This was the perfect nerdy book with countless 80s references, a total eclipse, and Shakespeare's The Twelfth Night all rolled into one.

I felt that Where I End and You Begin had the perfect balance of humor and depth. When Ezra and Wynona begin switching bodies Freaky Friday style, they make a pact to get one another dates to prom but also begin learning secrets about each other that they don't usually share. Through these secrets, Norton brings up extremely important topics in very believable ways. The descriptions of Ezra trying to read and learning that Wynona has dyslexia or Ezra and Holden trying to decide if they want to put a label on their sexual orientations truly felt genuine. These elements added to the plot, unlike a lot of other young adult books where elements of diversity like this are thrown in simply for the sake of diversity.

I feel that one of the best things about this book was the character development. Every single character, not just the main four, had unique character traits and qualities that helped drive the story along whether it was descriptions of their clothing, their distinct pop culture references, or their humor. In particular, Ezra's voice was my favorite. He was so sarcastic and witty when describing situations that I often found myself laughing out loud. I feel that this book easily could have been confusing with all of the different switches, but because Norton spent so long fully developing his characters and their coinciding relationships with smaller characters at the beginning I never had trouble distinguishing between Wynona and Ezra.

I also appreciated that this book had multiple storylines and didn't just focus on prom alone as I felt like that would have gotten cheesy and cliche really fast. Instead, we follow additional plotlines focusing on family dynamics. Ezra's parents are never home and he never talks to his sister anymore. Wynona must decide if she can forgive her father for a horrible mistake he made that sent him to jail.

What held me back from giving this book a full 5 stars were some smaller elements or specific scenes that I personally didn't like or find tasteful and the predictability of the plot towards the end of the book. However, I feel like most readers would not be bothered by some of these elements will still love this book as I did.

I received Where I End and You Begin by Preston Norton as an ARC from NetGalley. This book is a young adult novel with a Freaky Friday twist. I loved this book! It's entertaining, quirky, funny and romantic. Everything you want from a coming of age story. Ezra & Wynonna keep swapping bodies. They don't know when it will happen or why and hijinks ensue when it occurs. I highly recommend this book.

Aaah, I absolutely LOVED this book! I was about to say that I love body swap stories, and then I realized that my only other experience with a body swap stories was The Swap and Freaky Friday. . . so. But I still think it counts! Body swap stories are the best!

Ezra Slevin is an anxious, over-thinking, chronic insomnia who desperately wants to ask Imogen (the object of his obsessive affections) to the prom. Wynona Jones is the headstrong, outspoken, confrontational best friend of Imogen. And it’s her mission to make Ezra’s life a living hell. Cue the night of the solar eclipse, where Ezra and Winona mysteriously switch bodies and continue to do so every alternating day. After realizing that Wynona has an enormous crush on Ezra’s best friend Holden, Ezra and Winona decide to form a deal. Pretend to be each other and get their best friends to fall in love with them, ultimately achieving the main goal of taking their respective crushes to Prom. There’s no way this could end badly.

Okay, so I know that premise is a bit weird. I mean it’s very weird. But it’s also really good! Like I mentioned I’ve only have read one or two body swap stories before, but I feel like none could handle it as well as this one! This book is sort of like if everything I could ever dream of wanting in a hilarious, meaningful, and dramatic body swap story, actually became a book. Which I guess it did.

Like I said, this book is really funny. The characters' interactions are hilarious and the friendships also felt very real. Ezra and Holden’s, and Imogen and Winona’s friendships are absolutely amazing. They’re supportive, encouraging, and understanding, and are always there for each other and I love it.

I also love how real of a character Imogen was. I often find in books where there is an awkward high school boy in love with a girl, the girl is always way out of his league, and perfect in every way, and popular, etc etc etc. But Imogen wasn’t like that at all! Ezra likes her because she’s nerdy, and fun, and has enormous hairy eyebrows. I liked how realistic that was as opposed to loads of other high school romances out there where the couple is idealistic or superficial.

I obviously cannot write a review for this book without mentioning the SHAKESPEARE. For those of you that don’t know, I love Shakespeare. And any YA books that reference Shakespeare get an automatic gold star from me. At the beginning of the book, Ezra, Holden, Imogen, and Winona, get sentenced to detention, however, it’s not your average detention sentencing. They get sentenced to detention via 12th Night. Due to an issue concerning their high school's theater department, everyone who got detention is required to participate in the school's upcoming production of Shakespeare’s 12th Night.

Reading about Ezra and Imogen’s passion for theater (they’re such nerds) and performance was amazing, and I loved how one of the many themes that this book dealt with was learning how to be true to oneself and to express oneself in whatever way that feels right.

There were so many fantastic parts of Where I End and You Begin, and this book made me smile time and time again while reading it. It's a definite 5 star read from me, and I can't wait for everyone else to read it and fall in love as well.

Life took me out of publishing a review for this book.

This books is super unique, it has such a rich story, highly entertaining as well and explores the themes of family, friendships, trauma, and gender. I will give this to my teen cousins and nephews.

Wow! Now this is a book about coming of age! Not only do you grow with the characters but you can fell what’s happening with them. I would definitely recommend this to a teen reader. Especially since I feel like this is how a teen, at least when I was one, feels like.

This book had a very interesting concept with the body swapping plot line mixed in with a Twelfth Night subplot, but I found myself wanting just a little bit more in the end. This book follows the story of Ezra, an insomniac high schooler, who is desperately in love with Imogen, and has been since elementary school. He devises a plan, along with his friend Holden, to ask Imogen to the Prom during the solar eclipse. Unfortunately for him, Imogen's best friend Wynonna gets in the way, and due to mysterious circumstances, they even end up switching bodies. The entire group is soon forced into a production of Twelfth Night and Ezra and Wynonna are forced to learn more about one another than they ever hoped.

This book started off super interesting. I found myself really wanting to know how the body swapping happened and how it was going to play out as the story progressed. However, there were some parts, especially near the end, where the plot really just dragged out too much and I found myself loosing interest. I really enjoyed the areas with the play, and where Ezra was working through the complexities of not only his problems, but Wynonna's as well. There were a few plot threads that I wished played out in more interesting ways, such the insomnia, and there were a few issues brought up that I felt were brushed over really quickly, like Wynonna's mental health.

With all that said, I did think our main characters were interesting and complex. I really enjoyed seeing a healthy and platonic male/female friendship, as often times we don't see that in YA novels. I also really enjoyed Willow's character and seeing how she grew from the hardships she faced. There were some characters in this book that I felt could have been fleshed out a lot more, such as Holden, but overall I enjoyed the characters and their growth.

This was an interesting book, but overall, I just wanted a little bit more from the plot and characters.

** I revived an ARC in exchange for an honest review.**
Freaky Friday with a twist. There were so many interesting things in this story.
There is a crush., an eclipse, and two characters are suddenly switching bodies. It’s not just once and it certainly doesn’t happen at convenient times. Each has a crush on the others best friend. There is a lot of learning about one another’s lives, discussions about identity and attraction, and reminders of how we are all a bit awkward as teenagers.
I enjoyed the story and it was definitely unique. There were a few things that felt a little unnecessary but that’s just an opinion.
Cute, quick, and full of teen angst without being annoying.

Where I End and You Begin had an interesting take on the body swap idea. The story starts with Wynona and Ezra swapping bodies unexpectedly after a solar eclipse. Ezra and Wynona are opposite in how they deal with the world. Erza does everything he can to avoid conflict while Wynona looks for a fight. When they first swapped their reactions to each other were entertaining and there was some humor to the book which is always a plus for me.

The story also delves into deeper topics like grief, forgiveness, sexual preference, gender fluidity and loving the person you are. While I loved the fact that this book grappled with these important topics it was tough for me to get into the story at times. There were some aspects that weren’t believable to me and some sections dragged on a bit. Overall, I enjoyed the main characters growth and liked the writing style so I’d definitely try reading another story from this author.

I really enjoyed the spunk and uneasy alliance between Ezra and Wynnona. It was fun and engaging. My favorite part of the book was finding out Ezra and Wynnona swapped bodies. I was not expecting the way that turned out! It was really cool of Ezra to bridge the gap between Wynnona and her dad. I also loved the ending, and I wish there had been more to the story. At first I thought the book was going to be slow, but it really picked up toward the end.

My only complaint is that the story jumped around a lot and took me out of the story. I had to think a little to get reoriented with what was going on. I really enjoyed the story and the characters. Unfortunately, it was not a book I was just dying to get back to reading every time I had to stop.

cute, great ya but not one of my new favorites but i really enjoyed the writing and am interested in hearing more from this author in the future

This was such a fun book! It follows the lives of Ezra Slevin and Wynonna Jones as they body-swap Freaky Friday style. They are not sure how or when to predict the swaps. It becomes a love square(?) since Ezra has a crush on Imogen, who happens to be Wynonna's best friend. And Wynonna has a crush on Ezra's best friend, Holden.

Ezra's parents are both doctors at a local hospital, so they are NEVER around. Wynonna's family history is a lot more complicated. It is an essential part of the story, and I won't ruin it. She currently lives with her Grandma, but she calls her by her first name. Even though they body swap, she won't tell Ezra the whole story of her family, and that puts him (while he is her), into some challenging situations.

There was a lot of swearing in the book - more than is necessary for the story. I think the author was going for an edgy teen, but it was over-the-top for my taste. That is the best part about reading; you can skip the parts you don't like.

I loved how the characters all evolved throughout the story. As genuine teens, they all start very self-focused. By the end, they begin to realize the world doesn't revolve around them. Lots of people are hurting, and they just might hurt less if they let other people into their lives.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I wanted to love this book but I couldn't. I agree with many other reviewers about this book. It was the development of the characters that I wanted to love, but I couldn’t root for them like I wanted to! I love YA books, but I just couldn’t completely engage in this one. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this one.

This was a lovely story very reminiscent of Freaky Friday but without being derivative.

The story is well written and the story flows nicely. The characterization works well in that all the characters are fleshed out nicely and are believable in their respective roles. Also points to the author for interweaving themes of fluid sexuality without making it A Big Deal and without shaming it. It is simply a matter of fact element to the story.

MIddle school to early high school students will likely enjoy this book. I look forward to exploring other works by this same author.

When the book opens with teenagers being punished by forcing their involvement in the school play, which happens to be the Twelfth Night, you know it is going to be a good story. When two characters get into the troublesome situation of body-swapping, the story gets even more interesting. While the book dated itself with its many pop culture references (like, are these references going to age well and give the book longevity?), it was still a quirky, humorous story. that I found to be truly unique.

Freaky friday meets shes the man
A coming of age story of 2 teens trying to figure out what they want and it takes a little switcheroo to help things become what they should be.

This book was really unique. I enjoyed it a ton. The characters were quirky and entertaining. I thoughily enjoyed the plot as well, I’ll definitely read another book by the author

Ezra Slevin is a nerdy insomniac who has his own secret YouTube channel full of him doing skits of Johnny Depp characters from all his movies. He's also had a crush on Imogen since they did a Shakespeare play together in 4th grade. Ezra's problem, other than his innate shyness, is Wynonna Jones, Imogen's best friend. Ezra and his best friend Holden break into the school on the night of the eclipse so Ezra can ask Imogen to prom. Sadly Wynonna finds them first and she has no intention of letting Ezra anywhere near her best friend. When Holden, often the target of Wynonna's bullying, tries to run interference, a scuffle ensues and all hell breaks loose. Ezra and Wynonna begin a series of "Freaky Friday-ish" body switching that lasts throughout the book. Although the reasons for it are never clearly explained (a definite negative of the book).

What I really liked about the book was <spoiler>the friendship that develops between Ezra and Wynonna. (I'm a sucker for platonic girl/boy friendships in YA lit, there's just not enough of them).</spoiler> I also enjoyed how the author was able to portray real teens having struggles that they hide from the rest of the world (including their families). For the most part, that rang true for me.

The book was entertaining, but several things just didn't work for me. First, the pop culture references were far more relatable to my generation (80s - 90s) than to today's teens. If the characters hadn't all had their own cars and cell phones, this book could easily have taken place in the 1980s.

The other thing that just didn't work for me was the gender fluidity. The more Ezra and Wynonna stayed in each other's bodies, the more they both began to consider themselves "a little gay" (direct quote from Holden in the book). <spoiler>For example, Holden was all over Wynonna whether she was in her own body or in Ezra's, even though he had never before considered himself at all gay.</spoiler> That just didn't ring true. Instead, I felt like the author wrote the book specifically to convince the reader that gender fluidity is a real thing that can happen to anyone under the right set of circumstances. Being a cis straight woman, I cannot really speak to the experiences of those who identify as gender fluid, but the constant focus on this from the author just didn't strike me as genuine - it felt more like an agenda than a story. Which honestly, was a disappointment because the story was pretty good for the first 80% or so before it got so preachy.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this ebook from Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Wow wow wow, I really liked this book! It was quirky, hilarious, and very well-written. The characters were dynamic and interesting and the way this plays into the body swapping is great. Each character is dealing with something, even down to the secondary characters, and I really felt close to all of them. The author covered sexuality in a way I haven't really heard before and, though I don't personally relate to how it comes up in the book, I think it was so important to see in a YA book (or any book for that matter). Honestly, this book was really beautiful and funny- you should definitely read it.

This book was one that I really struggled to get into. It seemed to me that aside from Ezra, none of the characters really seemed to be fleshed out enough to be realistic. They all seemed to be more of a parody of characters. I felt like if there had been more on each of the characters to make them more realistic, it might have been an interesting story, but as it is, I just couldn't enjoy the book.

I wanted to love this book but I couldn't. I agree with many other reviewers about this book. It was the style of writing, pacing, and characterization that threw me off. I'm an adult that loves to read many genres of books. And YA is one of them. This book was not what I was expecting at all. Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this book.