I Now Pronounce You Someone Else

I should have known it was a bad idea, but I did it anyway. I started reading Erin McCahan's I Now Pronounce You Someone Else Sunday evening right about the time that I typically go to bed. Since I have a long day of teaching and doctoral classes on Mondays, I always try to get to bed early. It was a perfect treat before bed, but Bronwen's voice hooked me from the beginning, and I had to pull myself away from the book in order to get a good night's rest. In the morning I read as much as I could during breakfast and found myself rushing around to get ready because once again, it was so hard to pull myself away. When I returned home Monday night at 11 p.m., I was so tempted to read "just a couple of pages", but knew I had to resist and go to bed immediately. Tuesday morning was a replay of Monday, but last night, finally, I was so happy to be able and sit down to finish the book!

From the description I knew that I would enjoy the book, but I had no idea that I would absolutely love it. From Bronwen's voice to the different layers of the plot being unveiled to the beautiful glossy cover, there was so much to enjoy. The book follows Bronwen from the end of her junior year when she breaks up with her boyfriend on prom night. Shortly after she sees one of her brother's high school friends who was home from college and they start dating. He and his family are everything Bronwen has ever wanted. She feels like she belongs and even though everything moves very quickly, she can't wait to officially be part of their family and ends up planning a wedding during her senior year of high school. Yet, she ends up having doubts. She had always been excited about the dorm experience and other aspects of college and tries to reconcile the life that she can't wait to have with Jared with the dreams she had for college.

When I heard about the book, I thought the whether or not to get married conflict was just that simple; however, I realized that Bronwen's inner conflict went back to her own family history of her father dying when she was young and always feeling the void of his absence. I had tears streaming down my cheeks at a couple of points in the book, and when I did reach the end, I sighed and ran my hand along the pale blue pages at the end of the book. Bronwen tells the story in the past tense, making it even more mysterious when trying to figure out exactly what she chose, allowing for unexpected twists and turns. All around, what a perfect, perfect book for an author's debut.

I am interested to see if my 8th graders will enjoy this book or if will only have an appeal at the upper high school level. I know for sure that this would be great for college students, and as an adult, I still loved the theme of making decisions in life that have long term impacts. As a reader it was even hard to know what would be best for Bronwen.

To make it even better, on October 16th I will be hosting one of the stops on Erin McCahan's blog tour. After reading the book, I am even more excited.

*Copy provided courtesy of the publisher