Olly and Scott promised to be best friends forever. They grew up on the same street, went to the same school, and did everything together. But one hot summer night, teenage experimentation caused hurt feelings and confusion, and their friendship was destroyed.
Four years later they’re both eighteen years old and in their final term at school. Scott is a football star and Olly’s preparing for a main role in the school play. After a heated argument in the street—witnessed by their mysterious, elderly neighbour—they wake up the next morning stuck in each other’s bodies.
With no idea how to get back to normal, they have to co-operate in order to hide their secret. Spending time together rekindles their friendship, yet feelings run deeper for both of them. With the end of school fast approaching, the clock is ticking. Unless they discover how to change back, they could be stuck in the wrong bodies forever.
This was a delight. Jay Northcote is a hit or miss for me and this time it’s one of those stories she nailed for me.
Imaginative and adorable. Colourful and positive.
It was cute, it was fun and it made me feel good. I seriously recommend this one!
Olly and Scott were BFF for most of their lives. But 4 years ago, it all ended after a kiss. Now they are 18 and the rift between them gets bigger and bigger with each passing day.
Until there is this argument. The last straw. The next morning, they are in each other’s body. After the initial shock, they decide to act as the other one in the most natural way they can manage, to try not to wreck each other’s existence, as to make everything seem as normal as possible.
But that means being together most of the time.
Just after reading the blurb I was thinking about Freaky Friday.
Only that this was a romance, and a great one at that.
Olly is out of the closet and Scott is struggling to look keen for the sake of his girlfriends. Olly is supported by his parents, whereas Scott feels crushed under his father’s homophobia. Olly plays Romeo in the school play, and Scott is successful in football (European football). They are as different as day and night, but somehow they were so good together. Once upon a time. Until that kiss happened and everything crashed and burnt.
Of course, there are hilarious times, when they feel weird at seeing themselves from the outside, when they kiss each other and in fact are kissing themselves, when they have entirely at their service a foreign body they have longed for a long time, when they wake up with a morning or they find something similar at night which doesn’t let them sleep. They have to go to each other’s classes. They have to answer to their “real” names and deal with friends with whom they are not familiar at all…
And there are serious matters, too. How to deal with true feelings which never stopped existing. How to deal with parents that are so different to their own. How to deal with not being ashamed of who you are, or how to learn to be free in order to have what you yearn for.
They get to be under each other’s skin. And to face feelings that never had a chance to die.
They can’t wait to be in their own body again.
Even though that also means there will be no reason to be together once that happens.
They cannot ever consider the chance that the other one feels the same, right?
Right?
I loved the story, but I loved the fact that I couldn’t put he book down even more. These characters are adorable (even the secondary ones are balanced and easy to like). Even when what drove them apart gets in the middle, they comply and make an effort to reach each other’s hand. They are not obtuse for the sake of it. They feel hurt and sad at their situation, and both of them would love something different. Both of them would love to get back what they used to have together.
Their interactions are awkward at first. They don’t know how to behave when being together. At first they are too angry at each other, but also frustrated and lonely. Then it becomes friendship again. Something they had missed for a way too long. And finally there is this “maybe” and this “hope” that turns into this “love”.
When the future is so scary and uncertain, it’s heart-warming that beautiful and powerful things can survive. I wish I found more optimistic and fairy-like tales like this one without being sappy and sugary. It makes you believe in second chances, in the best destiny ever being within reach. You just have to believe in it to make it possible. You just have to grab it with both hands and make it real.
BTW, I sort of imagine Mrs Wychwood like this:
An ARC was provided in exchange for an honest review.
Find out more on Goodreads.
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