Shuffle

Lisa Swallow — 2016

Will Campbell, Ruby Riot bassist, is back at university and failing badly at everything apart from partying.With Ruby Riot on a break, Will returns to university to finish his degree. He needs major help if he wants to pass his final year and attempts to join a not-very-rock star study group. Will is horrified to discover the person organising the group is Fleur Roberts, the girl he's secretly crushed on for two years and who recently threatened him with a restraining order.Fleur's rock stars are history academics. She has no interest in any variety of pierced, tattooed slacker, especially not the jackass rock star who humiliated her at a party. There's no way in Hell that Will Campbell is joining her group.Faced with losing the easiest way to fix his academic problems, Will has the perfect solution: pretend he's his twin, Nate. Will and Nate have swapped identities before so nothing can go wrong. Surely.Fleur is successful academically, but her love life is a failure. Following a number of disastrous dates, she finds herself falling in love with a guy who is lying to her. But Will's deceit isn't the only thing about to shatter her world. When another man Fleur trusted betrays her, and she attempts to retaliate, Fleur discovers how dangerous he is. And when Will becomes involved, the repercussions threaten both of their futures.Shuffle is the second standalone book in the Ruby Riot series and can be read separately to the first book.

Reviews

Megan Williams@meganwilliams

Feb 24, 2022

This book definitely isn't the typical college romance! After reading Shuffle's blurb, I was expecting the usual college/band romance where the guy is famous and there are problems in the relationship because of college and the gaining popularity of Ruby Red (the band). And while there was definitely some of these themes present in the novel, there was a twist of identity that added a whole new element to the novel and really bumped up my rating to five stars! The author did a good job of creating a story in which the characters literally come off the page in terms of personality and individuality. I truly felt a part of the novel and the issues that were presented through the characters and their relationships. I really loved Fleur's character because (a) Her name is a character in the Harry Potter series and anything connected to HP is bae; and (b) Fleur was the type of girl who didn't take sh*t from anyone because she was focused on her education and future. I think this is where a lot of relationship trouble started up (from item b, not a ) because Fleur was so focused on her education that she missed some warning signs from a guy she goes on a date with... big mistake... and she dismisses the attraction she feels for Will (or Nate, depending on what name he decides to go by). I felt like Fleur's character was the perfect mix of perfect and faults in her personality and her characterization. Will, on the other hand, was really hard not to like even when he was drunk and acting a fool. I think a lot of this had to do with how honest he was with himself (for the most part) about his feelings for Fleur. From the beginning of the novel I never questioned if he was interested in her more than a passing fling. I loved how the author created the drama of him pretending to be his twin brother Nate because I felt like it added a complete 180 from the usual college romance stories. Overall this book was pretty darn amazing and I am definitely going back to read the first book in the series (Cadence) as well as keep my eye out for the next book in the novel. http://bkwrm29.blogspot.com/