The premise of this book sounded really good and it did start off pretty interesting as well. The whole time traveling aspect in this book was interesting to me but I feel like in the end it just kind of fell flat. But the things I was most interesting in was how our main character was going to navigate the new time and her adjusting to all the changes that have happened. But again this fell flat and that's mainly because the main character was insufferable. She was so self-centered, whiny and overdramatic. It just wasn't an enjoyable reading experience. Like I understand your life has been completely turned upside down but I feel like a lot of the things she got super upset about had nothing to do with the time skip she experienced but just typical teen drama stuff so I'm not giving her an excuse. She also just centers herself in every single thing and is incapable of putting herself in someone else's place. We are also told a lot about her personality from other people but none of her actions actually match up with those personality traits. For example, we are told she's annoyingly respectful of authority and always does exactly what she's told by authorative figures. However our main character spends the entire novel thinking about how she can undermine what the FBI told her to do. It's got so annoying very quickly. Another one of the most talked about character traits she has is her passion for journalism, and as someone who is a journalism major that was painful to read. I really had a hard time believing our main character had this passion because she knew near to nothing about it and that can't be blamed on the time jump because the basics are the same, the format has just changed. Anyway, besides the main character I also didn't really like the romance. I just didn't feel any chemistry between the two characters and I just think it would have been better if they just stayed friends throughout the book. The side characters were also really flat and this read like the author also hasn't talked to a single teen since 1995. It was so cringy to read at times and there were also just so many plot threads that weren't properly wrapped up. But yeah, the only reason this wasn't a one star is because it was a very quick read and I did quite like the beginning (I even teared up a little bit when she was first reunited with her family members). But yeah, this wasn't a great book.

I struggled a bit with this one - I didn't love Jenny has a heroine and I felt like her reactions to some situations, however honest for a girl from 1995 who is dropped unceremoniously into 2020, were a bit off putting. This was one I would recommend to anyone who likes the show Manifest, but is looking to make it a little more YA.

Thank you to netgalley for providing an e-galley for review. "Your Life has Been Delayed" by Michelle I. Mason was a fun and touching look at what would happen if everyone you cared about jumped ahead 25 years in the future and left you behind, in the blink of an eye. Mason handled a lot of the time implications well, setting the future in the present and the past still in a time where it felt familiar. This was a feel good book that makes you feel like appreciating your time here and now.

this book opened with an extremely interesting concept but with poor writing, predictable plot, and no explanation of events. i found there to be an extreme lack of character development other than jenny, but even then her only development seemed to be moving on from her high school ex to his son instead - another plot point that i found all too convenient, easy, and cheap. overall, this book disappointed me and i would have preferred to see almost everything happen differently.

This book follows 17 year old Jenny as she boards a plane in August 1995 and lands 3 hours later in August 2021. Most of her grandparents have passed away, her parents are now grandparents, her little brother is married with kids and her best friend married her boyfriend! She has to navigate school, social media and everyone around her thinking she is some kind of alien or clone.
I was really hooked on this book from the beginning, but it ended up feeling a little long, and then the ending felt rushed. I wish the ending had as much detail as the middle. The overall plot though kept me interested. I really liked watching Jenny struggle with things that are vastly different between 1995 and 2021. I was 5 in 1995, so I do remember how things were *back then* and I could really imagine how absolutely jarring jumping from one time to the other would be. I liked the different elements of the plot, we followed Jenny through family, school, the support group her plane-mates made. We really got just about every aspect of a new life in a new time.
The characters were good, it was very easy to tell how rattled Jenny was and even though I have never time traveled, I felt I could relate to her struggle. I think my favorite character was Art, the boy Jenny had been sitting next to on the plane. I loved Jenny's family and I thought Ashling was a great rival.
This one should definitely be on your radar!

What happens when the plane you're on vanishes and reappears 25 years later? Jenny Waters is trying to figure out her new life... 25 years in the future. So much has changed in her world in the last 25 years but can she handle the changes? With the help of the passengers that have experienced the flight with her and a new friend who happens to understand what she is going though she starts to navigate her new life. What will this new life hold and will the most unlikely friend be the one she can't live without? Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for a free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to the publisher for providing an eARC of Your Life Has Been Delayed in exchange for an honest review.

Your Life Has Been Delayed starts off with an interesting, unique premise so I was expecting it to be an interesting unique read and it just... wasn't. It's competently written and the plot is fine, but it quickly goes from "mysterious plane crash! What's going on?" to "here's a ton of high school drama" which was not the take I was really expecting. It could have been a "teen flees scandal to new school, falls in love" book and been virtually the same which isn't necessarily bad, but I do think came off as disappointingly ordinary given the extraordinary premise.

I enjoyed this twist on the same idea as the TV show manifest, though this one takes a completely different path. The story mainly focuses on the difference in Jenny's life compared with that of 95. She no longer has any idea how to fit in. I liked the story well enough though I was expecting a little bit more from it. The book also seems to be for younger ya audience and Jenny seems immature in some points. Overall it was a cute light read.

Wow! I was hooked from the beginning and read it in a day! This is an intense book that keeps you on your toes! Jenny left in 1995 & the plane then lands in 2020?! I really liked how we see the characters and how they deal with this "new normal". I liked that the author kept the world as it was even though we all know 2020 looked different.
Jenny is a great teen character and I really felt for her in having to figure out technology and her new place in this new century.
I think a lot of teens will like this because it is a different concept. And has good relatable characters.

Thanks NetGalley for this ARC!

This book has a really fascinating hook: what if a teenaged girl’s flight disappeared midair and reappeared 25 years later, and no one on board had changed? You would expect a lot of reckoning with life plans, relationships irreversibly altered, and finding oneself in a totally new era of technology and media. To some extent, this book does that.

However, it does not give you the character development needed to attack those issues well. The deaths of beloved grandparents is revealed and then brushed past in unbelievably quick succession. Relationships with remaining relatives and friends are touched on, but after reading the whole book I feel like I know very little about who Jenny’s loved ones are, either before or after her “Blip,” if you’ll pardon the MCU reference.

Speaking of the MCU, for someone writing a book about a teenager losing 25 years and learning how to deal with being out of touch in the 21st century, the author didn’t do a great job of bringing herself up to speed. For some reason, The Hunger Games is brought up repeatedly. For a book set in 2020, that’s a pretty outdated reference, coming from someone who read the books and watched the movies as they started coming out when I was in high school—almost ten years ago. I’m almost certain it’s not the forefront of high school pop culture in 2020. And do we even use Vimeo anymore?

Finally, there were weird echoes of heavy-handed morality cues for teenagers that felt forced into the plot, like commentary on what Jenny wears, going to parties, and her attitudes about sex and even having her first kiss. It didn’t fit the story well and, in places, just seemed like an adult trying to ram their idea of what behaving well looks like into something that teens will read.

None of this is to say that it wasn’t a decently enjoyable book. It was a quick read for me, and it is fairly fun. You just can’t think too hard about the real life ramifications, current pop culture, and weird forced mores while you’re enjoying it. While I was tempted to rank it lower for these flaws, I didn’t feel it would be fair to give something I generally thought was fine fluff lower than three stars.

The premise of this book was certainly interesting. It reminded me completely of the Netflix show, Manifest. It was so similar that I wondered throughout who copied who - it was so similar that I wouldn't be surprised if there was a lawsuit.

Although it was advertised as YA, the main character, Jenny sounded and thought a lot like a middle schooler instead. Her thinking seemed very shallow and simple. This isn't a bad thing per se, but it's definitely not what I expected.

I think what bothered me the most was the way she reacted to the fact that she came back from the airplane to a world that had seemingly moved 25 years forward. If that happened to me, I think realistically it wouldn't be so easy to sneak out. Although the story mentioned many news headlines and shocked reactions from everyone, as the reader, I didn't necessarily feel these feelings through the storytelling of Jenny.

The cover art is cute but isn't my favourite because of the cartoon-likeness of Jenny and doesn't portray her as what she is described as inside the book. The art makes it feel even more like a middle grade read.

Overall, the premise was interesting and if you're not expecting a deep read, you'll probably still enjoy this!

For a middle grade book, you really do feel the feelings of the MC and I say that as a 27 year old woman. Such an interesting story with well written characters and emotions. Wish we knew more about what had actually happened though instead of just the after math! Thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was hoping for a Manifest meets One Last Stop style story, and that isn't really what I got. I didn't like the writing style. I didn't like the romance. All in all, just not for me.

As someone that’s obsessed with manifest and very happy they were finally revived for a final season, I was very excited to get my hands on this book and it did not disappoint! I can’t imagine ever going through anything like this and having to come to terms with life moving on without you for so long and then having to figure out how you fit in to the world now. I’m going to write a longer, more detailed review soon but for now, I really enjoyed this!

Warning: this review contains mentions of the current world health crisis.
I never like writing negative reviews, but I can’t honestly say that there was anything I liked about this book, unfortunately. The romance was just weird. The mean girl was mean for literally no reason. The main character was irrationally mad at basically everyone for living their lives without her for TWENTY-FIVE YEARS...
And, I’m sorry, but I couldn’t get over this: The premise of this story is that a plane leaves in August 1995, disappears out of thin air, and re-emerges on the same date 25 years in the future. By my calculations, this means that the plane would reappear in 2020. But there is not a single mention of COVID-19. No masks at school, no distancing, no temperature checks, no sparse crowds at the airport. I recognize that COVID is a hard thing for a lot of people and that many would prefer not to read about it. Many contemporary stories can get away with pretending it doesn’t exist simply by assuming it takes place pre- or post-pandemic. A strong sense of time isn’t needed. But this story was explicitly saying the year was 2020, wow, look at how different the world is... biggest change is definitely the existence of the iPhone. It brought me completely out of the story.

Add to that the unconvincing writing and frankly boring plot, and you didn’t have a recipe for a compelling book, unfortunately. I wish I could have loved it but it definitely wasn’t for me.

Everyone has experienced delays or turbulence when flying however how many of us can say we traveled through time during a flight. Yet this is exactly what happens to 17 year old Jenny Waters who got on a plane in New York City in 1995 and landed in St. Louis in 2020. Much has changed since Jenny boarded the flight. Her parents are now missionaries living out of the country, her brother is now 43 and married with two kids, and her New York grandparents are now dead. Jenny's best friend Angie, who is now married with two kids as well, has written a book about Jenny after graduating college in an effort to deal with her grief. Everyone seems to have moved on with their lives after assuming that everyone on board the plane, including Jenny was dead. Being thrown 25 years into the future can be extremely disorienting and in an effort to ground herself, Jenny decides to finish out her senior year of high school. While most members of her class treat Jenny as a bit of an anomaly, Dylan, Angie's son, patiently explains all things social media to her in an effort to bring her forward into the present. With scientists trying to study their blood to news reports stating the flight is a hoax, Jenny is relieved when members of the flight form a support group. There she finally finds a safe space to talk about her new strange reality, a reality that mirrors the experiences of the other members of the group.

Your Life Has Been Delayed is a mash up of so many different genres with some elements of speculative fiction, young adult, romance, and an intriguing premise that all comes together to form a unique and engaging story. This book was an absolute delight from start to finish and it felt like it was written to suit the millennial in me, with the many 90's cultural references as well as the sense that technology is moving faster than we are that many above 35 can relate to. That being said, the story falls solidly in the teen fiction genre and is well suited for teens and teen fiction lovers. I highly recommend Your Life Has Been Delayed for fans of teen romance fiction with a dash of magical realism and a pinch of conspiracy theory.

Your Life Has Been Delayed has a fantastic premise but overall was a "meh" kind of book.

Most of my issue with the book is that Jenny is a very self centered teen. Through many of the conflicts in the story she thinks solely of herself and ignores entirely what the people around her are going through. She just acts younger than a 17 (almost 18) year old should be acting.

I also feel like it went from book about a mysterious plane reappearance to a high school drama book very quickly. There was still some focus on the plane and the other passengers not as much as I would've liked. I felt like there was more focus on Jenny and her newfound enemy Ashling than necessary. I just feel like there are other things Jenny should have been more worried about than some high school girl that doesn't like her.

One of the things I really enjoyed was all of the supporting characters. The Springs were so sweet and Art was goofy and the support group scenes were some of my favorites. I also loved learning about Bradley and his family. I wish there would've been more scenes of Jenny getting to know them.

I had fun reading this book, I just think that it failed to deliver in some aspects. 3 stars

Just as the official synopsis says, our main character Jenny boarded a plane in 1995 and now she's in our present. Just like the other passengers of the flight, she'd been considered dead and her family grieved for all these years. Which means she's back to a world that has moved on despite her and with people not so willingly to accept the miraculous time jump—are the passengers clones? E.T.'s? To make things worse, not only everyone is more than twenty years older while she's still the same girl who boarded in 1995, but her then boyfriend has married her best friend and even had twins. Will she adapt or will she find a way to recover the lost time?

I have no idea what I had been expecting when I got the book, but I'm sure it's above my expectations. I'm not sure if anyone is familiar with the TV series Manifest, because the initial idea is similar—board a plane, time skip, people consider you're back from the dead. I think the similarities stop there, though I dropped the series in the first season and can't be sure. Considering I finished the book and enjoyed it, I'd say the different twist was an improvement, and to be honest, this was more the line Manifest should have gone, in my opinion.

It's not a perfect book, though. The romance made me cringe a little, and Jenny could get on my nerves at times. Then again, when I was the actual audience for this I wasn't as sensitive to overbearing main characters, so I'm not sure if I can deduct points for that. It was curious too that we get a subplot on the mysterious organization trying to undermine the passengers, there's some kind of investigation on Jenny's part even, but it was so underdeveloped I'm not sure if it was worth exploring. How much did it really add to the main plot? I think whatever bonuses it brought, they could come from elsewhere.

Although the interactions between a teenager and a woman in the 40's, or worse, the main character and her former boyfriend, who is now a man in his 40's, were awkward, I think the author dealt very well with it and drew the line way before awkward became wrong.

I feel I have so much to talk about this book, I can't pick the topics that would most interest a potential reader. But feeling-wise, this gave me nostalgia. It was like I had become a teenager again living in today's world. I can't speak for the target audience, but I think it's an interesting read for older fans of YA like myself. It was a sweet read, I love the magic realism going on, and it made me curious for the author's other books.


Honest review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.

Once I started reading Your Life Has Been Delayed, I couldn't stop. The premise of the book is that a flight (that went missing 25 years ago) lands. The people on board haven't aged; but their loved ones have.

TV isn't one of my priorities; about 3/4 through the book I read some other reviews that mentioned Manifest which seems like it might have a similar theme. I'm glad that I didn't have that preconception clouding the enjoyment of Your Life Has Been Delayed.

Debated between 4 and 5 stars; rounding up because this is a debut author and also because I mentioned the book multiple times to my husband as I was reading.

Thank you to NetGalley, Michelle Mason the author and the publisher Bloomsbury USA Children's Books for the opportunity to review the Advance Read Copy of Your Life Has Been Delayed in exchange for an honest review. Publication date is 07 Sept 2021.

This is a really interesting concept and I appreciated how the book used social media and the press throughout the story. The conspiracy theory group and the crazy explanations of how the plane's disappearance was faked was interesting and sometimes funny and seeing how the flights passengers fought back to tell their own stories was great. I also thought the characters were well written and seeing the different reactions to Jenny's return and how they tried to move forward with her was so well done and the most compelling part of her story for me. The one thing that I didn't like was I thought there would be a bit of a sci-fi angle with more investigation and explanation of what did actually happen and how the flight traveled through time. There was more focus on explaining and disproving the conspiracy theories then exploration of what could have happened. That said the writing was really solid so I wasn't thinking about this much while I was reading but rather left a little disappointed this wasn't included once I had finished the story.