Wow! Loved this book. This premise is interesting - she gets in an accident and ends up in a parallel life from her own - seemingly split from the life she knows by an accident she had 3 years ago (but didn't have in this other life - veering her life in a different direction). The idea of the book is fascinating and I've read a few other books in a similar vein to this one. But - this was one of the best. Truly, hard to put down. This type of plot can be hard to execute just right, but C.J. Connolly did it. I'm looking forward to seeing what she writes next!

”There are many ways people can be right for each other. Just because you can be happy with a quiet, gentle man doesn’t mean you can’t also be happy with an outgoing, charismatic joker.

In a different life.

Or maybe even both in the same life.”


SUMMARY
Josie Cavendish is a single, British woman with a job she enjoys at a radio station and a blossoming romance with a fellow choir member. On her 36th birthday, she gets into an accident and wakes in the body of herself but in an alternate timeline. Josie wakes up with a rich, handsome husband, a well paying job, skinny, with hair extensions. Although there are things missing in her new life that lead to her needing to go back to her own timeline.

OPINION
I thought this would be reminiscent of Sophie Kinsella’s Remember Me? Which is one of my favourite romcom’s of all time. But they are indeed very different stories.

This author decided to write a romance but make it ✨multiverse✨ themed. I’m not sure how I feel about the story to be honest. The dual split POV of Main Josie and Other Josie felt repetitive at times.

Honestly I was a little bored with it by the 80% mark. I wish it all got resolved a bit faster because I was really over both Josie’s complaining about their respective lives.

I did actually really enjoy the ending though. I like the notion that different versions of oneself attract different people, job prospects, and experiences.

RECOMMENDATION
Those who like contemporary romance with a Freaky Friday twist or Dr Strange’s multiverse theory might like this one.

This book was a very fun, fast-paced and unique take on classic tropes made popular from films such as Sliding Doors and Freaky Friday.

On the way to her 36th birthday celebration, Josie bikes over to the restaurant, excited about her potential new romance with her crush Peter, and spending time with her choir friends. However, her journey there is cut short by an accident. She wakes in the hospital to find an attractive unknown man at her bedside, who seems completely too concerned about her well-being considering they don’t know each other. But the truth is, they very much know each other. The man, Rob, is her husband of 2 years and she is forced to live an entirely new life where another Josie once was. In Josie’s old world, the other Josie is now spending time with her brother, getting to know Peter, and dealing with being away from her husband.

Some things that I really enjoyed about the book was Josie’s character, as she was a very relatable yet funny character. I connected with Josie a lot, and found her journey alongside Rob very heartbreaking but sweet. Unfortunately, whilst Other Josie is the same character, they were very boring and unlikable. Whilst the fact that Connolly was able to create two such distinct voices was impressive, the life that Other Josie was living was very lackluster and uninteresting when juxtaposed against Josie’s new life with Rob.

My main issue was the structure of the novel and the pacing of the novel. I wish we got to see a bit of Josie’s life before we transitioned at the end of chapter one. It made it difficult to grasp her emotional state as she is dropped into the new world, because we didn’t have time to acclimate to her old life, or understand her relationships with the people left behind.

Similarly, the format between the two storylines slowed down the pacing of the novel and made it quite repetitive by the end. I really enjoyed that the first part was quite long, because I was presently surprised to suddenly find myself in the other Josie’s life. I think that after having the bigger sections at the beginning, the book would have benefited from having a chapter or two from each perspective before changing up. This would have created more tension between the two characters as they adapted to their lives. The scenes in Williamsburg dragged quite a bit as they were really long sections despite not featuring many enjoyable scenes. If there were breaks between this perspective, I think I would have enjoyed the novel a lot more.

Overall, this is definitely a fun novel that would be perfect for an easy summer read. I did enjoy this book although it did have a few aspects that decreased my excitement about it. I would be interested to pick up another CJ Connolly book in the future!

Ok, I didn't expect this at all. The blurb lets you believe you get a character thrown into another life, but instead we embark in a multiverse story about faith and parallel universes.

Josie is a single choir singer and radio show host who gets in a bike accident 3 years after she almost had another one in the same exact place and that triggers a rip in the fabric of her world, ending with her waking up to a brand new husband, house and job she didn't have yesterday. We get to see both her lives being played out throughout the book as both versions of the main character try to find their footing in this new world they were thrown in.

What I liked:
- the idea of the "sliding doors" was there and it was carried well, keeping an alternating POV between the Josies. I think it was a nice touch to separate the two universes by changing the perspective from a first to a third person.
- the plotline with her brother, which reminded me a bit of The Midnight Library by Matt Haig as it goes to show how much your life can change if a split-second decision had not been made.

What I didn't like:
- Rob is "other" Josie's husband and he is genuinely one of the most laid-back characters I read about. And that was a bit boring. He is understanding of her supposed amnesia from the first second, gets her home and is ok with them being roommates. No questions, no pushing her towards getting her memories back, nothing.

- Even though it felt like something "real" Josie kind of wanted, I didn't like the fact that "other" Josie was like 30 pounds slimmer. We're not in The Princess Diaries, you don't need to straighten your hair, get rid of your glasses and braces to be pretty.
- "other" Josie was not likeable at all. Unlike "real" Josie, who tried to make the best out of her situation and get used to the idea that if she never goes back to her old life, this one is pretty good, "other" Josie b*tched about it and never tried to see what this life could possibly offer.
- what ultimately made me decide to rate this only a 3/5 stars was the pacing. The book focused mainly on dialogue and didn't really develop the characters' thoughts and emotions, so I didn't connect with any of them. I didn't really root for one outcome or the other,

Thank you Netgalley and Joffe Books for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

We have all seen the Hallmark movies where the main character gets in an accident or goes to sleep and wakes up with a different life. She has the perfect man and life that she wanted. But, she either has amnesia or remembers her "old life" but starts to fall for the guy and the life.

This book has all that and a twist. Josie is in a bike accident and now there are two Josies. "Me" is who we are introduced to in the beginning ends up with a husband and a fancy life. She remembers only her old life. "Her" is the Josie that had the husband. She ends up in the place of the Josie who was single. Sound confusing? It was for a second, but you catch on fast.

While I know that these characters are both technically Josie, I am a bigger fan of "Me" Josie. I'm not sure what about "Her" Josie didn't sit well. There are some moral/ethical issues brought up since the version of Josie with Rob (the husband) isn’t technically the one that married him. I’m glad that was addressed. My only complaint about the book is that Rob and Josie call each other "baby" constantly.

Thanks to NetGalley and Joffe Books for my advance copy!

This is a multi verse romance reminiscent of Sliding Doors. The plot is very interesting, but the execution fell a bit short for me. My main issue is that Josie's situation is very emotional, but I couldn't actually feel her emotions, it was more of a surface level where her feelings are described, but not conveyed. I also didn't feel the chemistry with Rob or with Peter. it all just felt rushed and superficial, when the premise had so much more potential.

Three and a half stars.

Josie is a British woman living in New York, singing in a choir for a hobby, and working as a radio presenter on real estate matters. Then one day, on her thirty-sixth birthday, she has an accident on her bike and wakes up in a different reality. She's the same person (albeit thinner and with better hair and clothes), but now she has a swanky job in real estate marketing, she's married to a construction billionaire and lives in a gorgeous eighteenth floor apartment in Union Square in a building that was named after her! It appears that she has the same memories as her alter-ego until about three years earlier, the night the Other Josie met her husband Rob at a marketing function Josie had an accident on her bike and missed the do. Rob introduced her to the guys who run the company that Other Josie works for and the rest is history. In fact, this would be Josie's fantasy made true but for one terrible fact, in this life her brother and her cousin are dead.

Can Josie adapt and live in this new reality? Does she want to? What about Peter, the guy from choir she was getting close to? And if she does now get close to Rob does that betray Other Josie?

Told from alternating POVs we see Josie and Other Josie trying to adapt to their new lives, but when push comes to shove, will they stay or will they go?

I really liked this to start with, C.J. Connolly says she was inspired by Sliding Doors and Life After Life and I was enjoying the way in which they inhabited each other's lives. It reminded me of the British film Quest For Love starring Joan Collins. But then somewhere in the middle it seemed to flag and I felt that the plot had gone off in a spiral. Maybe it would have worked better for me if we had either had alternating chapters from Josie and Other Josie or just half from Josie and the other half from Other Josie rather than three chunks of each.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

This book literally made me drop every single book I was planning on reading and pick it up. I was browsing NetGalley and randomly came across it unexpectedly. Boy, am I glad I did!

This story is so meticulously well written, and written in a parallel universe/multiverse, which we all know can become confusing very easily. The author made it seem so effortless and made it flow so that the story was just so easy to follow. It’s brilliant and crazy and the concept is just so unique!

Josie is a 36-year-old single British radio host living in a tiny home in Brooklyn. The guy she’s had a crush on for months, is finally going to break up with his girlfriend.

She’s zipping through traffic on her way to meet friends for dinner at a SoHo restaurant when a car runs into her and her bike, and everything goes dark!

Josie wakes up in a hospital with a handsome stranger by her side, holding her hand and telling her he loves her. This handsome stranger as it turns out, is her husband of 2 years. They live in a chic Manhattan penthouse, she works in real estate, and she’s thirty pounds slimmer than when she got on her bike that morning.

Josie is confused as she has no idea how she got there... but this new life is everything she ever wanted, except one thing missing… so now she has to decide — should she go back to her old single life in Brooklyn or stay with the love of her nearly perfect new life?

The Love Of My Other Life by C.J. Connolly was a sweet, fantastic read! I enjoyed the plot and the characters along the way. A great book!

I think that I expected something else from this book than what was received. It is an interesting premise, with the multiverse being prominent in today's media, and the first half of the book kept my interest, but from the half way mark, I found myself thinking that the books was going on for longer than it could have done. I enjoyed the end, however, with people getting their happy endings and all that jazz. I don't think I'm too fond of romance these days, but this was still enjoyable for the most part.

3 Stars!
I enjoyed this book, but I don't feel like there's much to say about it. It was fun, but I don't think it will stick with me as many other books have. I thought it was a very new spin on a cool concept though.

THINGS I LIKED:
Josie has an actually realistic reaction to her memory loss scenario.
Having dual POVs of both Josies was a good tool!
I love Rob a lot and also Josie's family. The ending was perfect!

THINGS I DIDN'T LIKE:
Josie finally randomly getting over her reluctance to be with Rob because he's hot??
I didn't like the "other Josie" POV at all. I thought third person was weird and I found myself speeding through it. She was also just really annoying.
There were some slut shaming parts that bothered me.

This was a very interesting take on the 'Sliding Doors' concept - what would you do with a different life? It was made even more interesting by the awareness the women had of each other. Romance with a difference!

This book started strong and I liked the concept. Unfortunately there are many other more ambitious multiverse/alternative lives novels out there. There are also some that are quite simplistic, like this one, but with those I kept reading them because I related to the characters and cared about what happened to them. This wasn't the case with this one, so I didn't finish it. Thanks to Joffe Books and Netgalley for the ARC.

What if there were an alternate version of yourself, living a different version of your life, simultaneously as you live yours?
This book attempts to answer that question. Josie Cavendish gets into an accident on her bike and wakes up in an entirely different version of her life. Some of her friends are the same and most of her memories are the same, up to a point. But, the preceding three years are vastly different. And, somewhere else in the universe, there's a different Josie, living out the life that Alternate Josie remembers.
This book takes us through the lives of these two women, who are also the same, but very different, even physically. It was a great take on the idea of one simple change creating very big consequences in our lives.
I enjoyed being taken through the emotions that a person experiencing something like that would go through. The idea that something is very wrong. The joy at the relationships that have been created and preserved in your alternate life; but, also the loss of others, without having a real grieving period to move on.
The one drawback of this book, I felt, was the anger that Josie (or Alternate Josie) feels toward someone who is essentially herself. She's angry at the alternate Josie for making the best of the life she was given, knowing that she really didn't have a choice. The betrayal felt unfounded.
Overall, the book had a satisfying pace and I was happy with the ending. I would definitely read another book by C.J Connolly.

I REALLY wanted to like this book. I was excited for it, and the premise sounded so interesting and fun. The book was not *terrible*, but it was not great. It never developed any real grip to the reader or substance. Though the variables and presentation were all there to create something really special, somehow it did not ever amount to anything gripping or meaningful for the reader. Again, not the worst, but far from high quality.

Also, the author's personal obsession with FISH meals is very bizarre and referenced *LITERALLY* in every single meal in this book, except the last meal of sandwiches. I'm not exaggerating that. Every single other meal is fish. It's so bizarre and obvious projection of the author's personal food choices.

This is a "Sliding Doors" type of story about 36-year-old Josie, who wakes up in an alternate version of her life after a bike accident, but with a "Freaky Friday" twist as alternate her is bumped into her old life. I do enjoy these types of "what if" novels, but I found myself disliking Josie2, and some of the choices each Josie made were frustrating. The concept was interesting, but overall the story became repetitive and the romance wasn't compelling. Also, the book gets pretty dark at times, which I wasn't expecting from the synopsis and the cover. Still, the novel definitely got me thinking about how many potential life paths there are and how important it is to stay true to your sense of self. Thank you to NetGalley and Joffe Books for a digital review copy.

The Love of My Other Life
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Romance
Format: Kindle eBook
Date Published: 6/30/22
Author: C.J. Connolly
Publisher: Joffe Books
Pages: 366
Goodreads Rating: 4.11

Thank you to NetGalley and Joffe Books for providing a digital copy of the book for me to read in exchange for my honest opinion.

Synopsis: She’s zipping through traffic on her way to meet friends for dinner at a SoHo restaurant. There’s a screech of brakes, Josie crashes her bike, and her world goes black. Then something extraordinary happens. She wakes up in hospital. The handsome stranger by her side, holding her hand and telling her he loves her, is Rob. Her husband of two years. They live in a chic Manhattan penthouse. She works in real estate. And she’s thirty pounds slimmer than when she got on her bike that morning. Josie has no idea how she got here. This new life is everything she ever wanted. But there’s one thing missing . . . And now she has to decide: should she go back to her old single life in Brooklyn or stay with the love of her nearly perfect new life?

My Thoughts: At one point in our lives, we all think, would my life be different if I had made choice B instead of going with A, this reminds me of this. The story is narrated by Josie, through her perspective, both in first person and third person since she was sitting in two lives. The characters were developed well, especially Josie, she has depth, charisma, she was emotional, and she struggled. I loved the weighing of both lives that Josie goes through to make the best decision. The author’s writing was complex, imaginative, creative, and keep me engaged from page one, and was hard to put down. I know some of the reviews felt like this was a Dr. Strange Multiverse situation and counted down for this, personally I felt this gave the story that extra pizzazz and uniqueness. While this was a romance, it was also a mystery with a plot twist and tension throughout. I do not want to give too much away. The ending was very good and made me happy. I enjoyed reading this book and would read other books by this author.

I was excited to read this novel and was left disappointed. Sadly after our heroine waking up in the hospital and being sent home m with a stranger by her mother the same day ,I could not get into the story. It almost ruined the book for me as I could not immerse myself in the story

Thank you to the Publisher and Net Galley for this Arc

This was a very interesting story which reminded me of The Midnight Library (Matt Haig) and Maybe in Another Life ( Taylor Jenkins Reid) were there are scenes of alternative universes. This story followed Josie who has a seemly ordinary life which she thinks may work out for her but could be better. Until she gets into an accident and wakes up in the hospital with all the things she’s been striving for; great job, body and husband.

I enjoyed this book. The writing style and the rhythm of the story were great. I would definitely recommend this book to readers who enjoy unique, romance and heartfelt stories.

Thank you NetGalley and Publisher for the ARC.

The love of my other life is an interesting exploration of alternate worlds. It makes readers think about the importance of staying true to themselves no matter the circumstances.

Most if not all readers will be able to empathise with Josie's character. Josie like many other people finds herself pondering the different possibilities of life and struggles to navigate true happiness. Her journey and growth throughout the book was endearing and will appeal to many readers.

I wasn't particularly invested in the romance but aside from that I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I would recommend this book for those who enjoy contemporary romances.