Lois Metzger

Change Places with Me

Jessica Nottingham

If the synopsis to Change Places With Me didn't make you raise your eyebrows a little, I'm impressed. When I first saw this book synopsis, it automatically put this onto my TBR. The idea of waking up a different person, of suddenly wondering if you're even you any longer, has always fascinated with me. I always wonder if I had the opportunity to change my memories, or alter my personality, if I ever would. It's a pretty daunting reality, to not really know who you are any more. Happiness, or not.

Meeting Rose was a bit fuzzy at first. Which, I suppose, makes sense since she isn't really sure of her own self at the moment. Metzger uses the first chapters to show Rose as she is. A bubbly, at times overly eager, and forever optimistic girl. It took me a while to settle into Rose's personality. She was supposed to be a 15 year old girl, but because of the over the top way her she was portrayed it sometimes felt like I was reading about a much younger character. If you take into account the idea that she was seeing things through new eyes, maybe that makes sense. Still, it's not what you'd expect. As I read on, and the story started to go back to what happened before, things made much more sense. It's worth working your way through, to get to the answers.

My one qualm with all of this was that, while Rose's story was eventually unfurled, it was never as solid as I would have liked it to be. The stepmother character didn't seem like a real person to me. She felt like the idea that everyone has about stepmothers. That they are cold, uncaring, and possibly even neglectful people. Add in the fact that the ending was a little rocky, in terms of pulling together all the story threads, and I finished this book a little less satisfied than I'd hoped to. The premise was excellent, to be sure. The execution needed a little more polish.

What I did like though, was the ability to see people and events through two different sets of eyes. Two different sets of eyes, that is, that belong to the same person. It's a very cool concept, and with a bit more exploration I really feel like this could have been a five-star read.

Change Places with Me

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