BEING SLOANE JACOBS by Lauren Morrill

Out today, January 7, 2014, from Delacorte.

From Goodreads:

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.

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I received an ARC of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. And I was so excited that I did—I was looking forward to reading this book about a two ice-skating girls with the same name.

BTW, I’ve loved the name Sloane ever since Ferris Bueller’s day off, I loved Ferris’ girlfriend played by Mia Sara. She was so cool, and it turns out that one of the Sloanes was named after that character. 

:)

Lauren does a really great job in this alternating POV book about the two girls who switch lives when they randomly run into each other. They both have things they are running away from, and for each, it seems easier to assume someone else's life than deal with their own problems.

“Freaky Friday” themes are hard to do, without magic or an identical cousin. But Lauren makes it believable by giving the girls the same name and putting them in a foreign city where no one knows them. They get away with weeks of anonymity, the only inkling of suspicion coming from Sloane Devon’s ex-boyfriend who is living in the city and bumps into her on the town one night.

The sporty girl aspect of the book was one of the things I was most looking forward to—two sports in one book! Again, Lauren does an exceptional job being authentic with both sports, giving each of the girls a new sport to learn. It’s believable because they both have talent, though I find it more conceivable that SE would be able to play hockey than SD learning to figure skate and be thrown by a double partner. Even so, I bought it all! Great love interests, great family issues (well, you know what I mean), and great resolution. LOVE this book! 

If you love contemporary YA, you'll totally love BEING SLOANE JACOBS.