Title: The Other Side of Now
Author: Paige Harbison
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Publication date: June 3, 2025
Length: 320 pages
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:
A hilarious and heartfelt novel about how loves and lives are never truly lost, for fans of Rebecca Serle and Taylor Jenkins Reid.
With a leading role on a hit TV show and a relationship with Hollywood’s latest heartthrob, Meg Bryan appears to have everything she ever wanted. But underneath the layers of makeup and hairspray, her happiness is as fake as her stage name, Lana Lord. Following a small breakdown at her thirtieth birthday party, she books an impromptu trip where she knows the grass is greener: Ireland. Specifically, the quaint little village where she and her best friend Aimee always dreamt of moving—a dream that fell apart when an accident claimed Aimee’s life a decade ago.
When Meg arrives, the people in town are so nice, treating her not as a stranger, but a friend. Except for the (extremely hot) bartender giving her the cold shoulder. Meg writes it all off as jetlag until she looks in the mirror. Her hair is no longer bleached within an inch of its life, her skin has a few natural fine lines, and her nose looks like… well, her old nose. Her real nose.
Her phone reveals hundreds of pictures of her life in this little town: with an adorable dog she doesn’t know; with the bartender who might be her (ex?) boyfriend; and at a retail job unrelated to acting. Eventually, she comes to accept that she somehow made a quantum slide into an alternate version of her life. But the most shocking realization of all? In this life, her best friend Aimee is alive and well…but wants nothing to do with Meg.
Despite her bewilderment, Meg is clear-eyed about one thing: this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to reconnect with her friend and repair what she broke. She finagles an opportunity to act in the play Aimee is writing and directing and as the project unfolds, Meg realizes that events as she remembers them may not be the only truth, and that an impossible choice looms before her.
What a great surprise! Something about the title and cover of this book caught my eye, and I requested an ARC on a whim, knowing nothing about it. The Other Side of Now turned out to be an engaging, sweet, funny look at friendship and second chances. Sure, there’s some hand-wavey alternate reality business going on, but so long as you’re not looking for concrete explanations, it’s an enjoyable journey into a woman’s incredible chance to fix some of the mistakes she’s made.
Meg Bryan (don’t laugh! She’s had to suffer enough Meg Ryan jokes throughout her life!) is the 30-year-old star (known as Lana Lord) of TV’s smash hit Brilliance (which, frankly, sounds pretty awful). She has stardom, success, and a live-in relationship with the latest Marvel star (and his abs)… and she never has a day where she feels like she can be true to herself. Or eat bread.
At the end of her rope after a miserable birthday party, Meg impetuously books a flight to Ireland, to spend a week in the small town of Avalon — home to the performing arts college she’d once hoped to attend. Way back when, she and her best friend Aimee dreamed of attending Avalon together, but when Aimee didn’t get in, Meg stayed home to attend college in Florida with her. After Aimee’s tragic death a few years later, Meg ran off to LA to forget her past and start over, and never looked back.
But now, arriving in Avalon, Meg suspects something strange is going on. The sweet little rental cottage she’s booked for the week is filled with familiar items, there’s a dog who seems to know her, and when she catches a glimpse of her own reflection, she sees her pre-Hollywood face — pre-cosmetic surgery, pre-hair coloring, pre-severe dieting. It’s who she still thinks of as her true self.
I feel a real sense of fondness for the girl in the mirror. She didn’t deserve to be changed. She didn’t deserve to be whittled into something more palatable for social media. She’s a good person who deserves carbs and sugar and whatever else makes her happy.
Even more disconcerting, when she ventures out to the local pub, a perky woman acts like they’re besties, and the very attractive bartender seems to both care for her and be mad at her. Everyone in the town knows her — but she doesn’t know them.
Eventually, Meg admits to herself that she seems to have landed in an alternate version of her own life, where she did actually attend college in Avalon and then stayed to create a life there. Even more incredible, Aimee is there too, alive and well, married and a mother — but apparently, Meg and Aimee haven’t spoken in years. Something happened, and Megan has no idea what, but she’s desperate to reconnect and try for a second chance with the friend she’s been too devastated to even mourn properly.
The set-up here is quite delicious. Meg remembers her Hollywood life, but when she tries to prove to her Avalon friend Kiera that she’s not who everyone thinks she is, she can’t. Lana Lord doesn’t exist. There’s a show called Brilliance, but someone else is the star. Aimee has lived in Avalon all along, and so has Meg. Meg has a job, a home, and an on-again/off-again love life, and it’s all wonderful… but Meg also knows that she’s somehow been dropped into a life that isn’t really her own. The more attached she becomes to this other version of her reality, the more she wants to stay forever… but she has a sneaking suspicion that it won’t last, and that she’d better make the most of this strange opportunity to be with Aimee once again.
The Other Side of Now has some very funny moments, but it has depth too. Meg seemingly had everything she’d wanted — success and fame — but clearly was terribly unhappy beneath it all. Unresolved and suppressed grief has kept Meg from truly feeling. By landing in this alternate reality, Meg finally has the chance to face her emotions, feel the pain of her loss, and come to terms with how very far she is from feeling happiness or satisfaction in her “real” life.
I enjoyed Meg as a character, and Kiera is a total hoot. Seeing Meg and Aimee work through conflict that neither of them fully understands is quite powerful, and I also loved seeing Meg struggling to figure out life in a town that she’s supposedly lived in for a long time. There are plenty of silly moments, but also quite lovely instances of connection and simple joys.
As I mentioned, this isn’t a sci-fi book, and there’s no firm answer as to the why and how of it all. To enjoy this book, we have to accept the premise and let it flow. I found it really moving, and also very entertaining — and really like Meg’s thoughts on the snippets of memories of a different life that pop up for her unexpectedly:
What if her soul knows? What if all our souls know things? What if that’s what instinct is? What if that really is the explanation for gut feelings, intuition, déjà vu, kismet, and everything else? What if it’s our souls, remembering or knowing the truths of all our other lives?
The Other Side of Now does have romance in it as well, but it’s a subplot that’s more background than foreground. The friendship with Aimee, and the loss and grief from Meg’s real life, are what truly define her experiences and fill the story with depth and emotional impact.
If you’re looking for a fast-moving summer read that’s full of whimsy and friendship, but has a serious side too, definitely consider The Other Side of Now!
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