Insignificant Others

A clever conceit enables the heroine of this uneven rom-com from bestseller Jio (With Love from London) to explore the roads less traveled. Lena Westbrook has always been determined not to follow in her unlucky in love mother’s footsteps, but her perfectly planned life implodes when her boyfriend fails to propose on her expected timeline. She heads to her aunt’s house on Washington’s Bainbridge Island to recalibrate—only to wake up in Paris and find herself married to a man she flirted with once at a wedding. It’s stop one on an 11-day Quantum Leap–like journey that offers her glimpses of what her life would have looked like if she’d chosen a happily ever after with any of the potential lovers she’s overlooked. Soon, she’s in Kinsale, Ireland, with a man she met while backpacking, and then on a yacht off the coast of Santorini with another man from her extensive travels. It’s a fun and whimsical concept, but even in the context of magical realism, it strains credulity that almost every man Lena’s ever glanced at would have been willing to marry her. Lena also doesn’t really learn much from her alternate reality adventures; she evaluates each man to determine who might be the one that got away, but never turns that scrutiny inwards. This falls short of its ambitions. (Apr.)