Today, HJ is pleased to share with you Lauren Ho’s new release: Two Lives With You
Today Harlequin Junkie is excited to share with you Mindy’s Book Studio’s latest release, TWO LIVES WITH YOU by Lauren Ho. For fans of Rebecca Serle, this sharp, funny, and emotionally resonant novel asks: if you could do it all over again, would you? Lauren Ho artfully explores this question through a marriage on the rocks that gets a second chance when the couple is transported to an alternate future, and they must decide which reality to choose: the one with their long history or the one without it.
What if they never married? For an overwhelmed husband and wife, that what-if wish comes true in an emotional and bittersweet novel about choices, 
sacrifice, and the love that they might lose forever.
When Dana and Nigel got married, they had such promise. After sixteen years, the cracks are showing.
Dana is a burned-out ER nurse, and Nigel is a recently unemployed stay-at-home dad whose professional identity is disappearing. Questioning the directions their lives have taken, Dana and Nigel are each granted a wish from a mysterious stranger. For one week they can escape the pressure of their lives in favor of ones in which they never married.
Waking up in an alternate reality where their youthful, individual dreams have come true is, at first, a marvel. When they meet by chance in Bali, Dana recognizes Nigel instantly, but he feels only an inexplicable connection to this stranger. And they discover there’s a catch to their wishes.
Returning to normal—and to the long-haul love they vowed would be forever—won’t be as easy as they thought. As the clock ticks down, Dana and Nigel face an impossible choice that will test the very foundation of their relationship and alter their lives forever.
Enjoy an exclusive excerpt from Two Lives With You
Dana
Day One“Dana, Dana, Dana!” Yomi said, throwing his arms around her for a quick hug that Dana reciprocated like it was nothing when internally she was panicking, before stepping back to give her an admiring once-over. “Wow, it really is you—Sweet Dee in the flesh! What are the odds?”
“Yomi, Yomi, Yomi,” Dana said, her lips curving into a friendly smile. Old Dana would have frozen and flailed for words—ironic, since she had nerves of steel around open bodies but was so bad at small talk. Go figure. “What are you doing here? What’s it been, like, almost two decades?”
“Two decades too long,” Yomi said with a grin. He looked her over again with frank admiration. “Wow, you look better than ever.”
Dana blushed. She was sure she did not, but all the same it was nice to hear a compliment, especially from the only guy she’d ever been head over heels in love with in high school. Yomi had been a very popular senior when she’d been a junior, and excelled in everything he did—music, sports, classes. He had always been unfailingly polite and kind in her original world, and it looked like he hadn’t changed in this one. Here he was, smiling down at her with those melty-brown eyes of his, his hair now in braids. And he looked good, the little crinkles near his eyes adding depth and character to his face. They’d all aged, so she was glad that Yomi hadn’t lied and said she hadn’t aged a day. She didn’t fear aging and what it meant in the hyperonline world they lived in now, didn’t fear not looking like a twenty-year-old the way some of her peers did. It was a privilege to age—that is, if one had lived well.
But you haven’t been living well, have you, Dana?
She hadn’t, she’d be the first to acknowledge it now. She’d lost her light somewhere along the way.
“Oh my God, Dana, there you are! I’ve been looking everywhere!” Pia had somehow procured a tray of lime-green frosted shots. “Yomi Owope! What a pleasant surprise! How are you?”
After Yomi had given her the highlights—he was a hip-hop violinist now (six million followers strong on TikTok and half that on IG, Dana later found out) and touring in Bali with his band—Pia enthusiastically updated him on all her moves since high school. Yomi’s eyes slid over to Dana a couple of times to try to draw her in—little glances, subtle cues trying to pull her into the conversation as Pia unleashed a relentless stream of updates about her life. Dana met his look once, then again, but didn’t try to speak. She knew from experience that once Pia was in full flow, there was no stopping her. Words weren’t invited; they were run over. So Dana just gave Yomi a faint shrug and a small, complicit smile—you know how she is.
Still, she noticed the effort he was making. It was a considerate, gentlemanly gesture, him trying to include her. She appreciated those little offerings of kindness. It had been a while since someone had noticed her and tried to fold her into a moment.
When Pia finally ran out of breath, Yomi pounced. “Sorry to dash, but I’ve got a late gig at midnight, and my band is waiting for me.” He nodded at a group of five men and one woman milling about the entrance, their body language and expressions tinged with mild impatience.
“Oh,” Dana said, her poker face falling. “That’s too bad.”
Yomi chuckled ruefully. “Honestly, I wish I could ditch, since you know, how often does one run into your schoolmates randomly across the world?” His eyes lingered on Dana. “But work is work and these guys are depending on me. I do want to catch up again. I’ll be here in Bali till the day after tomorrow. You down for a catch-up, maybe tomorrow evening?”
“We’re flying back in two days and we have work during the day, but we can try to meet up in the evening—at least, I think Dana can. I might have . . . a conference call,” Pia said, lying breezily. Not that Yomi cared.
“Perfect,” he said with a grin. “I’ll see you, Dana?”
“Um, I’ll have to check my schedule.”
“It is absolutely free after noon tomorrow,” Pia enunciated.
Dana dodged by responding, “Yes, but I might have a private . . .thing.” She still wasn’t sure how she felt about meeting up one-on-one with Yomi—not when every glance between them felt combustible.
“Don’t worry about it,” Yomi responded diplomatically. “We can always meet up in New York—that’s where you’re based, am I right?”
“Yes, you?”
“Same.”
“This is fate,” Pia said, eyes shining. Dana blushed—she wasn’t subtle at all.
Yomi cleared his throat. “All right then, let’s play it by ear, OK?”
They quickly exchanged numbers and IG handles in case they needed another way to contact each other.
“Well, goodbye,” Yomi said softly. Then he reached over and gave both Dana and Pia hugs, lingering especially on Dana, before he turned and left with his band. Pia waved goodbye and started heading in the opposite direction, muttering something about their private car arriving.
“Pia, I—I don’t know if I want to meet him in Bali tomorrow. It feels like I might be sending him the wrong signals,” Dana said breathlessly as she tried to keep up with Pia’s strides.
“Ah, I see.” Pia nodded. “Look, if you’re worried he’ll think it’s just a fling if you meet up in Bali, why don’t you wait until you’re both back in New York for a proper high school reunion?” she suggested slyly, sliding Dana one of those knowing winks of hers.
Dana muttered that high school reunions never turn out well.
“Remember Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion?” Pia said she had never heard of the movie, in spite of how Dana recalled that, in her parallel life, she and Pia had definitely watched it together a few years after it was released.
They had, right? Dana blinked and experienced a kind of doubling as her old life and her current life shimmered in her memory. The recollections of her older life sat like a ghostly imprint over those from New Dana, each vying for dominance in her mind. When she closed her eyes and focused, her old memories appeared in richer detail, felt truer, compared to New Dana’s, but it took her effort to sift through confusing threads.
It was hard to think about her old life when this one was going at full throttle. Her phone was already vibrating: even with Pia’s help, her inbox had thirty-plus new threads that needed her response. Hey
Dana, thanks for everything you’ve done at the last AGM, your speech was powerful. And then there were her DMs, which normally Pia responded to, but with 380,000 IG followers, Dana received
regular unsolicited DMs all the time. Hey Dana, I just read your book The Tethered Heart, and it was everything. Your words really impacted my life. Hey Dana, I loved that clip of yours on the podcast Medicine with Intention; it’s so true that a kind touch can be incredibly healing.Dana already knew she was going to reply to every single message of gratitude. She couldn’t let any of them down.
Back at their table, Pia was trying to guilt-talk her into going up to the VIP section. “The cute guy I met earlier could really be the one! Plus the agency might be able to help you expand your reach beyond the US, so it’ll be like killing two birds with one stone.”
The last thing Dana felt like doing was socializing, but Pia’s love life was supposedly on the line. “Are you sure he’s a good guy?”
“Totally. He volunteers at an animal shelter during the weekends, Dana. And he’s a hot Cambodian guy who grew up in rural America for most of his life and is now based in Tokyo, so he hasn’t actually worked out how attractive he really is!”
Dana made a face. “All right, let’s get you your man.”
“It’s going to be incredible, you’ll see,” Pia said, tugging Dana by
the wrist. “They’ve set up a private firepit and live DJ set. You need joy, not spreadsheets.”Dana barely had time to protest before Pia ushered her past velvet ropes up to the slightly elevated VIP terrace with a prime view of the ocean, where a bunch of relaxed business-wear folks—at a beach club! Maybe they’d just come straight from a conference—were chatting with distinct Look at Me energy. The air smelled of frangipani and woodsmoke from the firepit nearby, and expensive cologne from the group of overconfident people dancing badly on the VIP deck.
“Look at that,” Pia whispered. “There’s buckets of champagne everywhere—decent nonvintage stuff too.”
“Pia, we drink vintage champagne all the time. Like, after every successful keynote.”
“Yes, but it’s more fun when it’s other people’s champagne and doesn’t eat into my very big end-of-the-year bonus.”
Dana had to laugh—that was a classic Pia Nasution comeback in any timeline. She couldn’t believe she’d not seen her friend in her real world in close to three years. It was a crime, and one she intended to rectify as soon as she got back.
And then she saw him, and the deck beneath her feet shifted. Nigel. Laughing, drink in hand, long-sleeved white shirt unbuttoned at the collar, backlit by string lights and sunset. Tan, magnetic, surrounded by people who clearly thought he was a catch in every way.
Pre-Dana Nigel.
Pia leaned in and pointed excitedly in Nigel’s direction, where her crush stood. “See that man, Tommy? My future husband? You have to meet him. And maybe that guy he’s chatting with, ooh la la!”
A coldness settled over Dana’s heart. “I already have,” she said, the words catching in her throat. “In another life.”
Excerpt. ©Lauren Ho. Posted by arrangement with the publisher. All rights reserved.
Giveaway: 1 copy of TWO LIVES WITH YOU by Lauren Ho – U.S. and Canada
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Meet the Author:
Lauren Ho is the author of Bite Me, Royce Taslim; Lucie Yi Is Not a Romantic; and Last Tang Standing. She is a former legal counsel turned author whose writing explores the messy, heartfelt, and often humorous realities of modern life. Originally from Malaysia, she has lived across Europe and now resides in Singapore with her family. When she’s not writing multi-genre fiction for both adults and children, Lauren can be found watching (and occasionally performing) stand-up comedy, belting out karaoke, or hunting down the perfect bite. For more information, visit https://hellolaurenho.com and follow her at @HelloLaurenHo.
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