BOOK REVIEW: Me vs Me by Sarah Mlynowski

Sarah Mlynowski's Me vs Me has been compared to the Gwyneth Paltrow film Sliding Doors and the premise is similar. Just before Gabby is about to leave Arizona for her dream job in New York, her boyfriend Cam proposes. She loves Cam, but she really wants to move to New York and he won’t even consider it. Frightened of making the wrong decision, Gabby wishes she could do both and suddenly finds herself living two lives: one in New York and the other in Arizona. The difference between Me vs Me and Sliding Doors is that Gabby knows about both her lives: every night after going to bed in one life, she wakes up in the other and lives each day twice. And for a while it works out fine ...

Gabby’s New York life seems to be going swimmingly - if you ignore Heather the psycho roommate and the fact that Gabby misses Cam. She’s great at her news producing job (having only just mentioned the novelty of a chick lit heroine who’s good at her job, here’s another - I hope it’s a trend) even if her boss is getting a little over-familiar. She’s even losing weight and she’s stopped biting her nails.

Meanwhile her Arizona life gets worse and worse thanks to Cam’s beyond-controlling mother taking over the wedding plans. Arizona is a nightmare and her nails are a mess, but at least there she’s got Cam.

Gabby has literally got the best of both worlds, but before too long she realises she has to choose - in other words, she’s back where she started.

I really loved this book. It’s an original and interesting idea, entertainingly executed. I preferred the New York side of the story - I found Arizona-Gabby too irritatingly spineless (even though she’s aware that she is) plus I could happily have battered mother-in-law Alice to death with her own wedding binder (on the plus side, it takes real skill to create a character this infuriating!). The only sour note for me was Cam. In the Arizona half he is such a controlling, patronising mummy’s boy that I didn’t want Gabby to end up with him in either life.

I’ve enjoyed almost all of Sarah Mlynowski’s books, but with Me vs Me and the fab All About Rachel series, she really is at the top of her game.

Rating 5 out of 5

Like this? Try Enchanted Inc by Shanna Swendson

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