Grab the tissues, this one sneaks up on you.

It was the description that interested me in this story, and I almost put it down when I realized it has a bit of a supernatural flare to it. It's not my typical pick, but I was very happy I stuck with it. Meg, aka Lana, lost her best friend as a teenager. When a big birthday comes up it seems to trigger a mid-life crisis of sorts, causing her to flee her Hollywood lifestyle for a break, only to find what seems to be an alternate reality. The author triggers such emotion in this story, that's hard to talk about without spoiling. It's a journey worth taking, truly emotional story.

The only disappointing thing about reading this story was when I found out it was the author's first adult novel and I couldn't quickly move on the the next.

This book is nothing short of pure magic. I am someone who loves thinking about 'what if's' not dwelling on them too long of course. This book is written as if it was taken straight from my brain and put on the page. It contains multitudes. There is grief, love, truth, romance, and my favorite, Ireland. The characters had emotional depth which made me feel like I was right there alongside them. Which in many ways I feel as though I am.

I can't wait to pick this book up to keep on my shelf. This is definitely a keeper. I may not of normally reached for this book- but man it reached for me! *cue the tears*

5 stars.

Thank you Netgalley and Paige Harbison for the advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Loved Loved Loved this book! As a counselor, I have frequently talked to people who have wondered how life would be different if one choice was made. When I was younger, I dropped out of college to take time to reflect on choices. I applied to 2 different schools, 2 different majors and had to decide what to do. I made a gut decision and because of that I worked in one city, met my 'now' husband and had the life I was meant to have.

This book was emotional and so sweet. I cannot wait to read more from Paige Harbison!

This friendship story/romance set in Ireland gave just the right amount of heartwarming and emotional content. I found the writing style easy to sink into, and the banter well-written. I loved the people in the town of Avalon and how they truly loved Meg, even though they think she's lost her mind. I thought the romance would play a larger part in this, but I was honestly glad that it didn't. The relationship between Meg and Aimee was so much more important to the story, and I appreciated that it was always at the center of the plot. I was satisfied with the ending and how much Meg grew throughout the course of the story. I did catch some typos and grammatical errors but I am sure they will fix them before publication.

I absolutely love a "Sliding Doors" inspired book and this one did NOT disappoint.

Meg is a famous actress living the dream in Hollywood, or so she thinks. She takes a flight to Dublin and wakes up in a completely different life, where things actually turn out to be even better than she could have imagined.

This book was so sweet and endearing and a love letter to friendship and community. I sobbed through the ending and want to read it over and over again - definitely pick this one up!!

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely Love, Love, Love this book! ❤️
I honestly don’t remember how this book ended up on my shelf…but maybe that just add to its magic!

Meg and Aimee, high school besties decide to visit a fortune teller. Sounds like innocent fun, right? So why does the woman refuse to give Aimee her reading? I’m no psychic but that can’t be good.
While getting her reading Meg gets a surprise as well. We are about to find out what's in store for Meg.

As predicted, Meg did find her success as Hollywood actress Lana Lord. So why isn’t she happy? For her 30th birthday she treats herself to a week-long trip to Ireland. A place she and Aimee always dreamed about going to for College. Life had other plans for them.

Once arriving in Ireland, Meg is a bit confused. Everyone seems to know her, yet for Meg it feels as though she’s meeting them for the first time. Could this be the life that fortune-teller alluded to all those years ago?

I’ve read a few sliding door themed books over the years but this one is my absolute favorite to date.

This is one of those books I simply didn’t want to end. I became a big fan of Meg (Ireland Meg more than Hollywood Meg). I cried with her, laughed with her and cheered her on!

As Meg’s emotions got the best of her, so did mine, leaving me in a pool of tears. Where will Meg end up? What life is she destined to live? You know I can’t tell you.💁🏻‍♀️. But I hope this book wraps you in the same magical spell it did for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press

Do you ever get to the end of a movie and have the urge to stand up and clap because you loved it that much and the ending made you just that happy? That's how I felt reaching the epilogue of this book. (Admittedly, I predicted a small part of it, but I was immensely glad to see it come true, and just exactly how it came to be.)

The premise of this novel - a woman taking a spontaneous trip halfway across the world and accidentally winds up in an alternative version of her own life - is not an easy one to execute. But the way it's done here is extremely impressive. I think the fact that the main character, Meg, is an actress just adds to its execution and makes her fears of this other life being merely a dream or mirage feel all the more real and understandable. She's used to playing pretend her whole life, so how could she believe that this idyllic world she's found herself in is a reality?

I loved the characters in this book, and I think Meg herself is a very likable, intriguing character. The fact that she's an actress constantly playing pretend has layers and a deeper meaning to it that really pays off by the end of the book. I could see the lessons she was going to learn right off the bat, but again, the way it was done and the way things reveal themselves are really, really good.

I highly recommend this book and I will definitely be checking out more books by this author in the future.

My favorite romances always have that dichotomy of joy and sadness, love and loss. This one is no different-- it had swoony moments, but it also has depth and grief which really made this novel multi-layered. Fans of emotional romances, a woman's coming-of-age/discovery/recovery will love this.

Thank you so much for allowing me the opportunity to rea an ARC of The Other Side of Now.

From the very first few chapters this book had me hooked. I loved the friendships, found family, and self reflection that was present all throughout this book. It can be tricky to portray love, growth, loss, vulnerability, chemistry, and forgiveness, in a way that doesn't feel overdone, this story felt incredibly unique. Magical realism can be a tricky trope for me but I thoroughly enjoyed it here and thought it was well done. Who isn't intrigued by the theory of sort of parallel lives? It was very bingeable, easy to read, the characters were delightful, and the plot was just fast paced enough to keep you wanting more to make this a quick read. I enjoyed that there was a good mix of banter and tension and not a ton of spice, while it is fine in moderation, in my opinion it is completely over shadowing the actual plot of most books, and I am glad to say that this was a happy exception.

I adored the setting of this book, I am currently obsessed with an Irish setting and this was no different. This felt quaint and magical with a dash of heartbreak and yearning. I think the elements of this were mixed perfectly to make an endearing story.

If you are someone who often wonders about all the "What If's" in life, this one is for you.

I knew nothing about this book when I chose the ARC to read on my Kindle. I didn't read a blurb first, there wasn't a finished cover on my file...I just randomly clicked on it.

AND OH MY GOODNESS I'VE ALREADY FOUND ONE OF MY FAVORITE READS OF 2025.

It has all of my favorite elements- love, growth, loss, found family, vulnerability, chemistry, banter, forgiveness, a touch of steam- all wrapped up in a beautiful Irish setting with a dash of philosophy/physics. Not the kind I'm too dumb to understand, bahaha!

It's warm and magical and bittersweet and just...absolute perfection. Please add to your TBR right this very minute- it will be released on June 2.

And Paige Harbison, if you are reading this- I've fallen in love with you, too. Instant addition to my favorite authors list. Thank you for this magical gem of a book.

And thank you to St. Martin's Press for gifting me a free advanced copy of this beautiful book. All opinions are my own.

I received an Advanced Reader Copy of The Other Side of Now by Paige Harbison in exchange for a review. I didn’t know much about it going in and haven’t read anything by her before but the description was intriguing as a I love stories with time travel / parallel universe, etc.
In this one, Meg Bryan seems to have it all. An actress, stage named Lana Lord, she is starring in a hit TV show and dating a man who is about to headline a Marvel movie, but she is still grieving her best friend Aimee who died a decade ago. After a mini breakdown at her 30th birthday, Meg books an impromptu trip to Ireland, to the small town that she and Aimee had always dreamed of living in before her death.

When Meg arrives, everyone in town seems to know who she is and when she tries to google her life, the internet has never heard of her. Even her role on the show is being played by someone else, and she can’t quite figure it out.
Confused, she finds that she has an entire life here – a job, friends, a dog and best of all… Aimee is alive and well, though they are not exactly talking anymore. Meg realizes this is a chance to live parts of her life over and to try and save her friend.
This was a lot of fun, the writing is sharp and witty and the characters came alive for me. This will be released in June of 2025, and I recommend it. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my ecopy.

I adored this. The characters were fully fleshed and the story captured me from first page. The concept of parallel lives was clever and handled so I bought the whole story.. The author carrying this twisty plot concept clearly and fully to the end kept me fully involved!

I really loved this! The road not taken is such an interesting thing to think about and I loved how this book explored it. It was funny and sweet and heartbreaking. Much like the author, I wanted to stay in this Avalon world as long as possible.

You know when there are strange, inexplicable synchronicities in your life and you think 'I must be on the right path'? I requested this book a few months ago without realizing that Paige Harbison wrote Here Lies Bridget, which I'd read and loved over a decade ago (first as a script that came to my production company, then the original text, but I don't think it ever got made). I hadn't really thought of HLB until a week ago, when I read The Afterlife of Holly Cross for my book club, which reminded me so much of HLB that I actually mentioned it in my review. Then, lo and behold, I finally got around to this ARC and saw on the very first page that Harbison's other books included HLB. Small world. Anyways, all of that is to say that I started this book riding a wave of nostalgia. I feel like, even after a decade, I could tell this was the same writer, but with more experience under her belt. Love that. And love that the reviews are so positive!
The Other Side of Now features a cast of fun characters, a time travel plot, and plenty of soul searching for its protagonist as she grapples with the grief of losing her best friend. I really liked Harbison's humorous, meta references to genre tropes and other books and movies with similar themes. There is so much in the marketplace that deals with alternate paths that I found it refreshing to just address that head-on. For me, the idyllic Irish village was a little too provincial a setting and I'd have liked to see more of the romance with Cillian. That being said, I think the vivid imagery and heartwarming story would make for a beautiful film adaptation.

Thank you for ARC. Interesting storyline, slightly whimsical with life lines and magic. I wanted to love this, just liked it

If I could give this book 10 stars I would. I think everyone has wondered about the possibility of parallel universes and what our lives might have been if we had made other choices along the way. This book give Meg a glimpse of what her life would have been if she had made a few different choices along the way. The story is well told and keeps you believing in the reality of an alternate path even though you know it can't be true. I would definitely recommend this book.

This is my idea of a perfect novel! It grabbed me right away, and I couldn’t stop reading. Also, the characters are beautifully and vividly drawn, and the whole storyline is emotionally powerful. On the surface, this book might look like fantasy or just another sliding doors trope… However, it’s really about one woman’s journey into and through the grief of losing her best friend at a young age. And last, but not least the ending was deeply satisfying.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and publisher, fan advanced reading copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Ok I just picked this up on a whim and I actually think it might be the best book I’ve ever read??? At the very least it’s a new absolute favorite for me and I’d love to read it 12 more times immediately.
There’s grief, and magic, and Ireland, and romance, and friendships and I truly couldn’t have asked for a better delivery of all of my favorite things.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read The Other Side of Now by Paige Harbison

OMG i loved this book!

I requested this book due to the cover - it looked intriguing. However, I DNF this one around the 22% mark. I think it's more sci-fi than romance fiction and I didn't care for the alternate life aspect. Hope others will enjoy as the premise sounded interesting.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.