dnf @ 22%

the vibes were not vibing 😭 i didn’t like laurel at all and i just finished another book with a parallel universe so i fear my brain can’t do another one so soon

Interesting concept, but the technical jargon about quantum physics made it sometimes difficult to follow. This might appeal to people who are into sci-fi, but I was in it for the romance and thought there was too little of that. It was an okay book.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for advanced copy, and I give my review freely

Jilly Gagnon's What If It’s You masterfully weaves romance and science fiction into a compelling narrative that keeps readers engaged from start to finish. The novel’s strength lies in its well-balanced mix of heartfelt emotions and imaginative world-building, creating a unique backdrop for an unforgettable love story.

The characters are vividly crafted, with the protagonists displaying genuine chemistry that makes their journey both relatable and compelling. The romantic elements are heartfelt without being overly saccharine, perfectly complementing the intriguing sci-fi twists that add depth and excitement to the plot.

Gagnon's writing style is fluid and evocative, making it easy to become immersed in the futuristic setting and the characters' personal struggles.

Overall, What If It’s You is a delightful read for fans of romantic sci-fi. Its blend of heartfelt connection and speculative intrigue earns it a solid four stars. A must-read for anyone looking to explore love beyond the confines of time and space.

I really enjoyed Jilly Gagnon's last book and was looking forward to this one. Unfortunately, it fell flat for me and I really struggled to get into it.

Don't be fooled by the illustrated cover! This book is very scifi and quantum physics/the multiverse are a huge aspect of the narrative. As a sciencey gal, I loved it and was able to suspend reality to enjoy the tech aspects without overthinking them.

Though this book falls in the Romance category, I think it is so much more about the FMC's relationship with herself than it is with either of the two MMCs. Many reviews have called her selfish and unlikeable, but I actually do think that is an IRL pitfall of being in a long-term relationship that could be very relatable to other readers.

All critiques are pedantic because I really did enjoy this read - but the MIT professor addition felt unnecessary. I also found the brief references to her parents' relationship left me wanting more on how that thread itself through her relationships more.

Big thanks to Random House | Dell, Jilly Gagnon, and NetGalley for providing the eARC!

Thank you, Ballantine and NetGalley, for the advanced copy of What If It's You?

Oh, geez. I wanted to love this one. I really liked Love You, Mean It, but this one fell flat. The science fiction portion of the novel was more interesting than the romance portion, and even then, I feel like science fiction lovers would not be thrilled either. I don't feel that there was enough focus on the romance aspect to call this one a real romance novel. The characters were not likable. It was not a book that I was thrilled to pick up time and time again. It was okay, but not my jam. I'm sure there's an audience for it, but it's not me.

I loved the idea of being able to answer what ifs and where other relationships could've headed, It was really thought provoking and engaging overall.

3.5 ⭐️

I loved how the epilogue isn’t your standard “the got married, had babies and lived happily ever after” kind of epilogue. It surprised me and I enjoyed reading it.

I learnt some theoretic quantum physics. It was a lot but the story line had me invested. I kept reading because I needed to know how it was resolved and just what would happen next. I enjoyed the plot and I was able to keep up with it.

The FMC had me so mad though. Multiple times. Her treatment of both FMC was just not fair. Ollie gave her everything and her contribution had me struggling to like her. I do feel like she had so much to work on and her past played a huge role but it felt like she did what her mom did in the emotional sense.

Laurel didn’t seem to be made for relationships, she didn’t know how to be part of one. She was selfish a lot. It felt like she didn’t stop being selfish till the last chapter.

This book was a fun one but all of the tech and AI talk was a little boring, I caught myself skipping through all of the talk and getting straight to everything else.

This book tries to answer the question many of us ask from time to time “but what if I chose this path instead?” Laurel is a high level marketing guru loving her job, but panicking when she finds an engagement ring in her boyfriend’s dresser. She freaks out and starts imagining how her life could be different. She is so freaked out that she latches onto an opportunity to try this crazy alternate reality program at work and imagines a world where she chose her “work husband” instead of her boyfriend. What follows is a mind bending multiverse situation where she goes in and out of two realities between these two guts playing out her two different paths in life. At first she kind of enjoys seeing what else her life could look like, but switching between the two quickly becomes a nightmare she desperately wants out of. An interesting take on exploring the what ifs in life. I received an ARC, and this is my honest review.

I liked this book. But, I had a hard time with the quantum physics of it all.

Maybe I'm just not smart enough to "get it" or maybe it's just too difficult a concept. I don't know, but it made it hard for me to be in the story as much as I wanted to be.

That said, it was an interesting concept for sure.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

A love story in the multiverse

Laurel Everett has a great job as a VP with tech company Pixel (in marketing...college English major, after all) and has been in a relationship with the adorable if occasionally frustrating Ollie whose creative dreaminess is a good counterbalance to her Type A, list-making, box-checking self. So she should be thrilled when, on the day of their fifth anniversary, she happens upon a little box in his underwear drawer which can only be an engagement ring (she peaks, and...yup). Instead she is more than a little freaked out...is she ready for this kind of commitment? Is she really sure that Ollie is "the one"? What if she should be with someone else instead....like maybe Drew, the work crush who had asked her out when she was first seeing Ollie and she turned him down? Drew is Ollie's opposite in some of the habits that annoy her. Well, it just so happens that Pixel is working on an quantum computing-based alternate reality project and Laurel gives it a try. Suddenly she is living an alternate life where she has been together with Drew, not Ollie, for five years. You should always be careful about using beta versions of things, which Laurel discovers when she is tossed from one life to another, without warning. Can someone fix the technology so that she is able to live one life...and if so, which one will it be?
Is there any more tempting, or dangerous, question to ask yourself than, "What if...?" In this case, commitment-phobic Laurel is asking herself that very question when she is presented with the opportunity to act on it, with humorous if possibly uncontrollable results ensuing. Laurel soon realizes that the question isn't as simple as with whom does she want to build her life...she also needs to figure out who it is that she herself wants to be with that person. She has to explore who she is, why she is that way, what she truly wants out of life, and what the consequences of using quantum computing to figure out her romantic life are. This is a rom-com with elements of sci-fi, not the other way around, so those amongst us who aren't super technologically inclined won't be overwhelmed by the concepts integrated into the story. The novel is fast-paced, Laurel's fears and emotions are quite relatable, and I found it an enjoyable read. I expect that readers of Sophie Cousens, Tessa Bailey and Ashley Poston would find this right up their alley. My thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group/Dell for allowing me access to this quirky take on a love triangle in exchange for my honest review.

The driving theme of this romance -- battling with the many "what ifs" we encounter in our lives, from the biggest to the most mundane -- is a good one and definitely why I picked up this book in the first place. Unfortunately, the FMC, Laurel, is the reason why I wanted to keep putting it down. As Laurel gets thrown back and forth between two possible lives, and two possible romantic partners, the goal seemed to be a growth journey for the main character. I think in some parts that was clear. Yet, in my experience reading it, I couldn't get past the main character's tendency to catastrophize and the continual defensive stances she took with both partners. While I think the author was trying to show how we can always find something that isn't "perfect" about our lives, no matter what, the story just ended up being a continual exercise for me as a reader to extend patience toward an unlikable character.

The AltR (alternative reality) computer also didn't deliver as I expected. The author tried to use a complicated idea (that multiple universities exist that diverge from multiple points throughout our lives based on the decisions we make) and make it suitable for a romance. I don't know anything about quantum physics, but I do know when a writer succeeds in making complicated ideas seem simple to me. And this book was not that. My brain felt tired trying to keep up the logistics and the theory behind what was happening. So tired, in fact, that I had little left to invest in either one of the possible romantic relationships. I even glossed through spicy scenes (which I NEVER skip) just to get to the end of a chapter quicker.

I don't think this romance will be for everyone (it wasn't for me), but I can see its promise and merits.

I was invested in the first half of this book, even though I’m not a huge fan of plots that have parallel universes/butterfly effect/time travel/etc. But the reason I couldn’t enjoy it as much as I would’ve liked to is because the FMC was actually insufferable that the rest of the book just dragged on for me. I don’t feel like there was much, if at all, character growth until the very last bit and even then, it was such an anticlimactic revolution for Laurel. She was so self absorbed and had no self awareness and it drove me crazy. Anywho, I did like Ollie and Drew though.

📖 Title: What If It's You? -a standalone

✍🏾 Author: Jilly Gagnon- I read Love You, Mean It-gave it 3 ⭐

📅Publication date: 5/13/25 | Read 5/9/25

📃 Format: e-Book 304 pgs.

Genre:
*Contemporary Romance
*Sci Fi
*Women's Fic

Tropes:
*love triangle
*alternate universe
*family drama

👆🏾POV: 1st person single

⚠️TW: parental abandonment

🌎 Setting: Boston

Summary: Laurel is unsure about marrying Ollie after 5 years together. She finds an engagement ring and freaks out because she doesn't feel ready. Her coworker Drew has invented Alt-R (Alternate Reality) that answers the question what if. Laurel wakes up living lives one with Drew and one with Ollie. Who will she choose as her HEA?

👩🏾 Heroine: Laurel Everett-VP of tech company Pixel

👨🏾 Hero: Oliver "Ollie" Hughes-31, musician, guitar teacher

👨🏾Hero: Drew- her co-worker "work husband"

🤔 My Thoughts: The quantum physics aside, I liked this "Sliding Doors" retelling. Laurel went on a self-discovery journey while being with two men she loved and admired. I think Ollie was mature enough to talk to Laurel about marriage and their relationship, but she went scientific. Sometimes you have to see what else is out there before making a commitment and Laurel got her chance.

Rating: 4/5 ✨
Spice level 4/5 🌶️

🙏🏾Thanks to NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group | Dell, and Jilly Gagnon for this ARC! I voluntarily give my honest review, and all opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced digital copy of this book.

Laurel is five years into a relationship with Ollie and is very happy in both the relationship and her job. But when she finds a ring in Ollie's underwear drawer on their anniversary and realizes he is about to propose, she panics at the permanence that would imply. Is this the life she is meant to live?. Not a small part of her feelings are the memory of her mother walking out when she was a child, giving not much reason but that she needed "more". So she sabotages the date and runs away.

A few days later she finds out that her "work husband" Drew is actually working on a program that can, possibly, see into the future and see what your life would be if you made different decisions. On a whim, she volunteers to try it, and it WORKS and she wakes up in bed with Drew!! THAT life is very different and she, at first, likes it. But there is something missing. Before she can pinpoint what is missing, she is back in her OLD life and doesn't know how or why. The leaps get more unpredictable and she fervently searches for a way out.

The premise is somewhat "sliding doors" and the story is told very well. I, personally, could have done without the graphic sex scenes ( ONE would have sufficed!), but skimmed over them and enjoyed the book.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What If It's You blends science fiction, multiverse theory, magical realism, and romance into an entertaining story. It's perfect for those who often find themselves overthinking and running through every possible scenario before making a decision.

Laurel Everett, a Type A marketing VP at a tech company, discovers that her boyfriend, musician Ollie Hughes, plans to propose on their five-year anniversary. This revelation leaves her feeling unsettled, prompting a series of "What if" questions: What if Ollie isn't the one? What if someone else is my true match? What if I had accepted a date with my friend and coworker, Drew, five years ago? Using top-secret technology and a quantum computer from her company, Laurel seeks answers to these questions.

The next morning, Laurel wakes up in an alternate reality where she did say yes to Drew, and they are now a couple. In a sliding doors effect, she begins to slip between these two realities uncontrollably. As she navigates these parallel lives, her focus shifts from "Who should I be with?" to "Who should I be?" I appreciated the emphasis on Laurel's personal growth over the romantic elements.

The plot is fast-paced and keeps you engaged, with unexpected twists that I was not able to predict. While the story occasionally delves too deeply into technical jargon, it generally explains the concepts well for those who aren't tech-savvy.

The epilogue was a great way to end out this fun and twisty book!

I’m a sucker for parallel lives and “what if I had chosen differently?” narratives, so What If It’s You immediately drew me in. While the concept of alternate timelines isn’t new, Jilly Gagnon executes it with a fresh, engaging voice that blends romance and science fiction into a fast-paced, unputdownable read.

From the first chapter, I was hooked. The premise is intriguing, but it’s Gagnon’s accessible style and clever genre-bending that really shine. Romance fans will find plenty to love here, and sci-fi enthusiasts will appreciate the smart, subtle inclusion of theoretical physics and multiple dimensions. Even if you’re not typically into science fiction, don’t worry—this story is rooted in emotion and character, not overwhelming technobabble.

While Laurel’s indecision about her feelings for Ollie drags a bit midway through the book, that thread resolves just in time for the novel to shift into deeper, more thought-provoking territory. What starts as a love triangle morphs into something more profound: a story about identity, choice, and the version of ourselves we choose to become.

In the end, What If It’s You isn’t just about choosing between two love interests—it’s about choosing the life you want and the person you want to be. A heartfelt, smartly crafted read that will resonate with rom-com lovers and sci-fi fans alike.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine for the advanced copy.

The premise of What If It's You sounded interesting, not the usual romance but instead a romance with a quantum physics/multiverse twist, and I am happy to say that, for me at least, the execution of this unique romance was fun and sweet. Who doesn't have the occasional 'what if' moment, and given the chance to see how life would have played out had different choices been made, most of us would take a peek at what might have been. In Jilly Gagnon's newest novel, Laurel Everett takes the opportunity to find out what life might have been like had she not turned down a date with her best friend, Drew, with unintended consequences.

Laurel was a little difficult for me to empathize with, as she has the near perfect boyfriend, Ollie, and a great job where she works with her best friend, Drew. After 5 years with Ollie, her hesitation to marry him was a bit hard to swallow, but the rest of the novel helped her grow to understand herself and her feelings toward the two men in her life. I was satisfied with the resolution, and especially with the epilogue, which wrapped things up very happily.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House-Ballantine for the digital ARC of What If It's You? by Jilly Gagnon. The opinions in this review are my own.

Rounded up to a 3. This was just too much science for me. I had a hard time following, unfortunately. Just not for me.