Book Review: If You See Her by Lisa Leighton & Laura Stropki

Book Title & Author: Now You See Her by Lisa Leighton & Laura Stropki
Published by: Katherine Tegen Books on June 226th, 2018
Genre: Contemporary
Pages: 320
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
Goodreads
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Synopsis: AMELIA has always felt like a happy life is just out of reach. Having moved every few years with her mom and sister, she’s always had a hard time making and keeping friends; there’s never enough time, and never enough money to stay in one place. And now, in her senior year, right before tennis season, Mom wants to move again.

SOPHIE has a perfectly curated, Instagram-ready life, from her first singles wins to her cute, long-term boyfriend to the beautiful, landscaped home where she lives with her parents. Though they’re tennis teammates, the two girls almost never speak.

But then one night changes everything. When Amelia’s car breaks down on the side of the road in a rainstorm, a man she thinks is a Good Samaritan pulls over to help her. When he tries to abduct her instead, she escapes into oncoming traffic.

In one inexplicable moment, Amelia and Sophie switch bodies. Amelia wakes up in Sophie’s body. Amelia’s body is in a coma. Now Amelia needs to find a way to switch back into her own life—but before that, she must retrace her steps to unravel the mystery of the accident, her attempted abduction, and how it’s all tied to her mother’s secret past.

Review:
I don't usually read books that are co-authored. In fact, I think this book was the first one I've read that was co-authored. So I was nervous about not connecting with either girl or struggling with the way the story flowed. But, this book did not read like it had two different authors and to be honest, that's one of the few compliments I can actually give this book. Because the book itself was a giant bore with a lot of predictable stuff in it.

Both Sophie and Amelia were flat characters, with next to no character development. I couldn't really tell you much about them except the basics. The authors chose not to delve into the differences between the characters. Sophie was irritatingly materialistic with wealthy parents and Amelia was being raised by a single mom and she had a sister. Pretty much the only connection they had was tennis. And even the tennis stuff didn't show up much in the book. I was expecting it to have a much bigger part.

The secondary characters like Zach, Landon & Jake and Mae & the parents were all just horribly developed. I kept getting Landon & Jake confused and Zach was as dull as a blunt blade. I couldn't understand why Sophie was dating him, unless it was for her stuffy parents' benefit. I actually liked her with Landon much better.

I knew before the book ended who had tried to abduct Amelia despite the authors trying to turn it a different direction. The identity of the kidnapper was just so obvious to me. Especially when certain things about Amelia's life come to the surface.

It improved a little bit about 3 quarters of the way through it, but by that time, I was ready to just finish the book and move on. Learning the secrets of Amelia's mom's past was really the only interesting thing to happen. Probably because the phrase "family secrets" is a buzz-phrase for me. I love when books hint at family secrets.

Final thoughts: Underdeveloped characters ruined the book for me. Add that to a fair amount of predictability and you'll understand why I am not recommending this book.

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