Synopsis

From the acclaimed author of Forever, Interrupted and After I Docomes a breathtaking new novel about a young woman whose fate hinges on the choice she makes after bumping into an old flame; in alternating chapters, we see two possible scenarios unfold—with stunningly different results.

At the age of twenty-nine, Hannah Martin still has no idea what she wants to do with her life. She has lived in six different cities and held countless meaningless jobs since graduating college. On the heels of leaving yet another city, Hannah moves back to her hometown of Los Angeles and takes up residence in her best friend Gabby’s guestroom. Shortly after getting back to town, Hannah goes out to a bar one night with Gabby and meets up with her high school boyfriend, Ethan.

Just after midnight, Gabby asks Hannah if she’s ready to go. A moment later, Ethan offers to give her a ride later if she wants to stay. Hannah hesitates. What happens if she leaves with Gabby? What happens if she leaves with Ethan?

In concurrent storylines, Hannah lives out the effects of each decision. Quickly, these parallel universes develop into radically different stories with large-scale consequences for Hannah, as well as the people around her. As the two alternate realities run their course, Maybe in Another Life raises questions about fate and true love: Is anything meant to be? How much in our life is determined by chance? And perhaps, most compellingly: Is there such a thing as a soul mate?

Hannah believes there is. And, in both worlds, she believes she’s found him.

Review

It doesn’t matter if we don’t mean to do the things we do. It doesn’t mean if it was an accident or a mistake. It doesn’t even matter if we think this is all up to fate. Because regardless of our destiny, we still have to answer for our actions. We make choices, big and small, every day of our lives, and those choices have consequences. We have to face those consequences head-on, for better or worse. We don’t get to erase them just by saying we didn’t mean to. Fate or not, our lives are still the results of our choices. I’m starting to think that when we don’t own them, we don’t own ourselves.

Maybe In Another Time is such an engaging book. I loved the concept but at the same time I hated it. I’m that type of a person who wants resolution. I don’t want open-ended stories but, I’d let it pass for this book.

Hannah Martin, who’s the narrator of this story, is a twenty-something year old woman who doesn’t have any idea what to do with her life. She’s lived in different cities, did odd jobs, and is still clueless which path to take. Finding out that the guy she’s in love with is married with two kids seemed to be the final nail in the coffin and made her decide to go back the only place she considered home, Los Angeles.

I can somehow relate to her situation. Sometimes when I reflect on where I am today, I can’t help but compare myself to my friends and classmates before. I feel like I’m being left behind. That I haven’t found my purpose in life. That I’m already an adult and haven’t really did anything that meaningful in life that could impact other people. And sometimes, I can’t help but question what am I doing with my life? But then, a while back I encountered this message shared by my friend in Facebook:

This made me think and realize that I will also come to that point in my life on my own time. I may have made a lot of detours all throughout but I’ll get there. Maybe those things I would have wanted to happen wasn’t really meant to happen after all. That I was meant for something more. That I don’t have to get jealous of what my friends have already achieved and instead focus on what I do want to achieve. Maybe it’s not yet my time. 🙂

The book is told in concurrent story lines based on two decisions she could have made. I’m amazed at how the author presented two different plots based on a single decision alone. There are still of a lot of what-if’s in my mind based on Hannah’s decision. I’m torn as to which prefect ending I would’ve chosen should I be the one in her shoes. Should I choose the one where she end’s up with Henry or the one with Ethan in it? I think the author’s point in creating this story is that in whatever decisions we make – be it big or small, it would always have an impact on our lives, but it will always lead us to where we should be. As Hannah’s mantra is, if it’s meant to happen, it will happen. You will end up just where you were meant to be. The ride could either be smooth or rough, but you’ll get there. I do believe, He is always watching us and he knows how our story will end even before it started.

Quotable Quotes

Life is long and full of an infinite number of decisions. I have to think that the small ones don’t matter, that I’ll end up where I need to end up no matter what I do.

When you sit there and wish things had happened differently, you can’t just wish away the bad stuff. You have to think about all the good stuff you might lose, too. Better just to stay in the now and focus on what you can do better in the future.

I think I have to believe that life will work out the way it needs to. If everything that happens in the world is just a result of chance and there’s no rhyme or reason to any of it, that’s just too chaotic for me to handle. I’d have to go around questioning every decision I’ve ever made, every decision I will ever make. If our fate is determined with every step we take . . . it’s too exhausting. I’d prefer to believe that things happen as they are meant to happen.

That’s what you do when you want something. You don’t look for reasons why it won’t work. You look for reasons why it will.

It doesn’t matter if we don’t mean to do the things we do. It doesn’t mean if it was an accident or a mistake. It doesn’t even matter if we think this is all up to fate. Because regardless of our destiny, we still have to answer for our actions. We make choices, big and small, every day of our lives, and those choices have consequences. We have to face those consequences head-on, for better or worse. We don’t get to erase them just by saying we didn’t mean to. Fate or not, our lives are still the results of our choices. I’m starting to think that when we don’t own them, we don’t own ourselves.

I’m just going to do my best and live under the assumption that if there are things in this life that we are supposed to do, if there are people in this world we are supposed to love, we’ll find them. In time. The future is so incredibly unpredictable that trying to plan for it is like studying for a test you’ll never take. I’m OK in this moment.

You don’t need to find the perfect thing all the time. Just find one that works, and go with it.

It’s very easy to rationalize what you’re doing when you don’t know the faces and the names of the people you might hurt. It’s very easy to choose yourself over someone else when it’s an abstract.

I don’t believe that being in love absolves you of anything. I no longer believe that all’s fair in love and war. I’d go so far as to say your actions in love are not an exception to who you are. They are, in fact, the very definition of who you are.

If you love someone, if you think you could make them happy for the rest of your life together, then nothing should stop you. You should be prepared to take them as they are and deal with the consequences. Relationships aren’t neat and clean. They’re ugly and messy, and they make almost no sense except to the two people in them. That’s what I think. I think if you truly love someone, you accept the circumstances; you don’t hide behind them.

You can only forgive yourself for the mistakes you made in the past once you know you’ll never make them again.

From experience, I can tell you that if you go around trying to figure out what’s fair in life or whether you deserve something or not, that’s a rabbit hole that is hard to climb out of.

In general, I find that when you are doing something you are not supposed to be doing, the best course of action is to act as if you are absolutely supposed to be doing it.

We can’t say what we would do in other circumstances. We can only know what we will do with the ones we face.

I think as long as you’re happy and you’re doing something good with your life, it really doesn’t matter whether you went out and found the perfect thing or you chose what you knew you could make work for you.

It’s sort of absurd, isn’t it? How we grab on to facts and consequences looking to blame or exonerate ourselves? This has nothing to do with him. I chose to go home with Gabby and Mark because that’s the choice I made. Nine billion choices I’ve made over the course of my life could have changed where I am right now and where I’m headed. There’s no sense focusing on just one. Unless you want to punish yourself.

Women don’t need to be thin to be valuable.

“You think too much,” he says. “That’s your problem. You’re trying too hard to find the perfect answer when an answer will do.

I was reading a book about the cosmos recently,” he says, and then he looks around and goes, “Hold on, trust me, this relates.” The crowd laughs again. “And I was reading about different theories about the universe. I was really taken with this one theory that states that everything that is possible happens. That means that when you flip a quarter, it doesn’t come down heads or tails. It comes up heads and tails. Every time you flip a coin and it comes up heads, you are merely in the universe where the coin came up heads. There is another version of you out there, created the second the quarter flipped, who saw it come up tails. This is happening every second of every day. The world is splitting further and further into an infinite number of parallel universes where everything that could happen is happening. This is completely plausible, by the way. It’s a legitimate interpretation of quantum mechanics. It’s entirely possible that every time we make a decision, there is a version of us out there somewhere who made a different choice. An infinite number of versions of ourselves are living out the consequences of every single possibility in our lives. What I’m getting at here is that I know there may be universes out there where I made different choices that led me somewhere else, led me to someone else.” He looks at Gabby. “And my heart breaks for every single version of me that didn’t end up with you.”

Rating: 4/5