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Someone Else's Love Story  By  cover art

Someone Else's Love Story

By: Joshilyn Jackson
Narrated by: Joshilyn Jackson
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Publisher's summary

Someone Else's Love Story is beloved and highly acclaimed New York Times best-selling author Joshilyn Jackson's funny, charming, and poignant novel about science and miracles, secrets and truths, faith and forgiveness; about falling in love, and learning that things aren't always what they seem - or what we hope they will be.

Shandi Pierce is juggling finishing college, raising her delightful three-year-old genius son Nathan, aka Natty Bumppo, and keeping the peace between her eternally warring, long-divorced parents. She's got enough complications without getting caught in the middle of a stick-up and falling in love with William Ashe, who willingly steps between the robber and her son.

Shandi doesn't know that her blond god Thor has his own complications. When he looked down the barrel of that gun he believed it was destiny: It's been one year to the day since a tragic act of physics shattered his world. But William doesn't define destiny the way others do. A brilliant geneticist who believes in facts and numbers, destiny to him is about choice. Now, he and Shandi are about to meet their so-called destinies head on, making choices that will reveal unexpected truths about love, life, and the world they think they know.

©2013 Joshilyn Jackson (P)2013 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic reviews

"Author Joshilyn Jackson's voice delivers the protagonists' heartbreaking pasts with delicate sensitivity... Her voice for Natty is delightful while Shandi's drawl is equally pleasant to hear. She captures William's Asperger's in an authentic way with a slightly stiff yet warm voice. Enlivening flashbacks as well as Jackson's careful pacing and voicings will keep listeners engaged." (AudioFile Magazine)

"An inspiring story of love, faith and redemption... All of the characters...are so vividly drawn, they fairly leap off the page." (Booklist)

"Witty, cleverly constructed and including a truly surprising twist, Someone Else’s Love Story turns out to be a nuanced exploration of faith, family and the things we do for love." (People)

What listeners say about Someone Else's Love Story

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

A Can of Worms that shouldn't Have been Opened

Sometimes I enjoy Jocelyn Jackson's writing and sometimes I just don't get it. Three fourth's of the way through this book the only one I liked or cared about was the kid. The book starts out with an interesting situation involving the protagonist Shandi and her child, then follows her with additional unusual situations for chic lit.... autism, date rape, genetics.

What started out as interesting just never got there for me. All the irrational acts and irresponsibility of the characters became too many to keep my attention.

I had issues with how the author painted the protagonist. Shandi finds one male character, a brainiac with asperger's, physically attractive. They have little in common but at first glance she is "madly in love" with him. Upon further time spent together she still has nothing in common with him and finds him oddly self absorbed (Imagine). She keeps plowing ahead, to win his affections by changing her clothes and keeping his house. I found it insulting to paint her as an educated single mother then have her act so shallow.

I applaud the author for choosing some out of the box story lines but, geez, follow through with them. It's as if the author picked and chose the parts of her plot that fit into her story and ignored what wasn't easy. Along the same lines - she moves her child to a new home so that he could go to a school that will enhance his gift. Then schooling is never mentioned again. She continues to move him around with no concern for her child's education. It's hard to care about a characters when the author had so little respect for them. I would love to go on about the disturbing retaliation for a "rape", but I can't do it without giving up too much of the story.

Not the best Jocelyn Jackson book, for me...

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16 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

My favorite modern Southern author!

Another fun crazy story from Joshilyn Jackson made perfect through her narration! Shandy is another terrific character and strong female protagonist. If you haven't listened to any of Miss Jackson's books I can recommend all of them- I think this one rivals gods in Alabama as my favorite.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

A little bit different...

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes. JJ always writes a superb story, develops characters well and her narration is sweet as honey.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Someone Else's Love Story?

Returning home, realizing what home really means and who home really is.

Have you listened to any of Joshilyn Jackson’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

All of JJ's performances. This was a little different. In past stories I have enjoyed the perspective and interaction between two or more of her wonderful female characters. I did not feel the protagonist in the story had a strong female relationship thread through the story.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Absolutely. I would listen to that sweet southern syrup of a voice all day long.

Any additional comments?

Still love JJ, but this was my first JJ story I in which was not 100% engrossed.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

perfectly delightful

Joshilyn Jackson quickly became one of my favorite authors after I listened to "A Grown Up Kind of Pretty." She is equally one of my favorite narrators, which is unusual since most authors are hideous narrators. Since finishing all of her novels, I have been impatiently waiting on this release and was so happy to have it on my ipod. I finished it in just a few days. Joshilyn writes in a way that engages me quickly with characters that I feel as though I know personally. I immediately and vehemently did not like Bethany and loved Walcott. The story is highly enjoyable and even had a twist in the end - which I loved. Now, like a toddler who hasn't had her nap, I'm impatiently waiting on my next Joshilyn Jackson book.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Poorly Written & Narrated, Pointless Story

A Grown Up Kind of Pretty and Between, GA were terrific. Loved them both, which is why I decided to listen to this book. This book was horrible. Jackson meanders all over the place with the characters trying to develop them. The back stories were stupid and the wording clumsy. There was no point in the story. We end up right where we started. It was if Jackson wanted to combine a bunch of prose into a book, so she threw it all in this one. Would highly recommend A Grown Up Kind of Pretty and Between, GA, but not this one. Skip it.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Personal love stories - real or imagined

Jackson went a bit out on a limb with this book, creating characters who, compared to her previous books, are a little harder to like, less quirky than puzzling in their motivations. The primary “love story” of the title is the one Shandy is trying to create with William, the hero of the hold-up in the convenience store. But he has his own story, and the question is whether it can get on track with Shandy’s fantasy. If that was the only plot point, the story would have been flat and predictable. But Jackson looks at relationships in general – friendships, parents and children, husbands and wives, even perceptions and assumptions about strangers – exploring how we fill in the blanks with our desires and imaginations when we just don’t have all the information about what’s going on. That exploration was both interesting and frustrating because of the self delusions that drove the decsions made by various characters. Once all was said and done, I did like how it resolved and can say that I enjoyed the story.

One aspect of the story I just didn’t like was the graphic nature of some of the relationships. It’s not unusual for Jackson to include adult situations in her stories, and I really don’t mind that within context and reason. But in this outing she made those situations unnecessarily long and explicit. It stalled the forward movement of the story without adding any value to plot or character development. It reduced my enjoyment of the overall experience enough to drop one star.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

I love Joshilyn Jackson!

Would you consider the audio edition of Someone Else's Love Story to be better than the print version?

Jackson is the perfect narrator for her own books. I always wait until they are available on audio, as torturous as that is, because she does such a great job.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

This is a book I'm recommending to everyone!

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

I LOVE Joshilyn Jackson

Would you listen to Someone Else's Love Story again? Why?

I love this story, but then again I love everything that Joshilyn Jackson has written. She can pull you into a book like no other author. She is an excellent writer, but she is also an excellent storyteller. I love the fact that she reads her own audio books. I recommend her books to everyone that I know. Can't wait until she comes out with another one.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Disappointing

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

Those who love Joshilyn Jackson will find this disappointing. maybe those who haven't read her other terrific books might like it.

What was most disappointing about Joshilyn Jackson’s story?

Her other books all had downhome Georgia characters and her narration for those characters just sparkled. In this one, the characters are just so-so and she drastically changed her reading style somehow. Maybe this was an experiment or maybe she just didn't have an idea to equal her other, more amazing books.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Joshilyn Jackson?

Joshilyn Jackson usually adds a whole other great dimension to her books by her own readings. This one just didn't sound natural. Like she was enunciating too clearly or something. I don't know who else might have done it better.

Any additional comments?

I don't know if the author was experimenting with another style or what but hope she goes back to her old style for the next one. I have loved all her books prior to this one and really looked forward to each new offering. Next time I will probably research the reviews more before I purchase.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant!!!

Joshilyn Jackson has created a world where the characters are well rounded and complete. With reading My Own Miraculous, the prequel to Someone Else's Love Story, I had gotten to know the characters and I'm glad I did. I was pleased with how well the author performed all the many accents of Georgia. This is an amazing story of love, love lost, love found, and love restored. The novel is written with such a sense of realism that one can believe every character is walking around going on with their life right now. The story had twists and turns that left me wondering where it was going to go from there. I was glad I was listening instead of reading. It was such a wonderful performance. I had to keep reminding myself that all the characters were done by the same person it was that good!

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