Thora and Santi, two strangers, have a chance encounter in a bar one evening after a mix up with their drinks. This serendipitous moment sets off a chain of events, where the pair are destined to meet time and time again in multiple different timelines.

I loved the concept of this. Thora and Santi share such a unique story - destined to meet and never remember previous lives, they must always meet but not necessarily share the same feelings and emotions each time. There is love, but it's a romantic love one time, then a familial love another time. What binds them is love, but it's a love that transcends time. It's quite whimsical at times too, and atmospheric..

It's quite a choppy book in terms of the timeline. We get snippets of some lives, and go into more depths in others and as a result the pacing and plot does suffer. Just as we're invested in one timeline, it's ripped away and we start all over again. Thora and Santi are different in each life, and it's as though we're starting all over again each time. You do always feel like there's something more going on than just the repeating of the same lives in different ways, but it does take a while to get there and I did struggle with the slow plot at the beginning but the intrigue kept me going.

Interesting story that holds a powerful message, I just wish the pacing was a bit quicker at the expense of fewer timelines.

I thought that this book was very well planned and plotted and enjyed it very much. Thora and Santi are great characters in their many meetings and relationships. I was disappointed with the ending as the book turned into the one genre (apart from horror) that I try to avoid. But the first 90% was excellent so 4 stars from me. With thanls to NetGalley and the publishers and author for an e-ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review

I really liked the idea of this book in the respect of it being almost a collection of mini-stories involving the same two characters. It's also quite a unique concept - or at least, I've not read anything like it before.

Whilst some of the stories at the beginning we relatively engaging, there were later chapters/'lives' where the characters appeared as varying relations to one another that, for me, just didn't hold much appeal nor add any value. It may have been the fact that the first half of the book felt quite disjointed and rather confusing.

Further into it, you come to understand why the characters are meeting one another over and over and though this was a good twist, it felt very out of sync with the tone of the rest of the book. I didn't particularly enjoy the direction it ended up going in. I also didn't find Thora and Santi all that engaging, which is a shame since the spotlight was on them throughout. They were having repetitive conversations and since the reader meets them at so many different ages, in different relationships and lifestyles, I felt the lack of linearity somewhat compromised the depth of their character development.

All of that said, I enjoyed Catriona Silvey's style of writing and I actually think Meet Me in Another Life would translate really well to the big screen.

Thank you kindly to HarperCollins UK for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Meet me in another life by Catriona Silvey

Well what can I say about this book other than I loved it ! It's the best book I've read this year ( and I've read lots )

Thora & Santi meet , and then in another life they meet again , and again.
I love the fact they meet in all the circumstances you do meet people in. Friends , lovers , partners , and people you just can't get along with at all.
Sometimes barely fleeting , and other times not so . Each relationship means something , and they learn a new way of being , a life lesson to carry you through this life and into the next.
A compelling , clever and brilliant read. Bravo.

Thanks, Harper Collins, for a copy of Meet me in another life by Catriona Silvey. I have heard mixed reviews for this book, and I thought I would give the benefit of the doubt.
The story follows Santiago and Thora who are immortal and live over and over again in different lives and ages and different partners every time. Trying to live their lives better and more meaningful from their last one. But still remember snippets of their past lives. Thora seems to live her life to the full whereas Santiago writes everything that happens down, trying to figure out what the universe is telling him.
I really wanted to like this book and although this is not a bad book, but it is just not for me. The basic premise I thought was interesting, But I didn’t feel that each of their lives linked in any way. I couldn’t connect to this book at all so much I could not finish it. 2.5 stars from me.

I can’t adequately describe this book or how much I loved this book, but I did. It is brilliant. I knew from the very beginning that I would enjoy this book and I was so right. It is such a complete piece of fiction. It is very cleverly written and so well plotted.. The writing perfectly builds the story up layer upon layer, life after life. The two main characters Thora and Santi are brilliantly written, as we get to know them lifetime after lifetime. This book isn’t a romance but it is about relationships, and love. This story evolves and you can feel yourself evolving with it. This book will stay with me for sometime and is definitely one of my favourite reads of 2021.

Thanks to HarperVoyager and NetGalley for an e-ARC of this book.

I loved this book. It started strong and didn't let up until the end. I can't even remember what made me request it on NetGalley, but I'm so glad I did.

Thora and Santi both live in Cologne in Germany. When the book opens, they meet at a party, but very soon afterwards Santi dies. And so begins countless cycles of Thora and Santi meeting, living and dying in Cologne, always as different people to their previous lives. Sometimes they are siblings, sometimes parent and child, sometimes married.

So I was only a few chapters in before I started speculating: magic or sci-fi. Obviously I won't give the game away by telling you how they keep meeting, but trust me: it's good.

Quite apart from the great plot, this book also has characters you can really believe in. Admittedly, the author has countless lifetimes to paint these people, but still they really come across as fully formed people.

This book has the wows and the feels and I can't wait until it's published so that I can talk to other people who've read it.

I absolutely adored this story. There was something so captivating about Thora and Santi's story and I fell fully into their world experiencing so many different emotions as the story unfolded. I wasn't prepared for the outcome but I thoroughly enjoyed the trip to get there. It's very hard to write a review for a book that captured me so much. The sheer brilliance of the story, the stunning author voice, and the love I felt for both of these characters as they struggled to uncover the truth of why. This is such a clever story and so unique. I can't wait to add the paperback to my shelves and recommend it to all my friends.

I loved this - such an original story with fabulous characters and a great setting. It made me want to go back to Cologne and hunt out all the places in the book! In some ways it was a novel of two halves, with a very different feel to it once the central mystery had been revealed, but I enjoyed both halves equally and it kept me gripped right to the end.

Many thanks to HarperCollins UK & netgalley for the eARC!!

This was a beautiful captivating tale that made me question a lot about the world, the choices we make, and the people we are to each other.

It was definitely a unique read.

I thoroughly enjoyed learning about all the different sides to Santi and Thora and the people they could be, which I thought the author did an incredible job of characterising. These two characters and the relationships they form between each other and everyone else definitely enhanced the story.

The end was gripping and the premise was incredibly interesting, but unfortunately the execution fell a little flat…

This book had the potential to do so much *more* than it did.

However, I did overall really enjoy this, mostly due to the characters and ending !!
Would definitely recommend to fans of ‘The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue’ or anyone looking for a unique book about human relationships and the impacts of our choices :)

Beautiful read. What initially drew me to this book was the idea of past lives, of these two characters coming back again and again but somehow always finding each other. While this would form the basis for a pretty awesome story of star crossed lovers, Catriona Silvey takes this idea and makes it so much more interesting by switching this up. In some lives Thora and Santi are together, in others they have a strictly platonic relationship, in others they’re family but at the core – they have this complicated and enduring bond, this love that surpasses it all. Recommend as a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

DNF
Sadly this just wasnt for me. I think it is definitely a marmite book and I found it a little tiresome. I probably shouldn't have asked for it but I liled the spund of the fate aspect and wanted to try something a bit different. Sadly I didn't finish it.

This is a beautifully written story about two characters and the multiple lives they lead. Thora and Santi meet up, in each new life and although they are not always a romantic couple there is something wonderfully romantic about this whole book. I was expecting a time travel story but that is not what this is, it is so much deeper than that and it really made me think about life. A fantastic fantasy, or science fiction perhaps, that will stay with me for a very long time.

An unusual book. At first it seemed like short stories linked by repeated character names, then it developed and grew. At one time, I wondered if it was going to be too repetitive but it became clear that more was happening than at first appeared.

This is a philosophical book, which questions existence and reality. It is also surreal, a bit sci-fi, and puzzling. Why do the protagonists, plus a few select friends, appear to be the only people living in a rather strange version of Cologne? Why do they die and live again, time after time? Which versions of Thora and Santi are the real ones? Which relationship - siblings, father and daughter, teacher and pupil, friends, enemies, lovers - is the real one?

The end is surprising and yet inevitable. A compelling read.

Wow! Meet Me in Another Life is a mind-blowing, mindf*ck of a book! (Please excuse my language, but it really bloody is.)

Incredibly intriguing, it left me constantly contemplating Thora and Santi’s lives, wondering and considering potential reasons and outcomes. All the time thinking what the heck is happening?! It is both compelling and frustrating at the same time, you have to keep reading, wanting to find out the answers!

I absolutely loved the relationship with Thora and Santi throughout their lives, how they became so close that they knew each other as well, if not better than themselves. The building of bonds and trust, then breaking them, and the manipulation between the two of them is fascinating.

When answers are finally revealed and the events during their various lives are shown in regards to what was truly happening, it is mindblowing. I was left thinking how obvious it seems, and yet, how amazing that I missed it! Until you know, you really don’t know. And yet, of course, that would be it! (Sorry for the ambiguousness, I don’t want to give the ending away.)

The ending itself is bittersweet and yet feels perfect in regards to the lives we have seen the characters live.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and HarperVoyager for the e-arc to review!

This book really wasn’t what I was expecting.
Meet Me In Another Life plays with the idea that some people are meant to meet, regardless of their situation and each chapter of this book shows a different life in which Thora and Santi meet each other. In some instances they are the same age and become good friends or lovers, others their relationship is that of a parent and child, siblings, student and teacher, etc. Although this is very clever, it’s also my issue with this book. Although the format does allow you to understand them and their characteristics, in each new version they have different experiences and that can change their outlooks drastically so it’s only at the end that I really felt I understood them in any way. It’s also odd to me that their relationships varied so much and I’m still unsure if I am supposed to want them to be together romantically, when I have read instances of one looking after the other as a baby, or being an adopted parent to the other.
I found the ending to be underwhelming, and the very end to be predictable. I think this is because I have read so many books about parallel universes or people able to relive lives, and this book felt very standard to that sub genre. Having said that, I think this would be a great starting point for those who haven’t read the trope, and it would be a very good and accessible entry.

A ROMANCE like no other ..... to try and explain I have no words this book is just one of those books you really need to read to understand how great this book really is without spoiling it, a groundhog day like no other.

I am so glad I got to read this and really enjoyed reading it and would highly recommend this book to others and will be buying this for a few of my friends that I know that will really love this book too. At least that way I can talk to others about it ......

This book has a great story a great concept and it will leave you feeling really happy and you won't stop thinking about it for days to come .....

It’s really difficult to put my feelings and thoughts down after finishing this amazing book it was just so different and impossible to describe it. Reading about the two main characters Santi and Thora’s lives played over and over again in so many different ways I thought may become tedious but in fact it was the opposite and I found myself completely immersed in trying to figure out where this story was going to go.
This is a truly beautifully written book, at times it was difficult to figure out what was going on but that is part of what this book is all about it’s a complex and and clever story that completely blew my mind over and over again. I wondered throughout the book just how it would end but I never expected what happened and that was a finish that I 100% never even considered it was sheer perfection.
So a book I loved I was sad to finish I loved living the lives of Santi and Thora with them it was an amazing experience, many thanks to Catriona Silvey for a five star read.
My thanks also to NetGalley and Harper Collins UK, Harper Voyager for giving me the chance to read the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book completely subverted my expectations. I was expecting a love story, and whilst that is what this is, it very much is not what it is too! I had such a soft spot for Santi! Catriona Silvey has conjured a book which feels fresh and innovative whilst exploring themes as old as time itself. I don't wish to give any spoilers so can't say much more than that. "Meet Me In Another Life" is a thoroughly enjoyable read.

'You can't ever know someone completely. You'd have to be everything to them, and that's impossible.'⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
Have you ever met someone who you felt like you already knew as soon as you met them? ⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
Have you ever wondered what your relationship with someone would look like if you'd met them under different circumstances, or at a different time in your lives, or if your relationship with them took on a different form?⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
If so, then this is definitely the book for you, as it explores those concepts in such a unique way!⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
Over countless lives, Thora and Santi learn each other in almost every way imaginable. They go from strangers, to lovers, to siblings, to patient and doctor, to teacher and student, to parent and child, to colleagues, to enemies. They are trapped in a cycle of lifetimes with blurred memories of each other and everything that came before. Their shared curiosity pushes them to keep questioning their existence in order to discover the truth of their intertwined, seemingly infinite reality, before time finally runs out.⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
I thought the writing in this story was beautiful; so many descriptions were poetic and perfectly depicted their meanings.⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
I loved that Thora and Santi were such contrasting people, with different outlooks on life and always arguing their cases. I personally related more to Santi with his faith and meaning, always searching for symbols in everything around him. I was swept up in this story, curious for answers and emotionally invested - and those are the best kind of books.⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
Hats off to Catriona Silvey because there was foreshadowing throughout, but the book went in such a surprising direction, that even though the clues registered (looking back there were clues in passages that I highlighted), they were hard to pinpoint as clues. It was a really intelligently written story!

Thank you so much for giving me the chance to read this,! It's one that will definitely stay with me!
⁣⁣⁣
One thing I will say is that I was a bit confused at the beginning of the book and about three quarters through I thought the story was starting to get away from me, but never to the point that I wouldn't have finished it. I was far too invested for that! I highly recommend this book - it's an unexpectedly beautiful escape.