An original premise
I liked this book’s premise of identical twins switching places in the workplace. As I love Quinn Ivins’s writing, I set aside everything to read this book. Even though I enjoyed it, it didn’t live up to my expectations.
Caitlyn Taylor is an unemployed academic who comes home after finishing her PhD with no perspective of finding a job in her field any time soon. Her identical twin sister Chloe, who is also home, asks Caitlyn for a crazy favor: to impersonate her as PA to a college president while Chloe goes to meet a guy she met online. Ruth Holloway never paid much attention to her mediocre assistant until “Chloe” shows analytics talents and interest in college politics. Caitlyn dreams to get closer to her attractive boss but how can she when everything is based on a lie?
I really loved the first half of this book but I felt that the tension of the story fizzled out a bit in the second half. Something’s Different starts really well by setting the twins’ very different personalities and interests but a strong bond that ties them to each other. The tension produced by Caitlyn’s impersonation of her twin is very well done as it’s Caitlyn’s anxiety issues. Ms. Ivins creates sexual tension between “Chloe” and Ruth really well as they start to get to know each other and share common interests.
As with Ivins’s previous books, there is a big component of political science, academic politics, statistics, and analysis. I personally love these very particular traits of this author’s writing, but I’ve majored in Political Science and am a bit nerdy about this kind of info. I found it entertaining how “Chloe” and Ruth bonded through college attendance rates analysis but I’m sure this isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.
I’m disappointed that the second half didn’t live up to my expectations. As the stress of the potential discovery of Caitlyn’s deception fizzled out, so does the tension in the plot which I felt never picked up again. It makes sense in the universe of the story, as both main characters have some growth to do apart from each other, but it didn’t give me the feels of the first part.
I first read the book and now I listened to the audiobook version narrated by Anastasia Watley who did a great job. It certainly increased my enjoyment this time around. I recommend picking the audio instead of reading. 4 stars.
Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins
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