ME VS. ME

Author: Sarah Mlynowski ISBN: 0373895887 8/2006 CONTEMPORARY Publisher: RED DRESS INK

This gives a whole new meaning to double life. Gabby Wolf has pretty much, almost definitely (this close) come to a decision. She's trading in Phoenix (nice but uneventful life with boyfriend) for Manhattan (dream job as producer for highly successful news show). Then Cam swoops in and gives her a sparkling engagement ring, making her decision even more impossible. Husband vs career. Vera Wang wedding dress vs sexy first-date outfits. Planting roots in Phoenix vs. playing the field in Manhattan. She wishes she didn't have to decide, that she could have it all. She never expects her wish to come true. Suddenly Gabby's living two lives. Whenever she falls asleep in one, she wakes up in the other. She's got the best of both worlds—what more could a girl ask for, right?

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

The double life concept is a difficult one to pull off on the page, but talented author Sarah Mlynowski gives it her best shot.

Gabby Wolf is about to leave for her dream NYC job when her boyfriend proposes. She doesn't give him an answer, but he assumes she is agreeing. However, she really wants the job, and never led him to believe she had intended to stay Arizona long term. He never wants to leave, since he's nearby his extremely demanding family. The next morning, she gets up and breaks it off with him, then heads to New York.

The next day, she wakes up and is back in that previous morning again. She decides to say yes to the proposal, since she does love her boyfriend. Therein begins the double life. She's a successful but lonely TV news producer in New York, and an unemployed bride-to-be in Arizona. The novel walks us through six months of these lives, until Gabby can't stand it anymore and works to chose just one version of her existence, since she's been fully aware of both all this time.

What is interesting about ME VS. ME is how we see Gabby and her boyfriend change over those six months. Do people ever stay the same? Gabby is given a rare opportunity to see what changes in a person given different stimuli. This novel is more fun than philosophical, but the scenario it poses can't avoid this question.

What if you can have it both ways?

Heather Hiestand