Switched by Cassie Mae ♥♥♥♥

Switched by Cassie Mae was a pretty great book. I was surprised at how much I ended up liking it, but I’m going to start with talking about what I didn’t like since there was so much I did enjoy. The other reason I’m starting on a sour note is because there were a few things I noticed early on in my reading  that almost pushed me to stop reading (I say that begrudgingly since I probably would have still finished the book, it would have just taken me longer).

So, on to the bad beginnings…

We meet our main character, Kayla who is pining for her best friend’s guy (best friend: Reagan. Best friend’s guy: Talon). We also meet Wesley, who is Talon’s best friend and in love with Reagan (everyone wants Reagan, poor Kayla, right?). Wesley and Kayla hatch a plan to break up their best friends and steal their significant others. So far, not bad, and a pretty good premise. So, on to the bad.

First, the story starts out sounding fairly juvenile, a symptom only made worse by the  “Progress Reports” we get through out about how Kayla is handling breaking up Reagan and Talon. Towards the middle of the story these do give some pretty good insight, but as the book is in first person, it’s really something that could be done in the story for the most part.

Second, this book takes place at a college called Berkeley in California, so as I am reading I assume it is the Berkeley as in UC Berkeley. But for some reason the characters who live in the dorm (all but Wesley) have a curfew. Since I lived in the dorms for 4 years this really bugged me; the only colleges I have ever heard of having curfews were religious schools or schools in bad areas. So, of course, I looked up Berkeley’s policies for living in the dorms concerning both curfew and overnight guests of the opposite sex (since this also seemed to be a problem for the characters). Berkeley has no policy on either thing. I thought it was possible that the author put this in place to cause problems in the story, but no such luck there either. Since this was something that was so easy to look up, it bugged me all the more that it was included as part of the story line.

Finally, my last issue with the story is that is categorized as New Adult, which comes with certain expectations other than the characters are in college. The book was very PG-13 and could have very easily been done as Young Adult. It didn’t really deal with many of the coming of age issues normally seen in New Adult, and there was no sex (at least none was seen). Things like curfew and issues with boy/girl sleep overs would have translated very well in a young adult novel. Setting alone doesn’t make a book new adult. So that was a bit disappointing.

Now, I know you’re wondering why I gave the book ♥♥♥♥ if I seemed to have so many problems. Even with all the problems the book made me feel. I thought we got to know Kayla so well that when she was on the verge of tears so was I. And by the middle of the book I was so swept up that the bad things didn’t matter anymore. I know that isn’t much in the way of good things about the book, but there isn’t too much I can say without spoilers. But if you’re looking for a good story that will really let you feel things with the characters than this is the book for you.

Switched on Goodreads