Someone Else's Love Story

A Novel

By: Joshilyn Jackson

Narrated by: Joshilyn Jackson

Length: 12 hrs and 3 mins

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)

Love

I always love this lady’s stories. I also love her voice as she tells her stories.

Sweet Story

This was a sweet story with laugh-out-loud moments. I love Ms Jackson’s prose that is so uniquely southern. She does a great job narrating her own book—she knows it well and adds the right inflections and pauses and the like at just the right spots. Enjoyed every sentence! Found myself saying, wish I could write like that.”

The thing with feathers

This story is full of interesting characters finding their way and trying to hold onto hope. Joshilyn Jackson is skilled at plumbing the depths of relationships. She gives depth to each of her many characters and draws you right into their lives.
I genuinely liked Chandy. Some reviewers have been overly critical of her-I think they failed to take into account her youth. I felt empathy and could understand her actions in the context of her limited experience.
Bringing Paula Voss (protagonist from Opposite of Everyone) into this story was an interesting choice. Her backstory isn’t quite the same in both stories but she’s still the same badass character. My brain kept pinging on “shaggy black hair,” “copper colored skin,” “light upturned eyes.” Then it hit me-Paula!
Ms Jackson has a way of weaving religion, faith, mysticism and sticky subjects together that I find very intriguing.
I enjoyed the unexpected plot twist and found the ending satisfying. I wouldn’t mind discovering any of the characters in a future story.

This was a fun, feel good novel

I enjoyed this book, as I do most Joshilyn Jackson stories. It was a little hard to believe at times, but had a sweet ending and was certainly a feel good summer novel!

Not my type

The storyline was not very good. If you like reading about sex you will enjoy this book. It goes on and on about every little detail. I prefer the sex act be left to my imagination. The book moves very slowly through every event. It's almost like the writer is trying to make the book longer when the story should have moved on.

Didn't see that coming

Joshilyn Jackson consistently delivers stories I don't expect with an enjoyable listen. Though she says up front it's someone else's love story, I honestly didn't expect the plot twists. And though the last subjects I want to listen to are teen motherhood and date rape, her characters are so consistently fascinating, I couldn't turn the book off.

Joshilyn Jackson never disappoints.

One of my favorite authors, she weaves a story so full of life that the reader feels an intimate part of it. With a storyline that could be a current news headline in just about every chapter, she makes the reader wonder what she would do in the same situations. Excellent writing and good Audible performance.

Exceptional!!!

Give this book a chance.... All I can say is
EXCEPTIONAL!! Great and keeps you begging for the next chapter.

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.

You'll want to listen twice

Don't give up on this story! It starts slowly and then sucks you in. SELS is full of biblical metaphors and parallels seamlessly sewn into the fabric of this well told, cleverly, imaginative book. But this is not a religious tale. It is a love story with God in the mix. J. Jackson also narrated. Who better to tell the story as it was intended than the author? Before I even finished, I decided I wanted to go back and replay the whole thing to catch hints, clues and nuances I missed the first time around.