Book Review: The Two Lives of Lydia Bird by Josie Silver

Right now, I think we’d all love another life. A life where we could freely go outside, eat great food, feel the pages of a book in a book shop and hug our loved ones tightly.

Of course, we can’t enjoy that side of life just yet but we can still enjoy good books. I’ve never read anything from Josie Silver but I was captivated by this one for sure.

Blurb

Lydia and Freddie. Freddie and Lydia. They’ve been together for almost a decade, and Lydia thinks their love is indestructible. 

But she’s wrong. Because on her 27th birthday, Freddie dies in a car accident.

So now it’s just Lydia, and all she wants to do is hide indoors and sob ’til her eyes fall out. But Lydia knows that Freddie would want her to live her life well. So, enlisting the help of his best friend and her sister Elle, she takes her first tentative steps into the world and starts to live – perhaps even to love – again.

But then something inexplicable happens, which gives her another chance at her old life with Freddie. A life where none of the tragic events of the past few months have happened. But what if there’s someone in her new life who wants her to stay?

Review

The cover didn’t give much away at all. On the face of it, I thought we might have a quirky, kind of sad time travelling novel but what we got was quite different.

Lydia Bird thought her love life was untouchable but, soon enough, she’s grappling with the loss of her boyfriend. We have a woman that’s full of hope, love but also incredibly vulnerable and broken hearted. She loved magic and true love, and I fell for it all.

I loved the characters in this, from Lydia herself to Freddie, Jonah, Elle, Ryan and Lydia’s co-workers. Usually with these books, the writers focus too much on the main character and the rest of them end up lacking. Josie Silver, luckily, didn’t compromise on the other characters and I liked them just as much.

I also liked the fact that she could visit her fiancé when she was asleep, that twist really brought something to the story and it was sweet seeing them together.

I liked the friendships in this book. Friendship is very often part of these books but exploring friendship in grief made this book sensitive, sad but also sweet.

The one thing I wasn’t too keen on was how the book lagged at times. Sometimes it just made my interest in the book dip but it didn’t ruin my reading over all.

⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

Have you read this book? What did you think of it? Alternatively, what are you reading? I’d love to chat in the comments 😊.