Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore

Well, this is unusual . . . a book I finished but didn't really like. That seldom happens since I made a commitment to abandoning books that I'm not enjoying. 

The title character in Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore lives in one part of her life for a single year and then gets swept off to another year of her life and is stuck there, having to figure out where she is, how old, and what's going on in her life. She may live in a 50-something body, one year, and then return to her twenties. The Oona we follow almost always arrives in a time in which a future Oona has lived, so there's a notebook with hints about investments she needs to make (so that she can be filthy rich) but she has a "no spoiler" policy and, except for an often-cryptic note that she leaves at the end of each year, Oona has no hints of what's to come, for better or worse. 

OK, so it's an interesting premise and I know there are plenty of people who enjoyed this book but I had some major issues with it. Chiefly, I didn't like the main character at all. She is too quick to give in to drugs, alcohol, and unprotected sex. I should have stopped at her second life, when she arrives at a club, takes drugs, and has sex in full view of the DJ. Gross. She doesn't even take the time to find out what's going on in her life or if she's dating anyone. But, I kept going. 

I was also disappointed that Oona was so focused on her investments and staying wealthy. She never actually does anything but invest, as I recall. She has no job and  . . . ugh, I thought the "no spoiler" thing was ridiculous. If I jumped from one time period of my life to another, you can bet I would leave myself copious notes. She does eventually start working to improve at a particular skill but otherwise isn't much into learning. That bugged me. 

Meh - I'm sure there were plenty of people who loved this book (It has a 3.86 rating at Goodreads and the friends who've finished it enjoyed it, although one friend did mention that she ditched it when I posted to Instagram). I wouldn't have added it to my wishlist if I hadn't read a positive review or two but it was absolutely not for me and while I don't entirely regret reading it in the hopes that it would improve, a part of me would really like to go back in time and put it in the donation bag at Life #2. This book was definitely not for me. Having said that, I did like the ending because it was exactly how I hoped it would end. And, I did not mind the fact that parts of it were predictable, since much of it was not. 

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