BOOK REVIEW: If You're Not the One by Jemma Forte

Everyone asks the question, 'what if?' at some point in life. Sometimes a lot. What if you took that job? What if you didn't say what you did? What if you didn't drink that much? And maybe, just maybe, what if you'd stayed with that ex?

If you could go back in time to see what life might have been...would you?

If You're Not the One by Jemma Forte (author of From London With Love and Me and Miss M) focuses on exactly that. After a heated argument with her husband about their affectionless marriage,  Jennifer Wright storms out of her house and into the path of a car, leaving her in a coma. Though whilst lying in her hospital bed, Jennifer is given a strange yet wonderful gift  -the ability to see what life would have been like had she made different decisions about the men in her past - men that she had recently found herself thinking about quite a lot. What if she made 'the other' choice all those years ago? Jennifer is about to find out...

There's the carefree, sexy, sun-worshipping Aidan who Jennifer met on a girly holiday before she headed to uni. What if she'd stayed behind to live the sun-kissed dream in Australia?

As Jennifer exists in the alternative lives as her body sleeps, the consequences of her other-life choices are soon revealed.

Work-obsessed uni boyfriend Tim, founder of social network reUNIon and a billionaire to boot, might just have given her the life most women can only dream of. But would she have been happy? And there's Steve, the kind plumber who lives with his mum and desperately wants a family. Each tunnel Jennifer travels into represents a piece of a world that she could have had. And, as Jennifer will soon realise, sometimes certain things are best left in the past.

Having previously enjoyed From London With Love, I already had high hopes for If You're Not the One. Though as it turns out, I liked this book much more. Addictive, heartwarming yet funny, the novel explores the question that we all sometimes ask ourselves. Jennifer's experience - her world of alternate lives with each of her ex partners -  was an engrossing tale that I found hard to put down. I had to find out what happened to each of her 'other' selves. A clever, wonderfully written novel that I'd definitely recommend.

Rating: 5/5

If You're Not the One is released on 7th February. Pre-order on Amazon.