Thank you NetGalley and Joffe Books for this ARC! All of these thoughts and opinions are my own.

For fans of Taylor Jenkins Reed, One True Loves, this one is for you. Its more of a romance with a twist, a bit of mystery if you will. Josie, who, on her 36th birthday, has a bike accident and wakes up in the hospital in a life that isn’t as she remembers. With a handsome, unknown man by her side, she finds out that she’s married, wealthy, and successful. That said, Josie has vivid memories of her life up until the accident and questions the “amnesia” that doctors say she is experiencing. Its thought provoking and unpredictable in the best ways. A downside to me were the long chapters but that's just a personal thing. Overall, I really enjoyed this one!

Interesting, thought provoking premise, but I struggled with the execution somewhat. Could not really relate to Josie and some of her actions, Also felt like the behavior was a bit juvenile at times even though she was supposed in her 40.’s.

This was a new kind of book for me to read and I really liked it.
Thank you so much NetGalley and Joffe Books for letting me read this one.

One day Josie is in accident and wakes up at the hospital as the Other Josie.
Yes this a book where more than one version of US exists which at first was a bit difficult for me to get in to but after a while it went just fine.

The story was really good and became easy to follow once you got in to it.
The writing was good and together with the good story I didn't wanted to stop reading.

I have never read anything like this one before and I hope the author will either do a book two or at least write one more book with this theme.
IF you know a book with the same theme please feel free to give me the name of the book.

The Love of My Other Life is the story of Josie, who, on her 36th birthday, has a bike accident and wakes up in the hospital in a life that isn’t as she remembers. With a handsome, unknown man by her side, she finds out that she’s married, wealthy, and successful. That said, Josie has vivid memories of her life up until the accident and questions the “amnesia” that doctors say she is experiencing.

This book is one that had me theorizing what would happen many times over. Each twist and turn had my mind going in a different direction, and I just loved the unpredictability of it all. The main character is strong-willed and confident in her thoughts and feelings. I was really drawn to her and how she felt about her new lot in life. She develops a strong(er) sense of self as the book progresses.

This will be a book I highly recommend to others looking for a romance read with out-of-the box thinking. It’s genre-bending, contemplative, and a great choice to switch-up your reading game a bit!

Special thanks to NetGalley and Joffe Books for the ARC. All thoughts in this review are honest and my own.

𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕝𝕠𝕧𝕖 𝕠𝕗 𝕞𝕪 𝕠𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕣 𝕝𝕚𝕗𝕖

Author – C.J. Connolly
Rating - ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ / 5
Genre – Romance
Publication Date - 06/29/22
Pages - 366

This book made my head spin. I definitely thought at first it was going to be a mystery / suspense type of romance. My mind was spinning wondering what was going to happen with Josie and questioning if there another Josie out there too…


……


What I liked :
✨ Very interesting concept! Very Freaky Friday
✨ DUAL POV (kinda 🙃)
✨ Dropped a lot of Marvel references and then when I finally read the authors note, I felt I understood the references even more

What I disliked :
👎🏻 Kinda long chapters
👎🏻 The complication Josie makes in her new life
👎🏻 The chapters weren’t date last but specifically “Mid-April.” That wasn’t my favorite
👎🏻 The book definitely had my interest level all over the place. The first bit was really good but then kinda went down from there
👎🏻 Fade to black…

Overall, this is a really sweet feel good romance!

ARC gifted to me by Netgalley.

4.25/5★

A woman, after suffering an almost-fatal bicycle accident on her 36th birthday, suddenly finds herself in a strange new world, with a strange new circumstance; she has body-swapped with another version of herself in an alternate timeline. I honestly went into this thinking it was another fluffy romance with little sci-fi/dystopian plot, but I got so much more.

The book alternates between both perspectives; we spend a few chapters with ‘Me’ Josie and a few chapters with ‘Her’ Josie, and then, repeats. ‘Me’ Josie finds herself in a world with a caring and attentive husband and a brother than has died. ‘Her’ Josie learns that in her new world that she is without a husband but her brother is still alive. Trust me, I cried a river throughout this book.
It’s a journey of self-discovery, heartbreak, and new beginnings, as each battle with their new life and new emotions and the fear that they may be stuck in their other half’s life forever. After a while, they try to settle, but soon become disassociated with themselves and their personalities, no sure how to navigate this new change. They spend the new year in a state of intense ultimatums and disconnect.

This book is a rollercoaster ride of distress, guilt and self-awareness. I was pleasantly surprised, and loved both Josies as they battled their strange new worlds, and I’m glad that the book prolonged more than a few weeks as romance novels normally span. It gave both main characters a lengthy and good adjustment period that spanned the novel wonderfully, complimenting how well the characters and their conscious thoughts were explored.
I enjoyed the ending, the closure that came with it - for all characters - both Josies and Rob (respective husband). It was rather heartbreaking but goodbyes and change are always hard. But, they found peace and comfort in experiencing a short time in their alternate lives, and whilst the trauma that sent them into alternate realities was rough and painful, the journey meant more. What mattered was they found their back to themselves, and that rediscovery, for them, was worth the pain. I felt especially attached to ‘Her’ Josie; her self-discovery was paramount to the book. Whilst ‘Me’ Josie found love and purpose that she finds again in her own world, ‘Her’ Josie learnt to grief properly, to finally say goodbye to the brother she lost, fall in love with her husband again, and find her place in the world she was previously ripped from.

All in all, I loved this book. It was a beautiful depiction of loss and pain and love, and I will be reading it again in proper book format. It’s definitely worth the read.

Thank you to NetGalley, C.J. Connolly and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I loved the premise of this book, and it was very thought-provoking. The idea of waking up in a parallel universe as a different version of yourself is fascinating. Both girls end up losing someone they love in each universe, and I think the emotional conflict between guilt and happiness in both characters was portrayed effectively. The different POVs of both Josie's were also simple to follow.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. I was intrigued by the premise of this book, and felt excited to dig into it. Alas, this one simply did not grab me the way I'd hoped it would. There's lots to enjoy but ultimately it just didn't resonate with me at all.

This book took me by pleasant surprise tbh! Other than knowing it was utilizing the “sliding door” trope/plot device, I went in mostly blind. While I will admit that there were some parts during the story that dragged on for a bit longer than necessary for me, it was otherwise very easy to follow along with both of Josie’s alternative lives. And, if I were being completely honest, I think that the author did a wonderful job of illustrating how each alternative path had its own realistic sets of positives & negatives — and by this I mean that it was hard for me to choose one life over the other! Under normal circumstances with “sliding door”romances, I typically find myself rooting for one over the other. But here, I truly wasn’t really able to play favorites because both paths were genuinely authentic & appealing. And the fact that this book, while still formulaic in the sense of how most romcoms are, was able to keep me guessing and on my toes is a restatement to how much I enjoyed it overall! This is my first book by this author but definitely won’t be my last!

Thanks to NetGalley, Joffe Books, and C.J. Connolly for the e-ARC of this book in exchange for a review.
The Love of My Other Life caught my attention just with the description. It is Josie’s 36th birthday. She is living away from family in Brooklyn. While driving her bike, she crashes and wakes up in the hospital married to a stranger for 2 years. She is living a completely different life. Confused as to what is going on, she settles into this strange life with a man she does not remember wondering if she will ever go back.
If you like movies with a concept like Sliding Doors, you will enjoy this book. The concept is super intriguing. I was really enjoying it and then a twist I was not expecting at all. We get to read the story of the “Other Her” who was living the fancy life and see her adjust. It is so interesting reading about roads not taken. All due to a spill and a sprained ankle that one Josie experienced, and the other did not.
The characters came to life. I really felt Josie’s struggles with not knowing what is going on. Such a range of emotions to deal with. Her husband, Rob, is so wonderful and understanding with everything that is going on. I cannot imagine how hard it would be to have the love of your life not know who you are. The side characters are fantastic and adorable. I do enjoy the romance but it is not so heavy and just the appropriate level.
I really loved this book. I could not put it down and I hope that C.J. Connolly is writing more. I think this was a wonderful debut novel.

This was a very interesting book that bought together common themes seen in romance, sci-fi and thriller novels but for me lacked a spark or twist to bring these themes together. I enjoyed the overall storyline with Josie, Rob and Peter, and definitely had a favourite Josie (you can probably guess which).

I liked the juxtaposition between the two lifestyles and some social commentary on wealth and power, and also about family and what happiness means to different people.

At times, I wanted this book to take a more thriller aspect, and I think it would have been stronger as a romantic thriller. Overall 3.5⭐️ But I would read from this author again,

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC! This review contains spoilers.

Honestly, this wasn't the best read of my year. The first like 70 pages were quite easy to read, but after that...there were many aspects I was really conflicted about.

Firstly, the plot is interesting but the plotwist was very predictable and the stroy could feel very repetitive at times. I really liked the aspect of them somehow "communicating" through dreams and if they have a look into it, the story would have been so much more interesting.

Death and the lost of a dear one is treated with respect and it impacts the characters lives. However. when Josie 2.0 discovers that his (death in his world) brother was going to move to Australia, she acted like it was the worst thing it could happen to her, and compared the situation with him being dead. She mentions how she wouldn't really see him, his family, were going to talk less...but they could still have the opportunity of talking and seeing each other, and that she didn't have in her reality. As a foreigner myself, I understand how much a change that can make, seeing your family less can affect you, but every little thing is better than that person not even existing in your reality. This aspect really bothered me because I was so mad with Josie and her attitude towards her brother moving. She already was far away from her family and that didn't matter as much, how much of a difference could make his brother being in another country? I understand this conflict was mainly so they could both change back to their realities without doubts but it was poorly done.

The story is separated in "Me" chapters and "Her" chapters, and the beginning of both very exactly the same, I had to skim through many of the first chapters cause of it. Not only that, there are way too many unnecessary descriptions about food, places etc that really didn't add anything to the plot. It can be great for making a meticulous scenario but really...I couldn't care less about the so expensive food and recipies they were eating etc. Instead of descriptions there could have been moment of maybe interior monologues so we could understand how the characters were feeling about what was happening. This leads me to the characters.

The characters...I couldn't like any of them and I tried really. They were supposed to be like 40 aprox. but they were acting like teenagers and couldn't talk to each other for the love of god. The main characters have conflicts/problems. Didn't solve a single one. They really couldn't express their feelings while having a convo. They tried to talk about it, not really achieve it, act like nothing happened the next day. So almost every relatioship conflict didn't even have a solution cause they didn't.talk.about.it.

Feeling were quite vaguely written. Ithink this is the main reason why I couldn't connect with the characters: I couldn't understand why they were acting the way they were. Characters fall in love and get together with one another but idk because one of them was just being nice?? the bare minimum?? making food or respecting the other's personal place??

Men were just awful. Every one of them (except the brother they gave him a good character development i liked him in the end), but the main love interests left much to be desired. Rob had a mask of being the nice rich guy but he had moment in which he was acting like an asshole, just thinking about himself and not really caring about Josie. Peter? Insisted and insisted and insisted about them being together even while being with his girlfriend... Like I said, seem like they both acted like they were 17 or something.

The Josie's were not much better. The first thing both highlight is their differences in body image. Josie 2.0 was really disrespectful towards the bigger body of Josie 1.0, and that made me uncomfortable. The differences in their physical aspect didn't really impact their other life but it was treated like "slim is better than thick" or at least being slim was "the better/improved option". There were many things that were different about their lives, but that one could really have been portrayed in a better way. Maybe if people around them treated them differently because of their physical aspect, so that it could show the fatphobia in rich people communities...but it had no impact on the plot. None.

I was really struggling to finish it but I didn't want to DNF it. Initially gave it almost 3 stars but going over everything I've written...I don't think I enjoyed it enough to give it that much. I understand other people could like the book, but this just wasn't my type of read.

This book follows Josie who ends up in a cycling accident on her 36th birthday and wakes up in a completely different life than the one she had that morning. We follow Josie as she tries to navigate this new world.

I went into this book without reading the blurb and wow, I am so glad I did. I expected from the first few chapters, just a normal romance book about a middle aged heroine trying to find herself in the world and this was like that in some respect but also nothing like that too.

I really enjoyed this book, the twist was perfectly executed and I was engrossed all the way through. I also could not put this and read it in one sitting.

I rated this book 4 stars!

More of a 3.5 for me. This book’s hook and plot — a woman accidentally swapping places with another version of herself — became increasingly gripping as a read more and especially as the author introduced the POVs of both versions of Josie. I honestly think the genre of this book is misaligned; it has been imagined and sold as a romance, but as I read it became more and more apparent that the key relationship in the book was or should have been Josie’s relationship with herself. Essentially, both versions of Josie followed the same arc: missing the presence of someone significant in her real life, trying to thrive in the new life she finds herself in, her mental health and new life crumbling until she is forced to switch back. I didn’t feel like either version of Josie grew or changed from the experience in any way significant enough to pinpoint because the book was so focused on creating moments between Josie and Rob. These moments felt increasingly irrelevant as it became clear that the end of the novel would essentially be both versions of Josie returning to their normal life. An ending like that necessitates more of an ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’-style journey. In a way I almost never do, especially with romance, I wished the characters’ growth was a little more literal. I felt I had to work too hard to extrapolate how I thought Josie changed, when it should be easily evident through the direct comparisons of her two lives. Overall, gripped me to the end, but the takeaway felt elusive/subtle and not in a good way.

<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61124055-the-love-of-my-other-life" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="The Love of My Other Life" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1652905966l/61124055._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61124055-the-love-of-my-other-life">The Love of My Other Life</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/22433126.C_J_Connolly">C.J. Connolly</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4826782266">4 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
More of a 3.5 for me. This book’s hook and plot — a woman accidentally swapping places with another version of herself — became increasingly gripping as a read more and especially as the author introduced the POVs of both versions of Josie. I honestly think the genre of this book is misaligned; it has been imagined and sold as a romance, but as I read it became more and more apparent that the key relationship in the book was or should have been Josie’s relationship with herself. Essentially, both versions of Josie followed the same arc: missing the presence of someone significant in her real life, trying to thrive in the new life she finds herself in, her mental health and new life crumbling until she is forced to switch back. I didn’t feel like either version of Josie grew or changed from the experience in any way significant enough to pinpoint because the book was so focused on creating moments between Josie and Rob. These moments felt increasingly irrelevant as it became clear that the end of the novel would essentially be both versions of Josie returning to their normal life. An ending like that necessitates more of an ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’-style journey. In a way I almost never do, especially with romance, I wished the characters’ growth was a little more literal. I felt I had to work too hard to extrapolate how I thought Josie changed, when it should be easily evident through the direct comparisons of her two lives. Overall, gripped me to the end, but the takeaway felt elusive/subtle and not in a good way.

I really wanted to like this book after hearing good things about it but I just could not get into it and ended up DNFing 1/3 of the way in.

For me, the plot as slow and repetitive as Josie is saying the same thing over and over again and it's not adding anything to the plot. The story in theory and on the blurb seemed really interesting but the content was not engaging. Interchanging how they write for example one person it is am/pm another just uses the time (e.g. 9am and 9) which sounds silly but annoyed me.

I did not feel like I could relate or even like Josie. I don't like Josie's quest to get with Peter when he is with someone and is adamant he will leave his current partner for her. Also why was she given the nickname Bosie like... it didn't make sense to me. As a British person she does not read as a British expat like you could totally read her as American if you forgot (like me) she's an expat.

Rob was way too perfect and 2d where I just didn't care about him.

Ultimately I didn't enjoy the book and after hearing good praise about it I am disappointed.

I enjoyed the book and loved the characters and location. It had a nice premise and great concept, switching lives with your alternate self to see a new future while also having a shared history. The ending for me was absolutely perfect. It did read a little slow in certain areas, but overall a nice read.

Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really loved the premise of this book! The author did such a great job with the plot but I felt that the story could have moved a bit faster. There were times I did get bored. I also could have used a bit more smut and a little less romance (this could just be based off what I want to read right now.) I do think this books gives readers a lot to talk about as the progress through the story! Thanks NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read this arc!!!

**SPOILERS INCLUDED**

If you are looking for a love story, I suggest you look somewhere else. This story is more about the main character coming to terms with what she wants from life and what will make her happy. Josie swaps places with another Josie from another reality. Unfortunately, there just wasn't enough of Josie and Rob or even Josie and Peter together in order for me to really see or feel them fall in love. Most of it was being in Josie's head and the guilt they felt. The Josie, who was originally with Rob, was the worst. She was so jealous and upset about Rob being with a different version of her and not waiting for her even though SHE technically cheated on him with Peter! I don't understand what she expected Rob to do. Even though she does come to terms with it later it was still ridiculous of her to act that way. I knew as soon as it switched the first time to the Other Josie that there was no way this would end well. It's an interesting story just not one that I was expecting and definitely not a true romance in my eyes.

This book is a fun twist of Sliding Doors (the movie with Gwyneth Paltrow). Where one moment can change the direction of your life. Josie Cavendish works for a real estate radio show, is in a choir and the crush of her life is about to break up with his girlfriend. It's her 36th birthday and she crashes her bicycle and wakes up in the hospital. A stranger is holding her hand.

Other Josie Cavendish is married to the love of her life, works as an events coordinator and lives a life of luxury. She finds herself crashed on the side of the road and is carrying her old phone and old purse. Where is her husband?

This is one of my favorite tropes. The idea of an alternate timeline, the multiverse. I really enjoyed the different povs of each Josie. It did get a little depressing near the end but had a good turnout.

I love a good alternating perspectives story and this one delivers. Think Gwenth Paltrow and Sliding Doors only for the reader. I believe we all wonder what would happen if circumstances are different and so it’s enjoyable to watch how someone’s story could have unfolded n