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Jessica’s Bookshelf – Oona Out of Order by by Margarita Montimore Review

What would it mean toWhat if every New Year’s Eve, instead of moving forward into the next year of your life, you leapt into a completely different age? live forever if no one ever remembered you?

Title: Oona out of Order

Author: Margarita Montimore

Genre: Historical Fantasy · Fiction · Time Travel · Science Fiction

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Storyline of Oona out of Order

What if every New Year’s Eve, instead of moving forward into the next year of your life, you leapt into a completely different age?

That’s the premise of Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore.

On the night she turns 19, Oona wakes up in her 51-year-old body. The next year, she wakes up somewhere else on her personal timeline. And so it goes. Every year she lives her life out of order, dropped into a new age without warning, forced to piece together the story of who she has become.

She knows some things. She leaves letters to herself. She learns to prepare. But she never fully controls the sequence.

It’s a time travel story – but not in the traditional sci-fi sense. It’s emotional. Reflective. A story about identity, choice, regret, love, and what we would do differently if we knew what was coming.

And truly – it is SUCH a good book club book.

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What Stood Out about Oona out of Order

First, the concept is incredibly creative.

I love time travel books. I’m always intrigued by stories that bend time, memory, and identity. And this one felt fresh. Instead of changing the world, Oona is simply navigating her own life in fragments.

Second, it led to a greatt book club discussion!

We talked about:

• Fate versus free will
• Whether knowing your future would help or harm you
• The moral gray areas in Oona’s choices
• And yes… the plot holes

I went INTO book club liking this book more than I did after.

Once we started pulling at the threads, some of the logic didn’t hold up quite as tightly as I had originally felt while reading. There were questions about relationships. About cause and effect. About what she could control and what she couldn’t.

Individually, I had breezed past those moments.

Collectively? We dissected them.

And that slightly shifted my rating.

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Why It Matters

Oona out of Order asks a really vulnerable question:

If you could see your life out of order, would you make the same choices?

Would you still love the same people?
Would you avoid certain heartbreaks?
Would you sacrifice present joy to prevent future pain?

It’s a story about living with incomplete information – which, if we’re honest, is how we all live anyway.

As someone who is in a season of reflection and discernment myself, this theme hit differently. We never really know which choices will define us. We only know them in hindsight.

Oona just happens to get that hindsight in advance… and it’s not always the gift you’d expect.

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Meaningful Quotes from The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

“here is no right time. There is only time and what you choose to do with it.”

“You can’t live a life trying to avoid pain. At some point you have to risk something.”

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⭐ Star Rating

3.0 out of 5 stars

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⚡️Would I Recommend It?

Yes – especially for book clubs.

If you enjoy:

• Time travel stories
• Character-driven novels
• Philosophical “what would you do?” discussions
• Books that spark debate

This one will absolutely give you something to talk about.

A book that becomes more interesting in conversation still feels like a win to me.

🔗 Want More?

✨ Check out this Book Playlist on Spotify (created by the author!) – Click Here
✨ See what else I’ve been reading on Jessica’s Bookshelf

If you’ve read Oona out of Order I’d love to hear what you thought!

Sincerely,
Jessica