WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS!

What If It’s You opens with Laurel, a marketing professional at the tech company Pixel, discovering an engagement ring hidden in her boyfriend Ollie’s drawer. Ollie, a musician, has been her partner for five years, and the discovery prompts Laurel to question whether she truly wants to spend the rest of her life with him. On the night of their anniversary, as they follow their traditional dinner ritual, Laurel finds herself emotionally distant, plagued by uncertainty.

At work, Laurel’s closest colleague and "work husband," Drew, introduces her to a groundbreaking AI project powered by quantum computing. The program, designed to explore alternate realities, asks users to identify pivotal moments in their lives. Laurel selects the day Drew once asked her on a date—a moment she turned down due to her relationship with Ollie.

Later that evening, after a tense and ultimately disastrous dinner with Ollie, Laurel visits the Pixel office alone and experiments with the AI herself. The machine glitches during the profile setup, and she returns home, attempting to patch things up with Ollie.

However, Laurel wakes the next morning in an alternate reality. In this version of her life, she is living with Drew, unemployed, and pursuing a writing career. Despite the freedom, Laurel discovers a host of unfinished projects and a growing sense of dissatisfaction. Though Drew is now her partner, the relationship mirrors troubling dynamics from her past.

As the story unfolds, Laurel oscillates between parallel timelines, guided in part by Dana, a quantum physics professor from MIT who helps her comprehend the strange effects of the AI. In “World Drew,” she learns that Ollie—freed from their relationship—has become a Grammy-winning musician. This revelation, along with her observations of how Drew treats her, prompts Laurel to reflect on her own actions and emotional maturity.

The quantum program begins malfunctioning across both timelines, seemingly due to an unnamed profile—one that Laurel eventually realizes is her own. To restore balance, she must confront her role in the instability and the relationships she has disrupted. With Drew’s help, she deletes the rogue profile and wakes up in her original life. Laurel and Ollie engage in an honest conversation, choosing to work through their issues rather than part ways.

Back at work, Laurel notices the AI system is operational again. A mysterious new profile—“Lo Everett”—has appeared, which Laurel interprets as the embodiment of her personal growth and journey. Days later, during another dinner at their usual anniversary spot, Laurel pitches a book idea inspired by her recent experience—about a woman caught between alternate realities, seeking to change her life only to realize that she herself is what needs to change. Ollie is supportive, and the couple appears to have found new grounding.

The novel closes with a charming epilogue set in “World Drew,” where Laurel, now separated from Drew, reconnects with Ollie at a bar—hinting at a second chance for love in that timeline as well.

Admittedly, I struggled with the first half of this novel. Laurel initially comes across as selfish, indecisive, and emotionally immature, often hurting those around her in pursuit of her own clarity. At times, I was rooting for both Ollie and Drew to walk away from her. The narrative's frequent shifts and heavy quantum mechanics jargon occasionally bogged down the pacing, and I found myself skimming certain sections.

However, the story ultimately redeemed itself. Laurel’s character arc—though frustrating at times—concludes with meaningful growth. The emotional payoff was worth the perseverance, and I found myself increasingly invested as the story progressed. The exploration of alternate realities, self-sabotage, and second chances made for a compelling, thought-provoking read.

Rating: 4/5 stars

Many thanks to NetGalley, Jilly Gagnon, and Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

A new technical program allows Lauren to enter another world, an alternate reality. She is able to travel back and forth between the two worlds. She can see what her life would look like if she stayed with Ollie, her present boyfriend, or with Drew a guy at work she had a crush on. I certainly would not want to be able to do that! I would get so confused.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

What If It’s You is about a woman named Laurel who finds a ring hidden by her boyfriend and starts to wonder if she’s ready to get married. To figure things out, she tries out a special simulator at work that shows her what life would be like if she had chosen to be with someone else—her old crush, Drew.

The story switches between two different versions of Laurel’s life, and it really makes you think about how our choices shape who we become. Some parts move a little slowly, but it’s easy to connect with Laurel and understand her struggles. The mix of real life and a bit of science fiction made it super interesting!

Thank you to NetGalley, Jilly Gagnon, and Random House Publishing Group - Ballentine for the opportunity to read this in exchange for a review.

Laurel and Ollie have been together for five years. On the day of her really big VP promotion and anniversary, she runs across an engagement ring in Ollie’s drawer that sparks a whole series of bad decisions as Laurel panics over the next step in their relationship. The biggest is at work where her VP position now provides access to experience some new alternate reality AI technology. This technology, developed by her cute coworker Drew, takes Laurel in her panicked state down her “what if” relationship path without Ollie. What ensues is a fantastical whirlwind of self discovery and understanding of what she is truly looking for in life. The trouble is, which reality will win out?

This was a fun read that just wets the palate on physics and parallel realities. It’s sets the basis for the protagonist’s crazy ride of self discovery in relationships, where one reality buts up to the next and a person can see decisions unfold into something that they may or may not ultimately want. Very abstract and fantastical, but the author walks the reader through it effectively for an enjoyable and very different kind of romance novel. 4 stars.

Based on a digital Advanced Reader’s Copy provided by Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine/ Dell and NetGalley for an honest review. Thank you!

A cute, modern twist on You've Got Mail, What If It’s You is full of witty banter, mistaken identity, and sweet teen romance. The dual POV adds depth, and the anonymous texting storyline is charming and relatable. Perfect for fans of light YA rom-coms with heart!

This book asks the age-old question, "What would my life be like if I chose [insert alternative life choice here]" and (spoiler?) answers it the same way every book to approach the subject ever has, namely, "Your current life choices are the best ones you could've picked, the grass isn't greener, stop thinking about it, etc." An incurious and rote conclusion, if I've ever heard one!

But what is this book about? Thanks for asking. I'll tell you all about it.

Laurel Everett works in marketing at Meta—oops, I mean, Pixel—a company developing a virtual reality headset, AltR (get it? alter?), that allows you to see what your life would have been like had you chosen a different path in the past. Conveniently, she has a loving, albeit boring, long-term boyfriend who wants to get married—what could be worse?! Now, she needs to go back in the past to the point when her work friend, Ollie, asked her out, and choose to date him instead.

Early on, the book concludes that Laurel's life with Ollie is no good. In this world, he's a controlling boyfriend and she's a bad writer—everyone's having a bad time. Quickly, the book becomes less about choosing the right man and more about figuring out how she can get back to her old life. (This headset is fully immersive, people.) We veer into some outdated and not very accurate theoretical physics in the realm of quantum computing wherein a book scientist (the kind drawing dumbed-down concepts on a whiteboard for a plebeian audience) concludes that Schrodinger's cat is not a metaphor for two quantum states being possible until observed but rather an actual, literal fact, and that if Laurel leaves one virtual reality, the other version of herself will die.

Would I recommend this? Not particularly. If you've never read a book before, you might have something to gain. But in a reality (hehe) where other books exist, I think you can do better.

What If It’s You, by Jilly Gagnon, is science fiction blended with reality and mixed with what if’s. Laurel Everett has worked her way up to the top of the ladder in marketing for a major tech firm. Commitment averse due to childhood trauma, Laurel does believe in love and has been with her longtime boyfriend, musician Ollie Hughes, for years but is totally spooked when she finds an engagement ring tucked into his drawer. It is at this point Laurel starts wondering if they are really supposed to be together or if someone else is the one.

That someone else just may be software engineer Drew Blevins. Meeting when first hired by the company as they went through orientation together, they became friends and still have lunch together often. When they first met, Drew had asked her out but she had just begun dating Ollie and declined. But what if she had gone?

Now Drew’s group is working on a special AI project dealing with alternative realities. The group is seeking volunteers to input information about a fork in the road life situation with questions about what may have happened if the other path was taken. Laurel does so and is pulled into dual world’s and surprising experiences when she shifts between two different scenarios, learning much about herself and these men and wondering if she will ever land in her proper life.

This is a haunting tale. Who hasn’t wondered what if from time to time? But does anyone really want to know? This story has interesting characters, a tremendously looping plot line, and a wonderful journey into the sci-fi AI universe. I very much enjoyed this book and I do recommend it!

What if you were, well, the cat in Schrodinger’s quantum mechanics theory? Sliding between realities in search of your best life. AI and Alternate realities to help make some of life’s most important decisions, you know, like who you should be with, or marry? What if in one universe you were with your long term boyfriend, but in an alternate universe you got to see if you were compatible with a friend you’d been thinking boyfriend thoughts about? What if that alternate decision turned into an alternate life completely; different career, friends, hair style, and “the embodiment of my actual dreams.” As Laurel bounces back and forth between two different realities of her life, she begs to ask, is the grass always greener on the other side?
In this mildly sci-fi themed story, Laurel unwittingly explores the possibilities within that scenario. She also learns an awful lot about herself in the process. A unique spin and execution on the age old love triangle issue which gets you thinking on an entirely different level!

I loved the premise of this story starting out, and enjoyed most of the book. I wish that the romance had more depth to it–I didn't feel very connected to the main characters or their relationship, making it feel lower stakes when it could have been much more intense. The MC's internal reflection also seemed to drag on and get boring in parts.

All in all, I"m glad I read this one. It was a unique and fun romance. Thank you for the e-ARC.

I really liked this book, but I do feel it leans more towards science fiction than romance. I think the ultimate theme and understandings the main character comes to are romantic, but the premise seems focused more on fixing the technical AI problem, then the romance itself. This book is very introspective and interesting. I haven’t read much like it, which is nice when romance seems to lean more trope heavy than plot heavy. The characters in this book need to work on open communication, but it’s part of the growth process. I also recognized how you can interpret subtitles in a partner and draw conclusions based on your history with them and wonder if the decisions you are making are the right ones. This book lives in the theoretical, so if you are uncomfortable with that, this won’t be the book for you. It’s an intriguing book and I liked it a lot,

Skimmed a lot of thr quantum physics...that was too much information overload. Loved the epilogue though!!!

*I received a copy of this book on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for this opportunity*

When Laurel Everett finds an engagement ring hidden in the back of her long-term boyfriend's underwear drawer she feels... panicked. Which is, decidedly, not how you're supposed to feel when getting ready to start the next chapter with a person you want to spend the rest of your life with.

Right?

So what if they're wrong for each other?

Unexpectedly, Laurel is given the chance to explore that particular <I>what if</I>; specifically the moment she chose Ollie over her coworker, Drew. As part of her tech company's latest development into quantum physics, a quantum computer can run a specific 'this or that' scenario-- tapping into another timeline to see how life would have played out. However, what Laurel doesn't expect is to be stuck between two realities: the world where she loves Ollie, and the one where she loves Drew. Randomly switching between the two worlds, Laurel gets increasingly desperate to just stay put; but the question is, which timeline does she choose?

This book earned a whole star just for creativity. The question 'what if' has haunted many of us, and a story based on the chance to see the alternative scenario played out was intriguing. However, as many people have already mentioned, the book gets bogged down with the technical physics and theoretical spiels-- especially since I didn't pick this book up to read sci-fi, I picked it up as a romance.

The main character, Laurel, was also a whole other issue. I just didn't like her. She was whiny, obtuse, and selfish; and in both timelines she managed to bog down her partner's life without ever reflecting on her own actions. And even at the end, when she had her realization that <I>maybe</I> she was the problem, there wasn't a deep enough character shift-- she literally threw scraps of affection to her chosen partner who lapped it up and claimed everything was back on track. Laurel needed to end up alone, she needed to choose <I>herself</I>.

This was so much different than what I had expected. I thought it would focus more on the love triangle aspect, but honestly she realizes pretty early on that the grass isn’t really greener on the other side, making the love triangle more of a B plot for the parallel universe hopping main plot.

I enjoyed this one and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys both speculative fiction and romance. However, I would warn them that the pacing can be a bit slow at times and to be prepared for plot with more theoretical physics than a typical romance.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

What a great concept. I am sure everyone has had these thoughts about someone they met early in their life and wondered if they took that path what life would be like. We all think maybe the grass is greener on the other side. Sometimes it takes us losing what we had to realize how great it was. Romance mixed with existentialism.

I really wanted to love this one, but I struggled to connect with Laurel as a main character, she’s caught in a bit of a crisis and seems to want to run away from everything, which made it hard to stay invested. The story gets bogged down in heavy discussions of quantum physics and AI (and there’s a lot of it!), which pulled me out of the emotional core. That said, I did enjoy the idea of exploring the “what ifs” and seeing how alternate timelines could have played out. It’s always fascinating to think about the different paths our lives could take. While this one didn’t quite land for me, I appreciated the ambition behind it.

This was such a unique concept to me! Laurel has many what ifs that come to mind after finding a ring in her boyfriend's sock drawer. At her job, she has strived to be the best and rise up the ranks. With her new position, she gains access to AltR, which is a program that offers glimpses of alternate realities. I loved that she was able to get her answers and see her what ifs and realize that they aren't as simple as she had thought they would be. I also loved that this emphasizes that one choice in our life doesn't have just one effect, but has a cascading impact. The only problem with this AltR is that it is a work in progress and she is jumping between the realities with no real way of staying in just one. This was such an interesting read that offers a glimpse at alternate realities. Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the gifted eARC. All opinions are my own.

The premise of this book was really interesting, what would happen if we made a different choice? Lived a different lifetime? How do the choices we make change us and those around us?

I love a good STEM romance, but be warned that there is A LOT of physics talk, not just a background plot. You don’t have to have a background to understand what is going on, but you do need to pay attention to keep up with how these alternate universes are happening and how the characters are going to attempt to get out of them.

The romance was not something I connected to super strongly, but was sweet and of course had some situations to navigate. I did really enjoy the ending and liked that there was no “break up” (but some conflict over which universe was what she actually wanted.)

This was a fun read!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for providing me with a copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Gagnon never disappoints!
What If It's You? by Jilly Gagnon is one of those books that’s enjoyable to read.
Laurel and Drew’s chemistry was on point. The romance had just the right amount of heart, and the whole story had me grinning from start to finish.
There was terrific banter which made for some hilarious scenes, but this book also had a lot of heart and depth. It was a super fun and quick read that I could not put it down, and I highly recommend it for anyone looking for a good rom-com.

DNF @ 22%

Thank you to the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. Unfortunately, this one just wasn't for me. My main issue was that I had a hard time connecting with the main character, Laurel. Her constant nitpicking and sudden uncertainty about a five-year relationship made it hard to care about her journey. The fact that she started questioning whether she was attracted to a coworker (who is not her boyfriend) also rubbed me the wrong way. If you’re thinking about someone else like that instead of your boyfriend of five years, it might be a sign that the relationship you're in isn’t right for you. And instead of breaking up with him, she picked a fight for no reason. I didn't find either of the love interests very compelling, and I wasn’t interested enough to keep reading just to see who she might end up with. The writing style also felt dense, with long paragraphs that made it hard to stay focused. The premise seemed interesting, but the heavy focus on science and quantum mechanics was not what I was looking for. I’m sure others will connect with this more than I did, but I’ve decided to move on.

What If It’s You by Jilly Gagnon offers an intriguing premise with the potential for a compelling mysterious sci fi-romance hybrid, but ultimately stumbles in its execution largely due to its unlikable female protagonist.

The story follows a classic mistaken-identity plotline, sparked by a mysterious, heartfelt letter left behind in a café. While the concept is charming and the pacing keeps things moving, the central character, Ella, makes it hard to root for the romance or even stay emotionally invested. Her frequent bouts of self-absorption, overreactions, and questionable decisions often distract from the plot and make her difficult to empathize with. Her development feels inconsistent at times, which undermines the emotional payoff the story is striving for.

That said, the book does have its strengths. Gagnon's writing is witty and accessible, and the story is full of small moments that feel relatable and sweet. The male leads are a welcome counterbalance, bringing warmth and sincerity that keep the story afloat when Ella becomes grating.
Overall, What If It’s You is an enjoyable, if slightly frustrating, read. It’s worth picking up if you're a fan of rom-coms with a twist just be prepared for a main character who may test your patience more than once.

Thank you, NetGalley, the author, and the publisher, for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.