Maybe in Another Life

By: Taylor Jenkins Reid

Narrated by: Julia Whelan

Length: 9 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's summary

From the New York Times best-selling author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo; now with a bonus conversation with Julia Whelan and Taylor Jenkins Reid, recorded exclusively for this edition.

At the age of 29, Hannah Martin still has no idea what she wants to do with her life. She has lived in six different cities and held countless meaningless jobs since graduating college. On the heels of leaving yet another city, Hannah moves back to her hometown of Los Angeles and takes up residence in her best friend Gabby’s guestroom. Shortly after getting back to town, Hannah goes out to a bar one night with Gabby and meets up with her high school boyfriend, Ethan.

Just after midnight, Gabby asks Hannah if she’s ready to go. A moment later, Ethan offers to give her a ride later if she wants to stay. Hannah hesitates. What happens if she leaves with Gabby? What happens if she leaves with Ethan?

In concurrent storylines, Hannah lives out the effects of each decision. Quickly, these parallel universes develop into radically different stories with large-scale consequences for Hannah, as well as the people around her. As the two alternate realities run their course, Maybe in Another Life raises questions about fate and true love: Is anything meant to be? How much in our life is determined by chance? And perhaps, most compellingly: Is there such a thing as a soul mate?

Hannah believes there is. And, in both worlds, she believes she’s found him.

©2015 Taylor Jenkins Reid. All rights reserved. (P)2015 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

Enough cinnamon rolls

I finished this book pretty quickly. I thought it was lighthearted and kept me entertained. However, the cinnamon roll thing was way too overdone. We get it- she likes cinnamon rolls. I also wish the two lives would have ended up being more different. It was a little disappointing that the story ended up being pretty much the same for both lives.

Boring!!

The storyline was bland. The characters were rather boring. And the writing style was basic. It was predictable and repetitive. On narration; every man had the same voice which I found annoying. I finished the book, but glad I can now move on.

Meh.

After reading the masterpiece that was The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, I was super excited to see what else TJR had in store. The concept of this book seemed really interesting. And I guess it was semi interesting, but overall I found myself extremely disappointed. Was TJR trying to hit a word count or something on this one or something? Because toward the end, the two "lives" began to converge into one (kinda) and she -literally- copy pasted whole scenes from one chapter to another. I had to make sure I didn't accidentally rewind.

As far as the actual story, I found myself not really caring about any of the characters. I knew what was going to happen before it happened and could map out the whole story before it unfolded. I continued on hoping I would be surprised. I wasn't. I predicted every story beat. I was bored throughout the book.

The narrator made all the men's voices super raspy and weird. I honestly wished she'd used her regular voice.

Overall I can't recommend this book. It was just.... average, maybe even slightly below average.

Took a min

It took a min to catch on that there were two stories other wise I was invested

Read book rather than listen

I really wanted to love this. Loved the idea of the storyline. Love the narrator in other book choices. But the jumping back & forth between time sequence, with no differentiation for the listener, made me lose my interest. I think this is probably a 5 Star page turning book, though.

Great Premise

I really loved the premise and TJR Can truly do no wrong. However I listened to it on audio and it was very hard to keep the two storylines separate because they were so similar in a lot of ways. I want to read it again as a physical copy where I can take notes on each timeline and pay closer attention. That being said, I did not like it as much as I think I could have which is why I want to truly give it another chance. The chapters didn’t have any type of header to announce which timeline you were on so when you paused and went back to it the next day it was hard to remember where you were at. I think the story is absolutely beautiful and like I said, I’m excited to do a reread and pay closer attention.

Kept my attention

Great book. Listened to in 2 sessions.
Only negative was the ending felt rushed and was predictable.

Awesome!

Loved it! Great storyline and very well read. I could easily follow the dialog between characters and story threads. This was a joy to listen to.

Relateable

Overall this was an easy listen. Finished it in a two days. I thought it was a great story, I think alot of us wonder about what if's and wanted to get our sh** together and we all have made decisions that made us decided we needed to change and the growth that comes from the what if's in this story is relatable. She is going through two different scenarios but ultimately she adapts and grows into a better version of herself and life in both settings.

TJR does it again

This was a great book, written well, very entertaining and an awesome spin on the multiverse.