What do you think?
Rate this book
The Other Us
If you could turn back time, would you choose a different life?
Forty-something Maggie is facing some hard truths. Her only child has flown the nest for university and, without her daughter in the house, she’s realising her life, and her marriage to Dan, is more than a little stale.
When she spots an announcement on Facebook about a uni reunion, she can’t help wondering what happened to Jude Hanson. The same night Dan proposed, Jude asked Maggie to run away with him, and she starts to wonder how different her life might have been if she’d broken Dan’s heart and taken Jude up on his offer.
Wondering turns into fantasising, and then one morning fantasising turns into reality. Maggie wakes up and discovers she’s back in 1992 and twenty-one again. Is she brave enough to choose the future she really wants, and if she is, will the grass be any greener on the other side of the fence?
Two men. Two very different possible futures. But is there only once chance at happiness?
Perfect for fans of One Day, The Versions of Us and Miss You.
Forty-something Maggie is facing some hard truths. Her only child has flown the nest for university and, without her daughter in the house, she’s realising her life, and her marriage to Dan, is more than a little stale.
When she spots an announcement on Facebook about a uni reunion, she can’t help wondering what happened to Jude Hanson. The same night Dan proposed, Jude asked Maggie to run away with him, and she starts to wonder how different her life might have been if she’d broken Dan’s heart and taken Jude up on his offer.
Wondering turns into fantasising, and then one morning fantasising turns into reality. Maggie wakes up and discovers she’s back in 1992 and twenty-one again. Is she brave enough to choose the future she really wants, and if she is, will the grass be any greener on the other side of the fence?
Two men. Two very different possible futures. But is there only once chance at happiness?
Perfect for fans of One Day, The Versions of Us and Miss You.
384 pages, Paperback
First published May 4, 2017
213 people are currently reading
1029 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 136 reviews
May 24, 2017
This review can also be found on my blog, Dana and the Books.
I've said it before: my weakness is stories that mess with time. The Other Us definitely isn't as timey-wimey as that Star Trek episode "Tapestry", but it fits the bill just right when it comes to a light paradoxical story.
Forty-six year old Maggie is unhappy. Her daughter left home for university. Her marriage to Dan is stale. And she keeps wondering what would have happened if she ran away with her old university flame Jude on the night Dan proposed.
"What ifs" hi-jack her thoughts. Would her life have been any different? Would her life have been any happier?
Except.. one morning, she wakes up and she's no longer forty-six. She's in her twenty-one year old body.
The Other Us follows Maggie's life as she's thrust between two splintered timelines: an alternate life with Dan, and an alternate life where she ran off with Jude. We see how her decisions affect the course her life should have taken and the consequences that follow in these two new realities.
I found myself flip flopping between which of Maggie's lives was the better one. Both had positives and both had flaws. About halfway through, I just figured why not both?
Maggie was a good main character who managed to hold it together (for the most part) during her jumps in the alternate timelines. She wasn't perfect — definitely a bit petty — but it was great to see her grow up and learn from her past mistakes as she relived them over again.
The ending could not have been better! It was the closure Maggie (and I!) needed after being flung back and forth so many times.
I received an advance reading copy for the blog tour. It's out in UK stores now so pick up your copy for a wonderful weekend read! (Book Depository / Amazon Canada / Amazon UK)
I've said it before: my weakness is stories that mess with time. The Other Us definitely isn't as timey-wimey as that Star Trek episode "Tapestry", but it fits the bill just right when it comes to a light paradoxical story.
Forty-six year old Maggie is unhappy. Her daughter left home for university. Her marriage to Dan is stale. And she keeps wondering what would have happened if she ran away with her old university flame Jude on the night Dan proposed.
"What ifs" hi-jack her thoughts. Would her life have been any different? Would her life have been any happier?
Except.. one morning, she wakes up and she's no longer forty-six. She's in her twenty-one year old body.
The Other Us follows Maggie's life as she's thrust between two splintered timelines: an alternate life with Dan, and an alternate life where she ran off with Jude. We see how her decisions affect the course her life should have taken and the consequences that follow in these two new realities.
I found myself flip flopping between which of Maggie's lives was the better one. Both had positives and both had flaws. About halfway through, I just figured why not both?
Maggie was a good main character who managed to hold it together (for the most part) during her jumps in the alternate timelines. She wasn't perfect — definitely a bit petty — but it was great to see her grow up and learn from her past mistakes as she relived them over again.
The ending could not have been better! It was the closure Maggie (and I!) needed after being flung back and forth so many times.
I received an advance reading copy for the blog tour. It's out in UK stores now so pick up your copy for a wonderful weekend read! (Book Depository / Amazon Canada / Amazon UK)
March 6, 2022
Review coming up 💝
June 6, 2017
What an absolutely brilliant book. It captures all the emotions of the 'what if' times in your life when you're low and wonder if you've made the right choices and dream how life could have been. It carries you on a journey in which you live Maggie's 'what if' and somehow see your own. The pages turned and each stage I was rooting for Maggie to see her way forward and was left filled with a love for this life, this now.
December 20, 2017
Book reviews on www.snazzybooks.com
This is a book that really makes you think about life's 'what if' moments, and though it's not something I think about a lot, The Other Us did make me think that, if one thing changed in your life, things could be so different - but would they be any better?
The Other Us is an enjoyable, sweet and, at times, poignant read which follows some great characters. It centers around Maggie and shows her complex relationships with Dan, Jude, Becca and others as she navigates life, relationships, family and kids, careers... all whilst wondering what if? Maggie isn't really happy at the start of the novel, and always wonders how things would be if she had ended up with 'the one that got away', Jude. When she begins to experience an alternative reality in which she had got together with Jude, it shows her how happy she could have been - and also how some elements in her life also change as a result.
The themes in this novel aren't just about Maggie's marriage/ relationship but covers her friendship with Becca, her choice of career, whether she has children... it's a great novel for making you, along with Maggie, wonder whether she's really 'messed up' her current life or not. The story itself is fairly light-hearted and fun, though at the beginning I did find it quite upsetting, if I imagined being in the same situation myself. There are parts which are quite predictable but I think you often expect that with novels in this genre and it didn't detract from my enjoyment of the story. The different timelines really drew me in - I love novels that do this (as long as it's done well, of course!), and it wasn't too confusing to follow.
I found Katie Scarfe to be a great narrator for this; her voice didn't get on my nerves (I sometimes find audiobook narrators' voices can grate!) and she presented the story really well. I'd definitely recommend The Other Us in both a readable or narrated format - it was enjoyable and really kept my attention throughout!
This is a book that really makes you think about life's 'what if' moments, and though it's not something I think about a lot, The Other Us did make me think that, if one thing changed in your life, things could be so different - but would they be any better?
The Other Us is an enjoyable, sweet and, at times, poignant read which follows some great characters. It centers around Maggie and shows her complex relationships with Dan, Jude, Becca and others as she navigates life, relationships, family and kids, careers... all whilst wondering what if? Maggie isn't really happy at the start of the novel, and always wonders how things would be if she had ended up with 'the one that got away', Jude. When she begins to experience an alternative reality in which she had got together with Jude, it shows her how happy she could have been - and also how some elements in her life also change as a result.
The themes in this novel aren't just about Maggie's marriage/ relationship but covers her friendship with Becca, her choice of career, whether she has children... it's a great novel for making you, along with Maggie, wonder whether she's really 'messed up' her current life or not. The story itself is fairly light-hearted and fun, though at the beginning I did find it quite upsetting, if I imagined being in the same situation myself. There are parts which are quite predictable but I think you often expect that with novels in this genre and it didn't detract from my enjoyment of the story. The different timelines really drew me in - I love novels that do this (as long as it's done well, of course!), and it wasn't too confusing to follow.
I found Katie Scarfe to be a great narrator for this; her voice didn't get on my nerves (I sometimes find audiobook narrators' voices can grate!) and she presented the story really well. I'd definitely recommend The Other Us in both a readable or narrated format - it was enjoyable and really kept my attention throughout!
May 31, 2020
Is there anyone who doesn’t wonder how differently life might have turned out if they had done this instead of that at a key turning point? The Other Us is about a woman who gets to find out.
Maggie is in her 40s, a new empty-nester, deeply unsatisfied with her life and the state of her marriage. After receiving an invitation to her college reunion, she suddenly finds herself zigzagging back-and-forth through time and alternate versions of her life, depending on a crucial decision she made back in college. This was a fun and compulsively readable story with thought-provoking undertones.
Maggie is in her 40s, a new empty-nester, deeply unsatisfied with her life and the state of her marriage. After receiving an invitation to her college reunion, she suddenly finds herself zigzagging back-and-forth through time and alternate versions of her life, depending on a crucial decision she made back in college. This was a fun and compulsively readable story with thought-provoking undertones.
July 5, 2017
A unique read that was hard to put down. It's no mean feat to execute a kind of three-way time-slip so eloquently. The story is about following your dreams and learning to see the best in things. It's about finding hidden treasure in the place you least expect to. I didn't get the ending I wanted but that didn't matter. Intriguing. Compelling. And utterly feel-good.
June 6, 2017
Wow, just wow... When you thought Fiona Harper's writing couldn't get any better, she knocks it out of the park with a poignant, provocative and brilliantly evocative speculative women's fiction tale which taps into all those 'what if' fantasies all of us have had from time to time...
Maggie is a bored, disappointed middle aged housewife, whose brilliant career plans to do something in art and design have come to nothing and whose marriage to her college beau Dan has hit the rocks - or rather is slowly dying on the vine from lack of nourishment over years of misunderstandings and mistrust and Maggie and Dan's growing bitterness with a relationship that is no longer enough for either one of them. Maggie's 18-year-old daughter Sophie has left home to back pack around Australia and Maggie's empty nest syndrome is kicking in big time, when she hears about a college reunion from her friend Becca... And suddenly she becomes a bit fixated on the memory of her ex-college boyfriend Jude who is now 'doing very well for himself' but whom Maggie has never quite forgotten.
Jude was the gorgeous bad boy, all ambition and charisma, a guy who was going places and who offered to take Maggie with him, but she opted in the end for safe and secure Dan....
Then one morning Maggie wakes up, and she's back in her twenty-something body about to make the same decision again, but will she make the same one? That's just the start of a clever but also often deeply heart-rending story as Maggie gets to relive both her lives, not just the one she had with Dan but the one she might have had with Jude. Gradually she (and we) discover that when it comes to life and relationships, there are never any easy answers – or clear options. Harper's writing is as smart and witty as ever, the world and characters she creates as brilliantly observed as we have come to expect in books such as The Summer We Danced and The Little Shop of Hopes and Dreams.... But The Other Us takes her writing to a new level, or rather to a new depth, this is a simply stunning book, both engrossing and unputdownable that will have you asking lots of questions about your own life and relationships, while you live through Maggie's.
Stirring, engrossing, and beautifully labyrinthine, it poses the simple and yet stunningly complex question how many lives do you have to lead, to get it right?
Maggie is a bored, disappointed middle aged housewife, whose brilliant career plans to do something in art and design have come to nothing and whose marriage to her college beau Dan has hit the rocks - or rather is slowly dying on the vine from lack of nourishment over years of misunderstandings and mistrust and Maggie and Dan's growing bitterness with a relationship that is no longer enough for either one of them. Maggie's 18-year-old daughter Sophie has left home to back pack around Australia and Maggie's empty nest syndrome is kicking in big time, when she hears about a college reunion from her friend Becca... And suddenly she becomes a bit fixated on the memory of her ex-college boyfriend Jude who is now 'doing very well for himself' but whom Maggie has never quite forgotten.
Jude was the gorgeous bad boy, all ambition and charisma, a guy who was going places and who offered to take Maggie with him, but she opted in the end for safe and secure Dan....
Then one morning Maggie wakes up, and she's back in her twenty-something body about to make the same decision again, but will she make the same one? That's just the start of a clever but also often deeply heart-rending story as Maggie gets to relive both her lives, not just the one she had with Dan but the one she might have had with Jude. Gradually she (and we) discover that when it comes to life and relationships, there are never any easy answers – or clear options. Harper's writing is as smart and witty as ever, the world and characters she creates as brilliantly observed as we have come to expect in books such as The Summer We Danced and The Little Shop of Hopes and Dreams.... But The Other Us takes her writing to a new level, or rather to a new depth, this is a simply stunning book, both engrossing and unputdownable that will have you asking lots of questions about your own life and relationships, while you live through Maggie's.
Stirring, engrossing, and beautifully labyrinthine, it poses the simple and yet stunningly complex question how many lives do you have to lead, to get it right?
September 20, 2017
3.5 stars!
A cute contemporary novel about a time travelling wife who has the chance to change her future
I enjoyed this book, but also found a few things I didn't enjoy so much. I thought the protagonist Maggie (or Mag as she is known in a different life) came across really self centered and selfish. I understand why she needed to written about in this way, but I also hated her at points.
I had a soft spot for Dan, and couldn't help but dislike Jude from the very start. I think this was barbecue of the situation and how Maggie dealt with it. I also found that I was putting myself in Dan's shoes more often than anyone else's which made my view towards the plot very bias.
I guessed a few of the plot points, and pretty much knew what way it would end even without knowing the smaller details, but I also found myself becoming a little bored with the amount of times Maggie was jumping through time, by the end.
I honestly think I would have given this a 4.5-5 stars about 2 years ago. Before I become invested and obsessed with Physiological thrillers and contemporary took a little bit of a back seat. The plot was interesting and reminded me of all those Disney Original/Mary Kate and Ashley type films (Parent Trap, Freaky Friday, Pixel Perfect, The Cheetah Girls etc) I used to spend my weekends watching when I was young.
I also did enjoy taking a small break from those more intense thrillers I have become to love, and did become highly invested in Maggie's, Dan's, Jude's and Becca's lives.
A cute contemporary novel about a time travelling wife who has the chance to change her future
I enjoyed this book, but also found a few things I didn't enjoy so much. I thought the protagonist Maggie (or Mag as she is known in a different life) came across really self centered and selfish. I understand why she needed to written about in this way, but I also hated her at points.
I had a soft spot for Dan, and couldn't help but dislike Jude from the very start. I think this was barbecue of the situation and how Maggie dealt with it. I also found that I was putting myself in Dan's shoes more often than anyone else's which made my view towards the plot very bias.
I guessed a few of the plot points, and pretty much knew what way it would end even without knowing the smaller details, but I also found myself becoming a little bored with the amount of times Maggie was jumping through time, by the end.
I honestly think I would have given this a 4.5-5 stars about 2 years ago. Before I become invested and obsessed with Physiological thrillers and contemporary took a little bit of a back seat. The plot was interesting and reminded me of all those Disney Original/Mary Kate and Ashley type films (Parent Trap, Freaky Friday, Pixel Perfect, The Cheetah Girls etc) I used to spend my weekends watching when I was young.
I also did enjoy taking a small break from those more intense thrillers I have become to love, and did become highly invested in Maggie's, Dan's, Jude's and Becca's lives.
July 11, 2017
I love time travel/alternative life books, and The Other Us was just what I was looking for. Fiona Harper wrote a great story filled with the unexpected that I truly enjoyed!
July 25, 2017
The time-travelling housewife is quite fabulous!
I don't usually read fantasy – I only got into Harry Potter because my children were of that age. I don't think I've ever watched a whole episode of Doctor Who, nor am I a fan of Game of Thrones. Even reading the Finnish national epic, Kaleva, which is full of magical characters and events, I sometimes hear myself mutter, 'Yeah, right!' (In Finnish obviously). It isn't that I lack imagination, oh no. I make up stories in my head all the time, but they are stories that could actually happen to people around me.
Take yesterday: we were on the tube with the Englishman having been in town to meet up with friends. Suddenly while changing trains, my husband pulled me aside.
'What,' I said. 'Is this some kind of a new short-cut to the platform?'
In the maze that is the London underground tunnelling system, he was leading me down an escalator with a 'No Entry' sign above it. The Englishman prides himself in knowing which routes to take to minimise the travelling time, something we joke about. I, on the other hand, prefer not to change trains even if it means I spend a few more minutes on the journey.
'No,' he said, looking quite serious, so I followed him without complaint (which is rare). While we were making our way back to the platform and the tube line we'd just come from, he explained that a man who'd been staring at him across the aisle on the tube carriage we'd just left, had been following us onto the first escalator and had stopped and stood uncomfortably near to him on the way up. We took different route home, while the Englishman, now feeling a bit embarrassed told me 'It was probably nothing.'
I had spotted the man staring at my husband on the train but hadn't seen him follow us out into the tunnel. But I was with the Englishman; the guy had unnerved me too with his staring. In these times of high terror threat level in London, you've got to be careful. We considered whether we should contact the transport police but felt we really had nothing to report. 'A man looked at me oddly then got off the train at the same station and stood too close to me on the escalator,' sounds a bit ridiculous, we agreed.
But my head was now full of questions. What if, on our return home we found there'd been a knifing on the tube line we'd decided not to take? What if the man was a terrorist who'd just been sizing up who to attack? In that case, why hadn't he done anything there and then? Why wait and follow us out of the train? If he wasn't a terrorist (which was unlikely!) what had been the man's problem? Did the Englishman remind him of someone? Was it a case of mistaken identity? Or was he just one of those people who stare at others while working something out in his head? The incident became a story in my head, I had a beginning of a scene, then a loose plot for a spy thriller - or even a romance. The guy with the stare could be connected to the woman somehow and was acting oddly in a jealous rage.
But even if I make these stories up in my head, the scenarios are always rooted in reality, in something that I believe could happen, however unlikely. My feet are firmly planted on the ground, with nothing suddenly falling through it into another world. In my stories, I delve into the reality of life, in all its fabulousness. To me the real world is crazy enough; I don't need to create 'other worlds' or time-travelling characters, or fantastical creatures.
But back to the book. In spite of my disinterest in the fantasy genre, I absolutely loved The Other Us, especially once I saw that the main protagonist, Maggie (or Meg in one of her time zones) struggled with the same concerns real people in the real world do. Don't get me wrong, I do understand that most of fantasy (if not all) deals with real issues, and addresses real wrongs in the real world – or are about the human condition. But in fantasy, the fight is often against some great threat to the survival of the human race, or something similarly big and dangerous.
Not so in The Other Us. Maggie, the heroine, is searching for the key to a perfect loving relationship. Of course, this is a Big Thing in life and is treated as such in the book, but because of the domestic – almost mundane – setting, I could identify with the protagonist concerns, even if I don't believe time-travel can be real.
Maggie is in an unhappy marriage and with her grown-up daughter flying the coop, she starts to fantasise about an old boyfriend. All the while she also has a controlling best friend, whom she resents. One night Maggie is transported to her student days with a possibility of making different choices in life. But will she choose wisely? While she is flung back and forth in time, seesawing her way through a life in two different scenarios, without any control over her time-travel, can Maggie influence her own happiness as well as improve the lives of the people close to her?
I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and would recommend it to even those of you who are not readers of fantasy. This book is a romance, really, just told slightly differently in several time zones.
I don't usually read fantasy – I only got into Harry Potter because my children were of that age. I don't think I've ever watched a whole episode of Doctor Who, nor am I a fan of Game of Thrones. Even reading the Finnish national epic, Kaleva, which is full of magical characters and events, I sometimes hear myself mutter, 'Yeah, right!' (In Finnish obviously). It isn't that I lack imagination, oh no. I make up stories in my head all the time, but they are stories that could actually happen to people around me.
Take yesterday: we were on the tube with the Englishman having been in town to meet up with friends. Suddenly while changing trains, my husband pulled me aside.
'What,' I said. 'Is this some kind of a new short-cut to the platform?'
In the maze that is the London underground tunnelling system, he was leading me down an escalator with a 'No Entry' sign above it. The Englishman prides himself in knowing which routes to take to minimise the travelling time, something we joke about. I, on the other hand, prefer not to change trains even if it means I spend a few more minutes on the journey.
'No,' he said, looking quite serious, so I followed him without complaint (which is rare). While we were making our way back to the platform and the tube line we'd just come from, he explained that a man who'd been staring at him across the aisle on the tube carriage we'd just left, had been following us onto the first escalator and had stopped and stood uncomfortably near to him on the way up. We took different route home, while the Englishman, now feeling a bit embarrassed told me 'It was probably nothing.'
I had spotted the man staring at my husband on the train but hadn't seen him follow us out into the tunnel. But I was with the Englishman; the guy had unnerved me too with his staring. In these times of high terror threat level in London, you've got to be careful. We considered whether we should contact the transport police but felt we really had nothing to report. 'A man looked at me oddly then got off the train at the same station and stood too close to me on the escalator,' sounds a bit ridiculous, we agreed.
But my head was now full of questions. What if, on our return home we found there'd been a knifing on the tube line we'd decided not to take? What if the man was a terrorist who'd just been sizing up who to attack? In that case, why hadn't he done anything there and then? Why wait and follow us out of the train? If he wasn't a terrorist (which was unlikely!) what had been the man's problem? Did the Englishman remind him of someone? Was it a case of mistaken identity? Or was he just one of those people who stare at others while working something out in his head? The incident became a story in my head, I had a beginning of a scene, then a loose plot for a spy thriller - or even a romance. The guy with the stare could be connected to the woman somehow and was acting oddly in a jealous rage.
But even if I make these stories up in my head, the scenarios are always rooted in reality, in something that I believe could happen, however unlikely. My feet are firmly planted on the ground, with nothing suddenly falling through it into another world. In my stories, I delve into the reality of life, in all its fabulousness. To me the real world is crazy enough; I don't need to create 'other worlds' or time-travelling characters, or fantastical creatures.
But back to the book. In spite of my disinterest in the fantasy genre, I absolutely loved The Other Us, especially once I saw that the main protagonist, Maggie (or Meg in one of her time zones) struggled with the same concerns real people in the real world do. Don't get me wrong, I do understand that most of fantasy (if not all) deals with real issues, and addresses real wrongs in the real world – or are about the human condition. But in fantasy, the fight is often against some great threat to the survival of the human race, or something similarly big and dangerous.
Not so in The Other Us. Maggie, the heroine, is searching for the key to a perfect loving relationship. Of course, this is a Big Thing in life and is treated as such in the book, but because of the domestic – almost mundane – setting, I could identify with the protagonist concerns, even if I don't believe time-travel can be real.
Maggie is in an unhappy marriage and with her grown-up daughter flying the coop, she starts to fantasise about an old boyfriend. All the while she also has a controlling best friend, whom she resents. One night Maggie is transported to her student days with a possibility of making different choices in life. But will she choose wisely? While she is flung back and forth in time, seesawing her way through a life in two different scenarios, without any control over her time-travel, can Maggie influence her own happiness as well as improve the lives of the people close to her?
I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and would recommend it to even those of you who are not readers of fantasy. This book is a romance, really, just told slightly differently in several time zones.
August 18, 2017
When Maggie spots an announcement about a uni reunion, she starts wondering if she made the right choice marrying her husband Dan all those years ago. One day she wakes up, the year is 1992 and she’s faced with the choice of the two guys in her past, Dan or Jude. And what would happen if she chose to run away with Jude all those years ago?
This book started straight in, capturing you on the first page. You slowly get to know more about her life in the past and present, as well as the choices she could have made differently. I liked the concept of it, but the story dragged on to a point where I didn’t really enjoy the book as much as I could have. It could’ve been half of what it was, and towards the end I got tired and in a way predicted what was going to happen. I thought the ending was quite obvious, to be honest.
I’m very confused, and I don’t really know what I feel about the characters. Maggie was likable, but then she wasn’t, and it changed throughout the whole book. She seemed very jealous and suspicious towards everything and everyone, she didn’t really take the chances when she got the opportunity to. The problem I had with her is the fact that she never trusted anyone, and she didn't get satisfied with anything, no matter how hard people tried. And it was very sad to se her thoughts towards Dan when she got a second chance, and could do what she wanted. I liked her best friend, Becca, and I liked their friendship. I didn’t like Dan in Maggie’s life with Jude, and I didn’t necessarily like Becca that much either. I didn't like Jude at all, I thought he was such a dick to be completely honest.
The thing that really bothers me is the fact that you didn't get the answers at the end, I really don’t understand why Maggie suddenly started “jumping” between three timelines, and I don't understand how. You don't get any sort of explanation, you just get to know who she ends up with. She just ended up accepting it, instead of trying to figure out why it happened. That being said, the book was okay, but I think it would be better if it was shorter.
This book started straight in, capturing you on the first page. You slowly get to know more about her life in the past and present, as well as the choices she could have made differently. I liked the concept of it, but the story dragged on to a point where I didn’t really enjoy the book as much as I could have. It could’ve been half of what it was, and towards the end I got tired and in a way predicted what was going to happen. I thought the ending was quite obvious, to be honest.
I’m very confused, and I don’t really know what I feel about the characters. Maggie was likable, but then she wasn’t, and it changed throughout the whole book. She seemed very jealous and suspicious towards everything and everyone, she didn’t really take the chances when she got the opportunity to. The problem I had with her is the fact that she never trusted anyone, and she didn't get satisfied with anything, no matter how hard people tried. And it was very sad to se her thoughts towards Dan when she got a second chance, and could do what she wanted. I liked her best friend, Becca, and I liked their friendship. I didn’t like Dan in Maggie’s life with Jude, and I didn’t necessarily like Becca that much either. I didn't like Jude at all, I thought he was such a dick to be completely honest.
The thing that really bothers me is the fact that you didn't get the answers at the end, I really don’t understand why Maggie suddenly started “jumping” between three timelines, and I don't understand how. You don't get any sort of explanation, you just get to know who she ends up with. She just ended up accepting it, instead of trying to figure out why it happened. That being said, the book was okay, but I think it would be better if it was shorter.
December 31, 2019
This book took me awhile to get into... the concept was intriguing, however the execution was... strange for me the first half of the book. Without giving any spoilers, how the concept comes to be is never really explained which was just... weird for me. However, I eventually got into the stories and the characters and the last half of the book was quite a breeze to get through.
Despite all that, I ended up really liking this novel and would recommend this one.
Despite all that, I ended up really liking this novel and would recommend this one.
March 30, 2019
This book had a lot of potential but went through a lousy editing. The story needed to be more compact. The plot and the emotions were perfectly on point but as I said this book needed to go through a few more rounds of editing!
Still I'll give it a 3.5 since the story and the message was enjoyable!
Still I'll give it a 3.5 since the story and the message was enjoyable!
April 22, 2017
A clever and emotionally charged story for anyone who's ever wondered "what if?"
December 2, 2022
I don't like leaving two-star ratings, because that insinuates the novel was horrible, not readable, etc. This timeslip story was readable in parts but in severe need of a professional editor – maybe two or three of them. At times, the story dragged, and certain parts were unnecessary and felt like filler. However, the author has some positives. The dialogue between characters felt organic, and main character Maggie had some truly humorous internal monologue throughout the story. But boy, oh boy, the typos were distracting as hell. (Examples: "I take in its squareness, it whiteness" and "Might have been. Just for a moment or too.") I think this book will continue to find its audience, but its fans will need to be willing to overlook glaring mistakes.
May 15, 2017
Sometimes you see a book and you have a feeling that it is calling to you “please, read me!”I had such feeling with “The Other Us” by Fiona Harper, even without reading the synopsis I just knew I want to read this book, period, so I was incredibly happy to be accepted for it on NetGalley.
Maggie is forty – six and she’s not happy with her marriage. she starts wondering what would have happened if she, instead of marrying Dan, stayed with her university flame Jude – would her life be better? Would she be happier? I think it is the thing that happens to most of us, we sometimes wonder what if – but we don’t get the answer. However, Maggie did – one day she wakes up to discover she’s in her twenties again and she has a chance to see how her life would look like if she agreed to stay with Jude. So what follows are alternate stories of Maggie’s life with Dan and Jude and we see the consequences of the many different decisions she makes.
There were some things that just didn’t ring a bell for me, that just didn’t work. Firstly, I really don’t understand why Maggie has suddenly started “jumping” between three timelines. It happened oh just because, for no reason, and she calmly faced the fact and accepted it very quickly and it was nothing unusual for her. Such thing would scare the hell out of me if it happened to me. Then I had a big problem with Maggie herself. She has never seemed to be happy with things – never! She was disappointed with everything and she always found something, in all those three lives, to be unhappy about. She just didn’t know what she wants and it bothered me incredibly. I had a feeling she’s self – obsessed, everything was “I”, “me”, about her – yes, I do know it was written from her point of view but there came a moment that I just couldn’t hear any more of her whingeing. Thirdly, this book is so wordy! There are so many inner – monologues, reflections, what ifs, wondering, with little dialogues, and so it felt too dragging, too flat, too long, as if nothing, except for Maggie “jumping” (as she says so herself) was happening. I also didn’t see anything in particular she could learn from this “jumping”, the periods of times she skipped and the moments she found herself arriving were not so significant and were very random, there was no plan to them.
The good thing is that I never felt confused with the times changing and Maggie jumping. I also liked the fact that the book is ambitious, asking questions and making you wonder about your own life and happiness. “The Other Us” is a story about love, full of emotions and second chances and learning what is important. I’m sure it is a great, thought – provoking book but – sadly – it didn’t work for me the way I hoped it would. Nevertheless, please try it for yourself, you may find yourself falling in love with it.
Copy provided by the publisher in return for an honest review.
June 27, 2017
The Blurb :
If you could turn back time, would you choose a different life?
Forty-something Maggie is facing some hard truths. Her only child has flown the nest for university and, without her daughter in the house, she’s realising her life, and her marriage to Dan, is more than a little stale.
When she spots an announcement on Facebook about a uni reunion, she can’t help wondering what happened to Jude Hanson. The same night Dan proposed, Jude asked Maggie to run away with him, and she starts to wonder how different her life might have been if she’d broken Dan’s heart and taken Jude up on his offer.
Wondering turns into fantasising, and then one morning fantasising turns into reality. Maggie wakes up and discovers she’s back in 1992 and twenty-one again. Is she brave enough to choose the future she really wants, and if she is, will the grass be any greener on the other side of the fence?
Two men. Two very different possible futures. But is there only once chance at happiness?
My Thoughts :
I really enjoyed this book, it explores the what ifs that im sure we all think about at some point in our lives. Maggie was a great charactor and the jumping backwards and forwards time travel really worked. As we work through the story, we get to see how life would of been if Maggie had chosen a life with her ex boyfriend Jude or the life she currently has with husband Dan. Fiona Harper really pulls at the heart strings with this one and makes it a gripping read. I couldnt wait to get to the end to see which life she actually ended up with. Throughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it.
February 25, 2022
Second chance?
Maggie is in a rut with her husband Dan and when a university reunion is posted on facebook, she can't help wondering about the one that got away (Jude) and how different her life could've been. She doesn't have to imagine for long as Maggie is about to get a second chance.
Really enjoyed this book and couldn't put it down for long as I was dying to know who she was going to be with. Great book if you've ever wondered if the grass is greener or just for a light hearted read.
Maggie is in a rut with her husband Dan and when a university reunion is posted on facebook, she can't help wondering about the one that got away (Jude) and how different her life could've been. She doesn't have to imagine for long as Maggie is about to get a second chance.
Really enjoyed this book and couldn't put it down for long as I was dying to know who she was going to be with. Great book if you've ever wondered if the grass is greener or just for a light hearted read.
March 15, 2017
I haven't read a book quite like this before. A bit of time travel, split lives which made for an interesting read. Who can tell what your future would be like if you chose a different path a few years ago? I enjoyed reading this book. No twists and turns in the plot as such however a great holiday read.
July 20, 2018
Never, ever would have bought this book but received it in a monthly subscription. Sooo long to get to where you knew from page 1 that it would wind up. Almost 500 pages! Could have cut out around 300 of them at least. Yikes.
March 2, 2021
This book was delightful. I chose it because I wanted a light hearted book for February and I was not disappointed. As a bonus the story featured alternate realities and I think the author handled them beautifully. It was a pure joy to read. Will definitely read more by Fiona Harper.
May 22, 2024
As I enjoyed my previous books by Fiona, I found myself engrossed in the time traveling plot in this book as well. This wasn’t a romance, it was more of a book where the heroine needed to fix things, fix her relationship, fix herself because everything is going awry in every life she’s in. Soon, she realizes the problem is her, not the man she’s with.
I must say I did find it easy to follow with the constant life switching between Jude & Dan as the author makes it really easy to follow between the two. I was very intrigued on how the heroine was going to fix things with both Dan and Jude.
It was a very entertaining read. Had me glued to my seat for hours. Though if I had to pick an issue, i would have wished to see what happened between Jude after Maggie left him at the last few chapters. Because we weren’t shown that he chased after her or anything and were straightaway transported back to Dan in the present.
I must say I did find it easy to follow with the constant life switching between Jude & Dan as the author makes it really easy to follow between the two. I was very intrigued on how the heroine was going to fix things with both Dan and Jude.
It was a very entertaining read. Had me glued to my seat for hours. Though if I had to pick an issue, i would have wished to see what happened between Jude after Maggie left him at the last few chapters. Because we weren’t shown that he chased after her or anything and were straightaway transported back to Dan in the present.
April 22, 2017
This book was totally amazing very touching, emotional and uplifting and kept you on your toes to what would happen. Maggie is unsure of her life with her husband Dan her child has fled the nest to go to uni and she gets a Facebook message to say she is invited to a uni reunion and it makes her think to what life could have been like. She wakes up and realises she's in a different life but which one does she like the best and want to end up living. It's very different to Fiona's other books but has to be her best I couldn't put it down and was so sad to come to the end.
April 26, 2017
I was very happy to receive this new book by Fiona Harper, I have always enjoyed Fiona's books so was excited to get her latest novel. The story is unlike anything I have ever read before and I think it really worked as it really makes you think what you would do in that situation. I know for a fact that I would always pick the life that I have with my husband and I would never change it for the world as I love him very much, but Maggie has to decide what life she wants to live with and what man she wants and it is a hard decision for her.
October 13, 2019
En mycket tänkvärd bok om de val man gör i livet och hur de påverkar, samt att man i många fall kan få det bättre bara genom att förändra sina egna dåliga sidor. Kanske att den var lite för lång? Det var många sidospår och bikaraktärer, precis som samma sorts dialog återkom flera gånger.
Det var dock tankeväckande och kul med tidsresor! Slutet var jättefint. Men vad hände med Billy då? :( Så hemskt att han finns i en annan verklighet.
Det var dock tankeväckande och kul med tidsresor! Slutet var jättefint. Men vad hände med Billy då? :( Så hemskt att han finns i en annan verklighet.
April 14, 2020
Who hasn't wondered what if? In their lives. What if I broke up with that guy and married the other one? This book explores that after being married for 25 years Maggie is unhappy and wonders if she should have run off with her first love or married Dan. Fate and some magic lets her explore what would have happened if she had made a different choice. Loved this book and highly recommend. Not a typical rom-com but explores the tough choices and the sometimes drudgery of marriage where you tend to forget why you fell in love in the first place.
August 5, 2017
The plot is interesting, I like the concept of it. However I felt it dragged, could have been half of what it was. My main issue was how did everyone in Maggie's life not notice something odd was happening? That she was jumping time to different times of her life? So many grammatical typo's and errors too
January 17, 2020
Lots of time hopping books for me lately - but really enjoyed this one. A different spin on the “alternate life” theme than I’ve read before. I honestly didn’t totally believe this book would end like it did, but by that point it made sense. The story was very creative and well written. I didn’t love Maggie/Meg at the beginning, but really grew to root for her by the end.
May 13, 2017
Loved, loved this story. We all ask the 'what if?' Question and in this dual timeline story we get to see the heroine Maggie go back in time and make a different choice at an essential point in her life. Maggie's journey is really one of self discovery rather than which guy she ends up with, but it won't stop you turning the pages and reading into the wee hours of the morning to find out!
December 26, 2021
Is there a time in your life where you question what if? What if you had taken a different path? Would you be happier? Maggie is unhappy with her marriage and is given the chance to do it differently. Would she be happier if she had left boring old Dan and went off with charismatic, ambitious Jude?
I loved how this book explored relationships and what really makes them work. I felt it had a truth to how hard marriage can be but also how amazing. And Maggie and Becca's friendship was a love story I loved. I ended this book in tears.
I loved how this book explored relationships and what really makes them work. I felt it had a truth to how hard marriage can be but also how amazing. And Maggie and Becca's friendship was a love story I loved. I ended this book in tears.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 136 reviews