Better Together by Christine Riccio Book Review

“I want to love my family. I want to laugh and smile with them. I want to have people who love me unconditionally, who I trust and turn to when my emotions swallow me up.”

(pg. 102)

About

Author: Christine Riccio

Genre: YA Contemporary Magical Romance

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Again, But Better

Synopsis

Jamie’s an aspiring standup comic in Los Angeles with a growing case of stage anxiety.

Siri’s a stunning ballerina from New Jersey nursing a career-changing injury.

They’ve both signed up for the same session at an off the grid Re-Discover Yourself Retreat in Colorado. When they run into each other, their worlds turn upside down.

Jamie and Siri are sisters, torn apart at a young age by their parent’s volatile divorce. They’ve grown up living completely separate lives: Jamie with their Dad and Siri with their Mom. Now, reunited after over a decade apart, they hatch a plot to switch places. It’s time they get to know and confront each of their estranged parents.

With an accidental assist from some fortuitous magic, Jamie arrives in New Jersey, looking to all the world like Siri, and Siri steps off her flight sporting a Jamie glamour.

The sisters unexpectedly find themselves stuck living in each other’s shoes. Soon Siri’s crushing on Jamie’s best friend Dawn. Jamie’s falling for the handsome New Yorker she keeps running into, Zarar. Alongside a parade of hijinks and budding romance, both girls work to navigate their broken family life and the stresses of impending adulthood.

Review

Spoilers Contained Below

To every type of family,

I would just like to shout out Ana Hard who did a STUNNING job with the covers 👏🏼🧡. I MEAN WOW!! The detail, the color, the little tidbits about Jamie and Siri’s personality was spot on.

Second, happy one year anniversary to Better Together because, not me posting this a year late 🤪.

Third, I would just like to preface that I love Christine Riccio. I have been a big time fan of hers since I was in eighth grade and now I’m a senior in college, gosh I just aged myself 😆, but she was the first person who I found on the great wide Youtube who made me feel less alone in my love for books when no one in my entire town loved reading. She has such a fun, lovable, joyful personality that gives you so much positivity! A wonderful human being all around 💕! I loved Again, But Better because I related to it so much as a freshman in college. With all that being said, Better Together wasn’t my favorite, but I still enjoyed the quirky, fun, humorous aspects of the story. It’s not that I didn’t like the book, I would just say currently Again, But Better is my favorite of Christine’s so far. So it’s nothing against her or her writing, but more of a preference–and you know we all have different books that touch us in different ways. But I just wanted to be honest with my overall thoughts.

But that’s not to say I enjoyed many things about Better Together.

I liked the bits and parts we got of Jamie’s comedy set. I’ve never seen a book that had a comedian as a main character, and honestly, there should be more protagonists or characters who are comedians because I think it adds some fun to a book. There were some jokes Jamie made that had me laughing, and others that made me confused. I have to say, I think Jamie talked a bit too much about Twitter, botox, and her family. Not my particular taste of humor because I felt like her humor jabbed at people who like Twitter or who get botox. I mean, I think botox is something that anyone can do these days in a healthy dosage and if that’s their body and choice, than that’s their choice. I think Jamie could have been more sensitive to topics like she brought up because it might have not landed well based on a person’s beliefs, but I did laugh at some of the things she said. I think she talked about too much of her family though at some parts, which could have not been as funny to some people.

I also liked the ballet aspect of Siri. I grew up dancing ballet as well and it’s such a delicate and intricate sport that doesn’t get a lot of recognition as being complex. I felt hurt for Siri because she had this dream of being on Broadway with her mom and now that was thrown for a loop. I could only imagine how despondent that must feel to have a dream taken away from her like that. That sucks. I also liked how as the story went on, we got to see Jamie and Siri do a reverse uno on their emotions and personalities to truly find themselves. I’ll talk about this point more later on, but the moments we did see where Siri and Jamie were opposites of who they were, were interesting.

My absolute favorite part of the book though was the Shane and “Mr. Penn” cameo’s. MY GOSH did Christine get me. When we first saw Pilot and Shane, Pilot was introduced as Mr. Penn and I didn’t get it at first. And then Shane showed up and I was like, “OOOOOOOOOHHHHH! I see what you did there!” 😅 I love a good cameo—it’s like a reunion to see what our loved characters have been up to or how they’re doing. Gosh, I can’t believe we’re still on this wrecking ball song 🙈. It was cute to see Pilot and Shane be their bubbly-fun selves. I also loved how when Jamie asked how they met, they just said London 😉. Uh huh, sure. I bet if they told Jamie, exactly how they met, Jamie would believe them.

When we first met Siri, the first vibes I got from her was she was angry, hurt, sad, and lonely.

She felt angry and hurt because her best friend and her boyfriend and sex in a closet and she caught them. She also felt angry that she injured her back in the dumbest way possible. To be really honest, how the freak did no one just see her lying on the bottom of a mosh pit??????? I’m sorry 😆. I’ve never been in a mosh pit, but I would hope people would have the HUMAN DECENCY to see a girl flayed on the ground!!! Like really? Are we really not that decent anymore? Gosh. Siri also felt angry because the mom wasn’t around that much and she didn’t have Gill or George in her life anymore because the mom broke up with George. From what I gauge, the mom and George broke up because the mom was too focused on work and didn’t fill George into her life. I could understand that contention because if the mom wanted to have a working relationship, she had to at least try to include George in her life. But I felt bad for Siri because she would stay at home alone, staring at happy pictures of the past—brooding in her angst. I feel like I’m more of a Siri in that way. I understand all too well what it’s like to be home alone for long periods of time. Growing up, I was often home by myself the majority of the day and there’s this sense of sorrow and loneliness that I sat with because no one was there.

I think I’ve said this in another blog post, but I think that anger and sadness are connected.

There was this underlying sadness to Siri that I felt stemmed from her anger and her loneliness. I just wanted to hug her because it felt like she didn’t have anyone in her life who did that enough. I think it’s a telling sign when Siri was so open to hugs. It made me feel like she was open to hugs because she never got many of those 😕. I know that feeling well too. Her mom also made her feel bad for being sensitive. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being sensitive or in tune with one’s emotions. I think if someone makes you feel bad for being sensitive or for how you feel, they are probably repressing their emotions. They might have grown up being told certain emotions were a weakness or a fault. Or well, that’s what it was like for me. I was “sensitive’ growing up too. I cried too much, heck, I still cry to much. Whenever I cried, I always knew I had to go to my room and close the door so no one could see or hear me. That’s so sad. Why did I have to shut myself in a room just to feel a basic human emotion? Because other people are uncomfortable that I’m sad???? That’s not right. No one should ever learn or feel the need to cry behind closed doors because that’s the only way they feel they can relieve an emotion. I say feel what you feel and try to understand what you feel. If you don’t, reach out for help from someone because there is no shame in asking for help. None.

Suffice to say, I didn’t like how the mom made Siri feel weak or wrong because she was sensitive. Sensitive people just feel things deeply and that can be a positive and hard ways. It’s not a bad thing.

Because Siri was in this funk of her life where she had to figure out what she wanted to do next, she was kind of forced to go to this Rediscovery camp.

When we first met Jamie, she gave me spunky, I-don’t-care, whirlwind, sassy, sarcastic, facade vibes.

I could see right through her cheeriness in a heartbeat. She wasn’t fooling me 😆.

Sis!!! I felt like she was hiding behind humor because deep down she also felt hurt, lonely, and angry. She was repressing her emotions so much that they bubbled to the surface as this happy facade. But facades break and volcanoes spew. The more she repressed, the harder she was going to explode after bottling everything in. I felt Jamie wanted to be vulnerable and trust people, but she didn’t feel like she could after the life she had. She didn’t trust people or trust love because the only love she knew to exist fell out. She didn’t hug people because that meant getting close to people who would inevitably hurt her or walk away. She didn’t like other people’s judgments or comments because she was scared they would see the real her and would think she wasn’t good enough. I felt a lot of self-doubt from her. I think she was too bubbly to a fault.

I wanted to see her CRY 🤪!!! Not in a mean way, but I wanted to see the real Jamie, I wanted to see her go through this emotional journey to break down her barriers and this facade she had going on to be REAL!!!

When Jamie and Siri met, I got Pitch Perfect vibes. You know, the shower scene. To be honest, their meeting was awkward and confusing. I didn’t understand why the freak Siri and Jamie were both screaming or how Siri didn’t get creeped the freak out when Jamie acted like she knew her. I was so confused. If I was Siri and some random girl I never met fell on my after I showered, said my name like she knew me, I would have RAN out that bathroom. But this girl goes back into her shower and chants???? 🤪 I’m SORRY?! What the freak? I also didn’t understand how this wasn’t harassment in any way shape or form???? And the fact that Siri threw her shower caddy and Jamie even if she didn’t know Jamie, was BIZARRE. Do you know how big a shower caddy is????? I dormed for two years, THOSE SUCKERS ARE BIG 😂. You don’t just throw a freaking shower caddy with the soap bottles and everything. What the literal heck. I don’t understand how Jamie wasn’t hurt by the shower caddy. I used Suave family pack bottles when I dormed. THOSE SUCKERS are huge too and if I threw a shower caddy at someone, gosh knows the would be going DOWN 😆. I didn’t understand how Siri wasn’t freaking out or feeling uncomfortable or weird.

I also didn’t understand how the heck Siri didn’t feel weirded out when Jamie started talking to her again when they went on the canoe things. I mean, Siri just met her and then pretended she wasn’t there and then Jamie knew her and acted like nothing happened and still tried to talk to her? I would have felt creeped out if Jamie kept following me. I didn’t know why Siri wasn’t freaked out until Siri said how she was told Jamie was her imaginary friend growing up and wasn’t real. That—that—threw me for a loop. What kind of mother tells their daughter that the other daughter was an imaginary friend. That’s a whole other level of screwed up 😂.

Let me shout it from the rooftop: WHAT IS UP WITH BAD PARENTING???????

I’m not joking. So many main characters grow up fighting all these battles that shouldn’t be there’s to fight, but now are theirs to fight because their parents weren’t either 1) good parents 2)screwed something up or 3) put the child in a lab in a freaking tank like a shriveled prune (I’m talking to you Imagine Me). What is up with book parents 😂?

I sigh.

Apparently, they were sisters who lived together when they were younger until the dad manipulated Jamie to move out to California with him to jumpstart Jamie’s acting career. Jamie went with the dad, and Siri stayed with the mom where Siri trained to be the next Broadway ballerina. Instead of telling Siri that her sister abandoned her, she told Siri that Jamie was never real. They made Siri feel like she was psychologically crazy. How dare the mother!? Also, how dare she erase Jamie from her life like she didn’t matter. Honestly, if the parents really cared about either daughter and put aside their raging selfishness, they would see how much their “clean cut divorce” hurt both of their children. I mean, they really could have at least reached out to the other child to create a relationship with that daughter if they really wanted to. But all they had were excuses of I was too busy or we promised not to contact them until they were older and yada yada yada. They were legal adults, I didn’t know what they were waiting for? They should have put in the effort in the first place. That’s on them.

The thing that got me was how badly I felt Siri wanted to create a relationship with Jamie. Siri never had a sister that she remembered and she wanted people in her life. I liked that for her, but I also felt Jamie was pushing her away in some sense because she wasn’t being honest with Siri the same way Siri was. I mean, did Jamie even want to be sisters with Siri? It never felt like she cared that much about Siri as opposed to herself and waiting to wreck havoc on the mom for erasing her.

So they planned this whole parent trap thing, which kind of made sense. I was more curious how the heck they were going to dye Sir’s hair orange 🤪. Siri had a ravens man, I don’t think box hair dye would be all that convincing. I also wasn’t sure how the parents wouldn’t know at first glance that that wasn’t their daughter. I mean, I could be wrong because sometimes if a parent doesn’t care, they don’t care to notice anything different.

When Siri and Jamie hiked the Lucky trail to this Happy Haunting cabin with the box, I knew something was going to happen. When they found the weird letter, I got creeped out.

Honestly, it wouldn’t be a Christine Riccio book at this point if there wasn’t some glittery-magic factor ✨.

I like a contemporary magic book 🧡.

I was confused and disappointed when nothing happened with the glitter because it felt like an eerie moment only to be nothing.

When they did switch places and were on the planes to go to California and New Jersey. . . I was confused.

I like a magic moment, but I really didn’t feel like a double switch made the most sense to me. I don’t know. I just felt like it was confusing at times whenever we read from their perspective because I had to think about who I was imagining and who the person they were with could see. It was a whole glitter bomb of trying to remember who was who as well. I liked the idea of a parent trap moment, but the Freaky Friday didn’t seem necessary for the journeys they were going on. I understood the Freaky Friday moment—so the parents really wouldn’t recognize them. But to me, Freaky Friday was all about being in someone else’s shoes to understand their life and how they felt. When Siri and Jamie switched bodies after they switched lives and appearances or whatever, I didn’t feel like we got that feeling of understanding. I think there were moments where Siri had a newfound cheerfulness and Jamie connected with her angst, but I didn’t feel like they understood each other as people. I think if the book followed a true Freaky Friday fashion, Siri and Jamie would have lived like each other with the people around them to see how difficult their life was and then when they get back together at the end, they would understand how both lives weren’t easy. I fee like we didn’t get that end connection moment.

The connection between Siri and Jamie was something I wanted more of; I would have liked to see Jamie and Siri more as sisters. I think it would have been nice to have more moments of them together trying to work things out or getting to know each other because I didn’t feel connected to them as sister. I understand though, that they needed to go on their own journeys to heal and find themselves. However, my mind kept circling back to how we saw Siri and Jamie as independent people who were scheming together rather than getting to know each other deeply as sisters. They just met fourteen years ago, but I felt like they weren’t even being sisters together. I don’t know if that makes sense. . . but I wanted more sister moments.

Now I’m going to talk about each sister and their journeys because there are defining qualities and fun moments to their switcheroo– reverse four uno moment.

🎶 🍦 🩰 Siri 🩰 🍦 🎶

I quite liked Siri because I relate to her more.

I liked seeing this joyful, happy side of Siri once she enters Jamie’s life. I think her happiness stemmed from finally not being alone. I liked how she had all these people in her life now—Grams, the Dad, and Dawn—whom she could talk to.

I loved Dawn. She was my favorite. Granted I’m biased as a Filipino, but I just loved feeling like I was represented in a book or a piece of work because Filipino’s are often forgotten when people talk about Asians. I also loved Dawn’s monochromatic fashion because I stan a fashion icon. I though Dawn was honestly too sweet and precious for this world. She has such a good heart and I could tell she genuinely cared about Jamie/Siri as Jamie. When “Jamie” came back from camp, Dawn picked up how weird she was being. Of course, we knew. But even before Jamie (the real Jamie) left for camp, she had a traumatic experience doing a set where she threw up on stage. Jamie never told Dawn about her bad set, so Dawn didn’t know why Jamie left for Rediscovery camp in the first place. There was a whole lot of Jamie not confiding in Dawn and keeping her on the outside of their friendship. All Dawn wanted to do was support and be there for her friend, but Jamie didn’t let her be what she needed to be—a friend.

Part of the weird note that Jamie and Siri found in the Happy Haunting house was that they could tell one person about the Freaky Friday switch and that person would see the real them. That tripped me the freak up. So you’re telling me that Siri as Jamie was now Jamie as Jamie and now Dawn can see Siri, but other people still see Jamie??? My mind was going to explode 🤪. It’s kind of confusing.

I understood why the magic would need that leeway because I thought to myself if Siri fell in love with Dawn and Siri looked like Jamie, Dawn would think she was falling in love with her best friend and that’s a whole other cluster truck to unravel 🤪. I’m glad that Siri had at least one person who knew it was her. It made Siri’s days there feel less awkward.

I’ve never done improve before, but I know there’s this rule called you don’t say no in improv. You say, “Yes, and . . .” That’s all I know 😅. But I didn’t quite get what Duck Waterfall was improving 😂. I still don’t. I just nodded my head along to what they were doing. I mean, did these other people go to college or have a day job as well or . . .? I don’t know. I also laughed at how Siri had to do a set for Timothée Chamalet. What the heck? I’m probably going to get roasted for this, but I haven’t watched any movie or show with Timothée Chamalet before, so I can’t quite say I know his acting skills. But I respect him as an actor and person because I’ve heard nothing but amazing things, so there’s that. But I just found it funny because why would Timothée Chamalet have a comedian, let alone, an improv group play at a party 😂? Does Timothée Chamalet like stand up? I don’t know. But I think it was kind of weird that out of everything he could find for enterinament, he chose an improve group. If I were at his party, I would be confused. Improv at one of the greatest actors in history party 🤪???? Ooooookay.

Good for Siri though for getting up there and having the courage to try. I like how we felt her excitement and sense of accomplishment for doing something new.

My favorite part was the ice cream date they had. I thought it was very cute how they shared ice cream where Siri got the one with the crickets in them and Dawn got a normal flavor so they could share if Siri didn’t like the exotic flavor. I also liked how Dawn and her tried to take a picture with each other and ended up with melted ice cream all over each other. We love that for them 😂. The thing I didn’t get was why couldn’t they extend their relationship past that ice cream moment because they went from CUTE to a hard-core let’s just keep this to us thing.

They wanted to have their snow globe moment if you will.

“‘What the intercourse is a snow-globe relationship?’

”It’s the temporary, lovely kind with no complications that lasts a couple of days, or a week tops, where two people with chemistry have a [darn] nice time together and then part ways.

”When it’s over you get to keep that moment in time, that sliver of new relationship glory, in a snow globe in your brain.'”

(pg. 121)

I thought the sentiment of a snow-globe was a nice metaphor to encapsulate a moment in time with someone forever.

Can I just mention the euphemistic cuss words 😆? Gosh, I thought intercoursing was funny. I liked that whole conversation between Siri and Dawn where they talked about how when someone get’s excited or mad, in Siri’s language they would say, “intercourse you.” That sounds bizarre in a funny way 😂. But for the life of me, I had no idea what excrement was 🤪. I felt so stupid! In Siri’s first couple of POV chapters, she kept using the word excrement, and you know as a reader I’m used to reading large words from authors I have no clue on and then going back and researching the word later. I just also want to say, no one in my life has ever used the word excrement, so that’s why I didn’t pick up on it. But when I kept treading this darn word, I was like, WHAT does it mean? I looked it up after a while and realized it was Siri’s version of saying shi*. To be honest, if someone didn’t know what excrement was, the joke probably wouldn’t have landed that excrement was a filler-cuss word. Maybe that was just me 😅. I will say I do think it’s funny when characters use other words to swear, but it was to be really obvious that it’s a replacement cuss word. But then sometimes I would get confused why Siri would say the real cuss word.

I digress. I liked what Siri and Dawn had because they related about many things. They both grew up with a strong woman as a parent. They also both had so much love and kindness in their hearts to give. I also liked how Dawn gave Siri ideas about what path she could take. I loved how Dawn mentioned Siri could try culinary school because Siri loved to cook. I could see that being a good path for Siri because it seemed like cooking and baking were calming and comforting outlets for her.

Besides that, I think that I would have liked to see Siri have more heart-to-heart or honest conversations with her dad or her grams. I felt like we only got a few heated moments with the dad without really knowing the dad. I also felt like some of the questions that Siri and Jamie set out to ask their parents wasn’t really answered. I would have liked more relationship aspect with the parents or something.

I don’t know if I have the dad figured out. One minute he sounds like a douche canoe and the next minute, it felt like he genuinely felt bad and wanted to create a relationship with Siri. I’m not sure if I was confused because he’s manipulative, but I don’t think he was an entirely bad guy. I think he was a douche canoe for talking shiz about the mom so vilely and harshly, but I din’t think he didn’t like Siri. I think he wanted a relationship with her. But if he really did, he would have tried harder. I don’t know. I don’t like him, but I can’t say that I didn’t see a bit of human emotion in him.

The anger the dad felt about the mom was very all consuming. It’s hard to hear a parent talk shiz about another parent when you know the other parent to not be this villainous person. I felt the dad just wanted to place blame on the mom. But here’s the thing, the dad had wishy washy relationships in the first place and that already gave me some insight into thinking how maybe the dad had childhood hurt and mistrust issues that he displaced on his relationships and his children.

Parenting trauma can be generational.

The dad was proof of that. I don’t know who the Gram’s husband was . . . but I don’t think the dad was the way he was because he was born that way. People learn from their environment they grew up in. I’m curious about the dad’s backstory and what made him so angry and hurt that he would hurt others that he cared about. I also had to agree with Siri in how the dad must have loved the mom at one point to want to marry her. I just felt like we never got a clear cut answer to why they split or what went wrong. However, that could be the point—some relationships just fall out for no reason because it wasn’t meant to be.

Also, I kind of understood the dad’s anger because apparently the mom cheated on him. I get it. But it still didn’t mean that he should shiz talk her like he was a five-year old. I also don’t feel like a person can exactly have a clean break from family, or a clean break in general. There’s always going to be a mess to clean up afterwards, or something that slips between the cracks.

But the mom and dad shouldn’t have put Jamie and Siri in the middle of their anger. They should have at least given them a choice.

😂 🎤 🎭 Jamie 🎭 🎤 😂

I was sooooo ready for the real Jamie to come out; I wanted to know the real her!!!! Let’s get VULNERABLE 🤪.

But Jamie as Siri was even more sarcastic, except when she was with Zarar.

Gosh, I have mixed feelings about this dude 😅.

I will say, it was kind of funny how he would drop papers at camp just so he could get girls to talk to him—he wanted a meet cute moment, so he could have a fun story to tell his future kids. The sentiment is funny, but the act? Kind of creepy 😅. Not gonna lie. I think it would have been cuter if Jamie was a counselor because I don’t know about you, but he was a counselor and he shouldn’t have been trying to come onto strong to all these girls who were making him drop his pamphlets 🤪. It was funny though! He seemed like a klutz when he dropped his pamphlets the first time when he was around Siri, and when it happened again with Jamie, I was like, “Oh, this guy’s trying to pull a move.” 😂 WHAT A TRY HARD 🤪.

So that’s the thing, I liked Zarar, but he seemed a bit . . . desperate 🙈.

He seemed like a smooth talker who kept hitting on Jamie long after she said no multiple times, and in some cases that could be seen as harassment. Jamie took Zarar’s relentlessness as humor, which was good for him, but if it were a different situation, I think his try-hard nature would be frowned upon. He seemed like a good guy with good intentions, but there was also a part of me that wondered if he only liked Jamie because of the chase and the whole idea of wanting what you can’t have. I mean, what exactly did he like about Jamie that he wanted to start a relationship with her? That’s not to say there’s nothing to like about Jamie because Jamie’s likable, but I never understood his intentions. He only said she was beautiful. Like, bro, what else? He even didn’t find her all that funny 😆. And if they hadn’t crossed paths again in New York, I guarantee you he would have moved on and dropped his pamphlets like it was hot to some other girl. I think he’s a snow globe relationship type of guy. I don’t know, I just didn’t feel like their relationship was serious or something long-term based on how Jamie still had things she needed to figure out as an independent woman and he also needed to stop throwing pamphlets to the wind. So I was surprised that Zarar asked Jamie to marry him in the epilogue. She said no, of course, so she could propose to him instead. I’m all here for female empowerment, but I don’t know. They just weren’t my favorite couple.

I liked how Jamie felt safe and comfortable to go to him when she needed someone to talk to.

Jamie doesn’t open up to many people because that means being real and putting her emotions out there for someone else to judge. She’s not comfortable with that, but Zarar was sort of a stranger to her that she thought would be out of her life after everything, so it was the anonymity and the finite idea that he was going to be in her life. But I liked how the more she talked to him, the more she opened up. It was sort of her way of having someone to depend on after shouldering everything herself. I also liked how Zarar gave her good advice about letting her loved ones hear her set so they could give her feedback because they knew her best. He really was a good guy, a desperate guy, but a good one. He was also very loyal, I will say.

Part of Jamie’s reluctance to open up was because her loved ones opinion matter most to her and she feared that they wouldn’t find her funny if she did her set in front of them. It would be embarrassing and hurtful to her to find out her family and friends didn’t think she was funny enough, therefore not good enough to do stand-up on her own. I believe Jamie’s insecurity stems from the dad not supporting her enough and her mom erasing her like she meant nothing.

The mom was a point of darkness for Jamie. It was interesting to see the loneliness Jamie felt by being at home by herself all the time now–I could feel the darkness seeping into her. I found Jamie’s happy-go-lucky mood quickly turn into this angst of sorrow really quickly because she no longer had people around her and she felt abandoned in a different way by her mom. Whenever Jamie as Siri would bring up Jamie the imaginary friend, the mom would avoid or ignore the conversation, which made Jamie feel even more wounded. That had to be like a sucker punch to the chest—her own mom didn’t care to talk about her. If I was Jamie, I would have felt like my mom didn’t even care about me–like I wasn’t even born. That’s a sorrowful thought and burden to feel on your heart. My heart hurt for Jamie when she made the grilled cheese and apple sandwiches because gosh knows she couldn’t cook for the life of her. The mom faltered because grilled cheese and apple sandwiches were Jamie’s favorite growing up, so seeing took the mom back to when she had another daughter. I had to say, I laughed at the whole George and Gill dinner where Jamie said she was in a Twilight cult. George and Gill really don’t get sarcasm, do they 😂?

The more time Jamie spends in Siri’s world/life, we do see her get in touch with her dark side.

One of the saddest moments was when Jamie met Zarar’s family. Zarar’s family was the complete opposite of hers—parents who love each other, amiable brothers, easy conversation at a dinner table. It was everything her family wasn’t—everything she hoped for, but never had growing up.

“Tears spill out of me like blood from a severed artery. I can’t stop thinking about that dinner. About his family. The way they are together. I can’t stop thinking about everything I didn’t know I was missing and will never have.”

(pg. 330)

I told you the tears would come 😢!

Gosh, did I just want to hug Jamie! I know too well what she meant.

My parents divorced when I was eight or ten–those years were blurry for me. But they definitely divorced when I was younger. At the time, I knew what divorce was because I would sparingly see it in movies and shows. But it’s that sparingly part that tripped me up as a child because everywhere I turned, I mostly saw picturesque families with a mom, dad, children, a pet. They were all happy, eating wholesome meals, laughing together, going out together, doing fun things together. I didn’t have a lot of that growing up, and I sure as heck didn’t have that after my parents divorced. My family wasn’t the same. When I was eight or ten, I remembered feeling so conflicted and angry and scared and frustrated and worried because my home life changed overnight. But amongst all those emotions, I felt sad.

When your parents divorce, it almost feels like you grieve a loss.

I felt like I had to go through the five stages of grief to finally accept that my parents were no longer in love and that my life had in fact changed. I wasn’t going to have the picture perfect family that every movie and show had. I wasn’t going to get those laughing moments or those fun memories. Because things changed. It was almost like I had to grieve for what I lost out on too—like I had to grieve what I was cheated out of. I was hurt.

As I got older I relieved that no family is perfect and families come in different ways. Sure, I didn’t have the “perfect” family with both my parents under the same roof, but I still had a family, just different. Because things changed. It’s okay if your family dynamic looks different and it’s okay to also hurt for the family dynamic you hoped you had. It’s okay. I wanted to let Jamie know it was okay.

There was also this sadness I felt in Jamie where she felt like she didn’t even have a family. She was on the plane to Vegas and she wrote this letter to herself. The opening line was I’m lonely (pg. 345). When I read that, my heart grew heavy for her. I knew the feeling. She thought she would find peace with tricking her mom, but it only made her feel even more hurt and empty to discover that her mom didn’t care about her and as much as she tries to act like it, she wasn’t okay and her life wasn’t perfect. She had to face that loneliness—feel that loneliness. When I read her letter, I couldn’t help but think of this quote I read somewhere about how it’s worst to feel alone in a room with hundreds of people rather than being by yourself and feeling alone. Or something like that. When I saw that quote, I agreed. When a person is in a room with hundreds of people, the last thing a person should feel is alone. But a lot of the times, a person might feel even more alone because there are all these people but yet there’s no one there for them. But when a person is by themself, of course, feeling alone is natural. It’s easier to feel alone when you are by yourself rather than with others. It’s an oxymoron emotion. And I couldn’t help but feel that for Jamie 😢.

I also felt sad with how much Jamie didn’t believe she deserved love.

I knew there had to be a reason she pushed everyone away in her life or held them at an arms distance.

First, she didn’t do hugs. That’s so sad. Everyone needs a hug 😢. I felt like she didn’t like hugs because she didn’t feel loved and she didn’t want to get too close to people who would hurt her like her family has. Also, she never grew up with affectionate people so affection made her uncomfortable. I understand that. I didn’t grow up with a lot of affection either. It’s sad the way some people grow up without affection only to feel weird about it later on like they don’t deserve it. It’s almost like trying to soft sheets after the sheets being in a box all its life.

“‘You’re so scared of the people around you that you don’t form relationships with anyone. You’ve always got one foot out the door. Relationships are about give and take.'”

(pg. 368)

Second, she didn’t do relationships. My first thought was because her parents divorced so she didn’t know what love was, yet alone healthy love. There’s some psychological principle to this that my brain doesn’t remember right now, but it’s something to do with how healthy relationships serve as a model for kids or people to know what a healthy relationship looks like. There goes the two years I spent on psychology classes—gotta love the education system 🤪. I’m joking. I liked my psychology classes, I just don’t remember anything from them. Jamie also hinted at feeling like she didn’t deserve love. She thought herself a bad person. She wasn’t a bad person, she was a hurt person, and I felt bad that others made her feel like she couldn’t be loved. That’s what makes me absolutely sad–when people don’t feel like they can be loved because they are “broken” or “not good enough.”

Darling, you are deserving and worthy of love and no matter who you are or what you’ve been through or are going through, you are deserving of the love you give yourself and the love you share with others.

So I wanted Jamie to open up to know she deserved to be in a relationship with Zarar if she wanted to.

There was also the fight Jamie was having with Dawn. Dawn was mad at Jamie for always shutting her out and not telling her she even had a sister. I understood Dawn’s anger. I liked when they did talk to each other. Jamie was at an all time low and she needed a friend more than anything—someone who knew her heart better than she did. I liked how Jamie rambled about how sorry she was and how thankful she was for Dawn. We need to say thank you to our friends more 🧡. I also liked how easy they fell back into being friends.

Oh, and can we talk about how often Jamie throws up 😟. I don’t know if that’s because of her anxiety or if she needs medical attention, but . . . I worry for her.

♠️♦️♣️♥️ Reuniting in Vegas ♠️♦️♣️♥️

They both set the parents up to go to Vegas under the pretense that the mom was going for an interview to choreograph Mean Girls and the dad was going to support Siri on a new set.

Both ewer lies of course.

To be honest, the parent trap moment wasn’t as funny as the real Parent Trap 🤪.

The trap moment also was kind of anticlimactic.

It was a heated moment though.

What got me was the underlying kid trap. You know, I said to myself halfway through the book, “There’s something up with this Grams and Paps.” I don’t know, I caught a vibe 🧐. There just seemed like a reason they were in the story besides just to cook or to play chess with. Something was up. I also wasn’t surprised that they were in Vegas as well. The Paps gave me, obviously, the Grandpa vibes from The Parent Trap. You know, the one who smoked and was onto Annie who was Halley. The Grams gave me Chessie vibes. But that meant where was Martin?! 😂 The Butler? Martin was cheated.

I thought for a second how crazy it would be if the Grams and Paps were dating 😂 and that’s why there are in Vegas. Alas, they just set up this kid trap so Siri and Jamie would meet at this camp so their grandchildren could reconnect. What stood out to me about the Grams and Paps speech was how they said they felt ashamed that their kids (the parents) tore Siri and Jamie apart. That made me think about parental generational trauma again. Because Siri and Jamie were caught in the middle. I liked how Jamie and Siri’s anger and frustration mirrored their parents because it highlighted how the parents hatred and anger drove their daughters apart to have similar emotions and hardships in their life. I could tell how much Siri and Jamie wanted to be sisters, but there was this contention between them that was driven there by the parents.

There was a point that Jamie brought up that was understandable, but yet not delved into more. Jamie said how she felt like she lived in Siri’s shadow.

I felt like that was the case after Jamie had a call with Siri earlier in the book. It was right after Siri had the date/day with Dawn and when they did the improv show. Siri was all excited about how successful things were for her, and Jamie felt despondent because it felt like Siri was succeeding at Jamie’s life more than Jamie did—Jamie as Jamie/herself. That had to rub her the wrong way because she was already feeling insecure in herself as a comedian. But to think that she couldn’t even do her own life right had to hit differently. Jamie actually saying she left with the dad because she didn’t want to be Siri’s shadow felt like an attack on Siri. But I understood Jamie. I know what it’s like to feel like a shadow and kind of be angry that your siblings have all the attention and talent. It’s like knowing you will always come last place no matter how hard you try. I hurt more for Siri in the. moment because Jamie popped her sisterly bubble she wanted to maintain.

After the great hotel parent blowout that happened in Vegas, Jamie went to go stay with the Paps because she couldn’t dare be with her dad or mom at the time. I get that. To be honest, I felt like Jamie endured the brunt of the hurt and the most emotional damage with the parent trap. Siri gained strength and peace, but Jamie was still processing her emotions. I really felt for her 🥺.

What I loved about this book was how therapy was such a natural conversation and a part of their life.

“‘Part of succeeding is knowing when to ask for help.'”

(pg. 373)

This was my favorite quote from the book because asking for help is not a weakness. Needing help is not a weakness.

It is a strength.

It is about knowing that you need someone to support you and having the courage to ask someone. It’s not always easy to ask for help when there’s this fear of how one will be perceived for needing or wanting help. Don’t be ashamed. We all need people in our life to be there for us. I liked that the Paps said this because it was one of Jamie’s weaknesses (for lack of a better word) that she needed to know wasn’t a weakness.

Siri went to Dona for help–Donya from camp. I was happy for Siri that she took her life into her own hands and looked for a therapist that was right for her. When Siri and Donya had that therapy session after the Vegas trip, what I took away was how

Forgiveness and family often go hand in hand. Not always, but most times.

Family for the most part comes with unconditional love, and that means forgiving people even if they wronged you. Family is different in that way compared to friendships or work relationships. Family is a stronger bond by blood or by choice.

I really loved the letter Siri wrote for Jamie in the end.

“And I think you need me too. We are stronger, smarter, and better together.”

(pg. 383)

I love a title drop 😆👌🏼.

The thing was, this brings me back to the point I mentioned earlier—it felt like Siri was trying so hard to create a relationship with Jamie and Jamie didn’t want to. I know Jamie’s not good with relationships and she’s learning, but she could have at least met Siri halfway in trying. At the end, I liked that we did see Jamie try because she gave the Miracle letter to Siri—the letter they wrote during their first therapy session with Donya at Rediscovery Camp. I also liked that Jamie willingly went to therapy with Siri now because she wanted to be better and she needed help. Go her 👏🏼!

The end felt like Jamie making amends. I liked that for her because it meant she was trying. I thought it was very cute that she went through all the trouble to drop papers in front of Zarar at one of his improv shows in New York. I loved how every paper had something different on it that related to their time together. I also loved the whole label thing with her asking him if he would be her boyfriend. That was cute. I still didn’t understand their relationship, but they were cute. I also loved how she had that moment with Pilot again where she asked him for a music internship for Siri because she knew how much Siri loved music. It was a sweet gesture that said I love you and I see you 🧡. It was funny how thrown off Pilot was because Jamie looked a completely different person within the span of a few days 🤪. If only he knew!

I don’t know how I felt about the mom trying to make an effort with Jamie. Was it out of guilt? Probably. Honestly, I still feel unsatisfied with how she didn’t give a clear reason or have a clear reason for writing her daughter out of her life and minimizing her to something equivalent as Casper the Friendly Ghost. Like what the heck? I’m glad the mom was in therapy now because she needed to work through things too and gosh knows she needed help to mend her relationship with Siri and Jamie. But gosh, what she did to Jamie? That still freaking feels absolutely and terribly wrong and I couldn’t look past it at the time. I thought it was sweet that the mom tried to make everything up to Jamie—celebrating her birthday and printing a photograph of Jamie and Siri and them as a family. That was sweet, but it wasn’t forgivable just yet.

I also loved the snow globe moment between Siri and Dawn. I thought it was so sweet of Dawn to get a photo of her and Siri together in a snow globe because they wanted to encapsulate what they had together. I liked that Jamie got over her jealousy about Siri and Dawn and let Siri date Dawn if she wanted to. I could understand how awkward it could feel to have your sister to be your best friend and for it to go wrong and it be uncomfortable to choose the best friend of the sister. But I thought that Jamie shouldn’t’ have gotten as upset about Siri and Dawn because if Jamie loved the both of them, she would let them try to be happy. I loved loved loved the moment when Siri knocked on Dawn’s door in the epilogue and told her she was going to go to culinary school in California and that meant they could try be together 🥺. I loved how Siri brought the ingredients to make adobo pizza—-we love to see it! Also, I have to try make adobo pizza as well because GOSH does that actually sound good!!!!!! How come no one’s ever told me about adobo pizza before 😆?! I’ve been cheated.

I also thought it was cute that Zarar and Jamie were going to move in together somewhere in New York. That seemed like a big step for Jamie, but exciting. I wonder where her stand up career will take her. Oh, by the way, I loved how at the end, everyone went to Jamie’s set and they cheered her on! We love supportive people 👏🏼! I wondered how she and Siri will maintain a sister bond across the country. I also wondered how Siri and Jamie were going to maintain or mend their family relationships because many things still seemed up in the air or broken.

There were many things I would have liked more of a resolution to or maybe more conversations about. For one, I would have liked more parent resolution and where their relationships were going next. I also wanted to know more about Jamie’s secret darkness and jealousy towards Siri. Was Jamie still jealous of Siri and how was she working through that jealousy? I know as a sibling, that jealousy kind of never goes away and pops up in bits and parts. I also wondered what was going to happen between the mom and dad? Were they going to never talk to each other again? I also would have liked more backstory about the parents to understand why they were the way they were—why they were so focused on work or so angry all the time. I also wanted more plot twist moments. Better Together had a fun storyline, but there was a part of me that missed the excitement of having a plot twist or an AHA moment where I was surprised. The only AHA moment I had was when Shane and Pilot made their cameos. If there were more plot twist moments, I think it would have added more pizzazz to the book. I also wanted to see more of their joineries emotionally or for them to discover something together. I felt like a revelation moment was missing—maybe something sisterly. I really wanted a sisterly driven storyline where they connected more.

But overall, I thought Better Together had it’s hits and some misses, but that’s okay because every reader absorbs a story differently.

Anyway, what was your favorite part of the book? Least favorite part? If you could Freaky Friday it (switch lives) with anyone for a day, who would you switch lives with? I’d say Taylor Swift because she’s a queen or Tahereh Mafi because she’s the queen of writing. Or I would switch with Camila Cabello so I could hang out with Shawn Mendes because what a great guy! Oh, no maybe I’d switch with Gemma Styles so I could hang out with my bro, Harry Styles 😆.

Anything I mentioned that you want to discuss more about?  Let me know below in the comments as I love hearing from you all 💕

I hope you have a beautiful day whenever and wherever you might be reading this 😊.

And as always, with love,

Rating

3.23 Full Bloom Flowers

Characters: Jamie and Siri are both quirky characters with a lot of shiz to work through thanks to shizzy parents 🙃

Plot: This book really said The Parent Trap meets Freaky Friday for sure, but at some points it was difficult to follow along with who was who or who looked like what because they kept switching all the time. I also didn’t think the book needed a Freaky Friday aspect.

Writing: Full of personality and angst. I LOVED the chapter titles!

Romance: I didn’t really feel the romance between Zarar and Jamie, but I thought Siri and Dawn were super cute