I didn't love this. The alternating time-lines felt off and I absolutely hated the random pieces of verse all over the place. It made it an overall confusing experience that I personally don't have the brainpower for right now. The premise sounded great but I feel like the execution could have been a lot better. ( )

This book dishes up high school romance with a dash of a whimsy and a bittersweet sense that nothing is permanent. After her brother's drug addiction splits apart her family, Adelaide loses herself in a whirlwind romance with Mikey Double L, who dumps her right before the summer of their senior year. Adelaide is shattered.

Adelaide's spending the summer working as a dog walker for teachers at her private school, trying to get her grades up after a semester where she didn't have the emotional energy to even try and struggling to both feel lovable and to learn to love. But then she meets Jack at the dog park, and begins to think he might be everything she's looking for.

This book pulls the reader into multiple universes, where each small choice Adelaide makes leads to a very different outcome. The style is lyrical and lilting with the prose sometimes lapsing into verse, mostly when Adelaide is having an emotional breakthrough. You'll find yourself glued to the page as choices lead Adelaide to fall in love in different ways with different people. Maybe Adelaide will find love in an alternate universe or maybe she'll find it in this one.

The dogs that Adelaide walks are characters in this book, and they are perfectly delightful. They have adorable names - how can you not love dogs named B-Cake, Rabbit, the Great God Pan, Voldemort and Ellabella? Each one has their own great personality, and we even get to peek into their thoughts from time to time. They added an extra layer of playfulness that I loved.

Adelaide's a character you can root for again and again, and I loved how we got different glimpses of the supporting characters' personalities in each universe. In the end, this is a story of how, when we open ourselves up to love, we also open ourselves up to pain, and we may not know what our perfect happy ending will look like until it happens.

Trigger warning: addiction

Thank you to the publisher for the complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. ( )

The idea that small choices influence how the world looks and feels is an idea I totally support. I felt like this one book was three versions of the same book, but also understood the character progression and emotional maturity shown in each rendition. Unfortunately, I was also kind of confused for most of the book.

If I were to reread this, and if I were to offer a recommendation for reading consumption, I would recommend reading this in one sitting, or at least all in the same day. Reading this over the course of five days really added to the already-complex plot. I also got confused whose dogs belonged to who. Cute cover though. I like the idea of studying multiple universes, or worlds grown from other worlds. ( )

I think Adelaide is the kind of person who replays or fantasizes relationship scenarios in her mind and considers the outcomes, whether ideal or painful. Was it real love with Mikey Double L? Is it real love with Jack now? Can she still trust and love her brother Toby, an addict? The narrative structure is not as confusing to understand as one might think once you realize what she's doing. Adelaide is angsty and introspective but sensibly realistic at the core. ( )

It's the summer after Adelaide's junior year, and she's floundering. On academic probation, recently dumped by her boyfriend, worried constantly about her brother, a recovering addict. In this inventively-written narrative, Adelaide falls in and out of love in a series of multiple possibilities (multiple universes?) as the people she meets weave in and out of each other's stories.

I enjoyed this book more than Genuine Fraud but not quite as much as The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks -- about on par with We Were Liars. I'd recommend it to you if you liked any of those books, or if you find the concept intriguing. ( )