One Way or Another

Decisions, decisions, decisions. Paige cannot make a decision lest she be riddled with anxiety and nerves, contemplating the things that could happen from even the most mundane choices. When she has to make a choice between accompanying her mom to New York or visiting with her best-friend-but-long-time-crush Fitz at his family’s cabin for the Christmas holidays, she is as indecisive as ever. Her other best friend, Clover, suggests an app that works like a Magic Eight Ball to help. Does she go with Fitz and hope for a chance at love with the boy she’s loved forever, or follow her dream to travel and visit New York? A poorly-timed fall on a slick floor gives Paige a chance to experience both possibilities, but which one leads to forever with Fitz?

The idea is similar to Kasie West’s Pivot Point except Paige does not realize both universes are simultaneously occurring and the story leans more toward rom-com than serious sci-fi. A worthy winter read, readers get a bonus story, as though the author could not choose how to spin Paige’s romantic woes so instead explores both scenarios. While Paige suffers from such anxiety that panic attacks derail her efforts at romance, her suffering makes her more real as a character.