I received this book in exchange for an honest review.

Jamie and Siri are sisters who were separated at a young age. Siri was told by her mom that Jamie was an imaginary friend. Jamie knew about Siri but was focused on her comedy career. At a retreat they reconnect and decide to switch lives when all of a sudden they pull a Freaky Friday and look like the other one.

The concept and book itself is cute. The thing I will say is the book is way too long for what it is. It's a cute book but no need to have it be so long.

Freaky Friday meets Parent Trap? I'm in! Oh, it's Christine Riccio... I'll give it a shot. Once again I was underwhelmed by the author's work. There's always a great premise that fails due to poor execution.

At times a delightful read, but honestly most of the time it fell flat for me and the characters were boring. Not a lot happened and I wanted more. Still somewhat enjoyable though.

4/5⭐ to Better Together by Christine Riccio. Big thanks to Wednesday Books and Macmillan Audio for an audio egalley to review. This was a delightful addition to my summer reading last year, giving Parent Trap and Freaky Friday vibes. We follow twins Jamie and Siri who were relocated to opposite corners of the country after their parents nasty divorce 10 years ago. They finally reconnect at a retreat in Colorado, but after magic causes them to be seen by others as the other sister, they decide to do a swap and try out each other's lives. I really like both of these sisters, as well as just the premise of the book as a whole. Their voices and personalities were distinct, and I though the dual alternating POV was very well done. They each have some challenges to overcome, Jamie with her anxiety and Siri with her serious injury that has probably ended her ballet career, and I think a lot of readers will be able to relate to this. Also, because of the nature of their history and how they were separated and finally were able to reconnect so many years later, there are some complex and interesting family dynamics to unpack and explore. I think this was a wonderful coming-of-age story with notes of nostalgia that I would highly recommend you add to your summer reading list as I don't think it has received enough love.

This book was one that somehow got archived on NetGalley before I read it, so now I'm reading it much later. This book is basically the parent trap, but complicated. Jamie and Siri are sisters that are 2 years apart. They were separated when their parents split up when they were 4 and 6. Jamie (6) went with the dad and Siri (4) stayed with the mom. Now both girls are at some camp for reinventing yourself and they run into each other and decide to switch places. Siri doesn't know who Jamie is because her mom always told her Jamie was imaginary and not a real person. WTF kind of mom does that?! The whole premise behind this book was really hard to buy into. I get that parents have issues but you'd just act as if your other child didn't exist? Both parents did it and I find that REALLY unbelievable. Also, they were 4 and 6, not like 1 and 3. I get that you probably don't have vivid memories of those times, but this just felt off. Anyway, the girls couldn't be more opposite. Jamie wants to do standup but has recently bombed. Siri wanted to be a ballet dancer like her mom but a career ending back injury has her in a tailspin. Ones confident and out there, ones shy and meek. The girls find themselves as they discover each other and they find out a little more about what happened to make the parents split. This felt so unrealistic it was hard to buy into it or care a whole lot. Of course both girls have romances too. Not necessary, but its there. Meh.

This fell pretty flat for me. I enjoyed Again but Better well enough so I thought I would also enjoy Better Together but I didn't. It kind of felt like nothing was really happening most of the time and the two main characters were pretty annoying. The writing was kind of lacking for me and just didn't feel like it was something worth my time. I did enjoy the narrator of the audio book though

I wasn't a fan of this book like I was with the author's first. I couldn't get into either of the main characters, as it was hard to relate to them. I found them whiny and annoying. I had to DNF it halfway through.

Unfortunately this book was a big disappointment. I really disliked the story and even disliked the audiobook. I couldn’t understand what was being said.

When I saw the synopsis for this novel I was excited. When it says the parent trap meets freaky friday, they aren’t kidding. Except instead of being little girls or twins they are young adults which makes this story as good as it is.

Voiced from two points of view, better together follows the sisters as they switch places to get to know the other parent but what they never expected was to actually switch bodies. This is part of what makes this story so good. No one knows at the start that the two girls aren’t who they are suppose to be. I think this was the perfect way to take the plot. Without that I would have just questioned how would no one know since they were sisters and not identical twins.

I loved the contrast between characters in this story. The main two characters Siri and Jamie couldn’t be anymore different from each other. One loud and brass, the other is quiet and meek. I feel like it makes the perfect character dynamic once all the secondary are involved. Definitely a wide variety of characters throughout the whole story.

With lots of twists and humor this is a great novel when your looking for a little of everything in a romantic comedy story.

Narration review

I’m really happy they used two different narrators for this one. The narrators voices suited the two character just right and I think it really brought this story to life. This is one of my favorite narrations so far for what I felt was accuracy for characters and just overall production. You could really hear the tone the way it’s meant to be read.

I loved Better Together! The multiple POVs, parent trap vibes and Freaky Friday vibes made this the perfect summer read. I will be rereading this one soon!

I wanted to love this because who wouldn't love parent trap meets freaky firday? However this book never really reflects on the more ridiculous parts of itself. There's magic dust that no one comments on, is just like sure okay no need to investigate. Also looking back on the plot what the parents did was super lazy and super messed up, I like that there's a lot of therapy discussion, but still it was just like oh people make mistakes sometimes oh well. I was super annoyed by Jamie in the beginning but her character made more sense once we learned more about her life.

I really wanted to like this book for a couple reasons. One the concept of The Parent Trap and Freaky Friday. Two of my favourite movies. Two, I had enjoyed the authours first novel for the most part. I figured with some writing under her belt, this book would be even better than her first.

I just could not drag myself through this book. It took me months, and I still could not finish it. Nothing about this book could hold my attention sadly. I got 20% of the way through audiobook, and then tried reading a physical copy from my library once it came out. That still did not keep my attention.

I think the idea is great, but maybe it is too close to the source material. I did not mind that it was so far fetched, but I feel it could have been rained in slightly.

The narration by Brittany Pressley and Karissa Vacker was okay. It was not bad, it was not fantastic, just kind of middle of the road.

I received an advanced audio copy from MacMillan Audio through NetGalley. All opinions are 100% my own.

This was Freaky Friday smooshed together with Parent trap. Mix in quirky young adults to create a very fun experience.

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* 3.5 why could i not stop thinking of Lindsey Lohan the entire time i was reading this? 🤔 must be bc this book is basically the parent trap meets freaky friday, not in a bad way but not original (not to say those two are either lol) for how long it was this was a good book tho

Thanks NetGalley for the preview!

I really enjoyed this story! Siri and Jaime were fun and well developed characters with their own unique points of view. Their parents are not stellar but hopefully years of therapy will clear that up. I loved the love interests and felt like they were well thought out. The grandparents were so sweet to get involved and really helped the girls. The narrators did a good job distinguishing the dialogue and keeping the story interesting.

Better Together by Christine Riccio can be described in two words: GLITTER MAGIC! This book was fun! Sisters meet at camp in the best kind of parent trap parody in audiobook form! I loved seeing each very different sister walk a mile in the other’s shoes and work on themselves! This is a fun easy listen and perfect for getting younger listeners into audiobooks!

In the end, I did enjoy the book, but I was on the fence about that for more the 1/2 of the reading.

So for the sake of brevity, the main issue I had was the behavior and internal monologues of both the main characters. I found Siri to be whiney and Jamie to just be awful in general. However, before I continue, I want to say that there eventually became a point in the book where I felt I understood the behaviors were the result of the trauma the girls had gone through which we don't discover until later in the book.

With that said, I found the first half to be a slog to get through. Siri behaves like someone much younger than she is and Jamie displays no regard for boundaries or awareness of others which was infuriating.

Then we take the twist into THE PARENT HOOD / FREAKY FRIDAY territory, that I was not expecting. So if you love those films, you will more than likely enjoy the dramatic and often unbelievable nature of the book.

As I said, eventually I came around to the characters and the reasoning behind their personalities. I also liked the LGBTQ+ rep and especially the focus on therapy and the work required to heal trauma.

If I hadn't received this as an ARC, I'm not sure I would have finished it, but again, once I got on aboard (around the 65% mark), I enjoyed the ride. It just took way longer than I would have liked.

The audiobook version was good. I always enjoy a dual narration.

***Thank you to Macmillian Audio for providing me with a copy of the audiobook for free via NetGalley for an unbiased review.

The Parent Trap and Freaky Friday are two of my childhood favorite movies, so I was super excited that Better Together was said to be a fun mix of them both. I enjoyed this book and really liked the narrator of the audiobook. I loved the sisters, Siri and Jamie, and their journey to get to know each other and sort out their childhood. I couldn't get over the parents though and how everything was handled by them. They were just awful people and made me not want to read about them and how insanely they treated their daughters. I also don't see how the rest of the family members stood back and let it happen. Strange. But I overall enjoyed it and will try out Christine's next book.

Siri and Jamie couldn't be less alike. Siri wants to be a pro ballerina and Jamie wants to be a stand-up comedian. When their paths cross at a retreat centered around re-discovering yourself, they will find they have a lot more in common than they thought.

For this one I listened to the audiobook and the narrators did an okay job. Now let me say I knew this was going to be a familiar storyline since the tagline was "Freaky Friday meets The Parent Trap" but there was just SO MUCH happening in this book. At almost 13 hours of audio, this book was WAY too long. I would expect 13 hours of audio from the first installment in a YA fantasy series, but not a YA "second chances and finding yourself" story. I did appreciate the inclusivity found within the storyline, but was really distracted by all the different aspects of the story. I don't feel the POV swaps were done as well as they could have been in the audiobook. The two narrators sounded too similar in my opinion. Overall this was an okay read.

This novel brought back so many memories of The Parent Trap; although, it wasn't as innocent as trying to get parents back together so much as trying to expose parents for bad parenting and lying. It makes it way more realistic and believable. Here's a quick teaser: Jamie is going to a "find yourself" style mediation/retreat camp because she gets vomit inducing stage anxiety when doing the one thing she loves most: stand up comedy. Siri is a ballerina (she gets paid to do what she loves the most in the world: Dance!). But her dreams come crashing down after an unfortunate affair plays out between her boyfriend and best friend that causes her to attend a rock concert in which she injures her back to the point where she can't dance any more. Both are heart broken and trying to find their way and themselves when they run into each other. Except Siri doesn't recognize Jamie even though Jamie recognizes her. The twist! And that's the start of the life switching, life altering sisterhood.
A little magic later: Jamie is stuck in Siri's life with their mom and a camp heart throb that can see her for who she really is in a New York/New Jersey adventure and Siri is stuck as Jamie with their dad and her best friend Dawn in a California dream adventure.
Shenanigans ensue.
I liked how flawed the characters all were. They had their redeeming qualities, but also had a sense of humanity. I needed a happy ending that wasn't overly sappy and this novel delivered.
Recommended for: anyone who liked the parent trap, but was annoyed at how the parents got away from splitting and never keeping in contact but then send their kids to the same camp; anyone who had their life long dreams within their grasps and had them shatter and had to reinvent themselves; anyone looking for a heartwarming sisterhood story, also the sapphic romance in this one made me smile so much (I will probably never try mint cricket chip; however, Siri's ice cream, pizza and snow globe romance-y day made me face hurt with how hard I was smiling).
Also, this novel now makes me want a picture holder snow globe for my next perfect day.