I am so incredibly grateful for the opportunity to have received an advanced copy of What If It's You from NetGalley, and the author! 🫶

What If It's You has such great potential. I love the mix of romance and science fiction concepts fused together. However, this story wasn't my cup-of-tea. I loved and adored the science fiction concepts and the parallel worlds fascinated me. The romance on the other hand wasn't for me. I wasn't able to connect with the main character whatsoever. I do look forward to reading future works from this author and I do hope that this book finds its audience.

I love a little mind-bending in my fiction, and this book seemed really interesting.

In this inventive, high-tech take on the age-old question of “what if,” Laurel Everett gets the chance to explore an alternate version of her life, one where she said yes to a date with her old work crush, Drew, instead of committing to her current partner, Ollie. Thanks to a cutting-edge project at her job with Pixel, Laurel slips between timelines, living out two very different futures. But as the lines blur and the jumps become uncontrollable, she realizes this experiment in curiosity might cost her more than just clarity, it might erase her entirely.

I really enjoyed exploring the different lives our FMC could live and how she discovers what is actually the right future for her. The question of "what if" is prevalent throughout this book, and we get to see how people change depending on what happened in the past. The book was interesting and kept me engaged, and I recommend this contemporary romance with a little sci-fi thrown in there if that's your jam!

Review posted to Goodreads:
So I struggled initially to get into this because I found the main character to be kind of unlikable. But the story definitely grew on me and started to feel like a Black Mirror episode with a hint of Palm Springs. Once I realized it was definitely a love story, I was sold.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the copy!

Jilly Gagnon writes books that I like to read. This one was no different. Laurel Everett gets to use an alternate reality software to go back and see what her life would be like if she dated her work crush or stayed with her boyfriend. But now she is going back and forth between realities with no end in sight. No spoilers here...but this is definitely a great summer read.

This just wasn't the book for me. I started it well before the pub date but set it aside because I wasn't feeling the characters. I came back to it ready to read through to the end, and I did. I do think it was an interesting take on the alternative timeline trope, and an opportunity to talk about quantum physics a lot. It was more women's lit than romance, and of the three characters in the triangle I liked zero of them. I really needed to like the FMC but she was just really self-absorbed and not enough in a personal growth page. I usually feel pretty mid about a romance or women's lit book, but I really did find myself just determined to get to the end of this one. That said, if you are into physics and want to see that represented in some lighter fiction, this may be for you! Thanks to Random House and NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions my own.

Laurel's lack of excitement about her boyfriend's upcoming proposal leads her to wonder what would've happened if she'd gone out with her work bff 5 years prior. She gets an opportunity to ask the question via AltR, her company's virtual reality project. The program works too well and Laurel wakes up in an alternate reality where she's with Drew, her work bff. As she navigates both worlds, she's forced to examine both lives and the choices she made to get there.

This book examines choices and consequences and love and quantum physics along with so many other compelling themes. Laurel is a very real and well-developed character. At first, she's the only one. As she switches between worlds, she starts to see and appreciate both Ollie and Drew and question her influence on them. She grows a lot through the story and the ending was incredibly satisfying. I also learned a little bit about quantum physics. Highly recommend!

Overall, I loved the general story line and the concept of intersecting parallel universes and scratching the itch of the proverbial question of "What if?". I found myself very invested in Laurel. I am not usually a fan of love triangles, but this kind of worked. The "D" world Laurel and Drew were irritating, finding myself wishing to see her going to a newer point in time after they were friends dor a little while where her and Drew's personalities were more similar to how they were in the "O" world-- because I feel like they would have worked. However, the loyalist in me is happy she ended up with Ollie in the end.

I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

"We were meant to walk into it together."


What If It's You? was an interesting time travel book with AI. It took me a while to get into because I just didn't really like the main character, Laurel. Eventually she started to grow on me, but it did take a while.

As for Ollie and Drew, well, Ollie is a golden retriever and has done no wrong in my eyes. It was clear that he was upset with her/life, and they needed to talk. As for Drew, honestly, I didn't see the romance between them in the other world. No one felt happy.

Other than that, it was just an okay book. Maybe if everyone talked, then things wouldn't have gotten out of control. Laurel wouldn't have used the machine and messed things up. But in the end, Laurel finally coming to terms with the fact that she needed to fix things for herself (and only herself) was nice.

Don't assume someone else's life would be better without you. Work on yourself, girlfriend.

In the end, I feel like we could have gone without the epilogue. Could just be me, though.

This was a cute book. I enjoy Gagnon’s writing but some of the more science-y elements failed to hold my interest making the book slow in parts. I’m not sure I’d consider this a romance but definitely would call it a second chance story for the FMC and her love interest. I enjoyed the element of personal growth in the story too.

This felt like a technological take on the Sliding Doors movie. The main character gets to see, via an alternate reality, what things would be like if she dated someone else. It’s an interesting idea, but at times was a little too filled with technical jargon. I liked the main character’s arc, and found the ending satisfying.

Thank you to Dell and NetGalley for this e-arc in exchange for this honest review.

I think that every single one of us has considered the road we didn't take - at least once. We've done the whole "what if" things that can drive a person crazy , so this book truly intrigued me as it was taking that topic on.

Laurel and Ollie are at that stage - where an engagement, marriage, house, etc should all be the next steps. Instead of Ollie freaking out, it's Laurel and she freaks out to a point where she gets into an alternate reality - one where she's in bed with her coworker, Drew, and well - is this the road not taken?

Then the story became just far too bogged down with quantum physics discussion - I got a degree in astrophysics, but being forced to read all of this science in a romance? Not for me. So I did DNF around 50% as I just couldn't stick it out - I didn't feel anything towards any character and just was really struggling.

i actually really enjoyed this. for the physics. and the sci fi elements. i did not, however, consider this to be much of a romance. i do love a good second chance moment (if we want to call this book that), but when i really get down to the brass tacks there just wasn't a lot of on page relationship development.

much of the story was our heroine being rightfully freaked out about the stuff happening to her, and as a result clinging to her current relationship. i'm glad that she learned to appreciate her very sweet boyfriend, but it didn't feel particularly revelatory. i think this would have been cooler had it been just a little more unexpected. using these same concepts but having the outcomes be a little different.

i will say though, i did really appreciate the epilogue. that did in fact feel pretty damn romantic.

WHAT IF IT'S YOU by Jilly Gagnon is the first book I have read by this accomplished writer and I cannot wait to read her other work. I was completely absorbed in the realities conjured so convincingly and with such detail that the story still resonates through my heart. I was swept up in Laurel Everett's dilemmas and decisions, loving how she pursued her questions, and answered her own core doubts by living the alternatives to the reality she has created. Loved it, loved it, loved it -- especially appreciating how a writer conveyed the complex possibilities with AI and multiverse. My only issue with the story is its genre description as a romance. Yes, it is romance AND a whole lot more with a pitch perfect representation of work and who she might be if she were able to live her dream. I received a copy of this book and these thoughts are my own, unbiased opinions.

Laurel knows her boyfriend of 5 years, Ollie is set to propose after finding a ring on the morning of their anniversary. She is freaking out and goes to work where a coworker, Drew, shows her the parallel universe project he is working on and sets up a profile for her. That night at dinner, Laurel is sure Ollie is going to propose and sabotages the evening. She leaves the restaurant and ends up back at work and signing herself into the computer and her profile. She wants help figuring out if Ollie is her future or if the interest Drew had initially shown her when they started working together was the path she should have taken. She and Ollie go to sleep that night and she wakes up the next morning in an alternate reality, next to Drew. I really like this book even though the concept of parallel universe is tough for me to wrap my mind around. Laurel showed a lot of growth while living these two lives.

I really liked the science-y aspects of this. It made me think of Dark Matter, but more of a romance. It started a little slow for me but I loved the last half, especially Laurel's personal growth.

Laurel, questioning her relationship with Ollie, uses the AltR project to explore an alternate reality with her coworker Drew. However, she becomes trapped between the two worlds, forcing her to confront the complexities of her choices.

While I liked Gagnon’s previous book, Love You, Mean It, I found What If It's You? to be rather boring, on top of a few other issues. One of the earlier problems I bumped into was the "science info dump" at the beginning. It took on the air of the author stepping in, with glasses nudged up the nose, to interrupt this previous scheduled narrative...to try and simplify quantum physics. Plus, this featured my least favorite of those buzzword narrative crutches — Schrödinger’s cat. If I go my entire life without having this cliché scenario mentioned in my novels, it would be only a bonus.

I also struggled with the characters — they felt a little too pat, and while they and the story weren't entirely predictable, nothing about them felt thoughtful or intentional. Rather, this felt more like something to just get through.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC copy of What If It's You? This book was very heavily STEM based, while I myself am a biology stem girlie, the physics in this got to be a litttttle much in some places... also idk I personally thought Laurel was kind of annoying at times..

What If It's You?
by Jilly Gagnon
Pub Date: May 13, 2025
Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
Everyone wonders about the one that got away . . . and thanks to an alternate reality tech project, one woman will get the chance to actually find out.
This one was not for me. Loved the premise! That fork in the road…and what your life may have looked like. Is it better? Worse? Is the grass really greener on the other side?

Unfortunately, the story gets bogged down in tedious discussions of quantum physics and AI.

Perhaps a bit more romance and thought provoking moments and a lot less mind-bending science?‍
The ending took me a minute to wrap my head around.

This is definitely a case of “I am not the reader for this book,” and it was evident early on. The fascinating premise of what life would be like if we opted for a different path was lost in the complicated quantum physics that overtook the concept. I was more interested in what happened than why it happened.

When our FMC, Laurel, finds an engagement ring in her boyfriend Ollie’s drawer, she starts questioning if he is truly THE ONE. Her work husband, Drew, is developing a new AI-based technology that can show different outcomes based on life choices. Laurel’s curiosity gets the best of her and she does what we all know she shouldn’t—she messes with unproven technology. Sigh. Everything after that is either predictable or bogged down in technical jargon and it lost me.

The epilogue was the absolute best part of this book. Sadly, by the time I got there, I simply did not care. I did not care about Laurel or her life choices.

While this book did not resonate with me, someone with more interest on science, AI, or virtual reality may find it intriguing. If technology is your thing, by all means give this a try. For me, I’ll stick with low tech romance.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dell for the advance copy. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group and Jilly Gagnon for the ARC–my opinions are my own.

Rating: DNF @ 38%

Synopsis:
When Laurel finds a ring in her boyfriend Ollie’s drawer, she should be overjoyed—but instead, she can’t stop thinking what if she’d said yes to a date with her old crush, Drew. Thanks to a quantum tech project at her job, she actually gets to find out—by waking up five years into an alternate life where she chose Drew instead. But what starts as curiosity turns into chaos as she begins slipping uncontrollably between both lives. With each shift, the lines blur and the stakes rise—this isn’t just about love anymore. If Laurel can’t find a way to ground herself in one reality, she could lose everything.

Review:
Unfortunately this book was not for me. From the beginning chapters of the book, I had trouble really connecting with the characters, especially Laurel. Specifically, I felt like she was a red-flag that she was thinking about hypothetical situations with another guy when she found out her boyfriend of 5 years was going to propose.

I also had a hard time understanding the quantum physics explanation of Drew’s project–I like to think of myself as a STEM person, but even I had a difficult time understanding.

Although the overall premise sounded fantastic and so interesting, I could not find myself wanting to know the ending or who Laurel ended up choosing.