This book put me through a rollercoaster of emotions, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's a raw and accurate depiction of trauma, grief and heartbreak. The protagonist, although flawed, is very loveable, and I was rooting for him to be happy throughout. I will definitely be recommending this book to people I know, thank you for giving me the opportunity to review it.

Rating:⭐️⭐️
Sin Rating:❌❌

I really struggled reading this. The book is well written but I found myself being a little bored, maybe I wasn’t in the right mindset for it.

Initially I found the story very interesting and wanted to learn more about the family tragedies Nick experienced, but eventually found the plot to be a little samey. I almost DNF but pushed through to the end because I was curious to see how it would unfold.

The story is told across multiple different timelines and switches every other page which I found extremely confusing. The fact that there are many similar character names probably made it even worse for me.

The plot isn’t straightforward, the book is about the exploration of life and relationships… and I found it agonisingly sad. Also, I found the main character fairly annoying and kept wanting to shake him awake!

Thank you @netgalley for the advanced reader copy!

Very good book - amazing to see my hometown in fiction. Characters were relatable and believable and I enjoyed the Normal People-esque romance.

Equal parts joyous and heartbreaking, Another Life is the love story of Anna and Nick. Despite growing up in the same town, their upbringing and experiences are very different .

A complex love story with a difference - a beautiful read.

I enjoyed this read but I did find it a little confusing at times so it took quite a long time to finish.

Prepare yourself to run a gamut of emotions whilst reading 'Another Life.' I sobbed, smiled, felt sad and elated whilst lost in its pages.

Another Life jumps backwards and forwards through time - it is not your 'typical love story.' Anna and Nick are our main protagonists and as their story unfolds, you begin to really envelop and dedicate yourself to their journey.

Well written, lovely, honest detailed characters, and the words simply flow from the page.
I won't give the ending away, but what a novel!

Nick and Anna work at their local cinema one hot, heady summer. When Anna, who's mysterious and beautiful, comes into Nick's life, he falls passionately in love. Their summer ignites with first love, cigarettes and music.

But Anna is afraid to give up everything she's ever believed in, and everyone she's ever loved - and going public with Nick would see her ostracised from the community she's belonged to her whole life. She chooses the security of the familiar, and Nick doesn't stop her.

When, following a tragedy, Anna reappears in Nick's life, rekindling their relationship leaves Anna and Nick facing a terrible choice between a love that's endured, and the promises they've made to others since.

'Another Life' is a wonderful story, complete with believable, empathetic characters who will stay with me for the rest of my life. Anna and Nick, as well as the supporting characters, are distinct and drawn perfectly. I can't stop thinking about Sal, Nick's brother, in particular. Even the "antagonists" of this novel (if they can really be called that) have their redeeming features and that's what makes what Jodie Chapman has written so perfectly real.

Told through a dual timeline, I found myself transported back to 2003 when Anna and Nick met for the first time and genuinely felt returned to my life at that time. Jodie Chapman has managed to capture the essence of that summer perfectly as well as the obsession of first love and forbidden fruit.

The themes of 'Another Life' range from love in all its forms - whether familial, romantic or religious - to grief, guilt and betrayal. Chapman has created a complex, believable world that leaps off the page with all the twists and turns of real life. The emotions in this book are so raw that I physically ached at times.

Absolutely perfect.

I thought this book was really good & I will recommend it to people. Thanks for the opportunity to read and review this book.

The story of Anna and Nick throughout the years, their love and their near misses and pure misses, similar to one day but not quite enough magic in it!

Fans of David Nichols and Hanya Yanagihara will fall completely head-over-heels for the entwined tales of Anna, Nick and his brother Sal: weighed down by tragedy and beautifully rendered in this extraordinarily well-crafted debut novel. The opening chapter starts us off with hand-to-mouth heartbreak, and the intensity of the story only builds from there: Chapman has a brilliant talent for creating vignettes, bringing all the elements neatly together like a skilled film director – you really get the sense that every tiny aspect of each scene has been thoughtfully considered so readers can instantly connect with her characters, snapping their hopes and longings into perfect focus. The narrative jumps around in time, giving us sun-bleached, faded, yet much-loved memories of times past, then whipping us back to the cold hard present, before returning us once again to filtered recollections of what once was, slowly bringing the characters’ tales together. Nick turns each memory over in his mind, handling them like precious stones, looking for new facets through which to understand events: at one point he says of a day with Anna that the memories were “like a movie montage. Not quite real, a little cliche, all the best bits. Maybe the words weren’t spoken exactly like I remember, but you get a sense of it, and what really do we ever possess of another human being but a sense of them?” This sweeping, cinematic love story is perfect to lose yourself in on a warm summer’s day – bring tissues.

Featured in June’s Book Club in Cambridge Edition Magazine – thanks to #NetGalley for the advance copy! https://online.bright-publishing.com/view/765983352/15/

A moving book about love, family ties and loss. I enjoyed reading this book, and would strongly recommend it to anyone.

I'm always worried when a book is described as "the new" whatever. The links to previously loved stories inevitably leave a person disappointed. In this sense I feel sorry for Jodie Chapman because her book was described as "the new One Day" which kind of give it unfair expectations to live up to. One day was such a well loved and well known book that it is an impossible standard to reach.

So for that reason I am going to try my hardest to judge Another Life without past book interference. Another Life is pretty good. It follows the relationship between Anna and Nick who's on-again-off-again romance seems to transcend the years and through external interference and equally their own flaws they can never seem to get it together to make it work. You bounce from side to side thinking that these two need to be together to why they heck are these two trying to be together. You can see that they are good and bad for each other in equal measure.

Whilst Another Life focuses on the relationship between the two characters, it really is Nick's story. We watch as he grows from boy to man and tries his hardest to be what society expects of him even if it comes at a cost to his personal happiness. Chapman looks at his relationship with women, with his parents - in particular his father, fraternal relationships and many others. This was in interesting choice by Chapman who could have easily written from a female perspective and Another Life would have been a completely different story. It was a bold choice that paid off.

Another Life by Jodie Chapman is available now.

For more information regarding Penguin (@PenguinUKBooks) please visit www.penguin.co.uk.

Sorry but this one was just not for me, it was all over the place - the stories that should have felt meaningful just felt painfully slow and drawn out, in the end I really struggled to even finish.

ᴡʜᴀᴛ ɪ ʟɪᴋᴇᴅ: This book was a real slow burner for me, which I’m not usually a fan of, but once finished I’ve been thinking about this a lot. It’s a long-ish book which means the story has time to breathe, which was great for the characters and relationships. I wasn’t sure when reading how I wanted the book to end, but I did really appreciate the ending and think it was the right resolution for the characters. I loved that this was set in Ashford, it was so descriptive and never have I read a book set there before - so relatable and real. You can tell the author grew up there from the descriptions. Now I’ve finished the book I can really appreciate the story pacing and structure - I think it was harder to see this clearly whilst reading.

ᴡʜᴀᴛ ɪ ᴅɪᴅɴ'ᴛ ʟɪᴋᴇ: I found it hard to keep track of the characters and relationships in earlier chapters as there are a lot of time jumps. I found it better when I started to read around 50-80 pages a day instead of 10-30.

ʀᴇᴄᴏᴍᴍᴇɴᴅ ɪꜰ: For me this was a cross between the film When Harry Met Sally, meets if Normal People/Sally Rooney meets One Day by David Nichols. If you like romance books, books set over a huge space of time.

A wonderfully well-written story The book really brought the characters to life. There were a few great plot twists which I really enjoyed. Highly recommended.

It's not often a book will have me crying my eyes out, but only several pages in that's exactly what this book did.
Following the lives of Nick, his young love Anna, and his brother Sal, the story takes us between their early lives in the 1980's and their current lives.
This is a story of life, lost love, and family.
It's a beautifully written story that pulls you along on a roller coaster or emotions and what ifs.
The author pulls on her experience of being a jehova witness when after a summer of falling in love Anna has to walk away from Nick, giving up on their love to follow the life that was set out for her.
For Nick she was always the one that got away.
So when a tragedy brings her back in to his life we wonder if they will be able to finish what they started all those years ago.
This is a story that will live with you long after you've put the book down for the last time.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It tells the story of Nick and Anna who meet and develope feelings for each other whilst working at a cinema over the summer. The relationship doesn't work out in part due to Anna's complex religion but over time we realise that Nick's family history and his own relationships with his parents and younger brother have also impacted on his ability to form relationships. Anna is always Nick's 'one that got away' and they meet or bump into one another through the years but there are always barriers. The book has a sliding doors or One Day by David Nicholas feel about it. I liked the way it skipped around time to tell the story of not just Anna and Nick but also Nick's parents and his younger brother Sal.
I'd definitely recommend a read.

I quite enjoyed Nick and Anna’s story although found it a little bitty and all over the place, where the emails ended and the story began again and where the poems ended, all in all quite a good read that overall I enjoyed.

Anna and Nick meet one summer but their path of true love isn't destined to run smoothly. Anna feels she has to follow her family's religious lifestyle and eventually marries into it while Nick is reluctant to commit at all. But this is a story not just of a couple's thwarted love but also of families, which makes it an emotional read.

I felt Another Life was in many ways better than One Day, with which it is inevitably compared. Moving easily between past and present it is beautifully written and perfect for the romantics among us. Many thanks to NetGalley and Penguin/Michael Joseph for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Beautifully written story that takes you through the lives of some really interesting, complex characters. I thought the storytelling was incredible and found the whole book really immersive, even if it was a little heartbreaking! I would love to see more from this author soon - she is a huge talent.