For fans of Rebecca Serle and Taylor Jenkins Reid, this is a hilarious and heartfelt novel about past dreams, “what-ifs,” and how loves and lives are never truly lost.

THE OTHER SIDE OF NOW
by Paige Harbison
St. Martin’s Press, June 2025

Lana Lord has everything she ever wanted: a leading role on a hit TV show, a gorgeous house in L.A., and a relationship with Hollywood’s latest heartthrob. But not everything is as it seems: her perfect relationship is maybe (definitely) a PR stunt, and underneath the layers of makeup and hairspray, her happiness is as fake as her stage name—her real name is Meg Bryan, but obviously she couldn’t use that in auditions. Following a breakdown at her thirtieth birthday party, she books an impromptu trip where she knows the grass is greener: Ireland. Specifically, the quaint little village where she and her best friend Aimee always dreamt of moving—a dream that fell apart when an accident claimed Aimee’s life a decade ago.

When Meg arrives, the cozy Irish cottage she Airbnb’d couldn’t be more perfect if she decorated it herself. And the people in town are so nice, treating her not as a stranger, but a friend. Except for the (extremely handsome) bartender giving her the cold shoulder. Meg writes it all off as déjà vu until she looks in the mirror. Her hair is no longer bleached within an inch of its life, her skin has a few natural fine lines, and her nose looks like… well, her old nose. Her real nose.

As Meg scrambles to figure out whether she’s dreaming or losing it completely, her phone reveals hundreds of pictures of her life in this little town: with an adorable dog she doesn’t know; with the bartender who might be her (ex?) boyfriend; and at a retail job unrelated to acting. Piecing together this life that is clearly hers but completely unfamiliar, Meg’s best guess is that she somehow made a quantum slide into an alternate version of her life. But the most shocking realization of all? In this life, her best friend Aimee is alive, well, and living nearby…but wants nothing to do with Meg.

Despite her bewilderment, Meg is clear-eyed about one thing: this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to reconnect with her friend and repair what she broke, and she finagles an opportunity to act in the play Aimee is writing and directing. The script has uncanny parallels to the life they shared as pure-hearted theater kids with big dreams. As the project unfolds, Meg realizes that events as she remembers them may not be the only truth, and that an impossible choice looms before her.

With a great commercial hook, themes of friendship, grief, and deciding what you really want out of life, THE OTHER SIDE OF NOW will have a wide appeal.

Paige Harbison is the author of three YA novels, the first of which was published in 2011 when she was just nineteen years old. More recently, she’s worked on several celebrity projects as ghostwriter. THE OTHER SIDE OF NOW is her adult debut. A woman of many talents, she’s also a beautiful artist (check out the pet portraits on her website) and has a very funny, clever social media presence (a few of her TikToks have gone viral). She lives in L.A. with her boyfriend and their dog Tarot.