Once in a Timeline: A Novel

By Iman Hariri-Kia

For fans of Ashley Poston and The Love of My Afterlife comes a clever and swoony novel about an aspiring New York lifestyle influencer who gets trapped in her own "day in the life" video, with only a mysterious stranger to help her break out. Get ready with me... to break out of the algorithm Laia Grace is the New York City lifestyle influencer... or at least, she's determined to be. After leaving her past behind to pursue her dreams, failure is not an option. Every day, she films her aesthetic routine -- the perfect light, the perfect latte, the perfect life. Until one morning, her day starts to... glitch. Her neighbors flicker. Her best friend loops. And Laia realizes she's no longer the creator, but the content -- and she's trapped inside of her last "day in the life" video, forever playing on an endless, infinite loop. That's when a brooding, unshaven, decidedly unfiltered man (literally) crashes into frame. Noah's been stuck in Laia's timeline, too, and he's desperate to get them both out. Together, Laia and Noah fight to outsmart the algorithm that's captured them, uncovering secrets and confronting biases along the way. As they grow closer, the line between performance and personhood blurs, and Laia realizes she might have to face the one thing she's been avoiding all this time: herself.

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Published Oct 13, 2026

400 pages

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