The Many Futures of Maddy Hart - Laura Pearson - ★★★.¾
AUTHOR: Laura Pearson
GENRE: Fantasy-Romance
PUBLICATION DATE: February 4, 2025
RATING: 3.75 stars.
In a Nutshell: A contemporary fantasy-romance. Okay lead character, great supporting characters, unique plot, fast tempo, abrupt ending. Good for those who like thought-provoking books.
Plot Preview:
Whenever Maddy has *intimate relations*, her mind takes her ten years in the future, not as a watcher but as living in her own future self. Though this lasts only for a few moments, it is enough to show Maddy a glimpse of what future lies ahead for her with her current partner-in-bed. Needless to say, these future visions ensure that she doesn’t sleep around. But when, at age twenty-seven, she meets Oliver, who could be the love of her life, and she sees their future together, she knows for certain that she wants that future. No matter the cost.
The story comes to us in Maddy’s first-person perspective.
PSA: The GR blurb reveals too much.
This is my fourth book by this author, and my reading experience has been mostly consistent. Two of the books – ‘The Last List of Mabel Beaumont’ and ‘The Day Shelley Woodhouse Woke Up’ – were proper women’s fiction titles, and they were good though not mind-blowing. The other two books - ‘The Beforelife of Eliza Valentine’ and this latest novel – had shades of magical realism, and they both clicked much better because of their imaginative plots.
Bookish Yays:
😍 The concept. Whether this falls under magical realism or fantasy, the idea is certainly unique. It’s always nice to see atypical premises being explored within what readers usually consider a predictable genre. The plot explores the question of “Is it good to know what your future holds?” convincingly. (Answer: It never is!)
😍 Oliver is not like typical romance novel leads. He is too good to be true, so much so that I kept viewing him with suspicion, waiting to see some red flag to pop up. I liked how his personality showed strength as well as vulnerability.
😍 The depiction of the two Asian characters in the book satisfied this South Asian a lot. Priya, Maddy’s friend and possibly of Indian origin, was the perfect bestie to Maddy. Their rapport and mutual support set high friendship goals. Then there was Mrs. Aziz, who stayed in the same building and might be of South Asian or Middle-Eastern origin. She too was an excellent character who had a good (albeit small) role in the book. This is one of the few times I’ve seen a Muslim character being treated like an ordinary human being instead of as a person restricted or dogmatised by their faith. In fact, both Priya and Mrs. Aziz are realistically written without hackneyed references to their background.
😍 Maddy’s mother, her stepfather, and her brother add to the emotional quotient of the book without making it feel sappy. I loved the realistic portrayal of the struggles of a family after a life-changing incident.
😍 Maddy and Oliver are aspiring actors, so the book highlights the struggles of this career choice well, without diving into too many clichés.
😍 The handling of the timelines, present and future, is creative and well-written. I had been a bit apprehensive about reading a novel that seemed to have plenty of sex scenes, but all the bedroom encounters are closed-door, with Maddy’s shift to the future written seamlessly.
😍 Despite the tricky plotline and a long timeline, the writing is fast and smooth. Thanks to the short chapters, the book zooms by.
😍 While I didn’t pick this book up for the romance, I was still mostly satisfied with how it was written. The connection between Maddy and Oliver is somewhat instant but not based on shallow reasons. Their relationship is mostly supportive and healthy, with lot of open communication except about Maddy’s obvious secret.
😍 I always like books that make me wonder what I would have done in that character’s situation. I honestly think I wouldn’t have taken many of the choices Maddy made, but this made the book more intriguing to me as Maddy’s actions added a slight uncertainty to the proceedings.
😍 I didn’t expect to go into philosophical musings while reading this book, but its indirect exploration of free will vs determinism kept my mind busy while reading. Can you really have control over the future? Would you manipulate your present, or even sabotage it, in order to ensure that it matches the future you saw in a vision? Or would you just go with the flow, believing that life will take you wherever it wants you to go? No clear answers to these questions, but fun to ponder upon.
Bookish Mixed Bags:
🤔 The ending. To be clear, it is not a bad ending, but it is not a “women’s fiction” ending. Perhaps I wouldn’t have been surprised to see such a finish in a literary fiction work, but in this book, I was certainly caught unawares. It’s a brave decision to end the book at that point, but also a risky one. I feel that of all the readers who might end up disliking the book, most of them will do so because of the ending. I am still deciding whether I like it or not!
Bookish Nays:
🙁 I couldn’t connect strongly with Maddy, especially because of the decisions she makes, always using more heart than head. She is impulsive and keeps jumping to (oft incorrect) conclusions. This makes her feel more like the lead of a YA novel than of an adult fiction. Her first-person narration also gives us several contradictions, especially when she observes the future. It felt like deliberate misleading.
All in all, this isn’t a typical fantasy-romance. While the eponymous Maddy Hart left me unsure about her motivations and actions, the other characters and the unusual plotline kept me hooked. It goes without saying that I will continue to read Laura Pearson novels without any hesitation because all her books offer food for thought.
As there’s no possibility of adding an epilogue to this novel anymore, I insist that this book get a sequel. After investing so much in Maddy’s fantastical journey into her future, we deserve more closure. *hint, hint, Boldwood Books!*
Definitely recommended to those who enjoy atypical romance stories with a strong dollop of magical realism, and don’t mind impulsive characters and incomplete plot points.
3.75 stars. (With only one Mixed Bag and one Nay, another novel would perhaps have earned a higher rating. But both those issues were major hurdles for me and this dipped my overall reading experience.)
My thanks to Rachel's Random Resources, Boldwood Books, and author Laura Pearson for a complimentary copy of 'The Many Futures of Maddy Hart' via NetGalley, and for allowing me to be a part of this blog tour. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.
The digital version of this book is currently available free to Kindle Unlimited subscribers.
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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…
Would you destroy your present if there’s a chance that it could give you the perfect future?
Perfect for fans of David Nicholls, Matt Haig, and The Husbands by Holly Gramazio. The most unmissable ‘what if?’ love story of the year!
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Author Laura Pearson:
Laura Pearson is the author of the #1 bestseller 'The Last List of Mabel Beaumont'. She founded The Bookload on Facebook and has had several pieces published in the Guardian and the Telegraph.
Connect with her on:
X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LauraPAuthor
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laurapauthor/
Website: https://www.laurapearsonauthor.com
Newsletter Signup: https://mailchi.mp/c8b16b9b9e84/laurapearson
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Check out this book:
Purchase from: https://mybook.to/ManyFutures
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This has been a stop on the #TheManyFuturesOfMaddyHart blog tour conducted by Rachel's Random Resources. (@rararesources) Thanks for stopping by!
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