Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advance copy of The Love I Could Have Had by C.J. Connolly in exchange for my honest review and opinion. Great writing style by the author and had me fully engaged then the book took a turn that went into sort of a fantasy mode and I sort of lost interest at that point. I finished it and it was cute but probably not my favorite read of 2023.

Good book with a great cast of characters in the pages. I really enjoyed the whole story and would defiantly say add this one to your to be read pile.

Such a fun trope that was done sooo well! I loved this book. I was completely consumed and couldn't put it down!

I enjoyed this one but I really loved The Love Of My Other Lide much much more. This one was sweet but seemed to end too abruptly and was very predictable.

What if you could do all the things you never did . . .

I was really hoping to like this book, but it was hard for me to get into what was going on with it. Some of the characters "hatefulness" was a little too much for me to take. I can understand how they would be weary of someone coming back after so long, but you feel the pain that Olivia is going through.

I think that this is not a genre for me.

Thank you Netgalley. I loved the premise of this book but it fell flat for me. I couldn't quite connect with the characters or the story itself. It felt like something was missing and I struggled to finish.

As much as I loved the concept of this one, in reality I was confused throughout and it didn't always make sense and then the ending was abrupt and felt unfinished.

This is a book that had tons of potential but in my opinion feel short in the end. I am sure there are many readers out there who may enjoy this though and I would read from this author again in the future.

Do you ever wonder what might have happened "if"? Who hasn't? In this particular case, Olivia Grainger, the protagonist loves her fiance, Jake Johnson, totally but cannot help wondering if there are other options. Then a freak accident just a few months before the wedding transports her to a parallel universe where she died at 12 years old because Jake had not quite been able to save her. In this universe, Jake is engaged to someone else! Naturally, Olivia's family is skeptical regarding her identity and motives. She does meet a perfectly nice person who would make a fine partner, but can she let go of her other life? Or can she somehow find her way back to the life she had?

I usually love books with alternative narratives but this one was a little disappointing. Liv is wondering if she's making the right decision with her life. Marrying the first man she's dated, never traveling out of her small town... When she slips and falls she wakes in the hospital but everything is changed. She's not engaged and no one knows who she is. Liv spends the novel trying to convince her family she's their daughter.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC. A multiverse romance not for me. I just didn’t connect with the story or characters. Then ending was also boring.

While reading this multiverse story has been fun and interesting the plot didn't work out for me. Maybe the book just wasn't made for me but I didn't get to connect with Olivia and her doubts. The characters felt flat and the end kind of rushed.

Kind of like 'Sliding doors movie' in a book. It makes you think about how we get trapped in a certain kind of life and gets you to wonder what could happen if you had a clean slate to start all over and do things differently. Kind of scary but a clever idea and premise for a book. An interesting read.

I love these sorts of stories and this didn’t disappoint at all. Enjoyable tale, kept me reading and gripped. Thank you for the advanced read.

A lovely easy read about life, love, loss and what makes us who we are. The paths we take can so easily be changed by a single encounter or a mysterious time shift in this case. Very heartwarming and full of happy endings.

this was a sweet summer book, but it fell rather flat for me in the end. the main plot is about 28-year-old olivia, who's about to marry her childhood sweetheart she's been dating since she was 14. she's getting cold feet and wonders what else life has to offer. not that she doesn't love jake (which is something that bothered me because she says he's the love of her life, so why would she want to be with anyone else when she's already found him?), but she has never left her small town or been with anyone else. i do understand her feelings about this fear of missing out on better things, but when you have a great life like hers and an amazing fiancé like jake, it's a bit hard for the reader to sympathize with her feeling sorry for herself. instead of having a conversation with jake about how she feels, which would be the logical course of action, she keeps acting like everything is fine. then one day, she falls from a cliff and ends up in a parallel universe where she died when she was 12 and never dated jake. that's the part that drew me to the story in the first place. while it was an interesting turn of event and a clever plot idea, it didn't really delivered as well as i was hoping. she spends most of her time in this alternate universe wishing she was back in her world and missing jake. i guess distance does make the heart grow fonder and maybe that was the main message of this book. i felt like the author spent too long on olivia trying to convince her family and everyone around her that she was who she was and not enough exploring this new reality. she's been wondering about leading a different life for months, and now that she has the opportunity, she doesn't really do anything with it, which seemed like a wasted opportunity. the chapters from jake's pov were good, but i felt bad for how worried he was about olivia disappearing when she didn't seem to care in the same way. while the end was nice, it was quite abrupt and left me wanting more. it didn't answer a lot of the questions i had. overall, it was a well-written book that was easy to read and it had a good original plot, but i had a hard time relating with the main character and felt like the parallel universe idea wasn't developed or used nearly enough. there was also a definite lack of romance for a romance book.

A multiverse romance how interesting! I enjoyed the storyline, but just didn’t connect with the characters, and that’s what kept me from loving it. Then ending was also meh.

First of all I want to say thank you to Netgalley and the publishers as I received an advanced reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review.

Ohh what an incredibly emotional book that me invested from the start.

When Olivia wakes up in a hospital bed with no recollection of what happens and is told by a nurse that she was brought in by a dog walker who found her unconscious, she is confused - she has no wedding ring, no injuries and the last thing she remembers is having a romantic lakeside anniversary with her fiance Jake to celebrate their 1 year engagement. Liv then has to make a decision what she wants - does she want to spread her wings and do all the things shes never done or has the incident made her realise that in fact the grass isn't greener and she actually had everything she needed and more.

Love love love this book and would highly recommend.

- This is a negative review.

Thank you to Joffe Books and NetGalley ****for an ARC of The Love I Could Have Had by C.J. Connolly

"So now Liv has a chance to do all the things she never did. But maybe she doesn't want to." Olivia never has a chance to do anything since she is trying to convince people of her identity. She doesn't spend time in some other relationship or try on a different life. I was expecting an alternative timeline 13 going on 30-esque vibes. The ending was perfectly predictable in a good way. How we got there however just wasn't connecting with me. Sometimes, things simply don't align. Right Book wrong time perhaps. Therefore I will not be posting this review to any other platforms.

I'm not really one for time travel or anything of the sort. Do I love magic and mayhem? Of course! But this feels very... Hallmark, if that makes sense. Don't get me wrong it was a good book and I enjoyed reading it but the story felt lackluster and over done to me. Perhaps it wasn't my taste and I'm not really the right audience for it, but I definitely struggled getting through it. It was really a tug-of-war between the main character and the people she loved and that sort of trope kind of irritates me to my core. Again, I think it was well written but the story itself just wasn't my cup of tea.

A multiverse romance how interesting! I enjoyed the storyline, but just didn’t connect with the characters, and that’s what kept me from loving it. Then ending was also meh.