Christine Riccio

Freaky Friday meets The Parent Trap in New York Times bestselling author Christine Riccio's Better Together, a sparkling and heartfelt story about sisters, second chances, finding romance, and finding yourself. Jamie’s an aspiring standup comic in Los Angeles with a growing case of stage anxiety. Siri’s a stunning ballerina from New Jersey nursing a career-changing injury. They’ve both signed up for the same session at an off the grid Re-Discover Yourself Retreat in Colorado. When they run into each other, their worlds turn upside down. Jamie and Siri are sisters, torn apart at a young age by their parent's volatile divorce. They’ve grown up living completely separate lives: Jamie with their Dad and Siri with their Mom. Now, reunited after over a decade apart, they hatch a plot to switch places. It’s time they get to know and confront each of their estranged parents. With an accidental assist from some fortuitous magic, Jamie arrives in New Jersey, looking to all the world like Siri, and Siri steps off her flight sporting a Jamie glamour. The sisters unexpectedly find themselves stuck living in each other's shoes. Soon Siri's crushing on Jamie's best friend Dawn. Jamie's falling for the handsome New Yorker she keeps running into, Zarar. Alongside a parade of hijinks and budding romance, both girls work to navigate their broken family life and the stresses of impending adulthood.

A Novel

Better Together

trixie

this book felt like i was reading a very, very, VERY poorly written IT fan fiction, and it wasn’t even a richie/eddie one

jacque

4.5 stars

Christine was right to call this a rom-com-dram. There was romance, there was comedy, and there was ✨drama✨

I really enjoyed reading this book! I laughed and I cried and I had an overall good time! Christine’s books are always so easy to read and easy to love! And the extra little twist that she always throws in manages to catch us off-guard every time!
The romance was so cute! (I would marry Zahar in a heartbeat) And I loved the queer rep in this book and how casual it was. 

I did struggle to connect with the characters in the beginning- especially Jamie who came off as a quirky asshole in the beginning but she grew on me. I also thought Christine did a good job writing the quirky aspect of Jamie’s personality. I feel like quirky characters are usually one-dimensional but Jamie was a fully fleshed-out character that grew throughout the story! 

This book delves a lot more into serious topics than Christine’s debut. Sadie and I both agree that it does it in a way that wasn’t too heavy. It was cute, refreshing, and a lot lighter than a lot of books with protagonists in their late-teens to early-twenties!

Shannon Leigh Williams

Better Together follows two sisters, Jamie and Siri, through the family struggles, budding romances, and developing sisterly friendship forming throughout their early twenties.

This book was an emotional rollercoaster in the best way possible. We get to see through both Jamie's and Siri's points of view, and the way both intertwine was masterfully written.

The juxtaposition of two sisters, separated very young, going through their own self-discovery, made for a very entertaining yet heartfelt story. 

Jane The Bookaholic

⭐️ 2 Stars ⭐️

There was a lot of problems with this book, and overall it felt pretty immature to me. 
The character were okay but I didn’t enjoy any dynamics and relationships expect the one of Siri and don. 
I didn’t like Jaime character at all and I really hated the concept of the freaky Friday - it sounded good with potential, but the execution was so bad and not logical at all. How you can just tell everyone that there was some magic and everyone will just get it? 
Although it had so many problems, I did enjoy it to some way at the start, but most of the book was pretty slow, boring and pointless.

Alexis 

3/5 Stars 

** I received this as an E-ARC from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review, Thank you!** 

This is essentially freaky Friday meets the parent trap. I have mixed feelings about this book. The writing was just okay. While some of this did hold my attention, a lot of it felt super outrageous. The parents irked me to no end. I honestly couldn't stand them, they were selfish and terrible parents. I think it's odd that other family members just went along with their plot. Overall it wasn't a terrible book, it was entertaining and a quick read.

Maria 

DNF at 18% This book just did not click with me. Both of the main characters just annoyed me beyond belief. There were certain things about the plot that bothered me. I really wanted to enjoy this book because I loved the movie "Parent Trap", as a child, as well as, the movie "Freaky Friday". Overall, I just could not get into this book no matter how hard I tried.

Samantha Bass

So the first half of this book was painful. Jaime and Siri are so unlikeable, I considered DNFing this book multiple times. Now, I'm down for an unlikeable MC, but this was dramatically painful. Siri is an aggressive, uptight person with a superiority complex. And Jamie is ridiculously annoying and overbearingly "quirky". Jaime gives me the "pick me girl" vibes and it's not cute. 

Honestly, the first 100 pages of this book were getting introduced to these characters, setting them up for this camp thing, the meeting, and all that jazz. I was not interested. It wasn't until after they met and made their plan to switch places that I began to care at all for these characters. 

This was going to be a 1 or 2 star review, but after they took each other's places and the Freaky Friday body switch happened, then I got really interested in the plot. And somehow, their characters improved. Like, the beginning of this book versus the end is dramatically different, almost like it was meant to be two different books. The changes these characters went through were extensive and saved the entire story. Instead of being annoying, we also get to see Jaime as vulnerable and fearful. Siri loses her pretentious attitude and becomes more open minded and accepting. It was like a day and night difference. 

Once I started enjoying this book, I started seeing all the things I liked about it. We have bisexual and disability representation through Siri. As well as interracial relationships for both Siri and Jaime. Therapy is mentioned in a positive light and we have anxiety rep, depression, and more mental health representation. But, even with all that goodness, this book has a lot of issues. 

For one, Siri's work around for cussing is SO FREAKING ANNOYING. And it's not explained WHY she does this until the book is almost over! Like how hard is it to explain why she doesn't curse and says these stupid substitutes like "excrement" or "intercourse". I also had an issue that this book is being marketed as YA, but Siri is 18 almost 19, and Jaime is 20 and turns 21 in the book. Like, this is most definitely a New Adult novel and if it had been written a little more maturely, then an adult novel. Like these characters are renting apartments and working, which teenagers can do, but I'm not sure how relatable this is to a 15 year old picking up this book. It just felt like it was meant to be an adult novel but was "written down" for teenagers. It doesn't sit right with me. 

And while I loved Jaime's journey to begin accepting people in her life and opening up, Zarar deserves so much better. As her main love interest, Zarar is strung along for days by Jaime and she's honest about not wanting to date, but then agrees to date him. And then ghosts him. It's clear he's smitten with Jaime but lets her walk all over him until the end. I was getting so frustrated, because he was such a sweet and considerate character and partner. And Jaime all together is very cold and manipulative. This is discussed in the book, but it was kind of agonizing watching her push her loved ones out of her life to try and protect herself, while simultaneously hurting everyone around her. 

And while Siri was awful to read in the beginning, I began to prefer her POVs after she arrives in California. The 180 degree switch was intense and much needed, but also surprising. I liked reading Jaime's POVs originally but after she began to string Zarar along, and Siri got a personality makeover, I was done with Jaime. 

I can't even put into words how strange this book was. Like it was good, but not that good. I enjoyed most of what I read, but also hated certain parts and characters. There were good life lessons, but a lot of filler in between. I have to rate it three stars because it's just so "eh". I've seen a lot of people DNFing this book and not enjoying it, which is fair, but I don't want to convey that its bad. It's not - it's just not great.

Becca Futrell

Thank you to Macmillan Audio for providing me with an audiobook of Better Together in exchange for an honest review!

LMAO. So, I originally gave this two stars, but while writing this review -- I realized it was much worse than I thought.

Okay, so Better Together has some.. issues. I did not read Again, but Better & I had zero idea that Christine Riccio was a BookTuber prior to writing books, so this is my first experience with the author. I've seen a lot of reviews mentioning the writing being less than great but as I listened to the audiobook I really did not pick up on this -- therefore, I'm not able to speak on this.

What I can speak on though -- is the plot and characters!

Which at times was a bit iffy. Let's start with the plot, shall we? What sold me on this book was the Parent Trap concept. Like, YES PLEASE. & I suppose this book is, as pitched, a Parent Trap story, but it's not the Parent-Trapping that the focus seems to land on. Once the sisters swap places, I feel the story more so focused on the romance storyline. Unless we count Jamie being an absolute menace to her estranged mother. 

However, the mother sucks (but don't worry, the father does too! He takes one daughter, but lol who cares about the other one!!!!!) Can we please discuss what happens after the girls split up when they're children -- Siri is made to believe, by her mother, that Jamie was simply an imaginary friend. What. the. heck. First of all, I'm not sold on the fact that this mother would just give up her daughter. No phone calls throughout the years? No visits? Just.. nothing? No, absolutely not. Second, to make your daughter believe her sister was just an imaginary friend is complete trash.

In general, the characters suck in Better Together. Except for Pizzagrammer, Dawn. We love Dawn in this house. Siri is absolutely insufferable in the beginning, but I will say if anyone gets better -- it's probably her. Jamie has some pretty excrement (see what I did there? If you didn't, keep reading & you'll understand) reactions to Siri's life in California, especially when it comes to Siri & Dawn's relationship.

Speaking of Siri & Dawn's relationship, while the parents are confronted on everything -- the dad's like, "OH DID YOU KNOW SIRI AND DAWN ARE IN A RELATIONSHIP." First of all, dad, read the damn room. Second of all, um????? This whole line was so out of place & just a cop-out way to push the drama between Siri and Jamie.

Another thing that was really bothering me was Siri's weird anti-swearing thing that she got from her mother. At first, I thought it was cute when she said, "Are you intercoursing kidding me?" But then, it just kept happening. I'd much rather Siri pull an Eleanor Shellstrop and say "forking." Oh, and for "shit" she uses "excrement," cause duh, why not.

Timothée Chalamet even has a cameo. Is that something writers can do? Like, I'd understand if the characters just went to his house for a party & he was simply in the background, but he has actual written dialogue? Seems weird, but maybe this is okay. 

OH. And the Game of Thrones references?! SO MANY. Which, again, fine at first -- but straight up, during the parent confrontation scene, they explain the glitter bomb and how they basically swapped skins (yep, a thing that happens!!) and the parents are just like "OH OK MAKES SENSE. JUST LIKE THE FACELESS MAN IN GAME OF THRONES." EXCUSE ME, WHAT????? None of this makes sense, I don't care how much fantasy someone reads, lmao. People don't swap skins in real life, the parents could have been a bit more shocked. 

And, finally, I felt this book was a bit longer than needed. At this point, if I see a Contemporary audiobook that's longer than 10 hours, I'm gonna start running the other way.

caro(lee)na

3.5 ⭐️
I was super excited to read a Christine Riccio book, and i liked this. It was kind of like a Freaky Friday concept but with sisters. I liked that the sisters’ relationship was the main aspect of the story. 

As for what i didn’t like that much, Jamie’s comedy sets. I found myself cringing with the references she made. But, I loved Jamie. I related to her on so many levels even though her decisions were questionable sometimes.

Thank you to netgalley for providing me with an arc of this book.

Better Together A Novel

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