Name: The Surrogate
ISBN: 9781684336821

Lynn Katz

Tricked into swapping lives with her doppelganger, Jenn Cooper must rely on her teaching skills to stop her double's teenage son from committing another American tragedy.

The Surrogate

Karolina

Jenn Copper is living her normal, quiet life as a literature teacher in Connecticut. During the summer break, she took a little vacation to Florida to visit the house of Ernest Hemingway. The main purpose of her trip was to finally start writing the novel she always wanted to write. Nonetheless, she always was finding excuses why she’s not ready to start writing. She spent her last evenings in the bar drinking, disappointed that her vacation didn’t go as planned. Exactly there, she noticed a woman staring straight at her. When she decided to confront her, she saw a woman who looked just like her. Her name was Jennifer, which is another big coincidence. She’s a rich married woman, mother of two kids, living in Florida. She’s the complete opposite of Jenn. 

From one drink to another, two women got to know each other better, and both were not satisfied with their lives. Jenn’s doppelganger came up with the idea to swap their lives for a month. Even if Jenn wasn’t convinced, and didn’t want to agree to it. However, when she woke up in the morning she woke up in Jennifer’s bed. By the time she woke up, Jennifer and all Jenn’s belongings were gone. The only thing left behind was a letter addressed to Jenn. 

Book Review: 
I finished reading this book two days ago, and I still don’t know what to think about it. On one hand, I loved it, especially the moment when I reached the twist in the story. I would lie if I’d say that I wasn’t surprised. It was a great ending for the book. A little bit drastic but amazing at the same time. However, I have a lot of questions about the ending. It was amazing but a lot of things were not explained and didn't make sense. 

I really liked Jenn’s character. In the beginning, I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy seeing the story from her point of view but my opinion about her changed very quickly. Even if she wanted to get out of Jennifer’s life as soon as possible. She stayed because she saw that Jennifer’s son needed urgent help. As a teacher, she felt obligated to do everything to help him get out of his darkroom, and start living again. Well, she wasn’t suspecting that there is much more behind it than a teenage depression. Well, this kid terrified even me. I couldn’t stand how he’s behaving and treating Jenn. It was very clear that there is something very wrong with him. However, on the other side, I could also see that half of the things he has done were mostly a cry for help. 

Jennifer’s family was a disaster, and I was really surprised already in the beginning that Jenn didn’t decide to run. She had money, and Jennifer’s documents so she could easily just go back home and confront her about it all. Partly, I think she didn’t want to go back to her life. She wanted to experience something new, and be able to finally start her book. Nonetheless, taking care of Martin took all her time and thoughts at the moment. 

The ending of this book was epic, and not expected. I wasn’t very surprised because by the end of the book I could partly see it’s coming. However, it was still very well written and managed to make it shocking for the reader. This ending made me like this book even more. 

I would like to thank Lynn Katz, Black Rose Writing, and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of the book. This story was a rollercoaster with an unexpected ending, which makes it a perfect quick read.

The Surrogate

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