Thora and Santi are destined to meet over and over, as lovers, father and daughter, teacher and student…
Not a past lives story so much as a parallel lives mystery. For the first half of the book, because the relationships between the characters kept changing in a Quantum Leap kind of way as many different lives were covered, it was hard to know what was important or what to care about or what the stakes were, because you didn’t really know who these people were to each other. But things become more interesting when Santi and Thora start to remember other lives and other memories and other constellations… In the second half the pace picks up, the mystery increases, and the layers build to become greater than the sum of parts.
It’s an ambitious and interesting novel, interested in themes like fate vs the universe being random and meaningless, and whether identity is fixed. Well worth reading.

Wow! Just wow! I can't even begin to describe just how much I loved this book. This novel is unique, clever, magical, emotional, questioning. It's just brilliant. A new bar has been set.

Santi and Thora are destined to keep meeting in subsequent lives and they are in a race against time to decipher why.

I love how the chapters are mini life stories that feature the intimate cast of the previous lives as well as tokens, themes and clues. It reads like a 'sliding doors' effect, with multiple doors and choices to select from.

Read this book if you are looking for an escape within real life. I suppose there is a small touch of sci-fi but definitely not the romance I was expecting. In fact it was anything but. It was a pleasure to read throughout.

It is such an amazing read. A perfect gift for friends, colleagues, your mum

I had no words when I finished this book and I don't think my review will capture how much I loved this. I do think that this could be my favourite book of this year and I will definitely be buying a physical copy once it is out. I don't usually post eBook reviews on Instagram but I definitely think Meet Me in Another Life deserved a space on my grid.

Meet Me in Another Life was not what I expected at all. Based on the title, cover and what I remembered of the synopsis, I was expecting this to be romance or to lean towards the YA side but it didn't.

At first, I found the chapters a little confusing but at the same time, it had me hooked. I couldn't work out why the characters had the same name, looks and characteristics in each life, what their relationship ultimately was and why was Cologne so important so I started treating this like a mystery, marking down what I thought could've been clues (thinking back, I must've missed so many!). The further into the book I got, the more obvious the clues were but there was no way I could've predicted the ending. There was something mentioned in the early chapters that didn't that mean much until the ending and it was so, so smart!

This book is just so unique and I will definitely be recommending it to everyone I know.

Meet Me in Another Life is a truly beautiful and complex tale, encapsulating what it means to be human, to truly live and love and make choices. I think many readers will read this book and be left with a lot of food for thought and maybe even a shift in mindset – while the concept is quite fantastical in a sense, the things Thora and Santi experience and the questions explored in the novel are so universal that I think it will prove relatable to anybody who chooses to give this book a go.

What initially drew me to this book was the idea of past lives, of these two characters coming back again and again but somehow always finding each other. While this would form the basis for a pretty awesome story of star crossed lovers, Catriona Silvey takes this idea and makes it so much more interesting by switching this up. In some lives Thora and Santi are together, in others they have a strictly platonic relationship, in others they’re family but at the core – they have this complicated and enduring bond, this love that surpasses it all. They also go through trials and endure a lot of back and forth, some of which is genuinely frustrating to read, especially when it comes to Thora as a character, she’s a bit like marmite in my opinion, you either love her or hate her. Thora is more of a realist and at times I found it hard to understand or relate to her rather cynical way of looking at the world and her near constant way of self sabotage and negativity. I related more to Santi and I think I appreciated his outlook more but I did value how different these two were and how their dynamic shifts and changes over their lifetimes.

While the story can be read as a testament to love of all kinds, it also speaks to the very human and real questions and issues we all face day to day. From wondering whether we’re following the ‘right’ path in life, to seeking more and trying to find contentment and happiness and also dealing with death, grief and what comes beyond life, Silvey manages to pack in the range of human experience. At times it is quite profound and in others I felt like it was a bit awkward and repetitive.

I also liked the prose, there are some gorgeous quotes and I was highlighting furiously on my kindle whilst reading, I just know I’ll go back to those lines again and again. There’s something understated about Silvey’s writing style, it isn’t excessively descriptive or detailed, and she has the skill to say a lot with a little and I love when writers can do this. I loved the way Silvey writes about Cologne – having never been there, she does a great job of bringing the city to life, it felt very artsy and bohemian and fit so well as a backdrop. I was also a huge fan of the repeated motifs; street art, stars, astronomy and constellations, it was just so quietly stunning. The writing style was reminiscent of V.E. Schwab’s in The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue to me, it gave me the same sort of feeling and I can say I’m definitely a fan.

I really don’t want to spoil anything – especially when it comes to the truth behind why Thora and Santi seem destined to keep coming back and why they’re tied together. I didn’t predict why it was all happening but it’s one of those stories where once you do find out, you find little bits of foreshadowing and clues scattered throughout the novel which gives you that ‘aha’ moment and wonder how you didn’t figure it all out before. I thought the reveal and subsequent follow through and conclusion felt true to the rest of the novel and the characters, even if it did have me crying into my duvet on a sleepy sunday morning.

Overall, Meet Me in Another Life isn’t quite what I expected, as I thought this was going to be a straightforward love story but it turned out to be something utterly different. I genuinely enjoyed this novel for the most part so I’m intrigued to see where this author goes next, rest assured, I’ll definitely be following along for the journey.

Santiago and Thora are people who keep meeting each other in different lives with no recollection of their previous encounters.
I enjoy the beginning of this book but I found as the book progressed I started to lose interest.
I normally enjoy books about reincarnation but this one fell flat for me.
Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for my e-copy in exchange for an honest review.