If, Then
My thanks to #NetGalley for this ebook in exchange for an honest review. I believe this book would have been easier to read in a paper copy because I wanted to go back and re-read passages, as I found many bits confusing. The author has woven a wonderfully complex tale full of forbidden desires, love, and passion, but it sort of fizzles into a rather bland ending that just doesn’t do justice to the rest of the book. The alternate reality was brilliant and the setting was brooding and foreboding which made for a very promising plot, but when the characters didn’t share their strange experiences, the author lost the chance to bring the story together. It was a good book, that just wasn’t great, but I certainly look forward to more by Kate Hope Day.

Super trippy. I kept having to reread passages in order to follow along. Overall, not a bad read, just not one that I would read again.

I was very interested in reading this book initially, and while I found it intriguing I didn't really enjoy the way the story unfolded. It was hard to really get behind several of the characters and feel like I liked or understood them well. It was sometimes difficult to understand their motivations. The science that drove the story was a little confusing as well, but I went along for the ride and finished the book, although my enthusiasm waned toward the end.

If, Then was a unique premise in which people are having visions surrounding an upcoming town tragedy. It reminds me a lot of the Mothman Prophecies. The main characters, Mark and Ginny, are having trouble with their marriage due to work schedules. Secondary characters, Samara, Cass, Leah, all have some part of their story line intertwined with Mark and Ginny. Character development was good, suspense was ok (felt like the climax of the story could have happened sooner). A larger review to come closer to release date.

What a beautiful, atmospheric read. Kate Hope Day succeeds at creating genuine, believable characters. The story is crafted around a cul-de-sac of neighbors living in the shadow of a supposedly dormant volcano. The interactions between these neighbors and the alternative universes they stumble into drive the plot of the novel. As characters move through the text, they struggle through the difficulties of hope, loss, love, and lust. The characters are truly memorable, and I'm still thinking about the themes Kate Hope Day introduces in this novel. I definitely recommend If, Then -- despite the constant imagery of things smelling of "earth." :) Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this title.

Thank you to Random House Publishing and NetGalley for an advanced read in exchange for this review.

I had high hopes for this one because of the comparison to Little Fires Everywhere. However, the parallel universe/reality parts lost me. Good character development, at least! The story falls flat though.

I thought this book was written and was quickly drawn into the characters and what was going on in their lives. When they start to see alternative versions of themselves, they begin to question if they are living their best lives and how to better their situations. The stories all end up enmeshed and resolved well by the end. This author is someone to watch in the future. She is creative and develops innovative stories that will leave you thinking. Thanks for the ARC, Net Galley.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This is a tough one for me to rate. I was excited at the mention of parallel worlds and that part was done very well. The story line was interesting and I enjoyed it. I felt the characters had little depth and couldn’t connect. Then the end came unexpectedly and left me scratching my head. So I’m rating this 3.5 as opposed to a four.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review/opinion.

I was immediately intrigued in this book simply based on the idea of the four main characters, four neighbours, witnessing alternate versions of themselves. I love anything regarding alternate timelines or parallel universes.

The story starts out incredibly strong. The writing was great, and the characters were fully fleshed out and I felt like I genuinely got to know the characters. I loved the exploration of each person, and as we got further into the story and discovering the parallels and watching their stories evolve.

However, I ended this book slightly disappointed. I kept hoping the characters would discuss with one another the things they were seeing. Ginny and Mark would've been the best case scenario and most plausible since they are married, but that never happens. I felt like the climax was rushed, because all of a sudden the book was just ... over. It also felt a little muddy at times -- for example, when I was reading about Mark and Other Mark, and how those story-lines would overlap with, let's say, Cass and Other Cass, I would have to remind myself which version of each other character was experiencing what. I felt like I had missed something at times.

Overall, I think it is a great premise and it's executed well, but there are just some areas that didn't work well for me.

I was really intrigued by this book and looked forward to the concept of a parallel universe/reality. How would these visions the characters had change the decisions they made? The story was easy to delve into and the characters were all very interesting. I liked the way the book was written with the character's overlapping stories. However when I got to the end, I was left feeling disappointed. Surely, I couldn't be so close to the end! The visions weren't really explored as much as I thought they would be and there wasn't much of an explanation for them. I feel like there was a bunch of buildup without much follow through.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House for this Advanced Reader Copy.

I've got to believe that everyone at some point has wondered how their life would be different if even one of the choices they made in their life were different. The 'road less traveled' is a popular trope; but If, Then tackles it in a refreshing way - allowing the four neighbors who make up this novel to view these differences through a series of 'visions'. There is Ginny - a doctor with an unraveling family life and visions of an attractive coworker living in her home. Mark - Ginny's husband and wildlife scientist whose work hints an impending devastation for their tiny Oregon community. Samara - a young real estate agent whose mother has recently passed due to complications of surgery....and finally Cass - a new mother and brilliant scholar who is trying to balance her new life with the old.

To be honest, this novel and the characters were quite intriguing on their own. I almost felt like the 'visions', or at least the way they manifested, were superfluous to the story. This novel could hold it's ground just with the interconnecting plot lines and unrest of the characters in their own lives. Either way, though, it didn't harm the story at all.

"If, Then" By Kate Hope Day from Random House is a suburban 'what if' story set in a small town in Oregon. In fact, the main players all live in the same cul-de-sac. Ginny is struggling between forbidden desires and responsibilities. Mark, her scientist husband, takes care of their 11 year old son and tries to predict disasters through frog behavior. Samara has returned home to mourn the recent death of her mother and ends up accidentally taking over her real estate business. Cass is struggling at home alone with her newborn and trying to get back on track to her philosophic studies. What all these characters have in common besides their cul-de-sac is that as their neighborhood supposedly dormant volcano starts to come back to life, they see glimpses of alternate realities into a parallel life, into what 'might have been'.

I love books set in areas other than where I live (New Jersey), it makes me feel like I took a trip. This author really brings that setting to life, especially since the plot is very much dependent on the local geography.

Although Ginny's professional stresses were very close to home for me, I somehow didn't emphasize with her character. I found it difficult to believe that someone who was so cold to her own family would suddenly discover any kind of passion elsewhere-it just didn't fit with her demonstrated emotional range. The rest of the storyline played out in a predictable way, almost like a standard 'action movie'. I found myself wishing for a more complex ending.

I would recommend this book for a light and entertaining read for lovers of suburban fiction (if there's such a genre), but not for anyone looking for a thought-provoking novel.

Really enjoyed this amazing read. The characters were very believable, and the story was intriguing, a blend of science fiction and drama. Well rounded and kept me reading into the night. I look forward to more from this promising author.

This was a book that I could not get into. Each chapter was a short story in itself and I assume they will all tie together at some point as one name pops up in each of the stories, but I just didn't care.
Chapter 2 was a woman who was grieving her mother, but when everything she did involved hearing her mother tell her what to do next, I was turned off.
Chapter 3 was a grad student who argued with her mentor,, but kept saying she would call him months later, though no real reason was given why she would forgive his words and want to talk to him again.
There was nothing to make me want to keep reading.

Thank you NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

If, Then takes place under a dormant mountain in Oregon where neighbors who live on a cul de sac are the main characters. Lately things have been a little strange, because when the ground shakes and their mouth tastes tangy, they are able to see themselves, but not really themselves, in an alternate life. A creative plot, brilliantly written, that holds its own from start to finish. I highly recommend.

It's a good thing I started this book on a slow day. Once I started reading, I didn't want to put it down. The fascinating stories and twisty plot lines demanded my full attention from the start. Reading this book was like walking through an MC Escher artwork. The overlapping stories take you in one direction, then the next thing you know you're somewhere else, like in Escher's staircase. I would attempt a synopsis here, but I couldn't do it justice. I'll just say that the lives of the people in Clearing, Oregon are s literally and figuratively shaken up when the nearby volcanic Broken Mountain starts to rumble.

There are some novels that I dread reaching the end and other novels where I'm looking forward to the end. With this novel, I was a bit surprised when I realized that I was at the end because I felt like we missed a few crucial scenes where readers had a better chance of realizing that we have not only come around full circle, but were made more aware of which circle we just completed.

To some degree, I felt like this was a novel that was written with the hopes of being made into big screen (are all novels written with that hope?). This may be why there were gaps because if this was on the big screen, we'd see things more clearly. As a reader, I understood what was going on but wasn't sure all of what I was reading needed to go on. There's an unhappy married couple who see each other in different realms, the wife lusting over a colleague of the same sex and the husband fearing he could delve into an Unabomber type madness. Their young son just gets stuck in their messy marriage. What's maddening about the novel is how little anyone talks about their out of body experiences. Dead relatives return. Duplicates of their selves surface. One moment the reader is here, then into the past, then into another a parallel universe. We don't get to know the husband who is on a research trip while the wife is left alone with an infant daughter. At one point in another universe, we see her give birth to an infant son. There were so many characters, most from the same neighborhood and job, but we never got to see them delve deeper into their real connectedness because we were always nose diving into another planetary experience and then the novel just tied up a few ends and that was that.

🌸🌸🌸🌸 out of 5 🌸s
This is a fascinating book, and exceptionally readable. The characters are utterly human, a fact that not only adds to but propels the story.
An intriguing exploration of the motives that drive us all, the book centers around the ultimate "what if." What if we could glimpse the alternate realities in which we might live?
I absolutely recommend this book.

We have all heard of Parallel Universes, imagined how our alternate selves live.
Author Kate Hope Day takes us to a neighborhood close to Broken Mountain, were the inhabitants of a small neighborhood will meet their alternate selves as they proceed with their lives.
The premise is an interesting one, my only regret, the author, in my opinion, missed a great
opportunity to delve deeper into this aspect of the novel, expending the protagonists meeting with
their other worldly selves, engage them somehow deeper into the story line. Otherwise I really enjoyed this novel, the characters are well developed, the story line is cohesive. It is an interesting, enjoyable read.

I recommend it to anyone who loves an interesting, well written novel.

Thank you to Random House Publishing

for this enjoyable arc



Thank you NetGalley for the arc

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House for this Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for my honest review.

This novel settles you into a cozy Oregon town and introduces four neighbors, each struggling with life's typical problems. One by one they each experience sudden visions of themselves in alternate lives. I found it pleasant to read and enjoyed getting to know each character, and think many people who enjoy reading about the interconnecting lives of neighbors and exploring how each choice we make impacts the trajectory of our lives will enjoy this book.

The idea of alternate realities is popular in fiction now, so I was excited to see if this book would offer a new take on the idea. Ultimately, I found myself disappointed by the novel. It's tough to speak in depth about the plot without spoiling, but I felt like the story only scratched the surface of this intriguing concept, and found it to move along very slowly without much really happening. I do think the book will have appeal, this is just my personal reading experience as compared to other novels with similar concepts to If, Then.