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Review of Where I End & You Begin by Preston Norton

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Where you end I beginSo first off, I’ll mention that I love the body swapping trope and some of my favorite films include Freaky Friday, Big, 18 Again, Vice Versa, 17 Again and the like. Now I’ve read a few body swapping books, and my experience has been that this trope doesn’t translate all that well to the written form. Body swapping novels often end up being frustrating and confusing, so though I was intrigued by the synopsis of this book, I was also a bit hesitant. But I needn’t have been because the author managed to pull it off here.

This story follows a somewhat shy, young man named Ezra Slevin who is obsessed with a girl named Imogen and is working up his courage to ask her to the prom. The only problem is Imogen’s overly protective best friend Wynona, a loud and annoying girl who has made Ezra’s life miserable for as long as he can remember and seems to derive enjoyment from tormenting Ezra whenever possible.

But on the night of the total solar eclipse, something weird happens to Ezra and Wynona — they wake up in each other’s bodies. But what’s especially strange is that they begin randomly swapping back and forth every day. To make things even more interesting, Ezra learns that Wynona has a crush on his best friend, Holden.

So the two enemies are forced to come together to form an alliance as they need to pretend to be the person whose body they’re inhabiting. They also agree to help each other with their crush — Ezra will help Wynona with Holden and Wynona will help Ezra with Imogen, with the body swapping adding in all sorts of additional hilarious complications.

There’s also the problem of the play all four of them are in, a rendition of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night in which a bit of gender swapping itself is part of the story. But also what’s comical here is the whole issue of learning your lines and being expected to perform while in the wrong body.

The entire novel is told through Ezra’s perspective, which helps to keep track of the body swapping. Also helpful, is that when Wynona is in Ezra’s body, he refers to her as Wynezra, which is super useful in keeping everyone straight.

I was never confused or overwhelmed by the swapping and was delighted when the author turned up the tension a couple of notches by throwing in themes of gender fluidity and homosexuality into the works. This additional complexity worked well in this story, especially as various characters developed feelings for each other, and I thought that this added to the richness and depth of an already gripping plot.

What especially worked for me with his book was the hilarity that would ensue if you found yourself not only in the body of the opposite gender but of someone whose personality is night and day different from yours — and all this taking place while in high school. There were so many laugh-out-loud moments in this book, and I thought it was so much fun to go on this journey with Ezra and Wynona as they struggled to figure out how to live in each other’s bodies, and navigate the challenges associated with the other’s sex and personality.

I thought it was interesting how the story follows Ezra but is still able to give a more in-depth inside look into Wynona’s life through Ezra swapping bodies with her. Likewise, it gave Wynona a deeper peek into Ezra’s life with each of them developing empathy and understanding for the other person’s issues and baggage in the process. That being said, this is also a story about how both people manage to find new wisdom by being in the other’s shoes.

I like how this story teaches empathy and understanding. By using a body swap as a tool, the author gets to show the world through the other person’s eyes resulting in a comedic contemporary with a heartfelt emotional relationship between two people who couldn’t be more different. It also succeeded in illustrating how we cannot judge or make assumptions about others based solely on outward appearances and Norton provides a means of exploring one’s own preconceived notions about others without being preachy.

I also loved how the author dealt with sexuality in such a unique and interesting way, a way that I haven’t come across before in a novel. This book is a new twist on body swaps and with it come themes of sexual preference, gender fluidity, and figuring out who you really want to be.

There are also themes of family, friendship, forgiveness, grief, and self-acceptance that also rendered this quite a serious novel as well. What worked nicely for me was how Wynona and Ezra learned to be their authentic and best self at the end of the day.

I liked how real and authentic these characters felt to me. The author gives us real teenagers with real problems and in so doing, provides us with a cast of flawed, lonely, impulsive, and quirky individuals that are totally relatable.

Where I End and You Begin is as inventive as it is moving and ended up being a beautifully rendered story of love, attraction, sexuality, family, and friendship. It’s a clever, engaging, and wildly entertaining read, and I felt that the author did an excellent job of bringing his characters to life, allowing all of them to thrive in their complexity. All in all, a lovely, subtle thought-provoking blow-me-away kind of book that I’m still mulling over. Needless to say, I loved it.

A big thank you to Netgalley and Disney Hyperion for providing me with an advance reader copy of this book.

This title will be released on June 4th, 2019 but it is available for pre-order now. Link is below.

Purchase Where I End & You Begin from Amazon

Review of The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal

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Calculating starsThis is an alternative history story that follows Dr. Elma York, a pilot, physicist and mathematician who works at the International Aerospace Coalition. One night in 1952, a meteorite falls to the earth, wiping out most of the east coast of the United States, including the capital. Elma soon figures out that the meteorite collision will result in a climate cataclysm, causing such high temperatures that the oceans will boil and the earth will be inhospitable for humans.

This threat accelerates the space program and the need to colonize space sooner rather than later if the human race is to survive. This also creates a need for many more astronauts. Soon, Elma begins to wonder, with so many skilled female pilots, scientists, and mathematicians why women cannot become astronauts and go into space.

In so doing, Elma strives to become the first Lady Astronaut even though the societal conventions of the 1950s are against her goals. Additionally, the author did an excellent job of illustrating how sexism and racism prevented leaders of the space program from taking advantage of all of the highly skilled and exceptionally talented people who could definitely be an asset to the program.

What’s interesting about this book is that it didn’t examine only the issue of sexism but also of racism, both of which were pretty much the norm in the 1950s. Elma was mostly unaware of racism issues in society, or at the very least it wasn’t something she thought about until people closer to her were affected by it. Initially, she was kind of self-centered and mostly unaware of the oppression of those around her.

In this way, the book illustrated nicely how even well-meaning, supposedly open-minded people can be utterly ignorant of other people’s struggles until those struggles are really brought to the forefront of their attention. I enjoyed the book’s exploration of discrimination across gender, race and even mental health and appreciated how these topics were the main themes of the story. The book also did an excellent job of showing how challenging life in the 1950s was for anyone who wasn’t a white male.

As for Elma, she’s a wonderfully inspiring character. She’s determined, brilliant, brave and competent. But it was also interesting to learn how she suffers from crippling social anxiety which was an important theme in this book, especially once she became thrust into the spotlight.

I thought it was especially empowering that Elma eventually comes to terms with her anxiety, understanding that it is a medical condition and does not mean she is weak. In this way, it was an extremely accurate portrayal of what anxiety looks like so an excellent representation here of anxiety disorder I thought.

My only niggle with this novel were the sex scenes with her husband, Nathaniel. Now Elma and her husband had a wonderfully sweet relationship (perhaps even a tad too sweet), and a lot of the book focused on their romance. But the sex scenes felt awkward to me and like they didn’t really belong in this story. There were a lot of sexual innuendos such as “launch is a go,” that caused me to roll my eyes a time or two. To me, the sex scenes just felt out of place and a bit forced in this story, and they may have been better left out.

But apart from that, I loved this gripping and riveting story. There are so many important subjects that this book addresses including discrimination against women, racial inequality, climate change, space travel, and mental health, to name a few. But what I especially like about the book’s treatment of these topics was that it wasn’t done in a preach or heavy-handed way but rather with sensitivity and fitness.

I can’t begin to imagine the amount of research that went into this story. The author clearly did her homework here with the result being a fully immersive and realistic novel with a diverse cast of characters. Ultimately, this book hooked me and wormed into my heart and mind

This book is part of a series but can be read as a standalone as everything was nicely wrapped up at the end. I do plan on picking up the sequel entitled “The Fated Sky” as I am looking forward to continuing on with this series.

Purchase The Calculating Stars from Amazon

Review of The Lovely and the Lost by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

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Lovely and the lostThis novel follows a young woman named Kira Bennett, who was found by Cady Bennett and her search and rescue dogs out in the woods. Apparently, Kira had been living alone and wild in the woods but for how long and why, nobody knows. Kira remembers bits and pieces of her life in the forest but has no memories of before that time.

Kira is adopted by the Bennett family and learns the family business: Search-and-Rescue. Working alongside Cady, Cady’s son Jude and their neighbor Free, Kira trains search-and-rescue dogs and she hopes to perform rescues herself eventually. It’s worth mentioning that Kira has a difficult time connecting with people, does not like making eye contact or being touched and her “wild” side often overtakes her. She’s definitely more comfortable with dogs than with people.

Soon, Kira and the others kids find themselves involved in a real live search and rescue when Cady’s estranged father finds her and asks for her help in locating a little girl who disappeared in Sierra Glades National Park. Kira soon becomes obsessed with the case, having been in the same situation herself — being lost in the wild, alone.

As they search for the girl, several strange events occur leading everyone to discover that there is a lot more to this case than a straightforward child lost in the woods and danger soon mounts for those involved. Moreover, the case has triggered old memories for Kira — chilling memories — which begin to overwhelm her. Then, secrets about Kira’s true nature, the Bennett family and about what happened to her come to light causing her to confront some painful truths.

What I found especially fun about this story were the layers upon layers of mysteries that the story presented: there’s the mystery of Kira’s past and her real family; the mystery of who Jude’s real father is; the mystery of the animosity between Cady and her father; the mystery of Gabriel, the strange boy living with Cady’s father; and of course, the mystery of the lost girl. Just about everyone is hiding something. Though there’s a lot going on here, the plot is well-thought out, easy to follow and downright compelling as it’s a suspenseful story with plenty of twisty surprises.

I also loved the inclusion of the dogs in this story and how integral they were to the plot line. The strong bond between the teens and their canines was heartwarming. I enjoyed learning about rescue dogs and their training and thought that this added a rich element to the story.

But mostly, this book was a heartfelt exploration of family in all of its forms, whether it be human or canine and teaches that a family created out of love can often be just as strong as a family formed by blood.

All in all, I thought the Lovely and the Lost was wildly entertaining with relentless pacing, richly developed and empathetic characters, and a satisfying conclusion rendered this an undeniable page-turner.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Freeform for the advanced reader copy in return for an honest review!

Purchase The Lovely and the Lost at Amazon

Review of The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin

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ImmortalistsI guess this is a Literary Fiction novel with just a smidgen of magical realism thrown in. Or perhaps not, I guess that’s up to the reader to decide.

So this book asks the question: If you knew the date of your death, how would you live your life?

The story starts off in 1969 and follows the Gold children who sneak out to get their fortunes told by a mysterious woman who, according to gossip, has the ability to tell you the date that you’re going to die.

So each of the children, one by one, is called in by the psychic and each one is informed of their death day. Each of them then has to cope with this heavy bit of information, and we get to see what extent it determines how they live their lives.

So then we get their story, one child’s at a time, and we follow them to the last moments in their lives. In so doing, we get to see how their life unfolds knowing this information.

These dire prophecies drive them forward for the rest of their lives, seemingly influencing their decisions and even changing the course of their lives.

Some of them end up more reckless and take more risks than they might have otherwise. Others remain more cautious than they may have otherwise.

As I read along, I thought it interesting how the reader is prompted to wonder just how much of our lives are controlled by destiny or sheer luck if you will, and how much of it is controlled by our own conscious choices.

Interestingly, the fate of one of the characters specifically gave me pause and caused me to ask whether receiving a dire prediction as the Gold children did, could cause us to force those events to come to pass when they may not have occurred otherwise? So in this way, having too much information could end up working against us.

Or in the case of the Gold children, Was the fortune teller right? And, if so, do they possess the power to change the course of their own fates and decide their own destiny? That is to say, is our destiny predetermined or do we have a hand in changing what’s destined?

The story also made me wonder whether knowing our death date would cause us to live our lives to the fullest or would we instead live them with fear and dread of what’s coming? And in the case of our four characters, we can’t help but wonder whether their lives would have turned out the way they did were it not for the fortune teller?

This is definitely the kind of book that makes you uncomfortable while reading it — it’s a tough read in places, raw even. It’s a challenging novel as it forces up to consider profound themes such as life and death, destiny vs. free will, magic vs. science, religion, our tendency toward self-fulling prophecy, family, and regret to mention a few.

It’s no surprise then that the story is heartbreaking in more than a few places, but it’s also a deep, beautiful and magical story.

This is an incredible book, and I fell more and more in love with it as I progressed through each child’s story. I loved seeing how the fortune teller’s prediction impacted all of their lives, resulting in a riveting character study. All in all, a magnificent exploration of some weighty topics and I gave this five stars.