Margarita Montimore blew my mind with this inventive look at time-traveling! I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this book for the concept alone. To my delight, BookSparks and MacMillan allowed the Book Sharks a chance at free audiobooks through Libro.fm during this unprecedented time in our world, and I absolutely couldn’t resist Oona!

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BLURB:

A remarkably inventive novel that explores what it means to live a life fully in the moment, even if those moments are out of order.

It’s New Year’s Eve 1982, and Oona Lockhart has her whole life before her. At the stroke of midnight she will turn nineteen, and the year ahead promises to be one of consequence. Should she go to London to study economics, or remain at home in Brooklyn to pursue her passion for music and be with her boyfriend? As the countdown to the New Year begins, Oona faints and awakens thirty-two years in the future in her fifty-one-year-old body. Greeted by a friendly stranger in a beautiful house she’s told is her own, Oona learns that with each passing year she will leap to another age at random. And so begins Oona Out of Order…

Hopping through decades, pop culture fads, and much-needed stock tips, Oona is still a young woman on the inside but ever changing on the outside. Who will she be next year? Philanthropist? Club Kid? World traveler? Wife to a man she’s never met? Surprising, magical, and heart-wrenching, Margarita Montimore has crafted an unforgettable story about the burdens of time, the endurance of love, and the power of family.

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“Make your life more about letting in the good things than preventing the bad things.”

While perusing reviews, I found one that was short, sweet, and probably the best accolade an author could receive: “I wish this had been a series.” After listening to this book, I’d have to agree with this reviewer! It would have been amazing to see each year of Oona’s jumbled life in more detail through several books. I found the ending to be a little quicker than I wanted it to be, but I suppose the mark of a good book is that it leaves the reader craving more.

This book was quite mind-bending in the beginning, but I think the author did an excellent job of layering this story in a way that kept the confusion from getting out of hand. Imagine waking up 19-years-old, but in your 51-year-old body, and the next year somewhere else entirely, either forward or backward in time. Things could have become quite muddled. However, the plot truly built upon itself and revealed the story in a way only Oona could have, with “no spoilers”.

I loved this family-centric feel of this story despite how lonely Oona’s condition could and should have been. I found Oona’s relationships to be realistic, lacking in perfection, but full of love. I especially enjoyed how Oona’s mom was essentially her guiding light throughout the novel. She was the kind of mother anyone would be lucky to have. My only real issue with this story came in Oona’s drug-using years. I wasn’t too keen on reading (or listening) to the drug-hazed lifestyle and found this part of the story to drag.

I appreciated this fresh look at a disrupted timeline, the pop culture references, and the suspenseful storytelling. This book was a downright fun experience. I highly recommend Oona Out of Order if you’re a fan of time-travel books!

Many thanks to MacMillan and BookSparks!

Rating: 4.5 stars

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Purchase on Amazon.
(Audio)

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