Oona Out of Order has a unique premise and I was surprised the author pulled it off. It was entertaining and interesting.

Oona Out Of Order is the story of a woman who finds herself displaced in time.

It’s what I like to call a “domestic time travel” story in the vein of The Time Traveler’s Wife where the time travel is biological and inexplicable, set in a familiar world. Oona’s time travel works mysteriously – at the end of each year, she’s thrust into another random year of her life, sometimes moving forward and sometimes backward, while constantly playing guessing games and engaging in power struggles with her future all-knowing self.

This is the perfect kind of monkey’s-paw-thought-experiment fiction, where half the fun is considering how I’d handle it and whether I’d want it. You could predict stock outcomes and lottery winnings! You’d get to see old friends, experience your youth again in old age! You could go through life with the hindsight knowledge that everyone craves – but your life is disjointed, uncontrollable, and messy. Relationships that were important to another version of you get destroyed in an instant, secrets are kept to protect you, and you spend so much of your life feeling like an imposter. It’s an excellent study on our own relationships with the past and future, how we evolve as people (are we really growing up if we don’t cringe at our old social media posts?), and what to do with what’s left of the life we are given.

I have to admit that the premise alone hooked me – I’m a total sucker for reality with a twist – but this book comes packed with a lot of character and heart as well. I found myself finishing it and wishing it wasn’t over quite yet: the way Oona spends every year, the way we all should.

Oona Lockhart faints on her 19th birthday and wakes up 32 years later in her 51-year-old body. She's understandably freaked out, but she's greeted by a man who says he's her personal assistant and friend Kenzie. He explains that she's a time traveler of a very unique sort: Every year on her birthday, she faints and wakes up in a different year of her life. It can be any year she's never lived before, and she has no way to control it or decide which year it will be.

And so, Oona experiences her life out of order, with no predictable pattern of how the years will go. She's a young soul in a body of all different ages. Sometimes the year is a good one, sometimes it's a painful one. There's love and loss and sometimes a horrible sense of knowing something is going to happen and not being able to prevent it. She has her beloved mother and Kenzie to help her through the weirdness of her life, but there are times where she's very much alone.

I thought this was a really interesting concept for time travel. The idea of living your life out of order provides a lot of emotional resonance. Oona is a great character. She's strong and resilient, and she learns to embrace a life of uncertainty and enjoy the good moments, of which there are many. Although time travel is a central element to this book, there's no science fiction explanation here. The time travel just exists, and Oona doesn't know why it happens, just that it does. This may be unsatisfying for some readers, but I thought that it worked really well for the plot in this case.

I was apprehensive going into this book because I was prepared for it to be full of distracting plotholes resulting from the time travel. Now, I'm not going to say this was flawlessly done, but I can say that if there were any issues I didn't notice because I was too invested in Oona's story.

Every time New Year's came around, I was eager to see which new year we would jump to. If done with a talented cast, I could see this being a very fun and popular movie.

I am very much in the minority of reviewers in that I was unimpressed by this book. The concept was interesting, but I quite disliked all the characters.

What a fun read! It reminded me of Back to the Future and 13 Going on 30 in a mashup. A truly unique novel that is likely unlike anything else you have read.

I received a print galley from the publisher, and since I do prefer to read in print, I will review it upon completion. Lots of librarian love for this one, so far!

I have read 150 books this year and this one is the very best on that list. I loved this novel so, so much. It is a few genres in a perfectly written package. It’s funny, interesting and emotional. It touched me in a way that most books do not. I am impressed and in love.

I absolutely loved this!!

The time-hops through different decades in NYC were my favorite thing, and I loved Oona so much and wished the book was about 200 pages longer so I could continue following her on her adventures through time.

A mix of romance and drama and some heart wrenching stuff, this book has a little bit of everything.

Def recommend for your next book club read.

This book would lend itself to good discussions for book groups. And like most good stories, each chapter reveals new information about the characters.
It also reminded me of a bit of Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity. Lots of musical references. Most interesting is the evolution of Oona, spotlighting how we all struggle to change what we cannot accept, and to accept what we cannot change.

“Oona stopped trusting the mirror years ago. After all, it told only a sliver of the story...”⁣
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It’s New Year’s Eve 1982, and Oona Lockhart has her whole life before her. At the stroke of midnight she will turn nineteen, and the year ahead promises to be one of consequence. Should she go to London to study economics, or follow her heart and remain at home to play in a band with her boyfriend? As the countdown to the New Year begins, Oona faints, and awakens in her 51 year old body thirty-two years in the future. Greeted by a friendly stranger in a beautiful house she’s told is her own, Oona learns that with each passing year she will leap to another age at random. And so begins Oona Out of Order.⁣
Hopping through decades, pop culture fads, and much needed stock tips, Oona is still a young woman on the inside, but ever changing on the outside. Who will she be next year? Philanthropist? Club kid? World traveler? Wife to a man she’s never met?⁣
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First, let me say I never wanted this book to end! The synopsis alone hooked me, and the book itself held me captivated. The idea of leaping to an unknown year in Oona’s life every midnight on New Year’s Eve, while mentally she ages chronologically, is so different from anything I’ve read. ⁣
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I love the way Montimore writes. The story makes me, as a reader, feel right there in New York with Oona, going through the different years and experiencing the many changes. Montimore’s writing is smooth and seamless, accomplishing the difficult task of engaging the mind without trying to confuse.⁣
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This book is fascinating and heartfelt. It made me laugh, and it made me cry, but I couldn’t put it down. When I closed the back cover, thrilled by what I’d read, I reflected on my own life. Great writing invites readers into character’s shoes, and somehow places us more firmly back in our own. I will be recommending this book to everyone!⁣

Thank you to netgalley & Flatiron Books for the copy in exchange for the honest review! Oona Out of Order publishes on February 25th, 2020!

I really loved it! If you liked Time Traveler’s Wife, this is one is for you. Oona, the main character, starts living her life out of order after the age of 21. Each January 1st she wakes up in a different year of her life. Sometimes leaping ahead, sometimes leaping back–but always to a year she hasn’t experienced before.

This unique story begins on New Year’s Eve in 1982, when Oona Lockhart is about to turn nineteen. She is agonizing over whether to stay with her boyfriend Dale’s band, or go with her best friend to London to continue her education. Her angst is about to get worse, however, because at the stroke of midnight she experiences tremors and passes out, only to wake up in 2015. An unfamiliar male, who turns out to be her personal assistant Kenzie, tells her that whereas she may be nineteen on the inside, she is now fifty-one on the outside. Every year on New Year’s Eve, she jumps in time - seemingly randomly - to a different age of her life. Kenzie explains, “You’ve never been able to figure out how it happens or why.” Only Kenzie and her mother Madeleine know her secret.

In subsequent chapters we experience different times and ages along with Present Oona, who starts leaving herself notes at the end of each year, hoping she can make a difference in Past Oona’s life. The only way she is successful in changing events, however, is in giving Past Oona stock tips so Future Oona will have financial security. Otherwise, she found that “whichever way the years flowed, it was impossible to outmaneuver their passage.” She needed to learn how to accept the bad stuff she came to know would happen, and enjoy the moment.

Evaluation: Oona is a fascinating character, who has to grow up on the inside much more quickly than other people, and learn how to absorb the blows that come and that she knows will come later. Reading about her progress in dealing with her odd fate and learning the history of her life that unfolded out of order held my interest throughout the story.

What a wonderful read.atime travel book at its best,Oona travels through her life moments different ages out of time out of order.Enjoyed every page highly recommend.#netgalley#flatironbooks

Somebody once asked me that if I had the chance would I ever change my past? The good, the bad, the downright painful?

I thought about it, really thought because a lot has happened and I’ve been through a lot but truthfully I don’t think I would change anything. I am who I am because my experiences have made me who I am and although life is terrible at times (and now) it doesn’t mean always will be. I’m not saying that I’m stronger or anything for what I’ve been through. I’m just me.

Now if you ask me if I would go back in time and eliminate certain obstacles and people the answer is hell yeah. THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE. YOU ARE EXPENDABLE.


Oona’s birthday is New Year’s Day and it’s 1982 and she’s living it up with her boyfriend and fellow bandmates right before the clock hits midnight. When it does however she’s out of sorts and awakens not as a 19 year old but as a 51 year old Oona. She’s traveled into the future and according to a note she’s left for herself this isn’t the first time nor will it be her last.

With each year Oona will time travel and learn more about herself and her life. In a way it’s enviable but too much of one thing is never too good and as Oona tries to navigate the trickiness of her destiny we see why you should never try to change fate.

And still the sorrow threatened at the edges like a tidal wave on the horizon.

I came into this novel not expecting much and was blown away. It’s great. It was endearing and hilarious in so many ways and Oona as a character was funny and frustrating and reminded me way too much of me. I wanted to shake her and tell her to stop being so stubborn but at the same time I completely related to her. Who wouldn’t try to change the course of fate when you knew that certain actions could lead to disaster? The idea of leaping from random age made my anxiety skyrocket but also intrigued me. I sympathized completely with Oona staying in bed weeks at a time because of her depression because girl.

GIRL. YES.


The best part? Her wealth. The woman was smart. She used her leap power for GOOD. She invested in stocks and left notes for herself. Love it. And she didn’t just spend the money on herself, she frequently donated to charities and kept herself busy and traveled. Sigh, superhero status.

My question though is do the leaps ever end because honestly it has to be exhausting at some point lmao. This is a nice read overall and the characters were fun and witty so if you’re looking for a light women’s contemporary novel mixed with magical realism this is the book for you.

Everything has its time.

A fun time travel story. Oona’s time jumping really makes you think about decisions in life that we make. I enjoyed it!

This book is absolutely SPECTACULAR!

Oona Out of Order starts out on New Years Eve 1982 with Oona Lockhart excited to celebrate to New Year because at midnight she will officially be 19 years old! Once the clock hit midnight, Oona find herself disoriented and in a 51 year old body and in the year 2015!!!! Oona reads a note from herself “earlier Oona” and learns every year on New Years Eve at the stroke of midnight she will wake up as herself, but in a different year/decade~ hence Oona Out of Order! It was at this point that I knew this book would be 100% up my alley!

This book NEEDS to become a movie!!! It had me feeling every emotion from laughing out loud all the way to tearing up and grabbing for the tissues, but what I loved most is that it made reflect and think! Margarita Montimore brilliantly took us on a journey of a lifetime and I can honestly say I didn’t want this book to end! The storyline was extremely original and so well thought out! Oona Out of Order is a 5++++ star read, but I really wish I could give it more than 5 stars though because it’s that good! This fantastic novel will most definitely be on my 2020 favorites list! I highly, highly recommend everyone read this book!

Thank you NetGalley and Flatiron Books for an advanced copy of Oona Out of Order! I loved this book! Oona wakes up year after year on her birthday to find herself in a different part of her life. I am sure this is getting a lot of Time Travelers Wife comparisons, but when you loved that book as much as I did, it’s a complement and you know I will be recommending this book to all of my friends to read! This book explores identity, relationships and the idea of free will vs. fate. Couldn’t put it down and so excited for its release in February!