Young Adult Review: Being Sloane Jacobs by Lauren Morrill

Being Sloane Jacobs by Lauren Morrill

Hardcover, 352 pages

Expected Publication: January 7th, 2014 by Delacorte

Source: Amazon Vine

Meet Sloane Emily Jacobs: a seriously stressed-out figure-skater from Washington, D.C., who choked during junior nationals and isn’t sure she’s ready for a comeback. What she does know is that she’d give anything to escape the mass of misery that is her life.

Now meet Sloane Devon Jacobs, a spunky ice hockey player from Philly who’s been suspended from her team for too many aggressive hip checks. Her punishment? Hockey camp, now, when she’s playing the worst she’s ever played. If she messes up? Her life will be over.

When the two Sloanes meet by chance in Montreal and decide to trade places for the summer, each girl thinks she’s the lucky one: no strangers to judge or laugh at Sloane Emily, no scouts expecting Sloane Devon to be a hero. But it didn’t occur to Sloane E. that while avoiding sequins and axels she might meet a hockey hottie—and Sloane D. never expected to run into a familiar (and very good-looking) face from home. It’s not long before the Sloanes discover that convincing people you’re someone else might be more difficult than being yourself.

This is going to be more of a mini review, I believe.  I just don't have a lot to say about the book.  At times I had a hard time sticking with it and found myself setting it aside to pick up something else.  When I finally got to that last quarter I read it all in one sitting and found myself finally thoroughly enjoying it.  The book has a great concept, even great characters, but unfortunately I just felt very distant from it all and had a lack of connection. 

Each of the Sloane's has a lot of personal things going on with their families and life.  Each one could have used maybe a bit more fleshing out and dealing with each thing a bit more thoroughly.  The same with the romance, it might have been cute but I didn't have enough time to really feel it.  I knew they liked each other, but didn't really understand why because we didn't get enough moments between them.  With Nando and Sloane this wasn't such a big issue since they'd known each other previously, but they really didn't get much time together for us to feel a connection between them. 

The Sloane's switch places, the figure skating Sloane to play hockey and the hockey playing Sloane to figure skate.  Surprisingly it didn't bother me much that this was a bit farfetched and unlikely that either could pull it off and I enjoyed the bit of drama we got with each trying to get into 'character' and be someone else.  I liked the secondary characters, but once again we didn't get to know them well.

I enjoyed the end of the book quite a lot even though it wrapped up rather quickly it answered any questions I had and I finished feeling pretty satisfied. 

Despite a lack of connection with the story or characters I did rather find myself enjoying the book.  I went from thinking it was a 2 star read for me to a 2.5 and I think rounding it up to 3 isn't being too generous.  

Disclosure: I received this book for review purposes, all opinions expressed are my own and I was not paid or influenced in any way.