Margarita Montimore

A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK! "With its countless epiphanies and surprises, 'Oona' proves difficult to put down." —USA Today "Reminiscent of Liane Moriarty’s What Alice Forgot and Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life, Oona Out of Order is a delightfully freewheeling romp.” —Booklist (starred review) A remarkably inventive novel that explores what it means to live a life fully in the moment, even if those moments are out of order. It’s New Year’s Eve 1982, and Oona Lockhart has her whole life before her. At the stroke of midnight she will turn nineteen, and the year ahead promises to be one of consequence. Should she go to London to study economics, or remain at home in Brooklyn to pursue her passion for music and be with her boyfriend? As the countdown to the New Year begins, Oona faints and awakens thirty-two years in the future in her fifty-one-year-old body. Greeted by a friendly stranger in a beautiful house she’s told is her own, Oona learns that with each passing year she will leap to another age at random. And so begins Oona Out of Order... Hopping through decades, pop culture fads, and much-needed stock tips, Oona is still a young woman on the inside but ever changing on the outside. Who will she be next year? Philanthropist? Club Kid? World traveler? Wife to a man she’s never met? Surprising, magical, and heart-wrenching, Margarita Montimore has crafted an unforgettable story about the burdens of time, the endurance of love, and the power of family.

A Novel

Oona Out of Order

Salsa

well... i guess in the end, you gain things, you lose things. not everything can be bad huh? it feels nice to savour the youth.

LOVED. The creative writing was amazing! I wanted more about the rest of her journey. It was well thought out and I would recommend this to a lot of people interested in a different look of time traveling. 

Valentina Moreno Escobar

Lara Engle

This book was so much better than I expected. I thought it sounded kind of gimmicky and cute, and honestly, it kind of was. But it was also heartwarming and heartbreaking. It dropped truths while also hiding them. It was just really good.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK AMAZON EDITORS' 20 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR PICK "With its countless epiphanies and surprises, Oona proves difficult to put down." —USA Today "By turns tragic and triumphant, heartbreakingly poignant and joyful, this is ultimately an uplifting and redemptive read." —The Guardian A remarkably inventive novel that explores what it means to live a life fully in the moment, even if those moments are out of order. It’s New Year’s Eve 1982, and Oona Lockhart has her whole life before her. At the stroke of midnight she will turn nineteen, and the year ahead promises to be one of consequence. Should she go to London to study economics, or remain at home in Brooklyn to pursue her passion for music and be with her boyfriend? As the countdown to the New Year begins, Oona faints and awakens thirty-two years in the future in her fifty-one-year-old body. Greeted by a friendly stranger in a beautiful house she’s told is her own, Oona learns that with each passing year she will leap to another age at random. And so begins Oona Out of Order... Hopping through decades, pop culture fads, and much-needed stock tips, Oona is still a young woman on the inside but ever changing on the outside. Who will she be next year? Philanthropist? Club Kid? World traveler? Wife to a man she’s never met? Surprising, magical, and heart-wrenching, Margarita Montimore has crafted an unforgettable story about the burdens of time, the endurance of love, and the power of family.

Kristen Claiborn

This book was one of the most unique I have read in quite some time. While the idea of jumping into the future is certainly not new, this book gave that premise a fresh twist. The story truly highlights how difficult relationships are, even when you know what you've done wrong and have to opportunity to fix it. As a character. Oona is completely relatable, and I found myself cheering her on and feeling disappointed when she made emotionally costly mistakes. I enjoyed this book so much it left me in a very rare book-hole because I was afraid the next book would be disappointing. Spoiler alert: the next book paled in comparison and was indeed a disappointment.

A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK! 'By turns tragic and triumphant, heartbreakingly poignant and joyful, this is ultimately an uplifting and redemptive read' Guardian What if you lived every year of your life in the wrong order? Brooklyn, 1982. Oona Lockhart is about to celebrate her 19th birthday and ring in the New Year. But at the stroke of midnight, she is torn from her friends and boyfriend, finding herself in her fifty-one-year-old body, thirty-two years into the future. Greeted by a friendly stranger, Oona learns that on every birthday she will leap into a different age at random. Still a young woman on the inside, but ever changing on the outside, who will she be next year? Wealthy philanthropist? Nineties Club Kid? World traveller? Wife to a man she's never met? As she struggles between fighting her fate and accepting it, Oona must learn to navigate a life that's out of order - but is it broken? Surprising, magical and heart-wrenching, Margarita Montimore's debut is an uplifting joyride through an ever-changing world that shows us the endurance of love, the power of family and what it means to truly live in the moment. 'A heartfelt novel that celebrates its implausibility with a unique joie de vivre' Kirkus 'This witty, fantastical exploration of life's inevitable changes is surprising and touching' Publishers Weekly 'A clever, clever read . . . A wonderful and exciting read about living in the moment' Woman's Way 'Reminiscent of Liane Moriarty's What Alice Forgot and Kate Atkinson's Life After Life, Oona is a delightfully freewheeling romp' Booklist (starred review)

The Rearranged Life of Oona Lockhart

Rikke Lohse

'Heartbreakingly poignant and joyful' Guardian WHAT IF YOU LIVED YOUR LIFE IN THE WRONG ORDER? Brooklyn, 1982. Oona Lockhart is about to celebrate her 19th birthday and ring in the New Year. But at the stroke of midnight, she finds herself in her fifty-one-year-old body, thirty-two years into the future. Oona learns that on every birthday she will leap into a different age at random. Still a young woman on the inside, but ever changing on the outside, who will she be next year? Wealthy philanthropist? Nineties Club Kid? World traveller? Wife to a man she's never met? As the years pass, Oona must learn to navigate a life that's out of order - but is it broken? Surprising, magical and poignant, Margarita Montimore's debut is an uplifting joyride through an ever-changing world that shows us what it means to truly live for now. 'A heartfelt novel' Kirkus 'Surprising and touching' Publishers Weekly ' A wonderful and exciting read about living in the moment' Woman's Way

Kelly Westraat 

Cute and interesting book 

Got me out of a reading slump 📚

Jordan /

Really hard to keep track of what year she was in and how it worked, reading the actual book is probably easier than the audiobook. But still a fun story

Virág 

What a journey?! Loved this book with all my heart, more coherent and detailed review coming soon!

Fraser Simons

I mostly dug this. You need to really suspend your disbelief though because it feels like the author constructed the plot via specific points they were interested in and sometimes it feels like it is on rails to those sections of Oona’s life. Sometimes this feels organic, sometimes doesn’t. And the implications surrounding jumping forward and back in your own life in terms of free will and basically any consideration are very much hand waved, which will irk some people, no doubt. 

I also didn’t feel like there was that much character growth either, with much of the payoff being wrapped up in a reveal and Oona herself feeling somewhat static. All in all, feel really mixed about this immediately after finishing it. As things settle I don’t feel like those things will change. It’s an interesting concept and the plot twists are fun enough to propel you through the story. It just feels like it’s missing more connective tissue, to me.

Casey W. 

** spoiler alert **
           Realistically, probably a 3.75/5. I loved the premise, it's what drew me in. It wasn't terrible, I liked it, but I don't think I'd recommend it. I was frustrated with Oona most of the time. It always felt like she was saying "fuck you" to herself and the letters that future her would write. I get it, she's very young and has this super weird thing happening to her. I'm not sure I would do any better. But at least try to listen to the advice, especially after 1991. Speaking of, my favorite years were 1991 and 2004. I think she learns a lot about who she is and what she wants during those leaps. She grows a lot during the book and I'm glad she decided to stand up for herself with Dale once she gets back to 1983. She loves the guitar and shouldn't have allowed herself to be steered to an instrument she hates. 

Because of all the time leaps, you really only get to know her mother and Kenzie. Everyone else is temporary. I was a little sad that we didn't get to know how Cyn ended up or if she ended up with Peter. Was her last year with Dale amazing? What was her pregnancy like? Was she pregnant all in one year or did it cross over? Did Edward's life end up shit, like he deserves? So many unanswered questions.

Brian Walborn

I found Oona Out of Order to be a fast, funny, and sharply written tale of a person who jumps to different points in her life while attempting to understand the world and the relationships that surround her in the present. The characters were grounded and the writing enjoyable. A fresh take on a worn time travel trope. I loved everything about it! One of the more enjoyable reads this year.

Amy Grieve

Such an interesting idea, poor execution.

Maya Rice

3 stars because while the book was (mostly) enjoyable every time I thought about the plot/inconsistencies I was taken RIGHT OUT OF THE STORY. 

this is a book about time travel, right? This girl lives her life out of order. that’s super fun and fresh. BUT WHY. WE NEVER LEARN WHY SHE LIVES HER LIFE OUT OF ORDER. do you know how much depth could be added to this novel by giving a why? perhaps giving her a reason or a lesson to learn? 

and don’t even get me started on the lessons she learns because… she doesn’t learn any? this girl is time traveling and she never changes. sure, I will give her the fact that she is 19 and shows up in and old woman’s body. But over the course of the book she time travels SEVERAL times. And never learns anything new. literally. We face the same problems at the start of each new year. 

also, maybe I’m too dumb to understand, but I don’t get the time traveling. so she’s living her life out of order, but she’s already lived through the years to give herself notes from the previous year??? thinking about it makes my head hurt and I just don’t get it. 

[also this might be the pot calling the kettle black but LADY get over your high school boyfriend it has been yearssss]

contrary to what you might think, I did enjoy aspects of this book! I loved that Oona used music to sort of keep her grounded through all the years. It was nice that she had one thing she could always rely on 

I also loved the exploration of different decades and I WISH the story focused more on this. Living in 2015 then getting thrown into the party scene of NYC in the 90s?? That would’ve been SO INTERESTING TO EXPLORE. living in the 80s and getting thrust into 2015??? YES PLS. I feel like the actual time periods were underutilized in the story. 

anyways sorta fun book but so mad at the main character and pretty meh about the storyline and general sci-fi-iness of it all. I think it would be a fun introduction into sci-fi for those who have no experience with it.

haley kendall owen

My first book of 2022 did not disappoint! I was blown away by the rich storytelling, character development, and straight-up crazy things that go down in this book. I laughed, I cried, I wanted to take Oona by the shoulders and shake her for some dumb decisions. But this book highlights what it means to be human, what it means to truly connect with others and see who they are, and what it means to never take a single moment for granted.

Grace Emilia Machon

It was fine 🤷‍♀️
Time travel bugs me like I need to know how it's working set this up for me is it a wobbly wobbly time thing. Is it a butterfly effect are we dual time line. I need this broken down I can suspend my disbelief but don't leave me waiting for an answer that literally never comes. 

I really liked the first two skips but then I just felt it was moving too fast. 
Too many plot holes not enough anything else

Heather Harrington

It's New Years Eve 1982 and Oona Lockhart's about to turn nineteen, and it's sure to be a year to remember. Torn between heading out with her boyfriend and band who've just landed their first tour, or going to London to study economics, Oona has no clue what to do. As the countdown nears, Oona starts to feel faint and collapses as the clock strikes midnight, waking up thirty-two years in the future in her fifty-one year old body. She's greeted by a strange man in a massive house that she's told she owns, and a letter from her younger self saying that she has a condition where she jumps through time every year on her birthday. She soon finds that with each jump, she's transported to a different age, never in chronological order, and she must use her letters and help from her mother and occasionally her personal assistant, Kenzie, to piece her life back together.

The whole premise of this story was really intriguing to me and fully caught my attention. I liked watching Oona try to adjust to all the times she was dropped in; learning new fads, new ways of life, etc. I also thought it was interesting that despite jumping to all these different ages, she remained her true age inside. So, even if she was fifty-one on the outside, she was truly only nineteen. It lead to a different way of approaching life which I thought was cool. The whole story really shows how it's not how you get somewhere in life, but what you do with the time you're given. The only thing I wish was that we could've learned how or why she had this condition, but overall it was a fun different story.

Brittany Harper

I really enjoyed this book! It is such a fun concept - to live life 'out of order.' I was really able to picture the struggles that Oona went through because of these leaps, but I could also see the beautiful moments in between. I would have loved to get shorter parts so that we could have read a wider variety of years that Oona experienced. While the parts all did seem to connect, I am sure that Oona would have experienced other meaningful life events in the years not mentioned - would have loved even just a few pages worth of info for those years.

Casie Blevins

Perfection. This book stole my whole heart. The plot was seamless, Oona raw and real and flawed, the prose thoughtful and exceptional. Every single chapter a journey, filling in little bits here and there, growing Oona as a person weaving the people around her into the brilliant quilt of her life. Poignant, bittersweet, illuminating. 
The skill it must have taken to have written such a flawless book. If you can listen to this book it will be one of the best experiences of your life. The narrator is superb, expressive, and has a unique tone and voice for every character, even the thoughts of Oona. Exceptional. 
This will be one of the rare books I will reread in my lifetime because I must touch the magic again. I must experience Oona and her journey at different points in my journey through life.

Carolina Santos

this is the most predictable book ever, but I still enjoyed it. I knew the plot wist since *that* character appeared. . I feel like Oona made a lot of mistakes that she could have avoided, but she didn't because the author decided to put them there so that Oona would learn something from them and for there to be an evolution in the character. But if you know your future and how things will end (and they are not good), why do you make decisions that will lead you to that exact future? it didn't make any sense.
The characters were alright, my favorite of course: kenzie.
Also.... of course it was gonna end like that. As I said, predictable.

Alizée Euphrosine

Sadly, I am disappointed by this book. It's funny as I didn't have any expectations when I started this book, but I feel like the story did not reach them.

When I read the synopsis, I found the concept interesting, even if it's more sci-fi than just a contemporary. However, the execution of this wasn't well-done. The main issue I have is that there are many holes in the story by the lack of explanations. You don't know why it's happening to Oona, and you don't see her search for a reason. The thing is that she totally accepts it from the beginning like it's a regular thing. Also, you do not have a guideline through this time travel, and no, for me, a tattoo or a person isn't.
Moreover, this book is divided into parts (each part represent one year); however, those parts are unbalanced. You have the main event or two that are well detailed, but the other things happening throughout the year are nearly like bullet points, not physically but figuratively.

Time to speak about the characters. I don't like them, especially Oona. I struggle to disassociate them; they were too lookalike. I didn't feel that any of them evolve one way or another, even if they are side characters. That's why I didn't understand where this book was going, as Oona doesn't change, and as I learn things about her, I found her despicable. 

The only positive thing is that this book is a quick read. I will continue to discover more sci-fi books, but this one was a missed opportunity for me.

Renee Blankenship

Thank you to Flatiron Books for the free copy! 

"She'd never been susceptible to nostalgia before- she tried to believe the future held better things than the past. Is this what it means to get older, replaying happy memories because the best times are behind you?" p. 54

Oona Out of Order is a TRIP- I tell you what. I couldn't put it down, for sure but I also spent the first 1/2 of the book mildly stressed. I kept picturing myself in Oona's shoes and it was giving me a bit of a panic. Ha! One of the things I loved about this story is how relatable Oona's character was throughout her many "flips" through time. Seeing her navigate new situations in new decades every year seems crazy on paper but she handled it with all of the emotions you would expect. About halfway through I gave up trying to picture myself in her shoes and just went with it. Full of emotion and crazy decade specific situations, I loved this story. It was truly unique!

Jessica 

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  As always, a copy of this book was provided by the author or publisher in exchange for my honest review. This does not effect my opinion in any way. Additional audiobook ARC via Libro.FM.


If you were to ask me, five hours before reading Oona Out of Order, what I expected from this novel I would have been heartily wrong. Because, despite reading the synopsis about a dozen times, and finding myself thoroughly intrigued, nothing was able to prepare me for this book. Nothing. For something to surprise me, it takes a lot, but Margarita Montimore was quick to knock me off my feet in the best of ways.

And when I say that Montimore was able to knock me off my feet, I mean that quite sincerely. I'm smitten. Not only does this novel tug at your heartstrings, it leaves your mind whirling around itself in contemplation and understanding. Like, dang, this book was good. The characters were so easy to get lost in; the storylines compelling, occasionally angsty and wholly unexpected.

Not only does the timeline and paranormal aspect of Oona Out of Order twist itself into the back of your mind, there's something about it that makes it so fast paced and unbelievably addictive. This novel is somehow both purely escapism and highly thoughtful in its honesty. Montimore truly outdid herself. 

Vivid and imaginative, Oona Out of Order felt electric from the very start. Readers will likely insert comparisons to both The Time Traveler's Wife and Landline and even the film 13 Going on 30 every time it is mentioned, but make no mistake: this is an entirely different story. Still, I promise you that Oona Out of Order will hook you in a similar fashion. Although it ties into the similarities of the other stories, something about Oona Out of Order felt fresh and unlike anything I've read recently.

Ultimately, this story was thoroughly enjoyable. And my only complaint about Oona Out of Order is the simplicity it takes in its world-building. While I didn't necessarily long to figure out the cause of everything in Oona's powers/ability, it still would have been nice to fill in the blanks a bit more heavily.

Oona Out of Order A Novel

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