Thank you to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for this ARC.

Maddy Hart discovers she has a strange gift when she loses her virginity at the age of 16 - she can see ten years into the future and discover in a snapshot how this relationship might play out. None of the relationships she sees before her inner eye over the next few years convinces her so she stays away from men until, one Christmas time, at the age of 25, she meets Oliver, who is also an aspiring actor and has been duped with her into playing Santa and elf in a grotty grotto.

She meets him again when she is looking for a flatshare because her BFF Priya who she has been sharing with forever, wants to move her boyfriend in. She moves in with Oliver and they fall in love faster than you can say "Cut!" When they are intimate she sees a rosy future with laughter and an adorable small girl in tow. For the first time she wants this future, and everything could be great - until she finds something out about the little girl that changes everything.

Now let's get to that weird bit of clairvoyance. I have nothing per se against magical realism and that it requires everyone to just blindly believe it but why is it so illogical? Why can't it happen once with every new man with the first kiss? Why does she have to have her sex life destroyed by basically watching a film of the future every time she has sex? I repeat, EVERY. TIME.

Also, the one time she doesn't see anything with a guy it turns out later it is because he dies before the ten years are up. But she sees futures with everyone else? Ten year relationships exist but not for everyone, especially for very young people. It makes no sense that she could see relationships with all of them in the future, plus how does she even know that exactly ten years have passed every time?

Then, when she is finally happy, why does she decide to suddenly actively change something just so she can have that exact future? Either it will happen or it won't but surely if it's shown to her she'd doesn't have to change anything to get there? It felt to me that artificial drama was created for the sake of it. Was the point of all this honestly so Oliver would look better in her eyes and not be a simple cheat? She wants the kid that much?

It is a nice enough story told in dual timelines, and Oliver is generally lovely and gets on great with her disabled little brother Henry. I don't think Priya is a particularly great friend as she seems selfish to me, but Maddy's parents and Mrs Aziz are lovely.

But nothing much really happens, then suddenly we have a very abrupt and ambiguous ending that doesn't tell us the outcome of Maddy's mother's tests nor what happens when she tells Oliver the truth in the future.

I am usually a great fan of Laura Pearson's books but this one didn't work for me. The premise is fantastic but the execution is sorely lacking and not thought through enough. I can recommend The Last List of Mabel Beaumont though and The Day Shelley Woodhouse Woke Up.