Summer Swap: Being Sloane Jacobs

Being Sloane Jacobs by Lauren Morrill
Delacorte, Expected Release Date: January, 2014

*Electronic ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley - Thank You!**

If I have a soft spot, it's for cute, romantic contemporary stories. I inhale them, but since I've read so many, I'm also particular. There has to be some humor. There has to be some conflict. There has to be something that makes me think. I found all of this in Lauren Morrill's debut novel Meant To Be earlier this year and they're back in her next book Being Sloane Jacobs.

Sloane Emily Jacobs is the daughter of a US Senator and is a former competitive figure skater. Her mother is determined for her daughter to make a comeback, her father is bribing her to keep a secret, and she is sick of being Sloane with pressure coming at her from every single direction. Then there's Sloane Devon Jacobs, a tough hockey player from Philadelphia who can't admit to anyone that she's lost her mojo when it comes to playing, so she masks it by fighting. But it covers so much more than that, like her complicated relationship with her mother and her fears of being stuck in a life she doesn't want. When the two Sloanes literally run into each other in Montreal where they are each supposed to spend their summers on their respective ice, they decide to pull a Parent Trap-esque switch, each believing the other girl's life is easier. As the summer unfolds, though, each girl learns about the type of Sloane she really is, and who she wants to be.

This book is, in a word, cute. It's all kinds of cute and it has a lot of things I love. Canada. Travel. Life-swapping. Girls who learn to let their walls down. HOCKEY. And that's all on top of the fact that there are TWO cute, crush-worthy boys, too. I only have a few criticisms with this novel. One is in terms of details that didn't quite add up to me. For example, the girls switched lives, but not phones, so why at one point does Sloane Devon get a voicemail meant for Sloane Emily? Also, this book has some truly great secondary characters (I particularly loved Sloane Devon's friend from skate camp, Andy), but at the end of the story I felt like they were sort of forgotten. A little more resolution with them and seeing the supporting cast get some more time would have been welcome.

Overall, this book is a great escape to take you out of your own life for a few hours. I finished the whole thing over the course of a few evenings and sneaking pages in during lunch breaks at work. During a particularly stressful time, this was just the kind of book I needed to take my mind off things for a while. I like this book for what it is, and that it doesn't try to be anything else. If you liked Meant to Be or are a fan of Stephanie Perkins-style stories, this one is absolutely worth your time.

Comments welcome, and, as always, happy reading!

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