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    Sophomore Switch
    Unavailable
    Sophomore Switch
    Unavailable
    Sophomore Switch
    Audiobook7 hours

    Sophomore Switch

    Written by Abby McDonald

    Narrated by Katherine Kellgren

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Reeling from the aftershocks of "the hot-tub incident," American party girl Tasha jumps at the chance to get away from the spotlight and spend a semester abroad at tweedy Oxford University. Meanwhile, studious control freak Emily, reeling from her own romantic incident, decides she'd like a change, too. Soon, Tasha finds herself Uggs-deep in feminist theory, while Emily attempts to navigate bikinis and beer pong at UC Santa Barbara. Will these two survive their sophomore year switch?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateOct 1, 2010
    ISBN9781441889744
    Unavailable
    Sophomore Switch
    Author

    Abby McDonald

    Abby McDonald is a blogger, speaker, wife, and mom whose work has been featured on (in)Courage, For Every Mom, iBelieve, Crosswalk, and more. Her passion is to empower women to grow in faith and hope, even when life is messy. She earned a BA in English from the University of South Carolina and teaches writing workshops both online and at conferences each year. Abby lives with her husband and three children in western Maryland. Connect with her at www.abbymcdonald.org.

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    Reviews for Sophomore Switch

    3.5/5

    68 ratings18 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      I quite liked this back and forth story of two university students - Tasha and Emily - who swap universities, and later lives (well sorta). I would pick this book up to read a few chapters several times throughout the day. Many times I couldn't remember where I was and then would start the chapter thinking "oh yeah!" I liked both characters and their respective story-lines equally. Just wish there had been a little more info in the ending.
    • 3/5
      An administrative mistake derails Oxford student Emily’s application for a semester at Harvard. Desperate to get away from her now ex-boyfriend, she accepts a switch with party girl Tasha to attend a semester at University of California, Santa Barbara, hardly the academic rigor she was looking for. Tasha, in turn, was desperate to get away from what she calls “the Hot Tub Incident” where pictures of her and a celebrity in a hot tub have become a hit on the internet. She suddenly finds herself deep in feminist studies at Oxford.
    • 4/5
      I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. The premise, of two very different girls switching places for a university exchange seemed like something I'd heard before, but I quickly found myself caught up in both Tasha and Emily's tales. I really loved how the author handles academia, activism, fitting in and finding oneself. You might think these themes are overdone in teen lit, but this novel makes them fun, funny, light, and new the same way they are to each new generation. Really loved it, and I'm looking forwards to reading more from Abby McDonald.
    • 4/5
      This is one of those stories that I was into from page one. I have always been interested in stories where two people switch lives. But this one was especially enjoyable thanks to McDonald's excellent writing and two great main characters.Each chapter changes from Tasha's point of view to Emily's. I loved both characters. There was something in both of them that I could relate to. Tasha is the party girl. She is more interested in going out and boys then she is her studies. I liked how McDonald wrote the "hot-tub incident". It really showed how out of proportion a story can get in the tabloids. Emily is the one who is all about studies, the right schools and her future career. Everything has to be neat and tidy in her life. I have to admit I carry some of Emily's OCD qualities. Both characters seem to be polar opposites in the beginning. They are both lost in each other's lives and eventually turn to each other for help. It was great to see these two girls come together as friends. It just shows that even someone completely different than you can be a great friend, and bring out parts of you you might be hiding. This story really touches on what it means to be a feminist in today's society. It had me thinking about some of the things I do, or things I believe, and how I act on them. You hear a lot about politics in this book, particularly politics involving women, and it was nice to see how much the author knew about the subject. McDonald used her strength in knowledge in her writing and it shone through for me.While the romance in this story for both girls was sweet, I wished the male characters were a little more developed. But of course, this story's main focus wasn't the romance. I had mixed feelings about the ending. On one hand, I like how it ended realistically. In real life, not everything ends in a neatly wrapped little package, some things are still left unknown. But on the other hand, I would have liked to see a little more closure, especially with Tasha. With that being said, if McDonald were to write a sequel I would be all for it. Sophomore Switch managed to be cute and sweet, but poignant and insightful at the same time. This is a great book for any girl.
    • 5/5
      To be perfectly honest; in the end I am in love with this story. Sophomore Switch was very light hearted and an extremely easy read. Abby McDonald throws you into a world where one carefree college student is switched for one uptight strict college student. They are exchanged life for life; which means housing for housing, classes for classes, and world for world. Leaving two very different girls to sink or swim in one anothers shoes. Which inevitably they do a little of both. Emily and Natasha awesome characters; that I immediately fell in love with and had to see through.As if that was not enough I was even more eager once Ryan and Will were added to the storyline. I was literally cheering when Emily and Ryan hook up. (Don't do this in public people will believe you are crazy) This was a perfect match from the start that I was anticpating long before it was introduced in the story. Unfortunately, the use of 'Totes' did become a little excessive, but this is understandably the way the younger generation will use slang so it was easily overlooked. In the end, as far as 'Happily Everafters' go I wished Tasha ending had been a little happier, but I understand the authors reasoning and that for the character it probably the best ending. McDonald started easy, and ended strong leaving me as an instant fan.
    • 3/5
      Sophomore Switch was a quick and enjoyable read. Being an ex-pat Brit who has lived in the US for 17 years, I enjoyed the culture-swap aspects of the story. Nothing very deep here, but a fun story that would appeal to college-age or younger women particularly.
    • 3/5
      ok...so if ABC Family is looking for a good high school MOW to make.....this is it. it is a fast read and a good opportunity to take some of the girls on their current shows and give them a movie to make during the hiatus.....
    • 4/5
      I received this book from LibraryThing Early Reviewers and I wasn't sure about the book because it is a youth book. I have to say that I enjoyed it. It's about two girls who switch colleges for different reasons and they discover things about themselves that they didn't know. It was a nice quick read.
    • 4/5
      Somewhat to my surprise, I quite enjoyed this book. Two young women switch places for a semester, during their second year of university, each for their own reasons. The shallow California girl ends up in serious, staid Oxford University in England, and discovers that she isn't as shallow as people think she is. The studious Oxford girl finds herself taking film study courses in Southern California and enjoying them immensely. She finds she can let go of her life plan a bit and have a little fun in her life, and life doesn't end when she makes some naive mistakes with boys. Both girls are likeable and the switch isn't played for laughs, as you might think. When the girls find themselves unhappy, they email each other for advice, and become unlikely friends as well. The pace moves quickly and the author manages to surprise us all the way through, even if the love interests are somewhat predictable. I would recommend this book to anyone who would like an interesting, fast and enjoyable story about two young women discovering things they never imagined about themselves. Thanks to the Early Reviewers program for sending me this book!
    • 4/5
      You've probably heard this idea before, or something very much like it, right? We have the uptight British girl, very ordered and her whole life planned, and we have the Southern Cal party girl who's all into clothes and boys, and not so much into studying. They change places, taking over each other's lives, and in the end, learn a lot about themselves and who they really are.Well, that's really want we have here, with the most modern twist: the California girl, Natasha, has to leave because she was secretly taped in a hot tub with a reality TV star, and life becomes too hard to bear when everyone knows her role in the affair. The British girl, Emily, seems to want to get out for break-up related reasons, at least for a while.The plot is very straightforward and what you'd expect from the premise, and the romantic leads on each side are easy enough to see coming, although at least this isn't as formulaic in the end. At least McDonald recognizes this; she's got a bit about how narrative structure exists for a reason.All in all, this probably sounds fairly negative thus far, but actually, the book's a pretty fun and fast read. Each of the viewpoint characters does have a different voice, and McDonald has a good ear for dialogue and for who these characters are. The secondary cast, particularly the Cali romantic lead and the militant feminist on the Oxford side, are pretty well-done, as well. Even if it is formulaic, it's a good production of the formula.If you want a fast read, and you don't mind if your book isn't breaking new ground, you could definitely do worse than this. I enjoyed it, and it isn't even really my sort of thing. Just know what you're getting.
    • 3/5
      I think I might have loved this book in my own college days. McDonald's premise held a lot of potential for hijinks and character development. Unfortunately, neither character ever truly came alive for me -- Natasha, the misbehaving Cali girl, gets her glimpse of enlightenment but never truly stretches herself that we're shown (unless you think "I studied REALLY HARD so I wouldn't look bad" counts as stretching) and each of her efforts are made with the aim of not looking bad (to a boy, to classmates, to her teacher) in mind, which detracts from their value. She never really learns to reach her own potential, just to be the same chameleon she already was, against a different background. Emily's change has more potential to be lasting, but it's correspondingly a smaller change. She finds a different calling, and one gets the impression that even in the different calling she'll be just as driven.The sad thing is, the book presents many opportunities for effecting real change, but neither character follows up on them. Emily ducks the difficult conversation with her father throughout the book, and it closes with that conversation still to come. Natasha leaves England having neither proved herself to her main teacher nor yet decided on what the next school term or year will bring. Worse, the book closes with the focus on Emily's decision, as if cheerfully handwaving away Natasha's future as settled with the airy declaration of having it all. All in all, it's a quick read, and decently enjoyable, provided you're not looking for anything meaningful. It's very much on par with the Enid Blyton school stories of my childhood, in fact, and I'll be the first to accede that those will always have their place.
    • 4/5
      Though I felt like I was already familiar with the overall concept for the novel, I thought that McDonald did a very good job of both using aspects of this genre, while subverting expectations. I eventually warmed to both characters, but overall I found Tasha's journey much more interesting and I really liked how McDonald explored different options for her and had her embrace all parts of herself - what she was in the past and well as what she discovered about herself while at Oxford.
    • 4/5
      This book was a quick easy read, but very entertaining. It may be characterized as some fluffy chick lit, but the author expressed her characters' voices well, and made me care about them.The concept may not be original (for example Swapping Lives by Jane Green) but the execution and characters feel fresh. Tasha (California party girl caught up in a YouTube-age scandal) and Emily (hardcore Oxford student with her life and career plans laid out in front of her) trade places as part of a student exchange. Their duck-out-of-water experiences during the exchange may seem like stereotypes, but the author uses them to explore their feelings. During this cultural exchange, the girls seem to learn more about themselves than they do about their temporary homes. And even though I'm from a different generation, I felt myself cheering them on.This is a great book if you're looking for light-hearted entertainment.
    • 3/5
      Narrated by Sarah Coombs. It’s just Lizzie and Dad after Mum’s passing. Lizzie is very protective of her father especially given his current odd behavior: he is attempting to fly and act like a bird. Lizzie sees how important this is to him and she joins him in the human bird competition over the protests of her Auntie Doreen. Coombs reads energetically in a lilting cockney accent, expressing Lizzie's warmth and affection for her father. This story is a bit of an odd duck, though.
    • 3/5
      An administrative mistake derails Oxford student Emily’s application for a semester at Harvard. Desperate to get away from her now ex-boyfriend, she accepts a switch with party girl Tasha to attend a semester at University of California, Santa Barbara, hardly the academic rigor she was looking for. Tasha, in turn, was desperate to get away from what she calls “the Hot Tub Incident” where pictures of her and a celebrity in a hot tub have become a hit on the internet. She suddenly finds herself deep in feminist studies at Oxford.
    • 3/5
      At the back of this book there is a statement by the author that her intention for the book is “to explore what feminism can mean to a new generation of teenagers.” I think she did a brilliant job in exploring that theme without becoming preachy. Through the two main characters McDonald manages to show a broad view of the spectrum that is female college students, and I liked how each character progressed differently. However, I had a difficult time connecting to either girl. Both girls were fairly flat for most of the first half of the book, and even as they were fleshed out more and more throughout the second half, there was still somewhat of a disconnect with me.Despite the fact that I didn’t relate well to the characters, it was written in a way that I still wanted to keep reading to find out what happened next. Tasha’s storyline was slightly reminiscent of Legally Blonde (which Tasha herself makes mention of when her peers look down on her), but it was different enough that I didn’t predict where the story would go next. I think Emily’s story was more predictable in certain aspects, but I enjoyed watching her figure out her way in a world totally unlike her own.The girls’ stories are told in alternating chapters. There are a lot of books told from two perspectives that don’t work and others that work wonderfully well; this book is right in the middle of that. On one hand I didn’t like it because at the end of a chapter I’d want to know what happened next with Tasha but would have to read what Emily was doing first, or vice versa. But on the other hand it was a fast read because I wanted to know what happened next with Tasha so I’d keep reading and get sucked back into Emily’s story and not want to go back to Tasha’s. The fact that the two stories were completely disparate made it jarring to move back and forth between them, but there wouldn’t really be any other way to tell both stories. In the end I was pleased with both girls’ experiences. The fact that Tasha left a lot unresolved at Oxford, and that Emily was left at the end with a choice to make that could alter her plans for the future in ways she never imagined is refreshing in that it is realistic. Too often stories end with the girl conquering her demons and getting everything she wants, but in this story both girls are still facing a shaky future, but they’ve learned enough about themselves to struggle through it wisely.
    • 4/5
      This was such a cute book and the perfect change I needed after reading Bad Girls Don’t Die. At first it sounds like your typical story that two exchange students are sent to places totally unsuitable for them and they end up finding themselves and fitting in better than they thought. What makes this rise above and become such a fun book are Emily and Tasha. Both girls are wonderful characters who the reader will come to love. Tasha, while starting off as the typical bubbly but somewhat superficial Californian, finds that she can show others that she’s smart without being labeled boring and she is stronger than she thought and can rise above the scandal of the hot tub incident. I especially loved her character because of her actions in the end of the book which was totally unexpected. Emily’s transformation is a little more predictable but I still loved seeing her relationship with Ryan grow and realize she doesn’t always have to stick to the path in life everyone expects of her.If you are looking for a quick, fun read this is definitely a book to pick up.
    • 4/5
      You've probably heard this idea before, or something very much like it, right? We have the uptight British girl, very ordered and her whole life planned, and we have the Southern Cal party girl who's all into clothes and boys, and not so much into studying. They change places, taking over each other's lives, and in the end, learn a lot about themselves and who they really are.Well, that's really want we have here, with the most modern twist: the California girl, Natasha, has to leave because she was secretly taped in a hot tub with a reality TV star, and life becomes too hard to bear when everyone knows her role in the affair. The British girl, Emily, seems to want to get out for break-up related reasons, at least for a while.The plot is very straightforward and what you'd expect from the premise, and the romantic leads on each side are easy enough to see coming, although at least this isn't as formulaic in the end. At least McDonald recognizes this; she's got a bit about how narrative structure exists for a reason.All in all, this probably sounds fairly negative thus far, but actually, the book's a pretty fun and fast read. Each of the viewpoint characters does have a different voice, and McDonald has a good ear for dialogue and for who these characters are. The secondary cast, particularly the Cali romantic lead and the militant feminist on the Oxford side, are pretty well-done, as well. Even if it is formulaic, it's a good production of the formula.If you want a fast read, and you don't mind if your book isn't breaking new ground, you could definitely do worse than this. I enjoyed it, and it isn't even really my sort of thing. Just know what you're getting.