Series: Standalone
Release Date: January 30, 2020
But she was wrong. On her twenty-eighth birthday, Freddie died in a car accident.
So now it’s just Lydia, and all she wants to do is hide indoors and sob until her eyes fall out. But Lydia knows that Freddie would want her to try to live fully, happily, even without him. So, enlisting the help of his best friend, Jonah, and her sister, Elle, she takes her first tentative steps into the world, open to life–and perhaps even love–again.
But then something inexplicable happens that 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.
Lydia is pulled again and again across the doorway of her past, living two lives, impossibly, at once. But there’s an emotional toll to returning to a world where Freddie, alive, still owns her heart. Because there’s someone in her new life, her real life, who wants her to stay.
Written with Josie Silver’s trademark warmth and wit, The Two Lives of Lydia Bird is a powerful and thrilling love story about the what-ifs that arise at life’s crossroads, and what happens when one woman is given a miraculous chance to answer them.
• BIPOC characters
• LGBTQIA+ characters
• characters with a disability
And doesn’t address fatphobia
• Grief
• Miscarriage
• No cheating
• Does have descriptive sex scene with OM
• Does have the Hero and Heroine pushing away
• Does have a separation between the Hero and Heroine
• See Ending for HEA status.
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.
Format: Hardcover
Rating: 4.5/5 stars
The Two Lives of Lydia Bird is a good book. It’s also a different kind of book since it’s a romance that actively engages with being a widow. Commonly in romance when either the heroine or the hero is a widow readers can find it hard to sympathize with the widower. When the hero is the widower, readers are more focused on the heroine (and current love interest) not being second to a ghost. When the heroine is the widower, not many readers can understand the hesitancy of the heroine to commit to the hero. But, even more often, when the heroine is the widower, usually her deceased husband is a “bad” guy, and as a result, the heroine doesn’t hesitate to get with the hero.
In The Two Lives of Lydia Bird the reader gets the unique pleasure of experiencing why Lydia’s loved her fiancé, Freddie, so much (hell, why she accepted Freddie’s proposal). Lydia and Freddie met when they were in high school and have been together ever since–they were staples in each others’ lives. Lydia–at 28–had been with Freddie for ~12 years… such a long time for someone so young. It makes the idea of starting over without Freddie (without him existing in her world period) so much harder. The Two Lives of Lydia Bird is unique because when Lydia experiences her alternate life (a world where Freddie didn’t die), it reminds Lydia–and the reader–that when someone dies we have the tendency to imagine that every day they weren’t there would have been perfect. That there would have been no misunderstandings, no arguments, and no hurt feelings. But, The Two Lives of Lydia Bird demonstrates how even in romances where a couple is ‘meant to be,’ there are difficulties.
Grief and the Happy Alternate Reality
The story also demonstrates how individualized and slow the grieving and healing process are for each person (character). Lydia, while Freddie’s fiancé, is not the only person in the book who was close to him. There’s his best friend, Jonah, who was in the car when Freddie died. There’s Lydia’s older sister, Elle, who grew up with Freddie too. He was truly a brother to her. There’s Elle’s husband who was also friends with Freddie. And, Lydia’s mother saw Freddie as a son for the past 10+ years. While The Two Lives of Lydia Bird is written from Lydia’s perspective and focuses on her journey, Josie does an excellent job of Lydia slowly becoming aware of how other people in her circle are grieving.
The magical realism of the alternate world was compelling because it wasn’t simply a world where Freddie didn’t die. Secondary characters were subtly different in that world, at least to an extent that Lydia was aware of how certain people weren’t behaving like they did in “her” world. It also made Lydia question that perhaps in the alternate reality these people were just more open, so they couldn’t hide their truths as well as they did in Lydia’s world. There is also the argument to be made that the Lydia post-Freddie dying became a significantly different person. She was harder. But also stronger. More sure of herself. She had already lived through the worst.
Story Set-Backs
The two biggest set-backs in The Two Lives of Lydia Bird was that:
1. I never fully connected with Lydia:
I don’t know what it was but so many little things about her character just flat out bugged me. Oddly, the biggest moments that a reader could be like what the hell are you doing, I was fine with. I got it. Because, grief–even a year or two out–is not something that really ever goes away.
Despite the little annoyances, however, I didn’t let them detract from the story. But, the second set-back majorly impacted how I approached reading the book:
2. The book is marketed as a second-chance romance (see below). But, that was not the story … at all.
Two lives. Two loves. One impossible choice.
Hardcover Dust Jacket – The Two Lives of Lydia Bird
Freddie was obviously the first love. And, perhaps the love Lydia could have again if she fully commits to the alternate world. But, this whole second love thing… just nope. Never was Lydia having to make a choice between two men (Freddie and someone new). The quote above made me think that Lydia would meet someone new and fall in love with them, and would then have to choose between this new person and her alternate reality with Freddie. But, that didn’t happen. The Two Lives of Lydia Bird demonstrated an alternate world of what could have been. Therefore, Lydia’s choice was never about two men, but about whether or not she would let herself heal.
I strongly believe the choice being between which Lydia she wanted to be made the book so much better. The story focused on healing and finding yourself after the worst thing possible happens. It’s about being stronger and being more sure in yourself. And it changes who you are.
My Thoughts
The Two Lives of Lydia Bird blew away my expectations. It was so good: blunt in its grief, decisive in its healing and subtle in its love. For a book that was so sad and emotional, I finished the story with a smile on my face and one thought: I NEED MORE. It’s one of those books that you can look back on the little moments a go ‘ah, now I see.’ It’s also one of those books that are so like real life: what you think would happen, doesn’t … but then, maybe does, but at the most unexpected times.
My two cents: read this book!
Buy The Two Lives of Lydia Bird
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