Maybe In Another Life by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Goodreads

Publication Date: July 7th, 2015

Pages: 342

Genre: Contemporary

I (who rarely reads contemporary) has become a Taylor Jenkins Reid fangirl. I love her books. Why did no one tell me about her before March??? This is such a sweet, simple coming of age story that really packs a punch.

This follows Hannah Martin, a 29 year old who's lost in life. She's moved back to her hometown (LA) after living in multiple cities and taking on unfulfilling jobs. Hannah is single again after a string of meaningless relationships. On her first night back, she goes to a bar with her friend Gabby, Gabby's husband, high school friends and her first love Ethan. Around midnight, Gabby and her husband are going to leave but Ethan asked her to stay. Does Hannah go home with Gabby or stay with Ethan? In alternating chapters, the story follows both options.

I actually really liked how the book was done. It showed that faith has a weird way of doing things, and how some decisions affect everything in your life but in other ways we get to exactly where we need to be no matter the journey. Hannah was a compelling narrator and her friendship with Gabby was really the most interesting part of the story. I've said for years, but I love a good girlmance. Give me two girl best friends in literature, that don't fight over boys and support each other through thick and thin. The romance was sweet, but Gabby's friendship was the best.

Novels a lot of time, only seem to show coming of age stories in teenage years, but forget that sometimes we get lost at other times. Hannah was stuck and didn't know where to go in her life. It's refreshing to see what happens when your in your 20s and others still don't know what to do, because spoiler: no one knows what were doing in our lives. Hannah had a sense of maturity about her, she just didn't know where she was going or how to get there. Throughout the novel, choices she made and things that were decided for her shaped her life and gave her purpose.

I really liked it honestly, it was just a simple, light read that dealt with real life issues.

4.5/5

I'd recommend it to anyone who likes contemporary or just feels a little lost in their life and needs something to give them hope again. Personally, I think it's a little better for mid 20s and up, purely for the fact it's a little more relatable to that age group. As we still don't know what we are doing, but it feels like everyone else does. Content wise, totally fine for teenagers, I just think it's not as relatable to them.

Cheers,

Jen