I read and enjoyed Beth O'Leary's first novel, The Flatshare, and also heard good things about The Switch, so I was excited to r2.5 stars, rounded up.
I read and enjoyed Beth O'Leary's first novel, The Flatshare, and also heard good things about The Switch, so I was excited to read her third novel. Five people jammed into a Mini Cooper for a multi-hour road trip sounded like loads of comedy potential.
The Good: --I really liked Addie, and thought she was a very sympathetic heroine. She has a great relationship with her sister and her parents, she's a teacher, and she's genuinely kind and caring. --The first third of the book, both present timeline (everyone jammed in Deb's Mini) and past timeline (Addie and Dylan meeting and falling in insta-love), was amusing and fun to read.
The Meh: --There's a lot of heavy stuff in the latter half of the book, which came as a bit of a surprise! The Flatshare also had more serious content later on, but I felt like the past timeline here became much darker than the cover and initial premise suggested. --Rodney...once everyone found out about his motivations for attending the wedding, they treated it as a joke, but what he was doing wasn't funny??? Tonal disconnect like whoa. --Marcus was dreadful--we're not supposed to like him, but he was so abrasive and rude that I grew weary of the present timeline scenes (which I initially enjoyed) because he was present to drag everything down. --While Addie was lovely, I didn't like Dylan even half as much. He felt too passive and pretentious, and while we learn more about his mental health struggles, I still didn't feel he was right for Addie. In the past timeline, she made loads of accommodations for him that I didn't feel he always deserved.
In short: The Road Trip grabbed me at the beginning, but I wasn't as keen on the remaining 2/3's. The past timeline dealt with a lot of heavy subjects, and the present timeline lost its charm. ...more
I saw Ayesha At Last described as "a Muslim Pride & Prejudice in Toronto," and immediately wanted to read it. (I guess I've been on an Austen adaptatiI saw Ayesha At Last described as "a Muslim Pride & Prejudice in Toronto," and immediately wanted to read it. (I guess I've been on an Austen adaptation streak, since I read Unmarriageable by Soniah Kamal back in February.)
The good: I felt like most of the characters and their family relationships felt real. They were chaotic and messy and sometimes uncommunicative, but that's what families are like! I loved Nana and Nani, and I thought Ayesha and Khalid were interesting characters with real dilemmas to solve.
The meh: The villains felt almost...too villainous? Sheila the boss, Farzana, Tarek: they just had no redeemable qualities, and I wish they had been addressed with a little more nuance. I also felt like some of the P&P plot points in the second half felt too shoehorned in, because I liked how Jalaluddin riffed on the Austen influences more in the first half....more
I really liked all the LaVyrle Spencer books that I have read, but this one...I put it down for a month and when I picked it back up I just wasn't intI really liked all the LaVyrle Spencer books that I have read, but this one...I put it down for a month and when I picked it back up I just wasn't interested in finishing it. Maybe I'll try it again sometime? DNF....more
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