I went into this book blind. It’s romance, it’s by Jilly Gagnon, what could go wrong?

It was a delightful surprise when I realized I was reading a story that involves magical realism or should I say sci-fi/quantum physics? After a rather unpleasant 5th anniversary dinner with her beau Ollie, Laurel finds herself in crisis with the a life choice she made. This launches a journey through two parallel lives—her reality and the life she wondered she could have been living.

This book took me out for a spin. I am here for Laurel’s character development and loved how Gagnon made the character realize her faults and imperfections—not that she needed to be perfect but she def needed to work on herself to be a better person and partner to his man. I got a little confused at times with all the science and logic and had to slow down my reading but that didn’t take away from being able to enjoy the story. You can tell the author put a lot of thought in building the story and making it understandable for normal people.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for the ARC of this book!

What If It’s You was my first book by Jilly Gagnon, and I really enjoyed the storyline! The premise immediately intrigued me—exploring love, fate, and the choices that shape our relationships. The characters felt authentic, and I was invested in their journey, eager to see how things would unfold. Gagnon’s writing style is engaging, making it easy to get swept up in the emotions and dilemmas the characters face.

Overall, it was a compelling and heartfelt read that kept me turning the pages. I’ll definitely be checking out more from this author in the future!

What if it’s You? is the story of Laurel, who’s been in a 5 year relationship with Ollie when she discovers an engagement ring. Suddenly she finds herself questioning if Ollie truly IS the one. Meanwhile, her “work husband” Drew, is developing a platform for users to visit alternate realities. Laurel decides to take it for a test spin, and finds herself slipping between her current reality, and one where she’s dating Drew.
The plot and characters are good. I enjoyed the storyline. That being said, the alternate reality/parallel universe does get technical at times with bits about physics and quantum computing and honestly while it might be relevant to the story, I did feel like it was a bit much at times. I wouldn’t say it took away from it, but it could’ve been toned down.
Regardless, the book was enjoyable and I’m glad to have read it. Despite the technical bits, it was a lighthearted easy read. 3.5 stars but rounding up to 4.
Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for access to the ARC.

A romance that takes part in two dimensions that leaves you wondering what if I had made a slightly different choice where would I be?
I love how women in stem this is, that our girl knows her stuff while seeking help from a woman professor who’s able to kindly navigate her to figure out her Schrödinger Cat real life situation…. Or not?
For me the best part was the epilogue, because while things may not always seem perfect they do have a way of working itself out.

Heat Factor: There are a few scenes that I skimmed because I didn’t have the emotional buy-in
Character Chemistry: Uh
Plot: Quantum computing allows Laurel to experience alternate realities
Overall: Firmly on the women’s fiction shelf

Laurel is adulting hard. She works at Not-Meta and is crushing it as a VP of Marketing. She goes on fun vacations with her boyfriend, Ollie. She pays the bills and does the laundry. And when she finds a ring in Ollie’s sock drawer, she FREAKS OUT. What if it’s not ACTUALLY true love? In other words: What if he can’t guarantee that he’ll still love her next year, and leaves just like her mom did?

As Laurel spirals into an existential crisis, Drew, her work-husband, enters the scene. They’re strictly platonic, ever since she turned him down five years ago…or are they? After all, Drew is kind of hot. So when Drew offers Laurel a chance to try out the new alternative reality simulator he’s working on, she asks the program what would have happened if she had said yes…and finds herself not in a simulation, but in an actual alternative reality where she and Drew are an item.

I was expecting this to be a love triangle situation, with Laurel torn between the two men and the two different versions of what her life could be, but Laurel figures out pretty quickly that Ollie is the man for her. Instead, the central conflict is about Laurel desperately trying to stop slipping between the two different versions of reality, with a tiny smidge of marriage-in-trouble style relationship repair.

Because the focus is so firmly on Laurel’s dilemma, Ollie barely feels like a character. Even Drew, as the possible alternate who then must be shown to be wrong, is more fleshed out. This is fine for a book that is all about the heroine’s journey, but not great for a romance. For example, while there are several sex scenes that are technically “spicy” in that they describe body parts doing things, I didn’t care about them at all because Ollie wasn’t a real person to me. (Don’t worry, there’s no “cheating” because Laurel actively avoids sex with Drew when she’s in the alternate reality where she’s living with him.)

On the other hand: a huge problem in Laurel’s relationship with Ollie is that she doesn’t see him any more. She’s taken on the role of the “adult” in the relationship and just assumes that he’s floating along, when he’s actually not. So the relationship repair for their romance hinges on him becoming visible to her once again, which is hard to do if he starts out fully fleshed out from her point of view. This is a real challenge that Gagnon faces as a writer, and as a reader interested in the romance side of the story, I don’t think she quite nails it.

If you’re not an avid genre reader and don’t mind the main focus being on only one character with an underdeveloped love story, there is some interesting stuff about what-ifs. It’s fun to think about how your life would change hinging on a single moment! And as Laurel untangles the problem of her slip-sliding realities, there’s a decent balance between internal processing and external science exploration.


I voluntarily read and reviewed a complimentary copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. We disclose this in accordance with 16 CFR §255.

This review is also available at The Smut Report (May 2025).

Thank you Jilly Gagnon and Dell Romance for this ARC!

What if you could find out where your life would be if you made a different choice?
Laurel finds herself asking “what if” she had said yes to a date with Drew 5 years later, would she still be with Ollie? When her company starts developing an AI program to discover alternate universes through quantum physics, Laurel asks that question. But what follows is her slipping between different universes, her “real” life and the life she could have had if she ended up with Drew.

I really enjoyed this story line, it felt unique to me and I could really tell Jilly took the time to dig deep into quantum physics, but I will say it’s greatly confused me. It took me a little bit to start following where this was going, and I think made it a little hard to get into the book. But once the storyline got rolling a bit more, I was able to track better. Laurel did annoy me a bit in the beginning, where I was wanted to shake her and be like “Ollie is so great, what are you thinking?!”, but I grew to root for her to figure out what she needed.
Overall I enjoyed this book and think it would be a great one for everyone to pick up on May 13th!!

There was definitely something magical about this book. While some moments felt a bit strained, I was completely hooked, eager to see how the story would unfold. What I especially loved was how the lesson turned out to be different from what I initially expected—or rather, it was more than just that. And I have to admit, the ending made my heart flutter and my eyes well up. Such a beautifully sweet and touching story overall!

This book was outside my regular genre (though I didn't realize it at the time), being classified as a romance and a little bit of sci-fi. It focuses on Laurel, who freaks out when she realizes her long-time boyfriend Ollie is going to propose, and starts thinking about what could have happened with a co-worker who asked her out years ago. It just so happens that the tech company with whom she is employed is building an alternate reality prototype that allows her to actually see what would have happened if she had made another choice.

This concept is really cool but I have to admit that it was way over my head. There was a lot of talk about quantum physics and while I understood in theory what was happening, I was unable to fully understand how this alternate universe would work and why the consequences of Laurel's actions would be what they were. I also thought that Laurel was not very self-aware and made risky decisions that real people wouldn't make. That being said, it was very interesting to see what things were like in both versions of her universe and I also felt like she had some true growth throughout the book (though maybe not QUITE enough :)). I really liked Dana and wish we saw more of her. I thought the end of the book was fascinating and fit in great with the rest of the book.

Overall, I did like the book but it kind of made me feel stupid, hence the 3 starts vs 4. Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I've read several of the author's books, and particularly like Love You Mean It. Unfortunately, I didn't love this one. I think by nature of the subject matter, it gets to weighed down by the science and not enough of the romance. A lot of it is Laurel thinking thinks through which mean long passages about quantum mechanics and parallel universes.

It could have worked for me but because I wasn't invested in any of the characters and didn't really like the main character, I was largely bored.

This book sounded right up my alley but unfortunately it couldn’t connect with it at all. This one was a bit too science-y for me. I struggled to get into this one despite several times.

The grass is always greener… Laurel’s boyfriend is about to propose to her, she just got promoted to VP, life should be perfect. But what if she had chosen differently? This sci-fi romance uses quantum physics and a multiple dimension theory to help Laurel decide which life she should choose. The only problem is once you mess with the dimensions, you may not get to choose where you end up after all.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I felt Laurel was a bit of a whiny protagonist, again, who was supposed to be a high powered corporate exec. Some of her fears seemed mostly irrational. However, I really liked the lessons that she learns about herself and others throughout the novel and how it opened her to self-improvement. In order to have such gains, I guess you have to start at the bottom.

I haven’t read sci-fi in a while so it was nice to see I still enjoyed the concept and that for the most part it was dumbed down to a concept even I could understand. Overall, if you like romance, this is a good book for you!

Thanks to Netgalley and the author for an ARC copy of this book.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and Net Galley for the ARC.

I found this super interesting and different than I find most other romances out there. That being said, some of the romance is pretty cute. It’s easy to read, which is nice too. Laurel annoyed me a bit with her indecision. AI is scary and knowing that Laurel put her trust in a machine to help see alternative realities was interesting but also … wouldn’t you just want to live in the moment and see who is the right person at the right time?

Thanks netgalley for the E ARC of this book. This book exceeded my expectations and had me hooked from the very beginning! Loved the characters, the story, the multiverse aspect, the message.. all perfection.

Thank you to Random House & Netgalley for this ARC!
This book had me hooked from the beginning. I read it in one sitting because I had to know where (and with whom) Laurel would end up. I found myself rooting for both Ollie and Drew throughout. I really thought this was a great twist on a love triangle romance.

WHAT IF…the ultimate question. Laurel is fluctuating between two realities, one with her current boyfriend and one with the one who got away, and she’ll have to decide which guy is right for her in the end. This was such a fun read!! It kept me interested the entire time and I will admit that I changed my mind a couple of times on which guy I hoped she would end up with! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

What If It's You is such a cute romance comedy! I could see this being made into a movie one day. Loved Jilly Gagnon's voice and the characters and world she built!

Thank you to Random House & Netgalley for this ARC!

4.5 stars, rounded up (hey GoodReads, give us half stars!)

5 years into her relationship with Ollie, Laurel Everett finds an engagement ring in his sock drawer and promptly *freaks out* - what if she's not ready? what if things don't work out? what if Ollie isn't the right person for her? what if she ends up feeling stuck in her life with him? Conveniently, a quantum computing Alternate Reality project being developed by her could-have-been work crush Drew gives Laurel a chance to see what life would have been like if she had accepted Drew's advances instead of going out with Ollie. As Laurel waffles between each reality, she learns more about herself and what matters to her, and gains a little bit of perspective about the phrase "the grass is always greener on the other side."

If you, like me, are an anxious girly who always wants to make the RIGHT choice and be certain that things will work out... or you've ever been in a relationship and caught yourself wondering how your life would look if you had done even one thing different THIS BOOK IS FOR YOU. The ending warmed my heart and had me in tears late at night. I think this book's sci-fi element was well executed (especially considering it's primarily a romance and not a sci-fi book), particularly recommend for Ali Hazelwood lovers. I thought Laurel's fears, anxieties, frustrations, and coping mechanisms were incredibly relatable. She was a little bit hollow as a character and I wish we had gotten more of her background to give a grounding for why she felt the way she did. Ollie and Drew deserved a little bit more fleshing out as well. Overall a really engaging and enjoyable read, and I think it would be a great romance book club pick!

I really enjoyed this premise. It takes a little sci-fi twist to romance and allows our main character Laurel to explore if marrying her boyfriend would be the right choice. She gets a chance to experience whether her life would have been better if she went on a date with her work crush years ago. Watching our main character switch back and forth between the two lives keeps the book feeling fast paced and engaged.

It leans a little more into women's fiction than romance because it is really focused on her exploring who she is as a person and discovering her own values and growing as a person. If you are wanting a heavy romance, you may find it lacking because the focus is on her in both relationships, rather than her love interest or the relationships themselves.

What If It's You? by Jilly Gagnon is a delightful and heartwarming story that’s equal parts funny and touching. The characters are relatable and endearing, and their journey kept me hooked from start to finish. The romance was sweet and had just the right amount of tension, though some moments felt a bit predictable. Overall, it’s a feel-good read that’s perfect for fans of contemporary romance. I’d happily recommend!

WHAT IF IT'S YOU? by Jilly Gagnon is such a unique and interesting romance that had me hooked from the very beginning. Thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine for the advanced copy!