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I really loved the premise of the story, but I did not enjoy the ending of the book. Additionally, the explanations of physics and quantum mechanics that led to the switch in the first place were not very accessible, which made it hard for me to understand and theorize about the book.

What If It's You? is similar to the Seven Year Slip if Clementine made the wrong choice.

Thank you to the publisher for the e-copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

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3.5/5 stars

The premise of this book really spoke to me as a girlie who over analyzes all of her life choices. But it really lost me with the AI and quantum physics jargon. In the beginning Lo was really likeable but towards the end I lost a bit of that. The resolution to the plot felt a little flat and rushed to me. Overall, I did enjoy the book.

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I really enjoyed this book! I’m kind of mystified that it hasn’t been better reviewed? I found it to be a quick, compelling read with light sci-fi elements that were well incorporated and a sympathetic main character. I think other readers might get frustrated with her anxiety, but honestly, I found it quite relatable. Laurel’s self-doubt and constant questioning of whether a life with Ollie is really what she wants is understandable in the context we are given of her past, but admittedly it does get a little frustrating. You’ll think she’s made up her mind and then she gets back with Ollie and freaks out again. But though it’s a bit frustrating to read, I did find it realistic to the mind of someone with this level of anxiety, and I enjoyed the character growth she experienced over the course of the novel. I think some readers might also not like the idea of a romance novel where the characters are already in an established relationship, but that didn’t bother me one bit. All in all I’m baffled that other people aren’t liking this novel as much as I did, because I liked it a whole lot, so much that I’m going to check out other books by the author. 4.5 stars, rounded up.

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⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
3.5/5

This one left me a bit conflicted—part swoony romance, part sci-fi mind-bender, and entirely unexpected.

What If It’s You? explores the question we’ve all asked at some point: What if he’s the one? But throw in a multiverse twist, and suddenly that question has infinite answers. While I appreciated the originality and clever premise, I found myself tangled in the back-and-forth of alternate realities. The writing was solid, and the concept intriguing, but the execution left me wanting a bit more emotional depth and stronger connection to the characters.

Still, it’s a fun, thought-provoking read for fans of unconventional love stories with a twist of the speculative.

💫 📚 Many thanks to #NetGalley, #WhatIfItsYou and Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine for the ARC! All thoughts are my own and freely expressed.

#BookReview #WhatIfItsYou #MultiverseReads #YARomance #SciFiRomance #NetGalley #AlternateReality #SummerReads #BookishThoughts #Bookstagram #BookstagramReview #CCsBookCorner #BookLoversUnite #ReadingLife #BookRec #ARCReview #RomanceWithATwist #TimeTravelBooks #WhatIfMoments

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Thank you to Random House Publishing Group, Jilly Gagnon, and NetGalley for the arc copy of this book. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.

Laurel Everett, a marketing VIP at Pixel, intentionally sabotages her own engagement to longtime boyfriend Ollie because she's spent her entire five year relationship wondering if her coworker Drew would be a better fit for her. Luckily for her, Drew is a tech genius that has created an alternative reality AI program. With Drew's encouragement, Laurel creates a profile and runs a scenario in which she does date Drew. However, the AltR program becomes a little too real and Laurel finds herself jumping between both universes.

This is a very interesting book concept, something I haven't seen in other books before. It is heavy on the quantum physics, but it seemed fairly simplified for readers. Ollie is the best character in this book and I was glad Laurel came to realize her mistakes and had good character development. Good writing, quick read.

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Great concept but the story itself didn’t work for me here. I just ended up not caring about Laurel/Lo and her bad choices. It would have worked better for me if she spent more time worrying about her own growth in both timelines vs what each boyfriend was doing.

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A clever, emotional “what if” story that bends reality and the heart in equal measure. The plot has a speculative twist and is thought provoking. Laurel’s journey is messy, relatable, and often funny, as she stares at the fork in the road.
Many thanks to Random House and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

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I received a DIGITAL Advance Reader Copy of this book from #NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I'm really not sure how I felt about this book. My main thought is that I couldn't stand Laurel. For someone who has been with a guy for five years she should have realized way before that moment that engagement was close by and that she's a commitment-phobe. Throughout the entire book Ollie seems like an amazing guy and deserves better than her.

I found the two timelines interesting and her trying to figure everything out kept me interested. But there was a lot of science talk that went over my head. I am also happy that she realizes that she needs to change.

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3.5 Stars
This was my second book by this author, I had previously read Love You, Mean It, and both were quite enjoyable to me! What If It’s You? was a really interesting take on the trope that I’m not sure even has an official name?

If this was a Friends episode it would be called— The one where the main character questions their life/decisions and then gets to glimpse what life would be like in alternate realities. So maybe it’s called the what if trope? I digress, but this is what happens to our main character Laurel Everett.

What’s interesting is there’s a reason for why this happens to Laurel and it has to do with some alternate universe software the company she works for is developing. I would say, if you can suspend reality (literally) in a book and just go with the weird then I think you might like this!

I liked the main love story and loved it even more after reading the authors note at the end. Jilly Gagnon wrote that she was interested in writing the love story after the Happily Ever After, which I just loved. If you’ve been in a long-term relationship or hope to have one eventually I think you’ll be able to relate or find hope.

I think the only reason I didn’t rate What If It’s You? higher was because despite the captivating story, Laurel really drove me crazy at times. I didn’t find her to be super likable and also didn’t think we got to know her as a person outside of the predicament going on. Sometimes she seemed very eager to point a finger & self-absorbed when it came to her different romantic partners.

I listened to this via audiobook because I’ve been moving to a different state & picking up my kindle has been impossible! The audio wasn’t my favorite but also wasn’t bad. It is pretty spicy if that influences your decision to read or listen.

Thank you so much to NetGalley & Random House Publishing Group Ballantine for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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What If It's You? is part rom-com and part speculative fiction. Laurel's journey through alternate realities is sometimes funny, sometimes frustrating, and surprisingly deep, especially as she grapples with questions bigger than just "which guy should I choose?" The questions about identity, regret, and self-discovery kept me turning pages.

That said, the quantum physics explanations, while clearly intended to be reader-friendly, sometimes pulled me out of the story. I appreciated the effort, but personally struggled with the science of it all, even though it’s crucial to the plot. Overall though, the heart of the novel is in its characters, and Laurel’s messy, sincere, very human struggle to figure out her life makes this book worth the read.

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What If It’s You is not your typical love triangle story. It involves alternate realities and a lot of technology.

Our main character uses alternate reality software from her job to go back in time to see if she should have accepted a date from her work crush and what that relationship would look like or if she should accept her current boyfriend’s proposal.

This is a quick beach read.

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I fear this book had a great concept but an underwhelming execution. I got it as an ARC from NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, and Dell, so thank you to them! This was a truly unique and interesting story, but I think it could have been improved significantly.

What If It’s You starts with Laurel finding a ring in her boyfriend Ollie’s sock drawer and panicking so badly about it that she enters an alternate reality where she went out with her coworker, Drew. The only problem is that she keeps waking up after switching between realities, and she needs to figure out a way to stay in one. She also has to choose which one to stay in, which is proving to be more of an issue than she thought. Worse still, if the machine that’s controlling her switching is shut off, she might disappear from both worlds completely.

Like I said, the concept was so creative! But I do think the entire premise, being based on having a crush on your work husband when you’re practically engaged, is a little gross. That was icky from the get-go, which tainted Laurel’s character immediately for me. I wouldn’t say she was unlikable, but I also didn’t connect with her. That might just be me, but she wasn’t very relatable, and not just because of the sci-fi plot happening around her. I did appreciate how active she was in her story. She was doing everything she could to understand what was happening to her and why, and trying hard to stop it.

Another important character is Dana, a researcher on quantum realities whom Laurel contacts to figure out what’s going on. Dana could’ve been used way better. The author was clearly using her for a bit of comic relief, but often fell short (the Rock? Really?), and it was EXTREMELY clear that she was just there to try and explain the science behind the switches, which is fine but there had to be a better way to get that exposition across.

Speaking of exposition, there was SO MUCH of it. Yes, the quantum physics of it all is important to the story. It’s the catalyst. But do we really need massive paragraphs of it practically every page? No. I love science, and even I started skimming them after a while.

This exposition should have been used to explain more about Laurel’s mom. She has this deep fear of becoming her, exposed in World D, but is also kind of making Ollie into her in World O, which she realizes is terrible. She mentions her mom briefly a few times, but never really expands on it, which means the mentions of her are confusing, especially when it comes to World D.

Going back to O and D, let’s talk about Ollie and Drew. Ollie was off-putting in the beginning, which made sense as we were seeing everything from Laurel’s perspective, but it made the ending a little…disappointing, almost? He seemed great towards the end, except for the fact that he’d been keeping this major secret from Laurel, yet got super upset with her when she did the same thing. (Spoiler here, sort of?) Drew in the “regular” world seemed like a much better option, and even tho he wasn’t in the “other” world, we know that people are pretty different from world to world so who’s really to say that getting with Drew in the regular world would’ve been worse than staying with Ollie? Idk that part just wasn’t super clear.

Moving away from characters where the writing could be iffy, the actual switches between worlds were written well, getting the sense of disorientation across and making them suspenseful while also staying in a “normal” setting like the train station. The science itself was smart, and the distinct feelings that both worlds had were great. The writing style there was well done, and while the book did drag slightly in the middle, it was engaging enough. Having the first switch over at 17% did feel like it took a little too long, though. I understand that the normalcy of the regular world had to be established, along with regular character dynamics and the proposal catalyst, but I do think it could’ve been quicker.

This was an interesting book, but there’s certainly unmet potential there that I think would’ve made the book fantastic if it had been met.

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Lovely RomCom with alternate realities and loads of character development. Epilogue was my favorite part! I'm usually not a fan of love triangles, and this wasn't your typical love triange... just a hint at a different life and what if..? Very cool and unique story.

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Give me alllllll the sci-fi, AI romance! I could live in this universe! I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we get more af AltR because I want more adventures!!

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I can’t explain it, but I have a fascination with books that explore what if scenarios. What if another choice had been made? How would that life play out? I suppose it must scratch my overactive writer’s brain, because I love the way these novels make my mind whirl. What If It’s You is just one such novel, though the choice is limited to only two possible lives. I’m used to novels that offer more choice points, more possible scenarios, but I also appreciated that the limited choices Laurel presents herself with really give her a much more obvious opportunity that wonderfully plays out over the course of the novel, and, even if it tended to be a little too wordy, I really loved that focus.

Laurel has recently been promoted to VP of marketing at Pixel, a Boston-based tech company with a division called Lightning that’s exploring alternate reality. She’s also been in a five year relationship with musician Ollie, who intends on popping the question on their anniversary, and it’s giving her some serious anxiety because of the way her parents split up. But then Drew, her work crush who asked her out five years ago and who she turned down because she’d just started seeing Ollie, gives her the opportunity to try out alternate reality. So she picks an inflection point: what if she’d said yes to Drew five years ago? Unfortunately, the program seemingly stalls out, except she wakes up in the wrong bed with the wrong man the next morning. She spends days sliding back and forth between two realities, her original one where she picked Ollie and the alternate one where she picked Drew. It gives her the opportunity to explore both choices, to figure herself out and what her heart wants, but AltR seems to be bugging out and Pixel might pull the plug, endangering Laurel’s life.

There’s a surprising amount of physics in What If It’s You, and I won’t even pretend to understand it, kind of because even Laurel barely grasps it. It sounded plausible enough to me, and that was enough for me to enjoy this novel. Outside of all the science talk, this is really focused on Laurel and her figuring out who she is and what she wants. I loved the way this strange experiment gave her the opportunity to examine herself and her life from different angles, to really see herself in two different positions. I also really liked the way it touched on the way her parents’ marriage and split affected her, and, in its own way, what it said about her and her own choices. I do wish we could have seen her father, though, to see them discussing things, because this kind of ended up feeling like a “I don’t want to get married because my parents divorced” kind of story without any further complexity.

But I did like Laurel. Sometimes she tended to be a little too wordy in her internal world as she puzzled things out and came to realizations, with some of it becoming almost too repetitive, so it did get a little tiresome. But she’s just a regular woman who’s conflicted between two men and the opportunity to explore that what if is too strong to ignore. I did really like how the core of her stayed the same throughout the book and between lives. Instead, it’s more a shift in perspective that happens for her, and it was great to see that happen and play out. It was actually really easy as a reader to figure out which life was right for her, so sometimes it was a little agonizing when she ping ponged between them, but her anxiety about it and her desperate need for the guy her heart truly yearned for sweet.

I don’t want to comment too much on her life with either Ollie or Drew because there’s definitely a clear choice, and Laurel isn’t exactly subtle about it. Sometimes I felt a little sorry for the other guy, but was also clearly rooting for Laurel to get it right. It was interesting to see the parallels between her two lives, albeit with their roles switched. It was oddly satisfying to see Laurel in the same position she’d put one of the guys in without even realizing it, and her figuring that out was really well done. It also helped her shed some light on just how much like her parents she was, and I still wish to have seen her with her dad, because I think that might have given this story some added depth and complexity, if only to get out of Laurel’s head a little.

What If It’s You is a fun, yet serious read. I kind of like how these what if novels I love so much have become more high tech. But what I love the most about these kinds of books is still the same. I love how Laurel gets to experience two different lives, and it was fascinating to see how they intersected so much as both her lives take place in the Boston area. I didn’t really get a strong Boston feel, but it was great to see her out and about. This is really turned more towards her internal life as she works to sort out her heart, and live as a literal Schrodinger’s cat. I can’t say I ever understand her attempts to stop the program from running in order to escape the slide between lives, but I really felt her desperation towards the end. I really enjoyed the food for thought this one gave me as I sometimes saw myself a little too much in Laurel from time to time, but really have to applaud this novel for really putting the focus on Laurel really seeing herself in order to understand herself, not figuring out which guy she should be dating.

What If It’s You may rely a little too much on the idea that the child of divorced parents runs away from marriage, but it has a fun interplay of science and love. It feels like it might want to lean into a love triangle, but there’s a clear winner all the way through, so the romance is both tempered and sweet. Instead the focus is on Laurel, and I really enjoyed going on this journey of self-understanding with her. It was great to see physics woven into the story, even if I didn’t understand it, and I really loved the way things resolved themselves.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a review copy. All opinions expressed are my own.

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This did not come off to me as a rom com, it's very sci fi. Seems like Laurel is just wanting AI and quantum physics to assure her of her choices and that it will work out with her partner. Sadly I didn't finish this book

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There was a lot of quantum physics talk that made me feel dumb for not understanding. The romance was great, I love a good love triangle and I enjoyed this one very much.

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3.25✨ 2.5🌶️

overall there were some things that i really enjoyed about this story, but there were other bits that took me out of it at times.

the premise itself was super interesting and i flew through the first 45% of this book. as an anxiety girl, i totally understood laurel’s “what if” worries. that being said, i found laurel as a character to be super frustrating at times. while i understood where she was coming from with these worries, the way she went about some things and acted in general turned me off. i think it was tough to understand why she was so worried about a future with ollie without having more of an understanding of their relationship from the start. you got some small glimpses, but her reactions (and his tbh) to things were confusing without more background on the history of their relationship.

the other thing that was tough to under was the whole tech component of the story, and im still not 100% sure how it all worked. but i did appreciate the idea of it and how it played into the story.

all this to say, while it wasn’t my personal favorite, i could see myself recommending this book to the right person.

thank you to Dell & Netgalley for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!


a release day story is saved to my story highlight: arcs.
an additional post mentioning the book has also been posted: https://www.instagram.com/p/DEvMu11SpPS/?igsh=MTBjaDVmOGM1c3I2eg==

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This novel had a very interesting setup. I really enjoyed the tech aspect of the storyline and how she went back and forth between realities. I did, however not enjoy how indecisive she was with her feelings. Both men didn't deserve her. Period. The FMC has valid complaints about both MMCs that she stresses throughout the book that would have me running for the hills. She would get to a point where she was thinking she was choosing one and then they would do something kind of shitty or not very considerate and she would be like "maybe I don't want this". And then they'd do something moderately redeeming and she'd switch realities.

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I enjoyed the sci-fi elements of this book. The dialogue pulled me in as did the overall plot. There was romance, but not Romance, if you get what I mean. There could have been a little more, but overall a good read! Interested to see more from this author.

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