Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this book!!

What a great book! I really enjoyed this book. I couldn’t put it down. The author has such a good writing style. This was a first for me by this author but will not be my last! I enjoyed the characters. They had good chemistry.

Book Preview and Review: The Many Futures of Maddy Hart by Laura Pearson
Laura Pearson, the No. 1 bestselling author of The Last List of Mabel Beaumont, returns in 2025 with a breathtaking and emotionally charged novel, The Many Futures of Maddy Hart. Combining speculative fiction with heartfelt romance, this story examines the choices we make, the futures they shape, and the sacrifices required for happiness.

A Fascinating Premise
Maddy Hart is cursed—or gifted—with a unique ability: every time she takes a significant step toward intimacy with someone, she’s inexplicably transported to a glimpse of her future self, 10 years down the road. These fleeting visits to her potential futures reveal paths she doesn’t want to take, lives filled with discontent, disappointment, or heartbreak.

This happens again and again, until she meets Oliver. For the first time, Maddy sees a future she wants—a happy one, complete with a family and a daughter who carries Oliver’s eyes. But this future comes with a cruel twist: to reach it, Maddy must hurt Oliver now, in the present, setting the stage for their perfect future life together.

Exploring Themes of Fate and Choice
At its core, The Many Futures of Maddy Hart is an exploration of fate versus free will. Maddy’s journey forces readers to grapple with the tantalizing but often agonizing question: If you knew what the future held, would you change your present to achieve it? The novel delves into the cost of happiness and whether it’s worth pursuing a perfect future if the present must first be broken.

Pearson’s writing is thoughtful and layered, skillfully balancing Maddy’s internal conflict with the sweeping romantic and speculative elements. The novel is equally a story of love and a meditation on identity—each alternate future provides Maddy with a reflection of herself and the consequences of her choices.

Characters That Feel Real
Maddy is a relatable and multidimensional protagonist, navigating the vulnerability of intimacy, the fear of making the wrong choices, and the courage required to trust herself. Her moments of self-doubt and longing make her journey feel universal, even as her extraordinary ability sets her apart.

Oliver, too, is more than a love interest. He’s a fully realized character, kind yet flawed, whose connection with Maddy feels authentic. The brief glimpses of their potential future are rendered so vividly that readers will root for their happily-ever-after, even as the obstacles seem insurmountable.

A Unique Blend of Genres
Pearson deftly combines romance with speculative fiction, creating a genre-blending narrative that will appeal to fans of authors like David Nicholls (One Day), Matt Haig (The Midnight Library), and Holly Gramazio (The Husbands). The time-bending premise brings a fresh twist to the familiar “what if?” love story, while the emotional depth ensures that the speculative elements never overshadow the humanity of the characters.

Strengths of the Novel
Intriguing Premise: The time-slip mechanic is not just a gimmick—it’s integral to the emotional stakes and character development, adding complexity and urgency to Maddy’s romantic journey.
Emotional Depth: Pearson captures the raw, messy, and beautiful complexity of relationships, from new love to heartbreak and reconciliation.
Relatable Themes: The book resonates with universal questions about love, compromise, and the desire to build a meaningful life.
Paced to Perfection: The narrative is structured in a way that keeps the reader engaged, with each future revelation acting as a breadcrumb that leads to the poignant climax.
Potential Weaknesses
The novel’s reliance on speculative elements may not appeal to readers seeking a straightforward romance. Additionally, some may find the moral and emotional dilemmas too heavy or bittersweet, as the story doesn’t promise easy resolutions.

A Bittersweet Romance for the Ages
The Many Futures of Maddy Hart is a poignant, thought-provoking story that lingers long after the final page. Laura Pearson has crafted a deeply moving narrative that will appeal to anyone who has ever wondered “what if?”—and who has wrestled with the tension between living in the moment and planning for a better tomorrow.

With its richly developed characters, unique premise, and emotional resonance, this book is sure to become one of the standout reads of 2025.

Rating: 4.5/5
Perfect for fans of speculative romance and those who enjoy stories that ask big questions about love, destiny, and self-discovery. Don’t miss this unforgettable journey into the many possibilities of the human heart.

I had to DNF at about 30%

The foundation of this story is promising but the execution doesn’t follow through.

The writing is very abrupt and choppy. It moves too quickly from one scene to another, with barely (if any) transition. Very early on the timing in scenes did not make sense. For example, after she moves in with Oliver, she hears him leave in the morning, she comes out to the kitchen to make toast and calls Priya, and suddenly Oliver is back having done a morning run and stopped to buy pastries. It feels like at most it would have been 10 minutes since he left.

It felt a lot like insta-love between the two characters. They have two brief encounters before she moves in, then spends one day together, and already her friend is referring to the fact that she is falling in love.

The characters themselves felt flat and needed to be fleshed out for me to care about them. From the beginning, I really didn’t like the best friend, with the whole idea of Priya wanting her to move out of their shared flat, so she could live with her boyfriend. This was another point as well, where it felt a plot point was just introduced on a surface level, instead of exploring and building out the stories and characters. For instance, I immediately found myself asking why wouldn’t Maddy be upset or question why she was the one who had to leave?

Then Priya has a fight with her boyfriend and wants Maddy to move back, and again this is barely explored with maybe one quick line that Maddy thinks she should be mad about that? But then Priya and her boyfriend make up in less than a second and it’s a non-issue. From that point on, I did not care about Priya at all. Priya and her relationship to Maddy was too surface-level.

The whole set-up at the beginning, with the seeing the future, was poorly set up and explained. In the first chapter, the fact that she’s a teenager asking if it’s normal to have these flashes of the future felt beyond naive. Then when her and Priya are discussing her visions, to basically lay out the "rules", it makes no sense. When they decide the reason she didn’t have a vision with Aidan was because he wouldn’t be around in 10 years, and then tragically they find out he died, and immediately it’s absolute proof that all of these visions are true. I think she should have dated some of these men, beyond just a first time, and then saw traits or hints in the present to link to what she saw in the future, to justify her belief that these futures were certain.

Then she decides to test if time actually passes when she has these visions, and the one time she tests it is when the flashback feels like it lasted for less than a minute anyway. The worst was the question of would she have a vision if she was with a woman, and Priya says that since she doesn’t have a vision when she’s “alone” then it means it wouldn’t work with a woman - the logic is just not there.

This story sadly fell apart from the start. The visions needed to be set up more, with more structure, and a present day reason to believe that these visions were actually going to come true. Without these, the structure and belief in character’s choices for the rest of the story falls apart.

This talented author has written a page turner. I enjoy this author and her stories. Realistic character keep the story moving quickly. Enjoy this book and look for more of the same. Quick read. Thanks Netgalley.

I would like to thank the author, the publisher and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read an ARC of this book. Once again another superb book by Laura Pearson I will be recommending it to everyone I know.

The ManyFutures of Maddy Hart by new to me author L. Pearson, published by Boldwood Books is an intriguing time travel novel. Full of unexpected twists and turns I connected so very easily with characters and story. My heart was breaking for Maddy and at some point it got very emotional. A great read, 4,5 stars.
Blurb: Suddenly Maddy is right there… in her very own future. And it’s all wrong, yet again.

It happens to her every time. When the kisses lead to the bedroom, just when she thinks she might have found the one… Just for a split second, Maddy disappears, and she finds that she’s living her own life. But ten years into the future.
She’s only there for a little while. But each time, it’s long enough to know that she doesn’t want to be any of those future versions of Maddy. Because every man she falls for seems to lead her to a future that is just… wrong.
Until she meets Oliver. And the vision of their future is happy. Beautiful even. A little girl runs around, her braids flying behind her, giggling about how she wants sausages for dinner. She has eyes just like Oliver’s.
There’s just one catch. If Maddy wants the family she’s seeing in her future with Oliver, she realizes she has to break his heart now.

Whenever Maddy has sex with a guy she time travels 10 years in the future and sees their relationship. It’s enough to make her break up with them each time. Until she meets Oliver and it’s a whole different story, with different futures.

Thank you to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for providing this book, with my honest review below.

I love the concept of time travel/alternate lives in my stories so was eager to check out The Many Futures of Maddy Heart, not least because the idea of seeing what the future may look like with the guy I’m intimate with, during that act, is both highly disturbing and intriguing. Laura Pearson did not let me down, giving me a glimpse into the many futures that could have awaited for Maddy, but not overdoing it in the flash forwards before we got to Oliver, who Maddy meet cutes as an elf. You’ll have to read the story to learn more about that part.

When Maddy and Oliver get together it really seems like the perfect romance, present and future, until Maddy realizes some of their future indicates Oliver must have cheated on her. I can’t even imagine having to balance that in your present day relationship, but Maddy does it very believably. I could not wait to see how the story would come together and was not at all disappointed. But I think what I loved best about this book was that we had the chance to explore Maddy as a person separate from part of a couple, seeing her get what she always wanted in her career along with facing the downsides of that while not letting it break her, her relationship with her friends and family, and the struggles she had with her own feelings around her younger brother’s situation, along with her realization on how she could best support him. These things all made a story I went into for the alternative lives element so much more.

Whether you are as fascinated by the concept of time travel and alternate lives as I am or just love a great story (or romance), I think you’ll find yourself similarly enamored by this one.

I absolutely loved The Last List of Mabel Beaumont, so I knew this latest one had to go on my TBR list. Maddy has a very unusual problem. She’s able to see ten years into the future at the most intimidate time with a man. It's led her to avoid relationships for almost all of her adult life. But then she meets Oliver. And all of her plans to stay unattached are thrown out the window. At first her visions for their future are innocent and comforting. But then she starts to see things that make her question the path of their relationship. And she begins to wonder if she should interfere or just let everything play out. I adore this book and couldn’t put it down. Definitely adding others from this author to my list!

Another winner for Pearson I think.
She definitely got me thinking on the How's and whys here, and what would I do in that situation.
Fully rounded relatable characters, hitting the right mix of emotions and humour.
Left me a little bit damp eyed at the ending.
Cracking read.

I really liked this idea and the author did a terrific job of presenting the two time lines. It made me think about the ideas of fate and how much we influence our own lives and those of others. I’m not sure I would have hand,Ed things the same way Maddy did, but it wa so interesting seeing her puzzle it all out. There are some really key messages in here, too, about living with disability and the ways in which people with disability are perceived. The ending seemed a bit abrupt, but I suspect that was just because I was enjoying to so much that I didn’t want it to be over.

I absolutely loved the concept of this book, but I felt like the end was that feeling you get when you put your hand in the Pringles packet expecting 1 more, to find you’ve already finished them.

I enjoyed the characters and it’s such an intriguing story that I burned through this in 2 days! But was left wanting… and that’s never good. I wish the author had provided an epilogue to tie things up at least.

Overall, Would definitely recommend, the writing is comforting and homely but expect to feel like you’ve missed a chapter.

Maddy sees her romantic future for a few seconds every time with a man. She never sees someone who is right for her until Oliver. Unfortunately, there is a catch...

It's a whimsical story. Very unique plot. I like Maddy a lot. Her choices are hard to make and I feel for her. Really enjoy it.

Thanks to the publisher for the arc.

I had to DNF this book. The plot idea is brilliant but the execution felt very monotonous and was so incredibly dialogue heavy that it felt impossible to fully immerse myself in the storyline.