I loved the idea of this book but after that.... the miscommunication was just a lot in this book.. Yes it was fun that they had to pretend to be each other at the wedding. Yes Amy and Finn did learn a lot about each other finally but I still just feel like there was something missing. I was hoping for more after the last book from the author. It was solid 3 star though.

Super cute story. Imagine Freaky Friday but instead of swapping places with your, you swap places with your BAE!

Told in alternating narratives between Amy and Flynn who are having relationship difficulties. Then *BAM* they swap bodies on the way to a family weekend wedding. Ha, imagine if finally your significant other could know what it felt like to walk in your shoes!

Totally enjoyed this one! RECOMMEND

I'm such a sucker for the body-swap trope, so I was so excited to pick this one up. In the end, though, it wasn't for me. The opening was pretty confusing and I do wish the author had structured the book differently. Overall, I couldn't quite buy into the relationship. Body-swap fun aside, most of this fell a bit flat.

Thank you net galley for an arc of if I were you. As soon as I read the plot description I wanted to read this book. That being said although I loved the plot the miscommunication trope didn’t work for me. I was getting so frustrated with amy and Flynn specifically Flynn. If you want to have a relationship with someone you need to be open and honest and they weren’t. At points I was wondering why they were even together. I wanted to like this book more than I did and rated it 3 stars.

Hmmmm...what if you took Freaky Friday and made it a couple who are on total different paths in their relationship? After two years, Finn is ready to propose to Amy. Amy is spooked by his offering to move in and confides in her sister that she may break up with him. They are stuck in traffic on the way to her sister's wedding weekend extravaganza, and something happens and suddenly they've switched bodies.

They try to navigate fooling all the wedding guests, but also uncover secrets hidden from each other. Spoiler alert: they both have daddy issues. They discover that in trading places, they really don't know each other.

This concept was fun-ish, but it slogged a bit for me. It could be a me problem though, because I am not a big fan of books that take place at weddings and jam pack it with events and stag parties and bridezillas.

Thank you William Morris and NetGalley for the ARC for my honest review.

I'm really sorry, but this book is a No for me. I give it 2 stars for encouragement, and for the idea. But otherwise, failed. The plot, as I said, is very interesting, I had never read about "exchanges" between boyfriends and girlfriends, but I didn't like the execution. Let's start with the flashbacks, which is perhaps the most annoying thing I found while reading it. There are too many of them, and even confusing, plus, some flashbacks that don't add anything to the plot. I find the female protagonist a bit unpleasant, and honestly it also seems a bit implausible to me this flash love of theirs, and above all the flash-trust she places in him, after all you only met him among drunk friends, and he didn't have a very sane attitude, but ok.
Several times I was putting it back in the DNF row, but I held on, and finally made it! I will still keep an eye on the author, hoping she perfects her stories a little more.
Thanks to the publishing house, Netgalley for this book, in exchange of an honest review.

Amy and Flynn have been together for two years. But while Flynn wants to spend his life with Amy, she thinks Flynn is unserious and worries he's keeping secrets. On the way to the wedding of Amy's sister and Flynn's school chum, they get caught in a thunderstorm and switch bodies Freaky-Friday-style. When they arrive - late to a multi-day extravaganza where Amy is the maid of honor - Flynn-as-Amy keeps messing up the sister-of-the-bride-duties while Amy-as-Flynn can't handle the athletic male bonding. They are both constantly wrong-footed by their new bodies and how they're expected to act - and they're barely speaking to one another.

This was a funny and heartfelt family drama rolled up in a romance. I had a bit of a tough time getting into it because Amy and Flynn's relationship initially seems to be doomed for very good reason: the character's don't like or even really know each other. But once the wedding festivities began I was drawn in to the story, and even though the plot is intricate and a bit meandering I was never impatient to move it along. There's a large cast of characters and I appreciated how clearly they were sketched out - despite the body swapping and the complicated plotlines, I was never confused. Instead, I was swept along, and by the end I was pleased to see that both main characters grew and changed and became better for each other.

The good ol' fashioned body swap, but make it your sister's wedding weekend, and the groom is one of the boyfriend's oldest friends so everyone at the wedding is someone you know!

Amy and Flynn have issues. They've been drifting apart recently. Amy is pulling away, and Flynn is doing anything he can think of to pull her back in. They're close to a breaking point when Amy's sister Laura and Flynn's friend Jay are getting married. Everything is on hold until afterwards. But on the way there, the tension is palpable and eventually boils over when a herd of cows makes it impossible for them to make it on time. Pacing around the car in the pouring rain, lightning strikes, and they're thrust into the wrong bodies.

Flynn is someone who will do anything to smooth things over for other people, including bending himself into whatever shape they need him to be & lying about just about everything. Amy is an assertive bleeding-heart (activist) who doesn't usually bother to hear the whole story before taking up arms and refuses to chase her own dreams. I didn't like either one of them, which made it hard to enjoy this story.

Man, I really hate to say that, because I LOVED Maybe Next Time by this same author & was so looking forward to this book. The concept is intriguing - magical realism is sometimes a little hard to swallow, and unfortunately that's exactly the case for this one.

Largely this book hung upon a whole lot of miscommunication. It's aggravating as a reader, but can be realistic. In this case, it didn't even feel all that realistic. These two characters have been in a relationship for two years but know almost nothing about each other. I think for this to work, we would have needed to see more of what was holding them together. I concede it's not really a romance, more of a personal growth story (for both MCs), but it just didn't track for me, logically. We get to see the weekend they met/got together, but that wasn't enough to carry the weight of all the baggage throttled atop them.

The wedding antics were typical rom com faire: silly, everything-goes-wrong-that-can-go-wrong sort of stuff. It annoyed me that neither one of them was remotely good at impersonating the other, which only reinforced the idea that they know nothing about each other.

I wasn't a fan of the beginning either. The chapters were quite manic as the body swap was happening, and I think half of them were completely unnecessary, personally. I've seen readers complain about dual timelines a few times and have never understood that complaint. However, I'm not sure it was necessary in this book. It's already complicated enough with the body swap aspect. I think having the characters reflecting on their pasts and their worries about what might come out during the wedding festivities could have made them more likeable and sympathetic. As it is, they're only worried about it like they're still terrified of their life partner finding out anything deeper about them...I just couldn't connect to that.

The author did take the opportunity to explore a topic that is only possible with a book like this: the physical space a body takes up and the dynamic it automatically creates - being physically bigger or smaller than someone else is a power dynamic, even if most of us don't leverage it that way. It was only a minor exploration though, because everything in this book seemed to only scrape the surface.

I am grateful for the publisher & netgalley for providing me with an advanced readers copy of this title. It was an intriguing idea...I just wish I liked it more.

What would it be like to truly see life from someone else's point of view?
That is exactly what happens to Flynn and Amy.

Together for two years, they are both wondering, what happened to that magical connection they once had?
While preparing to leave for Amy's sisters big wedding in the countryside, things begin to crumble for Amy and Flynn. Amy is stressed she won't live up to her Chief Bridesmaid duties and can't disappoint her sister Laura this weekend.
Flynn is worried. He feels Amy pulling away from him. He's desperate to hold on to this relationship.

On the way to the wedding venue things between Amy and Flynn go stratospheric.
Amy and Flynn don't understand how it happened or how to fix it. One thing they do understand?
Amy is in Flynn's body. And Flynn...yeah. He's in Amy's body.

Desperate to keep up the charade that all is normal, both are forced to acknowledge certain truths about one another. Can they survive this weekend and most of all, do they want their relationship to survive once they truly see one another?

Why did I enjoy this story? Cesca Major doesn't disappoint with this one. Witty, real, and legit explosive, this story reminds us that loving someone can be difficult. That it's getting through the walls we put up that make love truly spectacular.

FAVORITE QUOTE: "Maybe the art of true love is not finding the perfect person, but about seeing the imperfect person perfectly."

A fun story about a couple at a crossroads in their relationship who then swap bodies (think Freaky Friday) right before a big wedding weekend. Amy is ready to leave this relationship, while Flynn is desperately trying to save it and take the next big step. As they pretend to be each other, they learn more about each other’s pasts and reflect on their own behaviors.

The dual POV helped us understand Amy and Flynn as characters and how that has led to why they are the way they are. It unfolded slowly, sometimes jumping back in time to give readers a full sense of them.

Was really hoping for Freaky Friday! A solid read with some good twists, but didn’t blow me away. The story plays with themes of identity and what it means to walk in someone else’s shoes, which is interesting, but the pacing was a bit slow for me.

This book gave freaky Friday vibes if it was a couple instead of a mother/daughter! I liked the depth of characters and overall story line of it taking place over the FMC’s sister’s wedding weekend. I will say, it was hard to follow at times with them switching bodies.

This was an easy fun read for me. I’ve always been obsessed with Freaky Friday so when I read the description for this, I was intrigued! I really enjoyed the main plot and I also appreciate all of the pop culture references. I know some people don’t care for lots of pop culture references in books, but for me it makes it easier for me to relate to the characters. One con I had was that I got a little lost in the time line at first. There’s a lot of back and forth between the two main characters so you really have to pay attention to who you’re reading as, and when it’s taking place. Overall I enjoyed it, and it was a quick read for me! I’ll definitely check out this author again.


Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6756489302

An interesting premise that I just couldn’t get into.

The simple description would be to call this “Freaky Friday,” but for a couple. Flynn and Amy are heading to Amy’s sister’s wedding when, during an argument, they are “struck by lightning” (sorta? I think you can simply say “act of God”) and wake up in each other’s bodies. This is combined with the idea of them moving in together and Flynn is planning to propose…while Amy is thinking about breaking up. They decide to proceed to Amy’s sister’s wedding anyway and…hijinks. This while also exploring items from their pasts.

I think the biggest problem I had with the book was that anyone else who woke up like this…they’d go to the doctor. They would obsess about what’s different about their different gendered body. Here…it is pretty much ignored in order to tell a different story. And there IS an interesting story being told – the stuff in both their pasts and the things that make each person who they are are revealed to be a fascinating backstory. But the more I thought about this book, the more I felt that the “Freaky Friday” aspect just didn’t matter.

Indeed…it kind of confused things. For large portions of the novel I found myself confused about whose point of view we were seeing (Amy chapters are told from Flynn’s POV…and vice versa…UNLESS they’re flashbacks…in which case they’re who they are – if you’re confused…welcome to the club). I often had to remind myself “this is an Amy chapter, so it is actually Flynn,” etc. And then I just found their relationship frustrating. I can’t imagine these two together years from now. The romance just didn’t click for me. There’s lots of great characters and good writing, but in the end…I wanted them to walk away from one another. Amy didn’t appreciate Flynn for who he was and Flynn hid things from his past. Neither of these things are recipes for long term relationship success.

It wasn’t a “bad” book by any stretch. Like I said, the writing is solid. But it just wasn’t for me. YMMV. 3 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

In all honesty, I love this plot. I don’t car that it’s cliche or whatever I eat it up every time. It was a nice brain break from life and accomplished what it needed to. I just didn’t really like the character Amy.

The concept of this book was something i was really interested in, think Freaky Friday but instead it’s a couple. It was a bit confusing at first but then I got the hang of it. Definitely a fun, light read, and the characters were enjoyable.

Amy and Flynn experience a bizarre twist of fate when they’re struck by lightning and switch bodies, Freaky Friday style, en route to Amy’s sister’s wedding.

Determined not to upstage the bride, they clumsily navigate the weekend pretending nothing’s amiss. As they do, they’re forced to confront old secrets and personal insecurities, which allows them to gain a better understanding of each other.

This fun premise is told from a dual POV, which can be a bit confusing at times given the body switch. The switch leads to some humorous moments and some that give you secondhand anxiety.

I breezed through the book, appreciating the unique concept, even though I found several of the characters less likable and the story less compelling than I’d hoped.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for allowing me to read an ARC of If I Were You by Cesca Major, in exchange for my honest review.

Cesca Majors did it again!

I loved this book! It was humorous, heartwarming, and thought-provoking. Important lessons about listening, really listening, to others, not being quick to judge (others or yourself), and the importance of family.

Cesca Major is now a must-read for me!

I went into this book with super high expectations because I LOVED Maybe Next Time. I did love the premise of this book and felt that the ending tied it together in a satisfying way. The two main characters were annoying at times, but I think that’s how real life goes. I will continue to read whatever Cesca Major releases!

This would make a great movie. The premise has so much potential. In fact, I think a movie would be even better than the book.

This is a very British book; just a forewarning for fellow US readers who might be thrown off.