A story to fall in love with.

It took me a while to pick up this book by N.R. Walker. For the life of me, I don't know why. I love the author's writing and always fall in love with her characters. I'm a fan of the switched at birth trope, not that there are a lot of books featuring that. I also love the narrator, Joel Leslie. He is great at creating voices. So despite owning the ebook and having Switched on my audio wishlist, I didn't pick it up until I was offered a copy to review.

There is something subtly amazing about the author's writing. It probably sounds strange but every time I read a book by this author I find myself surprised at how much I love it. Like I never expect them to be as good as they are. Maybe because there isn't really a lot of other things going on outside of the characters relationship and their semi-normal lives. For the most part, there aren't secondary plots with action or danger. Her books are just very sweet romances with so much heart that you can't help but be drawn in and fall in love with the characters.

Israel has a close knit set of friends. I have to mention that I love their nickname for him because his initials, I.I. sound like aye, aye. He is called captain. It is brought up so often in the book and I thought it was cute, especially their singing of the Spongebob theme song. His good-natured acceptance of it doesn't make the joke get old as the story goes on. Israel's very best friend is Sam. And while he plays a big part in Israel's life this book is mostly about Israel.

Israel has never quite felt like he fit in his life. Raised by distant parents and nannies he hasn't felt welcome in his family especially after he came out as gay. It feels real easy to dislike his parents throughout most of this book. There is so much lack of communication between them, that it takes learning about a mistake the hospital made in switching babies for them to ever really talk. Even then, they skirt around real feelings until Israel can't take it anymore and forces the issues of how they treated him his whole life. Family secrets are revealed and hearts are opened but there is much healing for them. Oh, the feelings!

Isreael's friendship with Sam is tested throughout this book, also. He wants so much to lean on his friend but worries about becoming a nuisance. And has fears of rejection or losing his friendship. The truth is that he has had more than friend feelings. So does Sam. I usually feel frustrated when two friends keep pushing back their feelings instead of admitting things to each other. I do understand the worry about wrecking the friendship but still I am usually frustrated. Usually. I wasn't in this book at all. There was so much that Israel needed to go through and work out, I felt, before he could really be ready for it. And when they finally do get together, my heart sighed and sang. The author is really good at bringing out the emotions of the characters and allowing the reader to feel them.

I mentioned that the story is really about Israel and a lot about his parents treatment of him. I do need to mention how great the other characters are. First, Sam. He is a great character. He was raised with wealth but he is humble. He is a very likable guy whose family just happens to have money. Sam's family is just like him and are more like a family to Israel than his own in the beginning. Israel's birth mom and the (now) man he was switched with are great. Donna is the reason that Israel explored the feelings he had for Sam and Nick becomes a brother figure. There are other brothers and sisters from that family too that become Israel's family.

The end of this story was great with all these important people really coming together around Israel and Sam. There is a lot of healing for Sam and for the parents that raised him, the family he lost, and the family he made. My heart was extremely warmed by all the different types of love. I must remind myself in the future not to hold off on reading or listening to this author's books. I love being surprised over and over again by the depth of emotion in her writing.

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9 people found this helpful

THE BEST!

I️ belly laughed, I️ cried, was turned on, was truly touched, and felt the full gamut of emotions throughout this book! This is the story that would translate well onto the big screen, truly the story every romantic needs to read/listen to! The writing is SO GOOD! The small expressions, the detail, and the word choice... SO GOOD! Worth every second of your time!

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5 people found this helpful

Outstanding Tearjerker from the Land of Oz

Aussies talk funny and they drink waaaay too much, but you will need a box of Kleenex to get through this one. Very emotional ride well worth the ride, but with a happy ending (Thank God!).

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4 people found this helpful

Good writing, unlikable hero

N.R. Walker's books, to me, are all just SO CLOSE to being great, and this one is no exception. However, they are also deeply flawed, and again this one is a good example. The basic plot outline is great--a combination of two tropes: switched-at-birth and friends-to-lovers. And both are well done; the switched-at-birth doesn't seem at all outlandish and Walker does an amazing job establishing Israel and Sam as best friends long before they become anything more.

However: Israel is very, very unlikable, at least to me. He's had some bad knocks in life, but he constantly makes himself into a martyr, and he also bursts into tears at the least provocation. He comes across as brittle and maudlin, which is not a pleasant combination. Does he deserve a little leeway because of his difficult childhood and his uncaring parents? Yes, definitely. However, the problem lies in that almost all of the difficulty, and almost everything "bad" his parents do takes place long before the novel starts. Honestly his father doesn't even seem like a very bad guy for much of the novel. In fact, almost every time he makes an appearance, Israel is "stunned" at how nice his father is acting. I get that it's all apparently new, but since it happens from almost the very beginning of the novel, it's not new to the reader, and it just makes Israel seem like he has some sort of selective amnesia or something. I sort of cringed every time he had one of his breakdowns and said something particularly hurtful to his father.

And he has a LOT of breakdowns. He's constantly falling apart and yelling at everyone around him. And every time it happens, it's preceded by some variation of the phrase "the dam burst" or "the floodgates opened" or something like that. By the end of the novel, you could have flooded the entire Eastern seaboard with how many times it happened. Again, like his father acting vulnerable or kind, I think we're meant to believe that this is a new development in Israel's life; however, because it happens constantly throughout the book, I was tired of it happening by about the midway point.

Long-suffering Sam, the love interest, is a different story. Genuinely kind and noble, he doesn't deserve the overwrought boyfriend he ends up with. I'd gladly read a book about Sam ending up with someone who is genuinely going to make him happy. Israel starts seeing a psychologist (or maybe a psychiatrist, I forget) at some point, and it's the best decision he ever made. I just can't bring myself to enjoy reading about someone who is just such a useless emotional wreck as he is.

Joel Leslie is a good narrator, but I'm not part of his fan club. His Australian accent is good but whenever he speaks with any accent, a lot of his sentences end up having the same cadence and this book is no exception. He also tends to sound melodramatic here but I'll give him a pass since Israel is a genuinely melodramatic person.

Anyway the writing is great, like all N.R. Walker books. However, I'm just never able to really say I LOVE any of her books except the Thomas Elkin series. I keep buying more of them because I know she's capable of being a great writer, there's just always a pillar in the way for me.

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2 people found this helpful

Loved it.

Loved that nothing was a quick fix, that the relationship progresses so organically, that the story seemed real, but was still romantic as hell.

I want a Sam of my very own.

I really enjoyed Joel Leslie's narration. He does such a great job conveying Israel's emotional rollercoaster, although it did highlight one of the parts of the book I had not been super happy with: when Israel kept pushing Sam away, but his emotional response narrating it made the whole thing understandable.

All in all, a great listen.

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1 person found this helpful

tearjerker

If you want a story about fixing family dynamics that tugs constantly on the heartstrings & taxes the tear ducts, look no further. It’s nice to run across a story where grown adults act like grown adults, own up to their failings and try to make do from wherever they are.

Steam med-low. The romance was slow burn but hinged on Israel catching up to Sam. POV only from Israel. Again, adults being adults, Sam never pushes Israel and they stay just friends for most of the book. The sexytimes come in, closer to the end. M/M on page, nothing extreme. I like that they are playful together.

Narration: Overall decent, but has a weird fading effect. I don’t know if it was from recording quality issues or the narrator’s phrasing, but sometimes the vocals faded in a way that mimicked Audible’s “Sleep Timer” function so much that I would be pulled out of the story to wonder if I had set the timer, remind myself that I hadn’t, and then hear the volume go back to normal. It’s subtle enough it might not bother anyone without hearing struggles or someone unfamiliar with the fade out timer, but it tweaked me every time.

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1 person found this helpful

Lovely heartfelt story brilliantly narrated

Just finished SWITCHED by N.r. Walker, narrated by Joel Leslie.
I. Am. Still. Sniffling.
Such a beautiful story: honest, heartfelt without being sappy, and realistic... so very very realistic. No easy fixes, but there's that bedrock of caring, of finally realizing love was there all along. It just broke my heart, then put it back together again. Better than before.
Joel and Ms. Walker are a match made in heaven.

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1 person found this helpful

Heartbreakingly stunning.

Joel Leslie will always be my absolute favorite.

We all have or know someone that has a messy family. A topic so confusing and life changing as switched at birth- just became my most favorite “found family” and “made family”. It’s perfect.

Not to mention the best friends to lovers!! This is such a good book with a drizzle of spice and laughs to make the perfect book.

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Fantastic

This is my second listen and 4th time reading Switched. Each and every time I forget just how much I love this story. I can’t say enough good things about the plot and how the story progresses through to the end. And Joel Leslie’s accents and overall narration is ALWAYS stupendous.
One of my absolute favorites from N.R Walker.

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One of my favorites

I adore this book. I’ve read it multiple times and listened to the audio more than once as well. It’s such a heartfelt, sweet, funny, and lovely story that has me in tears every time. I have so many favorite parts. The narration is excellent too, Joel Leslie is perfect for this.

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