Life Swap

by Carol Wyer

[zooloo1983]

OMG, I did not expect this book! When I picked up the book, I skimmed the blurb and I read about people swapping their lives, but I did not expect this! Life Swap is an absolute blast! The lighter side to Carol and I have had so much fun reading about Polly and Simon!! The thing best thing about this is that I believed what they believed.

Simon is a down on his luck guy, nearly his 50th birthday, he feels like he is unappreciated and no longer wanted or needed by his wife and family. His mother-in-law always berates him and he has just been given some bad news. You can see why he would want this swap.

Polly, she is such a loveable girl, losing confidence in herself, mountains of debt and now someone is threatening to sue her, she just needs to getaway. I could see a bit of me in her.

What follows next is the hilarious tale of whether the grass is always greener as we watch, eagerly I tell you, Polly and Simon, trying to adjust to their new lives. It is just brilliant.

When you know the reasons why they are looking for a change you can see why they would but as they live their new lives, you can see the longing for their old lives. Some of the scenes in this book had me hooting with laughter, I now also know what Yiffing means – did not even know about this before!! Not my cup of tea!

Gosh, there are so many things I want to bleat on about with this book but I don’t want to spoil it. I love the idea that Carol has come up with for Life Swap I would love to know how she did! It is such a clever and very twisty idea and to say that with the last sentence of the book it has you wondering if you believe what you have read!

It is nice to read the lighter side of Carol, this was not a romantic book but more focusing on two people who have lost their way a bit and trying to find their way again, that sparkle. She writes with so much ease and it is a delight to read her words. It was just so much fun! Carol really is a dab hand at this writing malarky, she can have you crying, laughing, cringing, scared or on the edge of your seat in a matter of words. She achieves most of them here (I wasn’t scared in this book!) and she blasts it out the park, I can not express how much fun this book was!

It is most definitely an uplifting and feel-good book, one you can lose yourself in an afternoon. It is entertaining yet it harbours a strong message, be careful about what you wish for. One of the big things about this book is that it is real. It is realistic in the fact, not the life swap bit, but the way Simon and Polly feel. We feel for them and want better for them but Carol really could be writing about any one of us and it gives us the chance to take stock of what we have got, is the grass always greener?