Switched by Sarah Ready

Narrated by Kelsey Navarro Foster and James Anderson Foster

Magical realism. Second in a series but stands alone.

My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an advance copy for review purposes. Ana’s Attic accepts no compensation for reviews, and all reviews contain my honest opinion. This post contains affiliate links.

I grabbed Switched by Sarah Ready from NetGalley because it sounded fun. I had no idea it was part of a series until I added it to Goodreads when I finished it, so it stands alone perfectly fine. If you like STEM romance novels, this one would appeal to you for sure because both of the main characters are physicists.

Serena and Henry had a fun (but over-the-top) meet cute and spent one incredible night together. Henry was looking for love and Serena loved her single status. She loved it even more when she found out he was in town because he was her new boss before sneaking out. For two years they worked together, both hiding their attraction until one freaky storm happens while they are in the lab and they switch bodies.

“Your soul burns so bright it doesn’t matter what you look like or what body you’re in – it’s you. Nothing can change that.”

The author made some interesting choices about which traits the person takes with them when they switch. They kept their voices but not their accents and I must say, listening to the audiobook, I found it very confusing at times to know who was speaking because they each have traits of the other. There was a chapter or two with the male narrator and the rest was Kelsey Navarro narrating both characters. She did a fantastic job with the accents, but I think the nature of the story made it hard to follow. I’m not sure if I would have had the same difficulty had I read it instead of listened or if the whole audiobook had dual narration.

I loved the concept of the story. I loved that they each gained a wonderful understanding of each other as they fell in love. I wish all couples could do this! But it was also strange that they were besically falling in love with themselves. There were a few parts that just totally confused me, they would say nice things about the other person but were they really talking about themselves? When he gazes at her lovingly, isn’t he gazing at himself?

The story started out slow for me with too much science, but as it continued I really enjoyed it despite my confusion of who was speaking during many scenes. I was able to get most of what was happening, but the same narrator for both parts made it difficult. I loved the parts where they visited family as the other person. There were some clever and fun moments and I liked both characters despite my unease at the weirdness. I realized that the less I thought about the details and improbabilities the more I enjoyed it.

“It’s not love at first sight. It’s not friendship to love. It’s not hate to love. It’s not blind love. It’s love built from understanding. A love that knows all my flaws, everything I’m afraid of or that I’ve done wrong, all my idiosyncrasies and all my blind spots – a love that knows I’m human and often bull-headed, stubborn, and mistaken. A love that knows me and still loves – loves every hidden corner of me, every dark depth, and every idiotic thing I’ve done in the past and may do in the future, and still, still loves me.”

Likes:

As a Trekkie I loved the Star Trek references. Captain Purrk? Genius.
They were both from normal, happy families, a rarity in books.
The concept of the story is fun and unique.
I liked both characters.
It was a fun sweet journey with tons of character growth.

Dislikes:

I’m not sure if the body-switching worked so well for a romance since they were kind of falling in love with themselves.
It was very confusing to know who was talking at times.
It didn’t really work so well in audio because there were footnotes and diagrams in the actual book.
The breaking of the 4th wall. I usually love this in books, but found it didn’t add to the story at all in this instance.

The Narration:

Kelsey Navarro Foster did a fantastic job switching back and forth, so my rating is not about her, it’s because I don’t think this book lends itself to audio well. Besides there being footnotes and graphs, following who was speaking was very confusing at times since they both took on qualities of the other person in the switch. Having dual narration throughout may have helped, but I’m honestly not sure.

The Down & Dirty:

I loved the concept of Switched by Sarah Ready. I feel I may have absolutely loved it if I read instead of listened but I honestly don’t know. Most of my issues stem from not following who was speaking since they both take on traits of the other when they switch bodies and it’s the same narrator for both of them for most of the book. I also found it strange that they kind of fell for themselves. Yes, there was a lovely message of loving someone’s soul rather than the body they are in, and it may have worked if they were switched with other people but to fall in love with essentially yourself is kind of wacky. Still, I smiled the whole time and enjoyed listening despite being lost a few times.

I am for sure interested in picking up Ghosted, the first in the series, because I enjoy the light paranormal happening in our world and I like her writing.