Maybe in Another Life by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Posted July 15, 2015 in Reviews / 1 Comment

I received this book from Publisher for review consideration.

Maybe in Another Life by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Published by Washington Square Press on July 7th 2015
Genres: Contemporary Women, Fiction, Friendship, Love & Romance
Pages: 352
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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At the age of twenty-nine, 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, but on the heels of a disastrous breakup, she has finally returned to her hometown of Los Angeles. To celebrate her first night back, her best friend, Gabby, takes Hannah out to a bar—where she meets up with her high school boyfriend, Ethan.

It’s just past midnight when Gabby asks Hannah if she’s ready to go. Ethan quickly 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 surprisingly different stories with far-reaching consequences for Hannah and the people around her, raising questions like: 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.

With Maybe in Another Life, Taylor Jenkins Reid explores the choices we each make every single day of our lives. After moving back to LA, Hannah is posed with the choice of staying out with her high school boyfriend, Ethan, or returning home with her best friend, Gabby. The book proceeds with alternating chapters following Hannah’s story if she chose Ethan, or if she chose Gabby.

Do these choices define our lives, the people we meet, where we end up? Or is that all decided for us and what happens happens no matter how we got there.

In each of Hannah’s lives, it is suggested by one of the other characters that there are thousands of alternative universes in which we all exist, each time we make a choice an alternative self continues having taken the other path.

I’m making this sound a little more complex than it actually was, but Maybe in Another Life definitely left me pondering this concept, and the whole idea of fate. I truly believe that everything happens for a reason.

All in all, Maybe in Another Life was a cute summertime read with a touch of romance. I have read some reviews where the reader has not been happy with the ending, feeling that it was left too open. However, and without giving anything away, Reid executed the perfect ending and tied both of Hannah’s alternative universes together.

About the author:

Taylor Jenkins Reid is an author and essayist from Acton, Massachusetts. She is the author of Forever, Interrupted and After I Do. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Alex, and her dog, Rabbit. You can follow her on Twitter @TJenkinsReid.