Don't You Wish by Roxanne St. Clair

Annie Nutter's life is nothing special. In fact, sometimes it sucks. She and her best friend are teased and tormented by the popular kids in school, her family struggles to pay the bills, and there's no indication of a boyfriend on the horizon. Then one day she learns that her mom could have married another man - a man who's now rich, successful, and one of America's top bachelors. A crazy accident involving one of her father's inventions sends Annie tumbling into a parallel universe - only there she's not Annie. She's Ayla Monroe, daughter of her mom and her mom's old boyfriend...except now they're married, she's popular, and the whole family is wealthy. It's everything Annie's ever dreamed of, but as she discovers the darker side of her life, she realizes that you have to be careful what you wish for.

This premise is the stuff that great stories are made of. The chance to see what your life would be like if you took another path is something I'd bet a lot of people had wished was possible at one point or another. What makes this a little extra twisty is that the alternate universe doesn't exist because of anything that Annie did - it has to do with who her mother married before Annie was even born. There are so many things, big and little, that go into making a person who they are. If you start changing things, how long until you are no longer you? It's a fascinating question. This book also raises the idea of how hard it can be to change yourself if you don't like who you are. When Annie starts putting more of Annie into Ayla, there are reactions from her boyfriend, her family, and her friends. It can be very difficult to change the status quo. This is a good book to read out on a beach somewhere this summer. And even though I saw the end coming, I will admit that until everything was revealed, I was holding my breath (and then found it really romantically satisfying). Roxanne St. Claire definitely knows how to write an ending.

See more about Roxanne St. Claire at her website.

I received a review copy from NetGalley courtesy of Random House.

Find it at IndieBound.

Read it with:
Spoiled by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan
Barefoot in the Sand by Roxanne St. Claire
The Lying Game by Sara Shepard