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

Book: 115/150

Rating: 3.5/5

This was a book I've been itching to read for a while; I had it on hold at the library and it was in transit to my local library *just before* everything closed down due to COVID. I finally was able to pick it up 4 months later and I dropped everything else I was reading to read this one!

Lydia Bird is struggling with the loss of her fiance, Freddie. Unable to process or function after his loss, Lydia is prescribed sleeping pills and when she finally falls asleep she is seemingly living in this alternate reality where Freddie is alive. Brushing it off as a bizarre dream, it isn't until she falls asleep again and is transported to this world where Freddie is alive. Over the course of the book we follow Lydia as she lives in these two different realities, and when the time comes.... where will she decide she wants to stay?

This book was a bit 'meh' for me. While I was empathetic for Lydia's loss, I found the first half of the book slow and repetitive. It wasn't until the second half when things started to perk up in her reality that I started to enjoy the book more. I also found that we really didn't get to see much of Lydia's personality or see much of who she was outside of her relationship with her fiance.

I do really enjoy reading books that take place in Britain: I love the dialect, the distinct U.K. isms (taking the tube! drinking tea!), and reading it in my head with an English accent. Overall it was a cute read, but I would have enjoyed it more if the first half of the book wasn't as slow. I rated this one the same as her previous book (One Day in December), but love a British romance so I will be checking out her future work.