Better Together by. Christine Riccio | ARC Review

My Rating: 2/5 Stars (DNF’ed @ 20% but read the ending)

Title: Better Together

Author: Christine Riccio

Format: eBook (NetGalley)

Pages: 448

Publication Date: 6/1/21

Publisher: Wednesday Books

Categories: Contemporary, Young Adult, Sisterhood, Family, Romance

Disclaimer: **I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

Thank you to Wednesday Books for giving me a chance to read this arc in exchange for an honest review!

Jamie’s an aspiring standup comic in Los Angeles with a growing case of stage anxiety.

Siri’s a stunning ballerina from New Jersey nursing a career-changing injury.

They’ve both signed up for the same session at an off the grid Re-Discover Yourself Retreat in Colorado. When they run into each other, their worlds turn upside down.

Jamie and Siri are sisters, torn apart at a young age by their parent’s volatile divorce. They’ve grown up living completely separate lives: Jamie with their Dad and Siri with their Mom. Now, reunited after over a decade apart, they hatch a plot to switch places. It’s time they get to know and confront each of their estranged parents.

With an accidental assist from some fortuitous magic, Jamie arrives in New Jersey, looking to all the world like Siri, and Siri steps off her flight sporting a Jamie glamour.

The sisters unexpectedly find themselves stuck living in each other’s shoes. Soon Siri’s crushing on Jamie’s best friend Dawn. Jamie’s falling for the handsome New Yorker she keeps running into, Zarar. Alongside a parade of hijinks and budding romance, both girls work to navigate their broken family life and the stresses of impending adulthood.

• I liked the moment the sisters meet because we get to learn a bit of the back story of their history. It’s a sad history though and they get at least someone to help them navigate reintroducing one another to their lives again.
• They are different in personality. Jamie is loud, says what she wants – she’s a comedian in life and as her profession. Siri is more subdued, was a ballerina until that dream came to a halt, so they are very different.
• There is a happy ending (yes I read the ending), so it all works out with the family and the romance storylines in each girl’s life.

• I couldn’t connect with any of the girls. I couldn’t get over Siri’s name being Siri, it just reminded me too much of Siri from the iPhone. Also, the fact that they were named after Game of Thrones characters (I Love GoT too but…), bugged me because Jamie and Cersei, the incestuous siblings? Interesting choice of names.
• Jamie tries too hard and there is a lot of swearing (I don’t mind swearing) but a lot of it is in caps, so okay, Jamie is loud. But then her sister Siri likes to swear also…but using non-curse words such as “excrement” and just other random alternative curse words. But excrement is used a lot and after awhile it isn’t cute or funny.
• I skipped a lot and apparently I skipped too much because there was a parent trap situation somewhere in the story and there’s magic that made that happen.

This one was clearly not for me since I did not finish and mostly skipped but I think there are readers out there who will enjoy it especially if you like stories like the Parent Trap.

📖 ~ Yolanda