This story sounded so good and I instantly loved the mmc. The fmc I couldn't get on with in most of her "lives". It wasn't quite the story I was expecting and ended up being an OK read which had me skimming some parts.

I could not get into this book, ultimately it was not form me and I could not finish it. It may be one for other readers

I was very intrigued by the concept of this book, but unfortunately it fell flat for me. In the beginning there were all these basically short stories about the main characters, but these dragged on for too long for my taste. I quickly lost interest, and after that it became hard for me to keep my focus on the story.

Wow what a wonderful, magical read! I loved having to ‘work for it’ with the central mystery and I loved the story. Many thanks to Netgalley for an arc of this book.

☆☆☆½

Meet Me in Another Life was an interesting book to say the least though I didn’t feel like it was at first. The first chapter I didn’t really like the main character (Thora) and thought the chapter was a little meh so when the chapter changed and bought along a new story I warmed up a little to the book. As the story grew I enjoyed the characters more and the changing of the lives kept me just about intrigued enough to continue reading. Not far in I felt iffy about the book when Thora and Santi became lovers and then like a chapter later he became her brother and then the chapter after that her adoptive father like I didn’t really see the point of putting those chapters next to each other or even them being lovers (especially as that wasn’t the kind of relationship they had), though I did enjoy how we explored all their different relationships (before they remembered) and how they were a constant in each other’s lives and how it changed every new cycle.
The rest of the book was interesting but I didn’t really care for it a lot, like I wanted to read the book and I wanted to unearth the truth of what was happening but I didn’t feel that strongly compelled to finish it, like halfway-ish through I felt a little stuck, like the book just wasn’t moving although that definitely changed towards the end.
The ending definitely took me by surprise which was nice after a book of mainly mediocrity but although the ending was good I was left me feeling a little unsatisfied.

Side note: I feel MMIAL could make a more interesting show than it was a book.

Thank you to Netgalley for the eARC.

Oh what a beautifully told story. I absolutely loved it and I can’t imagine anyone who won’t. Think Time Traveller's Wife crossed with Life after Life. Stunning.

This is, without doubt, going in my top 5 books of the year. Original and engaging, the novel cleverly weaves elements of romance, thriller and sci-fi together to create sheer brilliance. The structure is really clever and helps to build tension as the denouement approaches and the reader reaches the heart-breaking conclusion of the story. Highly recommended.

I found the first couple of chapters of this quite hard to get into... but I am glad I stuck with it!

Thora and Santi are destined to meet repeatedly through a multitude of lives - sometimes siblings, lovers, friends... the same age, decades apart.... but why?

This is a beautifully written book which is sad, funny and thoughtful.

Two people meet, over and over again. One is logical and cynical, the other is spiritual and open-minded, but both are scientifically inclined and both long to reach the stars.

As a reader, you follow Thera and Santi as they cycle through relationship after relationship with each other – fellow students, teacher/student, husband/wife, father/daughter, carer/patient – exploring their love of the stars and the meaning of life against a tapestry of recurring motifs (a scarf, a cat, a knife, a tattoo, a stopped clock, a lighthouse, words on a wall, different stars). Then, suddenly, as strangers (aged 15 and 45) they begin to remember and the whole plot shifts.

I thought from the cover and blurb that this was some kind of time-travel romance, but there is actually little romance and no time travel involved. Instead this is an exploration of how well we can know each other (and ourselves) and how we find meaning and purpose in our lives as we float through space, amongst the stars but rarely looking up.

Plot, characters and worldbuilding all came together beautifully to create a compelling story that I couldn’t put down. The ending was poignant and fitting, and left me feeling emotionally wrung out but philosophically stimulated (not a sentence I’ve said before!)

Review by Steph Warren of Bookshine and Readbows blog

This was a very interesting read! It somehow felt vast yet very localised, which was super intriguing and thought provoking. I felt the protagonists' fear and hope and annoyance, both of them going through this unique situation and the shared feeling of displacement. I enjoyed it a lot!

I find this sort of book confusing
. When the time travellers wife first came out it was an interesting new concept. I found this novel difficult to understand, confusing as to the real relationship between the two main characters Thora and Santi., felt I really never got to know either of them properly.
The ending was a suprise and quite frustrating.

This book played with my mind! How many lives could one person have - in fact, two people? It is like a series of short stories where the characters are similar but different each time though they have the same names! At first I was a little confused but by 'life 3' I was getting used to the changes and looked forward to the reincarnation of these two characters.

Think 'The Time Traveler's Wife' but with both characters time-hopping and being reincarnated as people with different life stories. I got very caught up in the reinventions and looked forward to their next 'adventure'. Each fresh start was completely different and I am in awe of Silvey's ability to plot so many discrete lives for what is essentially the same people!

The ending was a little harder to follow. The final chapters of the book become quite cerebral and quite abstract. I am not sure how I expected this novel to end, but the 'purpose' for the time travel had a twist that I had not predicted.

Beware, this is not the story you think you might be expecting! Thora and Santi, Santi and Thora meet and die and meet again through various lifetimes and scenarios. The chapters are pretty short but the conversations the pair have in their different guises seem long and repetitive especially in the middle of the book. The concept is weird, bizarre and possibly the most unique novel of the year! Have to say I wasn’t much keen on the whys and wherefores of the tale and found it a bit disappointing. Recommended for anyone in the mood for something different or quirky for a change from the usual offerings.

Thank you for a review copy!
Meet Me in Another Life started as a romance and I found it interesting that each chapter was like a short story. The ending however surprised me; I wasn’t expecting it to finish as a sci-fi. The book had mixed genres, mystery, magic, and romance. The story focuses on the quantum theory of reincarnation which is one of my favourite topics to read about.

This was the most confusing book I have ever read. The first couple of reincarnations were relatively intriguing, by the fourth and fifth it had become very boring and predictable.. This was most definitely not to my taste.

The book appealed to me because it explored the same characters meeting up in different lives. The story could have been edited down, and I got a bit bored of it. I also felt the character backgrounds, names, and decades in the time frame didn’t really make it believable with the past lives. I would have liked this to have been a better story as it had a lot of potential.

Heartfelt and beautifully imagined, meet me in another life shines brightly.
Many Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review

Plot summary:
Thori and Santi meet, they are strangers in a new city and recognise the kindred spirit in the other. This is only one of the connections they share, and they meet again through multiple lives.
As blurred memories come to the forefront, they come to a shocking realisation- they need to discover why they have this attachment before their lives come to one final end

Review:
Plot and World Building – This was a fantastic plot, the interlinked lives and story flowed very well and kept me glued to the page in an emotionally written story. The ending in particular, without spoilers, was not where I thought it would end up but was definitely something that made this book memorable. Overall pacing of the story was well worked and kept the story moving.

Characters and Development-Both Santi and Thori have fantastic character qualities, and they both have opportunities to develop as the story progresses and honestly it’s so interesting to see them develop through different lives they live but still have a sameness about them.

Final Thoughts:
This is a beautifully bittersweet story that I’m hoping leads to fantastic things for this author.

A marvellous tale of lives lived many times over … or so it would seem

“You can’t ever know someone completely. You’d have to be everything to them, and that’s impossible.”

Thora Lišková and Santiago López encounter each other as university students in Cologne late at night outside a party, messing up their introductions so thoroughly that they stage a do-over, and eventually bond through a shared love of stargazing and by climbing the ruined clock tower together. Both long to travel to the stars and explore the universe; Santi who believes in fate and wants to see God, and Thora who has always wanted to be “elsewhere.” But Santi’s sudden tragic death puts paid to their relationship developing any further – until next we discover Santi López the science teacher living in Cologne and facing a new pupil in his class, the seven-year-old Thora Lišková, who tells him she wants to be an astronaut when she grows up …

Life after life after life after life … Thora and Santi continue to meet repeatedly as different incarnations of themselves, and in quite different relationships to each other and those around them. As each of their successive lives plays out, fragments of their past lives begin to jog their memories, and they start to seek each other out, trying to piece together what is happening to them. Is what they are experiencing a form of reincarnation? Why do they keep being thrown together in endlessly varying ways? Are they enduring a kind of punishment? Or are they supposed to learn from their experiences, to improve themselves in their next lives? Is it all part of a divine plan, as Santi believes? Or is it, as Thora thinks, an elaborate cosmic game? And who is the tall man with long hair and a bright blue coat who keeps reappearing throughout their different lives to tell them “You’re here”?

Superbly plotted and constructed, Meet Me in Another Life is a masterful, gripping read that will keep the reader hooked until its powerful and moving end. The story – or, rather, stories – of Thora and Santi explore the multitude of ways in which human beings can relate to each other, whilst maintaining the integrity and believability of its two protagonists. Dizzying, unexpected, and even shocking turnarounds from one life to the next serve to heighten the suspense as layers of reality are slowly unveiled. Tension builds as each new life and relationship reveal new traits and hitherto unimagined depths to both Thora and Santi, rendering both characters enormously sympathetic albeit vastly different, and making their unbreakable connection over numerous lifetimes ever more poignant.

Although bittersweet and heartrending, this tale somehow at the same time manages to be joyful and uplifting and to convey an unwavering faith in the ability of people to connect, understand, and love one another. Engrossing, exciting, and complex, the story has an extraordinary sense of purpose, as the author lays intriguing clues to the mystery throughout – and yet each of Thora and Santi’s lives is so compelling that the question at the centre of it all is temporarily forgotten, so riveted is the reader by the new lives and relationship the protagonists are navigating. One could argue that it is an amalgam of many genres – sci-fi, fantasy, speculative fiction, romance, adventure, thriller – but Meet Me in Another Life defies any form of categorisation and that is all to the good. A brilliant debut novel and most highly recommended.

Jo-Anne Blanco / Arwen Evenstar
Elite Group received a copy of the book to review

Complex and complicated. A book that needs to be read with attention to detail as nothing is unimportant. No detail is just for padding, everything is full of meaning. Even the genre of the story is up for debate, is it a romance? A thriller? A mystery? A sci-fi story? The answer is all of these and more. I loved this book, it is easily up there in my top ten of the year and I’m happy to recommend it to everyone.

Book Review | Meet Me in Another Life by Catriona Silvey

⭐⭐✨(2.25/5)

[ad • review copy]
Received via NetGalley.

Thora and Santi first meet as university students, but when tragedy strikes they will never meet again...until they do meet again. And again. And again...in another life?

I decided to request this novel because the premise drew me in. It sounded so intriguing, and even though the novel was listed as fantasy/sci-fi, something I do not usually read, I felt like I would potentially like this one.

Meeting Santi and Thora in a host of different lives was really interesting and explores the idea of how our lives could be different and the affect these things could have on us. As an exploration of characters in this way, the novel gave me a lot to think about and I liked that. The relationship between Thora and Santi also grew on me throughout the novel, with the ending being extremely emotional.

Sadly, I found that I wasn't hooked by this novel. Of course, a big question in the novel is why and how do Thora and Santi keep meeting in new lives? But the thing is, I genuinely had no idea where this novel would go, to the extent that I wasn't gripped to find out.

It turns out, I never would have guessed the answer, but as the tension rose I did get more into the novel in a different way to being earlier interested by their different lives and characters.

With the characters leading many lives, lots of themes are explored which makes this interesting, but topics such as science and religion are particularly discussed.

Unfortunately, this book wasn't for me. I would like to emphasise that this is not because of anything bad to do with the book, but is simply because this book is not for me, and that is fine.

In the end, I am glad that I read it, I definitely did take things away from it, and did like aspects of it, but overall, I tried something out of my comfort zone and it did not entirely pay off this time.

I think this book would appeal to someone who enjoys character driven narratives, and who also likes sci-fi.