so hard personally was an event I don't speak much of publicly, but which has direct bearing on this book - but again, I have to be very vague here in order to avoid spoilers. Suffice it to say that my reality - assuming the one I'm typing this review in *is* reality - wound up very different from the one in the book, yet it is also all *too* easy for me to see how my reality could have been a version of this tale, all the way to me becoming a version of our lead character. (Though to be clear, *no one* is casting me as an actor. The one time I acted at all was in a HS play - Midsummer Night's Dream - and even playing a character who was *supposed* to be a bad actor... damn, I was *really* bad at even that!)

If you've never encountered a 'glimpse' tale, this is genuinely one of the better ones I've come across, particularly in the last few years, so it is a great place to start. Long time fans of the type of tale, like me, will likely enjoy this particular tale quite a bit too.

Very much recommended.

This was such a fast and easy read! In this book, FMC Meg Bryan/Lana Lord, becomes tired of her Hollywood life and ends up booking a ticket to her childhood dream destination --Avalon, Ireland. She and her late best friend, Aimee, wanted to go to a school there when they were younger but plans changed when Aimee dies.

Meg ends up in Avalon, where somehow all the people in town seem to know her. She realizes she stepped into an alternate universe where she never became an actress but instead, followed her dream to go to Avalon. The biggest surprise of them all is this is a universe where Aimee is still alive. It's too bad that Aimee wants nothing to do with her and she's not sure why! We follow Meg as she tries to see what kind of person she is if she never became an actress and if she's able to repair her friendship with Aimee.

I loved the characters in this book and the found family trope! I wish she never went back to the "real world" because Avalon seems like the place where she would've thrived! The end was a little bit spooky seeing what Avalon ended up being but I did like the ending of this book. It had a nice "second chance" type of ending and I think as readers, we needed to see that happen to Meg. She deserves a happy ending! I wish this book would continue with Kiera's story or Aimee's life in Avalon.

This book ended up being much better than I thought.
I really enjoy time travel stories and this doesn’t disappoint. I could feel Meg’s joy at seeing Aimee again and her desire not to leave. I was surprised by the ending. Definitely worth checking out.

This book had SO. MUCH. POTENTIAL.

On the outside, Meg seems to have it all: she’s a famous TV actress in Los Angeles, with an equally famous boyfriend; she has all the money she could ever want, and she lives in a beautiful house. However, on the inside, her façade is crumbling, she feels unfulfilled, and she’s still dealing with unresolved grief and trauma after her childhood best friend, Aimee, died in a car crash when they were 19. On a whim, she books a flight to Ireland for a bit of an escape… and she realizes that, here, she’s stepped into another version of her life. And in this life, Aimee is alive.

Like I said, this book had so much potential. There are themes on life and living, happiness, grief, and relationships with others. What if one small decision can change the entire trajectory of your life? What if there are actually infinite versions of your life, somehow playing out in another dimension of the universe? It’s magical realism at its finest.

Unfortunately, for me… the execution just wasn’t there. It felt very YA and also not totally fleshed out? The climax at the end felt very… rushed and, sadly, anticlimactic. A lot of the dialogue felt false, and I wanted more time with Cillian!! (And a bit more of a resolution in general.) And, despite the abundance of descriptions, the characters felt shallow.

That said, I think with a few (somewhat major) tweaks, this book could be sooooo good!!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review! This publishes 6/3! ~

Paige Harbison’s The Other Side of Now serves up a hearty helping of magical realism, grief, and second chances, all set in an Irish village so charming it practically hands you a pint and a therapy session.

Our lead, Meg, is a struggling actress who’s basically a walking existential crisis. She gets a supernatural do-over to experience a life where she chose a different path and her late bestie is still alive—which is either the sweetest nightmare or the most emotionally manipulative wish fulfillment imaginable. Either way, it was fun to read and hard to put down.

The emotional depth? Spot on. The setting? So cozy I wanted to crawl inside the book and rent a thatched cottage. The character growth? Satisfying like a slow clap at a community theater play.

But let’s be honest: we’ve seen this “alternate timeline where things could have been better” plot before (hi to every movie that’s ever wondered what happens if you don’t miss the train). Still, Harbison keeps it fresh with raw emotions, well-drawn friendships, and just enough heartache to make you question every life decision you’ve ever made—while still somehow keeping it hopeful.

It loses a star because some parts leaned a bit too hard into Hallmark holiday special vibes. I half expected a golden retriever to show up and solve everyone’s emotional baggage..

Meg Bryan, also known as Lana Lane, is unsatisfied with her life as a tv star in LA. She books a last minute trip to Ireland, and when she gets there, she finds that the people there already know her, and she appears to have entered an alternate timeline - one where her best friend is still alive, and the decisions she made led her to an entirely different future.

I know this is going to be a book that sticks with me for a long time. The “alternate timelines” trope is brilliantly done in The Other Side of Now, and there are so many layers to this novel, female friendship being the most prominent. There are charming side characters, poignant moments of heavy topics like grief, and engaging writing that keeps you turning the pages.

The self awareness of the protagonist, Meg, also known as Lana, is breath of fresh air throughout the novel. Her awareness allows her a huge amount of character growth and she’s almost unrecognizable by the end. Between reflecting on herself and the ways in which she’s betrayed who she really is, and coming to terms with grief that was never resolved, I felt so deeply for Meg.

No spoilers, but books like this are hard to have a satisfying ending for, and I felt very pleased with the way everything wrapped up. It made sense for the story, and I admired the way it went.

Thanks to NetGalley for the eARC.

This book was not what I expected it to be. But in a good way. If I were to sum it up in a sentence, it would be It’s a Wonderful Life meets A Christmas Carol meets Brigadoon for Millennials. Funny enough, all three are referenced, but to avoid spoilers I won’t say what piece of them specifically this remind me of.

If we had to give it a genre, I’d say magical realism is probably what fits best, but to me it reads like lit fic.

An emotional exploration of loss and guilt and learning to live in the aftermath. At its heart are big questions. Is the grass greener? Would you make a different choice if you could?

The majority of the plot takes place in Avalon, Ireland and I don’t think the name was unintentional. A emotional, beautiful, absorbing read that I made my way through in a day and absolutely worth adding to your TBR.

In something highway, unique for fiction the author was also the narrator of the audiobook. I think this is wonderful when it’s done because the author will know exactly the new ones intended for every word. And Paige Harbison is an excellent actor who has me invested in every character we met.

The Other Side of Now by Paige Harbison is a moving, contemporary women’s fiction novel about grief, identity, and the roads not taken. At first glance, Meg Bryan seems to have it all—her dream job, fame, and beauty—but underneath the surface, her life is unraveling. She's disillusioned, joyless, and barely holding it together. After wrapping up another season of her TV show and being told—yet again—to lose weight she doesn’t need to lose, Meg impulsively books a trip to a small Irish town that she and her best friend, Aimee, had once dreamed of visiting before a tragic accident changed everything.

But when Meg arrives in Avalon, reality shifts. Suddenly, she’s not a TV star—she’s just a local woman who recently broke up with the town's swoon-worthy bartender. And more shockingly, Aimee is alive. Meg has no idea what’s happening or how she ended up in this version of her life, but one thing is clear: she’ll do anything to spend just a little more time with her best friend.

I absolutely adored this book—I couldn’t put it down. It opens with Meg at a breaking point: she's just celebrated a birthday she didn’t enjoy, suspects her boyfriend is cheating (and finds she doesn't really care), and feels completely disconnected from her life. Believing she just needs a break, she takes off for Ireland… and steps into an alternate reality.

The story has shades of It’s a Wonderful Life, offering Meg—and readers—a poignant look at how one decision can shape an entire existence. What if Meg had followed Aimee to college in Avalon instead of staying behind? This version of her life may not come with fame, but it has something Meg has been missing for a long time: purpose, presence, and real connection. As she navigates this strange new reality, piecing together clues from her phone and the people around her, she must also confront the grief she’s long avoided.

Harbison beautifully weaves together themes of love, loss, and self-discovery. The writing is immersive, the emotional beats are genuine, and the supporting cast—from a charming ex to a quirky new best friend—adds warmth and depth. The small-town Irish setting is atmospheric and grounding, the perfect backdrop for Meg’s journey.

Meg and Aimee were inseparable as children and teenagers. When Meg gets into the acting school in Ireland they both applied to while Aimee is waitlisted, Meg ultimately decides to remain in Florida with her friend. A horrible tragedy upends their lives, and Meg flees to Hollywood, eventually achieving what she always dreamed of--a hit show, a famous boyfriend, adoring fans. But on her 30th birthday, she spontaneously books a trip to the Ireland town where she dreamed of studying.

She arrives jetlagged and confused. Why does the hot pubkeeper not only seem to know her, but to be angry with her? And why does a random woman act like she's her best friend?

Meg realizes she's entered an alternate reality where she did move to Ireland, but trying to convince people she's a famous actor in LA makes her look insane. As she navigates this other life, she makes some startling discoveries.

I loved this book. Early on, I commented that it reminded me of Brigadoon, a rarely performed musical, which of course Meg performed in high school. This is a story of friendship as much as it is a romance. I wanted to be friends with the characters, too. #TheOtherSideofNow #NetGalley

The Other Side of Now:⁣
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Thank you @macmillan.audio #MacAudio2025 and @stmartinspress for my gifted copy! ⁣
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“Because it was too hard to see my world for its good when its bad was so much louder and more distracting.”⁣
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My favorite kind of magical realism is a timeloop or sliding door. It itches that curiosity of “what if?” The Other Side of Now is a sliding door with Meg or Lana (depending of if she’s famous TV star, or just shop worker in Ireland). This book tackles the “what ifs” or a “simple” life, and how it can be so much more that what we think it is now. ⁣
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There’s a lot of discussion of grief and loss, and I found it to be perfect. This book showed Lana what it would be like without all of Hollywood’s pressures of being thin, plastic surgery, etc and I really felt it was done it a great way. ⁣
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The author, Paige Harbison, narrated the book and I truly enjoyed the audio. I remember thinking I wasn’t going to like this book, but once that first chapter hit on audio, I could not stop listening. It sucked me in the best way, and is one of my favorite books of the year. It gave really great perfection and left me with a lot of thinking. ⁣
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Also, this books gives a good 90s/2000 movie vibe with New Radicals playing in the background as the credits roll. Seriously.