I really loved the premise of this books. It reminded me of Maybe in Another Life and I was so excited to read this. It fell a bit flat for me? I think I just never got into the characters because the flipping between timelines. And the ending came a bit abruptly, I think if this was a bit longer I may have liked more!

wow, this was such a unique, fascinating, heartwarming story! I loved the twist of this trope where you wake up to a new reality where you seemingly have it all (13 going on 30 style) but instead it’s you wake up and have nothing—no money, no possessions, no identity. this happens to the FMC Olivia who wakes up in a reality where she actually died at 12 years old, leaving behind a whole world of family, friends, & fiancé who love her deeply. she has to convince these people in her new world she actually is their Olivia.

I read this in one sitting, and was absolutely enthralled by the back and forth timeline between Olivia’s new reality & her fiancé Jake’s reality that Olivia left. It kept me on the edge of my toes, wondering how anyone—from both perspectives— could handle this impossible, heartbreaking situation. I felt Olivia’s fam in her new reality handled about as I expect with the grieving parents going extreme in two directions, the mom embracing having her dead daughter back, & her father being exceptionally cynical & unbelieving. I don’t think I can even imagine how I would react in any of their shoes in such a situation. And my heart just bled for Jake in his reality where he lost Liv. He loves her so freaking much, and he was dealing with such grief by living in such a tragedy.

I loved the ending, but I would have loved an epilogue showing maybe a year later, just how it was all handled once the story concluded (especially from both timelines, if that’s even possible). I know this book was listed as Romance genre, but it felt more to me like General Fiction with dashes of romance, fantasy (parallel universes), & suspense. But I couldn’t nail down just one genre for this book, I don’t think.

overall, very heartwarming, tearful, suspenseful, unique story! thank you so much for the ARC!!!

Thank you NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted to love this book, and it had so much promise! I love fantasy books. I love contemporary romance books. I even love magical realism books. But I don’t even know what genre to call this one. I think I could have got behind it if Liv was in a coma and imagining another life or something like that…but to fall into another dimension randomly? I just don’t get it.

The characters are well rounded and 3 dimensional, which I like. Liv goes through a lot of emotions, all of which I feel, which is the mark of a well written character. Jake as well, you can really feel his grief, fear, denial etc, so I was actually impressed with that. I just don’t love the concept of alternate realities, and there were just a few holes in the plot I couldn’t explain. 3.5 ⭐️

Omg I loved this book so so much! It’s so different from anything I typically read, but I was pleasantly surprised! I loved the main characters and the story was soooo heartwarming 🥰 10/10 recommend

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley, this is a voluntary review and is completely my opinion.

What an incredible read! CJ Connolly is a new author to me and I can't wait to read more. This story was engaging and heart-wrenching through and through. Highly recommended.

This book has a very interesting premise and got me thinking, but it wasn't as fleshed out as it could've been. I would've liked to have seen more conflict and progression in the different POVs. It was very slow for the first half of the book and there wasn't a lot happening on either POV to keep the action going. I realize it's important to focus on the family relationships and investigation to suspend our disbelief of the situation, but there really wasn't much happening and I almost DNF until I got to 50%.

At that point, I thought there would be more conflict or inner turmoil to explore the "what could have been" theme. Instead, the investigation drags on and the potential other lives barely encroach on the current realities. Some things that also took me out of the plot were the uncharacteristic/abrupt character interactions and the sprinkling of UK phrases even though the story takes place in the US.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Olivia lives an idyllic life - she’s got the dream home, dream job and her dream man. But after suffering an accident she wakes up in hospital and nobody knows who she is….now she has the chance to do things all over again but what will she choose?

This was a pacy read with lots of twists. The plot is clever and there are key points linking parallel plot lines which add to the intrigue. It is a sad, joyous and heartbreaking read and I couldn’t put it down. The only letdown for me was the ending which seemed abrupt and I wanted to see a bit more of what happened next. Definitely an enjoyable read and worth picking up

Stories with magical twists are my catnip, but I struggled with this one. While celebrating her one-year engagement, Olivia accidentally slips off a cliff and wakes up to discover she's in a different timeline—one where she died as a child.

It was mostly spent with Olivia attempting to convince those around her she is truly the girl they once knew. I wouldn't say there was zero resistance from her family, but I had a hard time accepting how relatively quickly they accepted their dead daughter being miraculously back from the grave.

I was far more invested in the original timeline, which follows Jake, Olivia's fiancé. I really sympathized with his struggles piecing together the disappearance of Olivia, all while dealing with police investigations and interrogations. I was very curious how it would all play out.

But overall the conflict was lacking. I was hoping for more turmoil between the two timelines. Perhaps Olivia feeling pulled between the two. It wasn't like that. And the ending was so incredibly abrupt. It left me feeling very cranky.

Thanks so much to Joffe Books and NetGalley.

Olivia has the perfect life with the perfect fiance. She's excited for their upcoming wedding. Then she had an unfortunate accident, wakes up, and her life is different. Her fiance is about to be married to someone else.

I liked the premise of this book but struggled with the delivery. There's no build up with their love story before the accident. The language in the book reads young to me, and I struggled with connecting with any of the characters. I can see why a lot of people would like this book however. It wasn't for me but I wish I had liked it more.

The Love I Could Have Had by C.J Connolly

This book sounded very promising. I found the idea of a multiverse romance to be a new and intriguing premise. I was, regretfully, disappointed after reading it, though.

Although I didnt particularly enjoy this book, there were definitely some good points to it. I liked the writing style, as it came across very light and breezy, which made this book easy to read. The split point of view was also a good addition and this is what kept me reading rather than simply giving up on it altogether. I think if the author had delved deeper into certain aspects of the plot or characters, this could have been an outstanding novel.

Unfortunately, I found that too much of this book was dedicated to Olivia trying to convince her family of her "resurrection". Of course, this was entirely necessary to the plot, but it took up too many pages and therefore the romance aspect seemed to be lost for a large percentage of the book. I also felt that the fact Olivia stayed so long in the parallel world, especially after being shunned by practically everyone at the start, seemed illogical. If it were me, I'd have been jumping back into the quarry as soon as they told me that my family didn't know who I was!! I'm also not sure where the aspect of "The Love I Could Have Had" was within this book, and I'm still confused why it was titled this.

Olivia as a character was rather dry, and she didn't seem to have much personality other than constantly bringing up her love for Jake. I felt that every aspect of her character was so closely linked to Jake that she almost seemed to loose her individual identity, and vice versa. Jake as well did not have much personality other than obsessing (rightfully so) over Liv's disappearance. We know very little about either of the main characters, other than that they are childhood sweethearts, so it was really hard to warm up to them. The only character I even some-what liked was Adam, and I think that really speaks volumes.

Overall, I felt this book was slightly disappointing and did not live up to the excitement I had when I first read the premise. The idea was solid and the book did have several funny and engaging moments, but overall I don't think this landed as the author had hoped. I would also say that this did not have the feel of a romance book at all, nor did the title really fit with the contents.

I would be interested to read future work by this author and see if this is perhaps just a very hard story to make make sense to a reader.

Thank you to Netgalley for this ARC.

I really wanted to love this book. I did enjoy the story and was really interested to see how it would resolve. Unfortunately, the ending was very convenient, predictable, and abrupt. It could really use an epilogue.

Also, the use of British words and phrases was disorienting, since they were supposed to be from the perspective of someone who was American.

All in all, though, it was a good read, and I would read more by this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and Joffe Books for the ARC.

This is the first book I’ve read by C.J. I really enjoyed the style of writing. The dual storylines in this book was interesting. I ended up reading this book in one day. I had a bit of a hard time connecting with the characters but it was a very interesting read. Thank you NetGalley, C.J. and Joffe books for the ARC!

I really enjoyed the majority of this book, I got quite into it and didn’t achieve much else today!! But I was disappointed with the ending, it was very abrupt with no attempt at an explanation, it was as if the author got a bit bored, didn’t know how to finish it so just wrote down the easy option. Up to this point I was loving it!! Thanks to Netgalley for an advanced copy x

This was a nice read that I finished in just a matter of hours. The book is about a woman named Olivia, who is getting married to her fiancée Jake. He’s been her everything since childhood but she’s wondering if they’re missing out on something only being with each other. A day of them celebrating sends her to an alternate universe in which she died at 12 years old. There’s a dual POV with Jake dealing with Olivia’s disappearance that is really sad to read.

I enjoyed reading Olivia’s heartache in not being with her Jake and the desperation in which she wanted to get back to him.

As always, thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Well this is certainly a love story with a difference. This is the first book I have read by this author and l definitely loved the style and flow of writing. It had me hooked from the very beginning and finished within a day. Liv and Jake’s story was extremely heartwarming with a twist of dual universes thrown in to make it very interesting indeed. Not your average romantic fiction so definitely worth a read.

Thanks to Joffe Books and NetGalley for allowing me an advanced copy to read in exchange for my open and honest review. As always, my reviews will also be posted on Amazon, Goodreads and Waterstones and interaction on Facebook and instagram where possible.

I’m not usually a fan of time travel books but a friend of mine adores this author so I decided to give this book a try. I’m glad I did- I liked it a lot. It grabbed my attention and I breezed right through it. The writing was seamless and the story itself was so heartwarming.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Dnf at 33 %. I just couldn't continue with this book. It was kind of boring and I never did get into the story... I wasn't into the characters either.

I actually read this book in one day as I was drawn into the book as told by Liv and Jake along the context of the question of what would happen if you hadn't jumped off that cliff and pursued the great love with risk. That we could live in a parallel universe of which we interact with the same people but in totally different aspects and levels of feelings. When Liv woke up in a hospital bed with no recollection of how she got there or who she actually is, the reader has to sympathise with no longer feeling like a person. She lives entirely in the past. Conversely, Jake when he meets her again he may have moved on but in a life that has been unhappily lived. When she is gone, he us entirely lost. Their two souls came together on a memorable day for both. I would read another book from this author for sure.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC. This book could have been better if it was fleshed out a little more. I, unfortunately, was not able to suspend my belief enough to enjoy this book. There was no explanation for the universe shift and it felt like there was going to be a resolution to the mystery that never came.

This book has an amazing premise but left more to be desired. It would make a great short story if shortened, or a better novel if it was developed more at the beginning and end. Overall, I enjoyed it.

Olivia knows two realities - the one where she is about to marry her childhood sweetheart and one where she died when she was 12 years old. She finds her realities swapped and has to find her way back.