We’ve decided it makes sense to split the book reviews over two posts so the comments don’t get confusing. Please do pop back this afternoon if you like to stick in your two penn’orth in about The Lake House. This morning please give Emma from The Year of The Yes a big welcome.

As a Rock My fan girl (I’ve followed Rock My Wedding for years despite not being married or engaged. My excuse? I’m a lover of all things pretty and an ex wedding blogger), AND a book lover, I am delighted to be part of the Rock My Style Book Club.

I was even more excited to get started on my first book. I bought Versions of Us on a recommendation from a friend at work. A tale of intertwined fate with just the right mix of love and angst, it sounded right up my street. But as a member of another real life book club (as you can see I’m a book floozy) I’d struggled to move it from my ‘to be read’ pile to my actual reading list. RMS Book Club provided the perfect excuse…

So, what’s it all about? Well Version of Us tells the tale of Eva and Jim. You meet them at the very start of their lives and know immediately that their worlds will be intertwined forever.

Barnett treats us to three separate versions of Eva and Jim’s intertwined future, both together and apart. You follow Eva and Jim when they meet at age nineteen, as students at Cambridge in 1958, when Eva swerves on her bike in front of Jim to avoid a dog. You follow the same story, but where fate conspires to pull them apart before they have even begun. And you follow a version where the pup doesn’t cause Eva’s bike to swerve, and so she passes by Jim without meeting him. It raises the question: is one person ultimately always meant for another, or can chance intervene to steer them apart?

If, like me, you are fascinated by the moments in life where things could have turned out differently, then this book is an utter indulgence.

Some parts infuriated me beyond words and sometimes I couldn’t understand the decisions our protagonists made. But evoking such an emotive reaction is part of the magic that draws you in to The Versions of Us. Barnett doesn’t try to paint a fairytale; she attempts to paint a reality.

You might not like each version as much as the other, but Barnett’s interwoven plot certainly enthralled me and had me turning the pages at a rate of knots because I so wanted to know where Eva and Jim’s stories would take them.

The multi-plot format does mean that it can be difficult to follow in parts. When I first started reading I found myself occasionally losing the thread and having to refer back to remind myself which version of the story I was reading and what had happened before. I think perhaps that just two versions would have been enough. But I warmed to the characters, felt their highs and lows. Each story is littered with stark reminders that life and people are not perfect. The vantage point of three different perspectives allows you to explore different versions of success, perceptions of failure, self-worth, gender roles, and so much more besides.

In true book club style I have posed (and furiously googled) some questions to get the discussions started:

Did you like the book? What did you think of the narrative style, did you like the concept of different versions or find it distracting? Which ‘version’ of Eva and Jim did you prefer and why? What did you think of the ending?

At my real life book club, book chat normally takes place with the aid of wine. In the pursuit of professionalism I have forgone the option to crack open a bottle when putting my review together, but if you are reading this at a respectable drinking hour please feel free to share your thoughts over a glass of wine, or two…

Beware, the comments may contain spoilers!