
Maybe in Another Life
Reviews

Hannah is such a pick me, gosh. Stupid high bun. The plot was nice tho. Nice idea with the alternative universes. I‘m definitely Team Henry 🤞


This is the first Taylor Jenkins Reid book I’ve read and I really liked it. It’s definitely not perfect, but I like the way she writes; her dialogue is interesting and realistic, most of the characters are pretty well fleshed out, and I love anyone who writes in present tense because it’s refreshing and interesting and I feel like it’s a little harder to do well while avoiding the story feeling rushed.
I chose this book to start with because the concept seemed really interesting to me, and it was very enjoyable to read. It was done well, wasn’t confusing when it switched between the two timelines, and it all felt well-paced and thought out. The tension of finding something out in one timeline and waiting for it to unfold in the other drew me in and was very satisfying to watch play out. I liked picking out all the small similarities and differences amongst the big ones. I like that Gabby and Hannah’s friendship was a big focus of the plot, thought I do kinda think it would’ve been interesting for it to have centred around them even more, if the whole book was more focused on platonic love rather than romantic love. I genuinely was expecting for the ending to be them living together and realising that they were soulmates, even though they are just friends.
I like Henry a lot but I kinda hate ethan and do wish that Henry & Hannah ended up together in both timelines, but I understand why they don’t. I get the point of having two very different happy endings, of two perfect lives made from very different decisions.
My only genuine complaint is that some of it felt very on the nose and clichéd and like the author was really really trying hard to drive home a point about fate. I feel like the plot speaks for itself without the characters having to bring it up constantly, and it feels a bit of a disservice to the writing to be repetitively spelling it out. Overall I did really enjoy it though. It was enjoyable and cute and easy to get through. At some point I would like to reread but read through all of one timeline and then flip back and read the other one and see how it works when reading them as two separate stories.

Highlights

I don't believe that being in love absolves you of anything. I no longer believe that all's fair in love and war. I'd go so far as to say your actions in love are not an exception to who you are.
They are, in fact, the very definition of who you are.

But I wonder how different my world would be if any of those things had happened. You can't change just one part, can you? When you sit there and wish things had happened differ-ently, you can't just wish away the bad stuff. You have to think about all the good stuff you might lose, too. Better just to stay in the now and focus on what you can do better in the future.

And I think to myself that if, by being here, I have taken away one one-hundredth of the pain that Gabby feels, then maybe I have more of a life's purpose than I ever thought.
"Divide the pain in two," I tell her. "And give half of it to me."