What a fun ride! I love a good time hop multiverse journey of what could have been. Lena falls asleep and wakes up with a past “insignificant other” and what their life would have been had she ended up with them. I thoroughly enjoyed the wild ride of what if’s. I found myself rooting for a couple and the way they nixed one wasn’t enough for me to understand but when it ended I understood why it was written that way . I do love this isn’t a love story with anyone but herself and how she grows through each leap! Highly recommend this one to get you out of a reading slump! I inhaled this audiobook. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the audiobook ARC.

Lena, reeling from a breakup that she thought was going to be a proposal, goes back home to her aunts house to lick her wounds. When she falls asleep in the guest house, she isn't prepared for what will happen. Lena is transported to a new life every time she goes to sleep. Back with her exes and could have beens, to see if she somehow along the way missed out on what was right in front of her.
She feels love, she feels betrayal and she feels pain through these 24 hour experiences. She goes on journeys not just physically, but mentally. Understanding what love is and what it feels like so that she isn't just going through the motions.
I wasn't prepared for how much I loved this story. The premise sounded fun, so I decided to grab it, but I wasn't prepared for how this story would touch my heart and remind me of my own journey through life. Looking back on what could have been and finding love and comfort in places that weren't given a second glance before. Finding a HEA in something that was so unsuspected. Lena touched my heart and I love that fate played a hand in helping her see what had been in front of her before and bring it back to her.
The narrator was absolutely perfect bringing this story to life.
Thanks to Harper, Netgalley and Sarah Jio for an ALC.

This book was unexpected and I am not really sure how to give it a proper review without giving away too many spoilers.
Lena was sure her boyfriend of 2 years Kevin was going to propose to her, but when he presents her with coldplay tickets, she breaks up with him and heads to her aunts house to nurse her heartbreak. She fell asleep in the guest house and each morning, wakes up married to a new man from her past to see how her life might be if she would have chosen a different path. Will she ever find her happily ever after?

4.75

Entertaining with each new partner and story. I definitely had my hopes for how this would end and I was so happy it came true! This was a great reminder that the choices you make could change your life, that every little moment or action can choose your trajectory.

Lena’s journey of waking up with a new “insignificant other” was surprising each time, not just for her but for readers. I was surprised how different each life was - from a glamorous life in Paris to the guy that was her first kiss. Each one was very telling on how you can never predict who you end up with, life is always full of twists and turns you don’t see coming. It was such a fun listen as she took on different lives that “could’ve been”.

I think along with reflection there was also a sense of grief through the book. She grieved each life she left behind the day before and also how she believed the world worked - that control and safe doesn’t mean happiness but also that going off path won’t necessarily lead to happiness either.

Lena thinks she knows where her life is headed. That's until things take a very different turn. She tries to get away and visit her aunt, but when she wakes up in the morning, she's living a completely different life... and this happens every time she wakes up for a new day. Men from her past appear, along with very different lives (different jobs, locations, relationships). Are any of these men who she is really supposed to be with? Lena's journey helps show her what she values in life and eventually gets her right where she's meant to be.

I thought this was an interesting take on how to find what your true priorities are in life. Some things may seem ideal but are missing something that's truly more important.

Audiobook Update: The audiobook is single narrator. I usually speed audiobooks up to 2x+, but I felt more comfortable listening to this one at 1.75. The narrator speaks a bit more quickly than others, and you might recognize her from a variety of other audiobooks! She keeps things engaging and is able to differentiate between characters.

Thanks to HarperAudio and NetGalley for an ALC of this audiobook for an honest review.

Insignificant Others was a bit of a mixed bag for me. I really enjoyed the concept and for awhile I had fun seeing the myriad potential life scenarios play out. However, there were so many different pathways and they were so abrupt that it started to feel disjointed and overwhelming. I did really enjoy the narration and the friendship between Lena and Frankie, their bond was a shining light for sure.

Many thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow and Harper Audio for gifting me a digital and audio ARC of the latest book by Sarah Jio, with the audio narrated by Brittany Pressley. All opinions expressed in this review are my own - 4.5 stars!

Lena is convinced that her perfectly planned life is going just as she wants, right down to knowing that her boyfriend of two years is going to propose to her at dinner. When he instead breaks up with her, she flees back to the safety of her beloved Aunt Rosie's house on a Seattle island for a break. She falls asleep the first night in Rosie's guesthouse, only to wake up the next morning in Paris with another man. Each morning when she awakens, she's in a different place with a different man.

Haven't we all thought about the what if's? What if we would have stayed with that high school/college/first job boyfriend? What would our life look like? This novel was an absolute joy exploring that thought - it was hilarious (the baby scenes!) and poignant to watch Lena explore all these other lives she might have lived. I liked how some main characters (best friend and her husband and Aunt Rosie) were stalwarts through all her lives, just a bit different in each life story. The perfect magical realism story that will have you reflecting on just what's important in life. I love to listen to Brittany Pressley narrate, so the audiobook was perfection!

Jio is one of my favorite authors. I find her style and storytelling to be profoundly beautiful.
This premise was fun and really different. While I enjoyed it, I definitely found it to start dragging out a but too long in the end. Then the ending happened and felt way too rushed to be believable.
However, I really did enjoy the ride and find her writing style to be effortlessly beautiful.

Have you ever wondered what if about a one night stand, a passing fling, or generally just felt like all of that good guys had already passed you up? That is how main character Lena felt after her longtime boyfriend showed up to what she thought would be a proposal dinner with Coldplay tickets, rather than a diamond ring.

This Groundhog Day style story is full of twists, turns, heartbreaks, and loves that never were—insignificant others.

This book exceeded my expectations, and may be one of the favorite romance books I’ve read in the past few years. It’s unique, witty, and heart wrenching, all at the same time. Plus, who doesn’t love a little magic in their life.

I highly recommend diving head first into Lena‘s story. And don’t forget to expect the unexpected.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Spice: 0/5

✨Thank you, William Morrow and HarperCollins, for this ALC!✨

Insignificant Others is a lighthearted and enjoyable read about a woman in her mid-thirties who wakes up in alternate timelines she did not choose. The sliding doors trope is one of my favorites in romance and fiction, so I really liked this one. When we meet Lena, she is 35, professionally successful, and hoping to get engaged to her long-term boyfriend, who is perfect on paper.

Soon after, Lena goes to stay with her Aunt Rosie, who has raised her for much of her life. When she wakes up, she finds herself in Paris, with a man she only fleetingly remembers meeting some years before. Lena continues to wake up each day in a different life, with a man she had chemistry with, but the relationship didn’t develop or last.

The story moves how you would expect, but I really enjoyed the premise and characters. It really emphasized the importance of being true to ourselves and open to new experiences. I would recommend this if you’re looking for a comforting read and enjoy Rebecca Serle’s books.

The audiobook is narrated by Brittany Pressley who is absolutely top tier! She is such a fantastic, expressive narrator and perfect for this book.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing this audiobook ARC, all thoughts are my own.

The you to HarperAudio Adult and NetGalley for this Audio ARC. The audio production was of the highest quality, as always, and Brittany Pressley is always a stellar voice actor. I have not read much of Sarah Jio's work, but I have enjoyed the depth of the stories I have read. I love a good speculative fiction and this hit the spot. Reminiscent of The Midnight Library, Insignificant Others follows FMC Lena in living out one day in a life with a parade of partners that could have been. I enjoyed the adventure, the character arc, the lessons learned along the way, especially knowing this was above all classified as a romance, and would have its HEA neatly delivered after all the chaos of the string of lives lived. Very interesting and well=paced.

I wanted to love this book because I've never met a magical realism romance I didn't like, but this book was just kind of...wompwomp.

I will say, I LOVED the narration and performance of this book! The narrator did a beautiful job and I probably would have DNFed if it wasn't for her fantastic work.

This book had a super interesting premise, but unfortunately the execution just fell flat. I honestly felt like the book just ended too soon and I didn't totally understand the message we were supposed to get at the end? As much as I enjoyed her journey throughout her past relationships, I felt like it didn't give me enough time to get to know her as a main character. Because of that, I just wasn't invested in her story at all and I wasn't sure what I was supposed to be getting from it.

2.75 stars rounded up

Happy pub day to Insignificant Others by Sarah Jio! I’m so grateful to @williammorrowbooks for a copy of this time loop (ish) romance and to HarperAudio for ALC!

Lena Westbrook plans her life down the minute, including the night she expects her boyfriend to propose. She’s so sure that the restaurant has violinists on standby. Instead, he breaks up with her. She drags her broken heart—or maybe it’s just outrage that her plans have been derailed—to her beloved aunt’s house in Bainbridge, WA. But when she wakes up the next morning, she’s in France married to a Frenchman she met years ago. And the next morning she wakes up in another city with another man she briefly knew. And the next morning she’s with a different husband. Lena needs to figure out how to get back to her own life, and along the way she learns that she might not be as certain about how that life should turn out.

This wasn’t exactly a time loop book, because there was no time loop, but I can’t think of another term for it. The point is, I love a time loop book. This one was a lot of fun and it was interesting to see all the different lives Lena could have led and what she learned from each of them. I enjoyed the ending and liked knowing that Lena was on a path that made sense to me. I found the diversity of careers Lena had to be a little unbelievable, although I would love to think we all have that many paths to success in us. As much as I enjoyed this one, I think it suffered for me a bit because of its similarity to one of my favorites last year, The Husbands. To be clear, this is a completely different book and I’m sure it was written before The Husbands came out, but Insignificant Others has a similar structure, while being a bit less quirky and a bit more straightforward. I think people who struggled with The Husbands absurdity will love this one unconditionally.

Brittany Pressley narrates, which means I probably don’t need to say much else about the audiobook. She’s beloved for a reason, and she brings her usual charm to the narration.

I have mixed feelings about this one. I usually love a good 'what if' sliding door esque romcom but there were so many scenarios that it was hard to know who to root for and I honestly felt a little uninterested overall. I did love Brittany Pressley's narration - she is one of my very favs, so I still would definitely recommend listening to the audiobook for this one. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital and audio copy in exchange for my honest review!

I love thinking about “what if” regarding paths not taken. Not dwelling in it in a melancholy way - I love my life. But sometimes a memory will be triggered and I can’t help but wonder what would have happened had I made a different choice.

In this book, Lena gets to find out - without her consent or knowledge beforehand. She plans every detail of her successful life except for the break up with her boyfriend when she’s expecting a marriage proposal. After returning to her childhood bed, she wakes up each day in a new situation with a love partner she passed on the first time around.

This sliding doors story is a fun look at how her life might be different if she had pursued relationships with men she encountered at various points in her life. This will get obvious comparisons to 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗛𝘂𝘀𝗯𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘀 by Holly Gramazio but I think this one takes a more lighthearted approach.

I loved this one! This is a time loop done right! ⁣
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When Lena’s longtime boyfriend pulls out Coldplay tickets instead of the engagement ring she was expecting, she feels like life is not going according to plan. ⁣
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But when Lena awakens the next day, she finds she has been transported to Paris and is the wife of a handsome Frenchman. What ensues is that every 24 hours, Lena wakes up in a different scenario of what her life could have been had she chosen differently. Each man she spends the next day with is someone she had already met, if only briefly. ⁣
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What I adored about this story was how it felt like several little romances or meet-cutes in one book. Each time Lena jumped, I was delighted to see what kind of person she would be with and their relationship. And then, there was the anticipation of who, or if, she would end up with any of them—I had my favorites! ⁣
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I loved Lena and most of the men, plus Lena’s friends, Frankie and Christian, and of course dear Aunt Rosie, who were all somewhere in the picture. ⁣
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This book is a testament to the author's skill. It's not just fun and romantic but also a thoughtful exploration of if there is a right one at the right time as Lena searches for the one that might have gotten away.⁣
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🎧 I had a great time pairing my reading with the audiobook narrated by Brittany Pressley. She did a fantastic job portraying Lena and her various romantic encounters, adding humor and emotion throughout. ⁣
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Thank you @williammorrowbooks and @sarahjio for the gifted book. Thank you @harpercollins #harperaudio for the gifted audiobook via #NetGalley.

Audio review: I've listened to a few books narrated by Brittany Pressley, and this was my favorite so far! The narrator really showed range with all of the different accents, which were executed flawlessly! Great quality narration and really enjoyable to listen to.

Book review: I thought the concept of this book was so interesting and unique! A time loop of waking up every day and getting a glimpse into the "what if" of different lives if the MC had ended up actually dating/marrying an array of missed connections and ex-partners.

The writing was engaging and well-done, and there was a nice bit of humor to add to the fun of it. I enjoyed the sweet moments too, and traveling to different places. Time loops have been popular lately and I really enjoy them, and I like that this one added something else to it that I haven't come across. There are also some really lovable side characters!

I found some elements to be disappointing, mainly the MC, Lena's lack of growth throughout the book. She came off as stuck up and judgmental until the last 5% of the book, rather than slowly growing and developing through all of these experiences that she got to have. I also think there was a missed opportunity for her to have been happily single in at least one of the time loops. Why does she NEED a relationship to learn about herself and her own happiness?

As soon as I saw that "Insignificant Others" was narrated by Brittany Pressley, it was an automatic request for me. Her performances always elevate a story, and this was no exception—her narration was flawless, as always. Unfortunately, the book itself didn’t work for me.

I struggled to connect with Lena as a character, and the format didn’t quite land. It reminded me of "The Husbands" by Holly Gramazio, but I found the execution here less successful. While the premise had potential, it didn’t fully deliver for me.

That said, I think readers who enjoyed "The Husbands" or those who prefer lighter, more whimsical fiction may enjoy this one more than I did. And if nothing else, Brittany Pressley’s narration makes it a pleasant listening experience.

Thank you to Sarah Jio, Brittany Pressley, HarperAudio, and NetGalley for sending me the ALC in exchange for an honest review.

In the vein of The Midnight Library and Resurrection Blues, Insignificant Others gives a glimpse into the what-if of paths not taken and loves not chosen.