Swap it for something less predictable! (Life Swap - Jane Green)

Member Name: eilidhcatriona

Product:	Life Swap - Jane Green
Date:	10/11/09 (66 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easygoing, gentle read

Disadvantages: VERY predictable, written in present tense

Several years ago I fell in love with a Jane Green book called Mr Maybe. It was funny, the characters were great, the story was well written, and the hero sounded pretty damn lovely. Ever since I've continued picking up Jane Green books in the hope that one would match Mr Maybe, but none did. The latest attempt was Life Swap.

Life Swap tells the story of single 35 year old Vicky Townsley, Features Editor of a women's glossy who lives in London with her cat. She yearns for married life, believing the grass is greener.

For a magazine feature Vicky swaps lives with Amber, an American "desperate housewife" who is married with two kids and lives in the New York commuter belt. Amber is happy in her marriage and loves her children, but feels something is missing from her life.

The story of Life Swap is good, but hardly original - although I can't think of anything it is similar to, I knew the outcome before the women even swapped lives. I knew the part each male character would play as soon as he was introduced, and I knew exactly what would happen to Amber, her family and her life (and I do mean exactly).

Life Swap is writing in the third person, and switches between Vicky and Amber's stories, with occasional excursions to other characters. This set up worked well, but what I didn't like was the fact that the novel is written in the present tense. For some reason this has annoyed me since the first book I read in the present tense (I still remember what it was even 15 years later, although I can't remember the title). Perhaps this is simply down to personal taste, or perhaps it is to do with liking the familiar - most novels are written in the past, i.e. characters looking back on events, and so perhaps I prefer that style which is more common.

The characters themselves are quite predictable for a chick lit novel. Vicky is a typical single girl, alternately confident and a wreck, while Amber tries to keep up with all the other wives in town in terms of fashion and interior design - but of course as she is a heroine in a chick lit novel she is not shallow, and unlike the other wives she doesn't like the scene.

The men are also typical. Vicky has unsuitable boyfriends she dreams are perfect, she has a friendly "neighbourhood shag", she has a happily married (younger) brother who has the perfect family. When possible Mr Rights enter the novel they may as well have a sign on their forehead, they're that easy to spot.

Yet again, I picked this up hoping for more of the magic I got from Mr Maybe, and yet again I was disappointed. I didn't dislike Life Swap, but it was far from a scintillating read. Don't go out of your way to read this, but if you spot it on the library shelf like I did, it's an ok read. Or you could bypass it and pick up Mr Maybe, or leave Jane Green altogether and try Lisa Jewell.

Summary: Not really worth the time it takes to read