Perfect strangers Lucy and Greta have agreed to a house swap—and boy, are they going to regret it.
Lucy’s hometown of Dallas has gone from home sweet home to vicious snake pit in the blink of an eye after her son makes a mistake he can’t undo. And Greta’s beloved flat in Berlin is suddenly up for grabs when her husband Otto takes a dream job in Texas without even telling her. In their rush to leave town, Lucy and Greta make a deal, pack their bags, and—thanks to martinis, desperation, and some very rusty German—have absolutely no idea what they’re getting themselves into.
Trading Southern charm and barbecue for European sophistication and schnitzel, the two women get a lot more than a change of scenery as they move into each other’s houses, neighborhoods, and lives. Greta and Lucy’s husbands are no help: Otto is winning over his colleagues, swimming laps in the backyard pool, and rooting for the Rangers, while Lucy’s husband is doing a six-month stretch out west, either in a NASA biosphere or in jail, depending on who you ask. Meanwhile, Greta’s daughter Emmi and Lucy’s son Jack get tossed into each other’s orbits, where they both discover secrets they can’t ignore.
When Greta’s biggest career achievement—the buzzworthy purchase of a Vermeer at auction—is thrown into question and Lucy’s past with a hot Viking named Bjørn invades her present, the two women need each other in ways they never could have imagined. Through jet lag, culture shock, suspiciously nice neighbors, and scandals that refuse to be left behind, Lucy and Greta will have to decide if they can ever go home again.
Dear Ms. Poeppel,
Based on the cartoon cover and the plot hijinks described in the blurb, I kind of thought I might be getting a famcom. I’d like to let potential readers know that there is humor here and, yes, some trans-Atlantic hijinkery but also some very serious issues are raised and dealt with so don’t go into it thinking gut-busting comedy.
The very fast house-swap requires some nimble plot maneuvers to set-up but, despite the issues requiring Lucy and her family and Greta and Otto to suddenly need to and then decide to exchange their domiciles, I could believe in the reasons. As neither side had expected to be where they ended up and few questions were asked, there are attitude adjustments and fish-out-of-water moments before they settle into their new cities. Soon though, Lucy and Greta are exchanging (sometimes terse) texts as their lives are brought together even as they’re an ocean apart.
The reasons for the swap are at times painful. Greta’s husband Otto has long term issues with disrespect from his Berlin colleagues and finds himself flowering (and this is lovely to watch) in Dallas among people who actually admire him and his medical work while Greta discovers that Dallas is nice but not home. Lucy thought she remembered a lot more German than she does but getting her son Jack out of the range of the wrath of people who won’t let him explain exactly what he did was paramount. That husband Mason is stuck in (total for him but seemingly not for anyone else) NASA isolation doesn’t help. Jack thought that what he did was harmless but now he realizes how it could be taken the wrong way and how hurtful it actually was.
There are other relationships that are changing or need to be figured out which toss some sand into the Vaseline and end up with a lot of people racking up trans-Atlantic frequent flyer miles. The issues between and among these characters are laid out, clues are provided, and nothing springs out from nowhere. At times I wasn’t sure how some things would end up while for others I had a pretty good idea. There are homecomings as well as bittersweet moments. Truths emerge, self discovery is done, stands are taken (and I was delighted at how her daughter’s viewpoint influenced Greta’s professional decision) and we see first hand that Jack is actually a well behaved young man who would never disrespect women and is, in fact, a wonderful babysitter for his much younger sisters.
The epilogue is a whopper. If most everything is tied up (maybe a little too) neatly, I didn’t mind. Characters I’ve come to care for find their happiness and acceptance. I feel that all of that has been thought about and earned without issues being filed down or glossed over. The perfectly tied bows that end the book are very neat but the emotional experience of the book which I was, frankly, not expecting leads me to a grade of B+.
~Jayne
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Jayne
Another long time reader who read romance novels in her teens, then took a long break before started back again about 25 years ago. She enjoys historical romance/fiction best, likes contemporaries, action- adventure and mysteries, will read suspense if there’s no TSTL characters and is currently reading more fantasy and SciFi.
