Friday, August 28, 2009

Otherwise Engaged by Eileen Goudge

This was another book that jumped out at me as a promising 'I think I can read it quickly' sort of book. The name of the author started to drive me nuts. I knew I'd heard it before, but where? Somehow I connected it to being a pre-teen. It's been so long since I read pre-teen/YA books that I wasn't sure. I went to the author's website and still found no evidence of her writing YA books. Then I found an obscure site with author listings. She was on there and sure enough, I found her YA books. The ones of hers that I had read came from two series. One entitled 'Seniors' and the other were the 'Swept Away' books. I remember loving the Swept Away books the most as they were teen romances that whisked the girl away to a time in the past.
Now Goudge concentrates on her adult fiction. Otherwise Engaged focuses on two best friends living completely different lives on other sides of the country. They have an opportunity to switch places for 6 months, asking the question, is the grass greener on the other side. They both wonder what might have been had they made different life decisions.
I liked the book for what it was. It did play out to another easy read. I did get somewhat frustrated with the characters as at times I thought they both needed to grow up a bit and be a little more adult in their actions and relationships, but the kinks worked themselves out.


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