Alternative Reality by Lesley l Smith.

What would you do if you found your perfect life?

When lonely physicist Chloe Carsen discovers a parallel world she becomes addicted to her life there with a perfect family and a perfect career. She doesn't even care that her physical body in the real world is wasting away. But, then, in the alternative world her ideal life begins to fall apart. Her anti-gravity experiment unleashes a government manhunt for her and her family; they'll do anything to get their hands on her tech. The lives of Chloe's alternative-world husband and sons are endangered.

Chloe is torn away from them as her real-world brother finds her on the verge of death and destroys her equipment. Heartbroken and torn between two worlds, Chloe pushes her scientific expertise to the limit to find a way to reconcile her two lives. Can the husband and sons be saved? Can she build a life for herself in the real world?
A fantastic read with brilliant characters. I loved Chloe. I honestly didn't see that coming. Highly recommended. 5*. Netgalley and bookbuzz.net.

I quite liked this one - I recently read and reviewed Dark Matter by Blake Crouch (I actually read it concurrently with this title), and was insanely excited to have not one but TWO multiverse books going at the same time... I am fascinated by the quantum theory concept of multiple branching, parallel universes that arise out of our choices (or decisions not to choose). Reality Alternatives puts a novel take on this construct, using virtual reality as a gateway to (at least one of) these other universes. I liked this idea; it gave the story a fresh angle with which to come at the concept, while simultaneously addressing the often ignored problem of what happens to the you that is physically here when your consciousness branches out into another universe and puts you in another you's body... (Incidentally, Crouch addressed this problem in an altogether different - and Crouch-ly realistic yet horrifying - way. It was fascinating to see the same basic theory handled in such distinctly original fashions in the two books - a bit of parallel universe-ing of its own!)

The basic premise - what our lives would look like if we had made different choices - is not a new one, and not one that is unique to the quantum multiverse concept. But the tech spin of quantum theory makes the standard "what if" idea just that much more interesting because it allows the author to actually play out the choices without relying on tropes like dreams or imagination. When Professor Chloe Carsen's grant proposal actually works, no one is more surprised than she - and when it not only works, but gives her a life so radically different than her own that she literally cannot leave it, well, that's when things get interesting...

The vast majority of the book is Chloe's alterna-life, which is fine - it's a unique and strange one, with odd goings on, and a lovely cast of characters. It would have been nice to get more contrast with a little more back-and-forth between her "real" life and her VR-induced one. Learning about the highs and lows of the path-not-taken is, after all, more dramatic when there is a thorough explanation of each path and its consequences. Also, it rather starts to stretch the bounds of credibility when she immerses herself so totally that she literally threatens her "original" life - even though an explanation is given for how this is possible, it is still hard to believe she could pull it off. Still, that aside, the two lives are strikingly different - for more reasons than the obvious, although I can't mention why without a spoiler - and as a reader I had no trouble comparing them on my own. Had Smith done a more extensive job of that, she may have been unable to avoid explicit or implicit value judgments; this may be one reason she did not. As it is, the reader gets to interpret Chloe's decisions - all of them - and that is a satisfyingly complex job in its own right.

Lesley Smith has created a credible scientific explanation for traveling between worlds - one I thoroughly enjoyed. I hope she has plans for more such creations - this was a fun, engaging, smart story and I look forward to reading more from her!

First of all, I think that Lesley Smith covered a lot of very interesting ideas and topics in this story (Telekinesis, Dark Matter, Dark Force, VR immersion, Etc.), It ultimately came as no surprise to learn that Lesley L. Smith has a PhD in Elementary Particle Physics (http://www.lesleylsmith.com/about.html) - and I LOVE when I find authors who are experts in the area that they choose to write fiction about.

The story covers a Physics professor who develops an experiment for tapping into a parallel universe through VT Immersion. Her parallel self is also a Physics professor who specializes in Dark Matter and has some unusual abilities as a result. Another difference between the two characters is that "Dark Matter Chloe" is married with two children and "VR Chloe" is single and a bit more uptight. She ends up falling in love with her life within VR and wanting to stay experiencing the other Chloe - so much of the book is about the story within the story.

CONS:
- It seemed like a major plot hole to me that they never explained why the experiment kept bringing VR Chloe to Dark Matter Chloe. It seems like if it's just connecting with any parallel version it should be random each time? Or it leads us to believe there is only one parallel universe (which I do not believe was the intended implication).
- Very dialogue-heavy writing so it felt a bit "fluffy"

PROS:
- A unique storyline
- Light, quick read
- Ultimately just very different from what I have read in the past.

This book will keep you reading all day!! I couldn't put this book down! I loved every second and like Chloe forgot that she had another world that existed and that people cared about her beside the family she was seeing with her VR program! You become so engrossed in the story you feel like you are right there with her flying along !

The cover was what pulled me to this book. I love a good cover and that together with the blurb is what usually decides a book for me. I loved the idea of alternate realities and how Chloe experienced it, it was just a shame that she spent do little time in her current reality, I would have loved to learn more of her in her current reality. I loved all the characters and the small twists that was in the story and also how the people differed from reality to reality.
I just thought that Chloe would have learnt from her experiences in her alternate reality but it seems not.
If you are a lover of Sci-fi I would recommend that you pick up this book. This was my first Lesley L Smith book and I look forward to reading more of her books.
Thank you to Quarky Media and Netgalley for the copy.

Chloe Carsen is a physicist who has been working for the past few years on creating a hypothesis and experiment that Alternative realities do exist using Virtual Reality equipment. When everything is ready to go, and Chloe puts on her VR, she is transported into the world where she is not only a Professor of Physics but also a fun, loving mother of two boys with a handsome Husband who is currently an SAHH but studied Science. They have two amazing boys Trevor and Zach. However strange things are happening in her Alt reality as her boys and herself have abilities. As Chloe gets more involved with her experiment, she can't help but stay in her Alternative Reality as in the real world -all she has is her Science and job. What will happen though when Chloe starts to spend more time in her new world? Will she be the same person when she returns to her present state or will she want to live in her alternative reality for as long as she is able too? What will happen though when her two worlds collide, and her friends and family end up breaking her equipment? Will she be stuck between the two worlds or will reality right itself and show her that sometimes the alternative world can come true? I have always been interested in alternative realities and found Reality Alternatives an interesting read as what if out there somewhere is a parallel universe, another form of ourselves and what if they are living the life that we wish too?