e-Audio, 09:43:29
Narrated by: Katharine Chin
Release Date: January 28, 2025
Published by: Harlequin Audio
Read from: January 23-25, 2025
Stand-alone
Source: Netgalley (I received a copy of this e-ALC from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for a just and honest review.)
Content Warning: Racism, Toxic Relationship. Bullying, Death of a parent, Abandonment, Injury/Injury/Detail, Blood, Racial Slurs, Grief
For Readers Interested In: Audio, Contemporary, Sci-Fi Most Anticipated, Own Voices, Racial/Ethnic Diversity, Realistic Fiction, Tear Jerkers, ToB 2025, YAAfter getting rejected by every single Ivy League she applied to and falling short of all her Asian immigrant parents’ expectations, seventeen-year-old Jenna Chen makes a wish to become her smarter, infinitely more successful Harvard-bound cousin, Jessica Chen—only for her wish to come true. Literally.
Now trapped inside Jessica’s body, with access to Jessica’s most private journals and secrets, Jenna soon discovers that being the top student at the elite, highly competitive Havenwood Private Academy isn’t quite what she imagined. Worse, as everyone—including her own parents—start having trouble remembering who Jenna Chen is, or if she ever even existed, Jenna must decide if playing the role of the perfect daughter and student is worth losing her true self forever.
*MY THOUGHTS*
. Someone described this to me as a freaky Friday situation and listen the way I loved that movie had me ESTATIC to read this. I was expecting to laugh my ass off and see the weird stuff that she would get into. Jokes on me tho lol I really need to start reading the synopsis because this was literally the opposite of me laughing.
This book had me in tears. I wanted to hug her so bad! I’m really big on support systems, and she didn’t feel like she had that at first. She was doing all of this just to feel the support that she thought someone else had. It was really sad. And this may be a bit of a spoiler, but it was even more sad when she had the chance to change back and she still felt the same way as the beginning. I felt so bad for her. I just wanted to hug her and let her know they were hard on her because they cared, but they would much rather have her as herself. She deserved so much more.
Ann is normally a hit or miss for me. I’ve only ever read her romances, so this really lit a fire under me to read her other books. This was about a romance, but it was so much deeper than that. The love interest saw her before the change and even with telling her, she didn’t believe him. The self hatred was deep in this one. I think anyone, teen or not would feel this. I hated that she felt like she had to resort to this. I know I was deep into this book when I realized I was talking about the future of a fictional character. I found muself wishing that she got into therapy later on and really talked about these issues lol And while I would wish that for a person in real life I realize me wishing that for a character was a little weird lol
As someone who’s not a sci fi person, I thank you Ann Liang lol I am NOT science person so I always head into sci fi books hoping the science lingo isn’t too heavy or hard to understand. But in this one, it’s mentioned, but when explained it doesn’t go into too much detail and I loved that. And that’s as an adult. I know there are some teens who will be happy about this as well lol (And for those that aren’t I know some good sci fi titles that have plenty of science in them. Don’t try to put words in my mouth) This book is definitely a great example of fantasy/sci-fi. It has both because of the body switch aspect and the way the switch happened.
There is romance in this one, but I don’t think it was a huge part of it. I think I would classify this as a like second chance romance. They almost had a thing before, but they were teens and obviously didn’t communicate their feelings to one another. When everything came out tho it was head shake worthy. They should have talked a long time ago and they might have saved this whole fiasco. She just needed something to look forward to. he could have helped with that. But I also know that she wasn’t ready for anything and she wouldn’t have really listened to him. She didn’t in the first place lol However, I didn’t care for her decision making. She was content with not caring about anything, but she was mad about this one person not remembering her. And I get it, she’s a teen, but REALLY? LOL That’s what’s important to them. But as a mom, that made me shake my head a bit lol
This was a really great read and I can’t wait to share more about it. I will definitely be putting this book into the hat for my library system’s ToB titles next year. Not only is it entertaining, but it also brings to light some amazing conversations of grades and mental health. This is going to be a book I talk about for a long time coming. Thank you, Ann Liang.
Overall, I give this
