DNF

This book, sadly, wasn't for me.

Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins Focus for this ARC opportunity.

The synopsis for THE VANISHING OF JOSEPHINE REYNOLDS caught my attention. Using time travel and parallel timelines, Jennifer Moorman spins a tale that touches the heart.

Josephine Reynolds is reeling from the death of her husband and finding it difficult to crawl out of her depression. Upon rescuing her ancestral home from foreclosure, she quickly learns that the house and her great grandmother have a fascinating history. An ornate door acts as a portal transporting Josephine to the Prohibition Era where she encounters Alma, her great grandmother.

This is a tender examination of grief and healing. Moorman handles these issues with sensitivity as we watch Josephine try to put her life back together by changing the past.

I enjoyed traveling back to the 1920s - the fashion and music contribute to creating a setting where you believe anything is possible.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Focus for the advance copy in exchange for my unbiased review.

I received a free copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review

This book is a step backwards into history with a hint of magic to it and it has its charms. Josephine was a perfect example of how an adult is still perfectly capable of wonder and the speakeasy and its individuals were a likeable group. I found myself drifting whenever she exited the speakeasy as while her sister is nice she seems to exist only to serve as an info dump and to express her views on Josephine’s late husband which we don’t really get a sense of other than what people tell Josephine. The love interest was an afterthought though I did like the widowers finding love again. Overall, it is a good read.

This was a wonderful magical realism book. A tad slow at times but still quite enjoyable. I loved the characters and the ending wraps up everything perfectly! I received an advanced readers copy and all opinions are my own.

This was an entertaining historical fiction/time travel book. I enjoyed Josephine and Alma and the way their friendship developed and the speakeasy was fun.

I received an arc from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I have never in my life flown through a historical fiction book as past as this one. Exquisitely immersive is an understatement. I absolutely loved everything about this and cannot wait to read what Moorman writes next!

The blurb of this book was so fascinating. I have read a few time-travel books that I loved. This book, however, couldn't grip my attention for long. I really liked the beginning—Josephine's emotions and her bonding with her sister. But then it becomes dull because it takes too much time to reach the point of intrigue. The 'time travel' thing happens and vanishes in a blink. Nothing extraordinary because the mother and the sister have already talked about everything in the present. And, sadly, after that, I lost interest. I didn't want to know more about the story or Josephine. 
Here, I must admit that I am an impatient reader. If you are someone who reads with patience, you might enjoy it. Thank you for the copy. Sorry, it didn't really work for me.

I love time travel books!
It was probably a little predictable but I still really enjoyed it. It grabbed my attention from the first page and I couldn’t put it down. My only complaint is I wanted a few more pages. Definitely recommend!!

I have to say this book was magical. Josephine, buys a house that had been passed down in her family for years. She had just lost her husband and needed something to take her mind off her loss. Her Uncle who had let the house go into foreclosure and tried to modernize the historical landmark and that wasn't something that Josephine likes. She found the original door and had it put back on the house with the same key that came with it. On the door there was a saying. She happened to say the words while holding the key and entered into 1927 where she met her great grandmother Alma. They became great friends. Josephine would go back in forth until she realized that she had to save her great grandmother from death or she would never be born. So goes this beautiful story about love, loss and finding yourself to be a strong, resilient women. The ending was just wonderful but I guess the beginning and middle were pretty special too. I highly recommend this book. Look for it January 14, 2025.
Thanks to #netgalley, #harpercollins and @jenniferrmoorman for an ARC of this great read. All opinions are my own.

Thank you NetGalley, Harper Muse and Jennifer Moorman for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of The Vanishing of Josephine Reyolds.
The magical realism of this story is not my favorite genre and I lost interest around the halfway point. I did finish reading but there was no wow factor to rekindle my effort to be more positive.
The characters are flat with too much telling and not enough showing. I missed the emotions and I was not immersed in the plot. It seemed repetitive and the time travel wasn’t real enough for me to believe or care if the outcome was going to be successful. I felt like an observer and wanted to participate more in action. This book was just not for me but others may enjoy it.

This is the story of a young widow, Josephine Reynolds, who makes a wish in her misery that she wishes she'd never been born. Soon after, she discovers her great-grandmother's historical home in Nashville is up for foreclosure auction. On a whim, she buys the house, for a fresh start. She starts to renovate the home, including finding the original door that went on the house. She also discovers that the house once held a speakeasy in the basement, something she didn't know about her great grandmother.

Once she's replaced the door, she accidentally discovers it's a portal back to 1927, where she meets her great-grandmother.

I found this an easy book to read, and I did enjoy the parts set in 1927. I liked the relationship between Josephine and her great-grandmother. I found the ending in 1927 a little rushed. I also at times found Josephine to be a bit annoying, especially in the last scene in the speakeasy.

Oh and one quibble that really annoyed me: Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue (which features several places in the book) is not a song. My degrees are in music, and I found it grating to hear that work described that way.

(Additional thoughts are on my Goodreads review, behind a spoiler tag.)
I think there's a lot in this book that many will enjoy.

WOW. First off, thank you NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.
Okay, you should RUN, don't walk, but RUN and buy this book. 5 stars. Absolutely amazing.
Why is it amazing? So many reasons. One of them is the way the author uses time traveling to have the FMC's great grandmother help her through a period of deep and dark grief. It just hits differently than a friend or therapist helping someone navigate their grief. With that being said, this would be a great book for someone who is dealing with the loss of someone, especially the loss of a spouse. Secondly, the author brings each character to life, making you truly care for them and feel their emotions with them. And OH the ending. I couldn't have asked for a better ending than what the author gave us- absolute chefs kiss.

A magical door that sends you to the past! Meeting the great-grandmother you adore and interacting with her! The warmth of family after a divorce! I mean, aren’t those promising? I’d love to know more. Unfortunately, none of those developments unfolded the way I had hoped. In the end, the book focused more on the romance than the family aspects. I also needed Josephine to really reflect on herself and find a new way to be comfortable as a woman that no longer centered her life around her husband. And then Josephine had one job,one single job to do! but still managed to be a blabbering mess. I won’t elaborate too much about this because I might spoil it. Overall, I was really disappointed that it didn’t turn out the way I expected.

I think my expectations may have been unfairly set before reading The Vanishing of Josephine Reynolds. I saw someone compare this story to Outlander (one of my favorite television series), and other than the time traveling element, I completely disagree with that comparison.

I was expecting a moving story with a deeply emotional romance. And though Josephine had lost her husband, I never really felt her loss. The romance she found later on in the story didn’t make me feel much of anything either. The story stayed fairly surface-level, which made it hard for me to really find an emotional connection.

That said, this was a cozy story, and the consequences of Josephine’s wish added a little mystery and magic. If you’re looking for a magical realism story with a slower pace that you can really sit in, you may enjoy this.

I received a complimentary copy of this book via NetGalley and HarperCollins Focus/ Harper Muse. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

The Vanishing of Josephine Reynolds comes out January 14, 2025.

The Vanishing of Josephine Reynolds is a fun magical story about finding yourself. I always get a kick out of time travel in books! I really enjoyed getting to follow up with Josephine on her healing journey and how a group of unlikely people helped make that possible. I’d recommend to people who love a little magic in their books.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

What a fun book!! There were a couple of minor continuity errors, but otherwise I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I loved the ending, it was such a perfect full circle moment!

4 stars out of 5 ⭐️

Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Muse for this copy of "The Vanishing of Josephine Reynolds."

Time-travel stories are some of my favorites so I was excited to read this wonderful book about a grieving widow's careless wish and how it could affect her future.

Josephine has lost her husband and doesn't know how to keep going without him. Her sadness is so overwhelming that she wishes she'd never been born.

And then her sister sends a message that their great-grandmother's house is for sale and Josephine buys the house, determined to restore it.

I won't spoil how Josephine explores the house and discovers how to travel 100 years in the past, but she finds that aspects of her current life are starting to disappear. How can she alter the events in the past to keep her wish from coming true?

Really loved this story and the main character Josephine. Her story was so real and it felt like I was on her grief journey with her. The little twists and turns just made the story that much more engaging- I really enjoyed this more than I anticipated!

Jennifer Moorman has done it again and pulled me into her magical storytelling. A story that captures the main character, Josephine, going through her grief after losing her husband and making a wish that could possibly change not only her life but the life of those around her. She must now figure out how to undo what she’s done before she is gone forever.
There was time travel, romance, friendship, loss and grief. Jennifer Moorman has a way of telling these lovely stories and adding a little magic to them. I loved the main character, Josephine, her journey is really quite beautiful. I found myself falling in love with all the characters in this story! The side characters all added their own beauty to the story. I love the way Moorman tells stories, I have been a fan of every book of hers that I have read. I love the magical touch to them and they are just feel good books.

Josephine Reynolds is widowed at 35 and in a complete rut in her life. She's stuck in grief and when her sister convinces her to buy the family home, that their uncle almost ruined, Josephine discovers she can time travel back to 1927 and when she comes back, she discovers things are disappearing. Will she be able to save the 1927 timeline so that she continues to exist? This book had so much emotion and I could not stop reading as I read about Josephine's journey. Definitely add this one to your TBR. Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Muse for a chance to read this one early in exchange for an honest review.