Cozy Fiction in Review: Someone Else’s Shoes

Summary:  This was a heartwarming read with a fun plot and well-developed characters. A great book club pick.

Something I love about Jojo Moyes is her ability to tackle tough topics in a book that still feels light. In this book, Nisha is living the life of the fabulously wealthy until her husband evicts her with nothing because he wants a divorce. This happens right after she’s lost her clothes and her Christian Louboutin red crocodile shoes in a gym bag mix up. Sam, who has ended up with Nisha’s clothes, is dealing with problems of her own. Her husband is struggling with depression, her elderly parents are demanding and critical, and her new boss is truly the worst. Putting on Nisha’s shoes gives her a confidence boost that she just might be able to build on so she can face her problems head on.

This book has all of Moyes’s characteristic strengths. She has written a book that deals with depression, divorce, and poverty that feels genuinely comforting. For me, this feeling mostly comes from the certainty that everything will work out in the end. It’s clear from the book jacket copy and the writing style that this is the sort of book with a happy ending. I also appreciated how well our main characters were developed. We start the book sharing Sam’s nighttime worries, which is a great way to get to know someone. Despite the fact that Nisha has a lot of room for personal growth, the author had me empathizing with her right away. Throughout, Moyes does a great job getting us inside her characters’ heads.

I was even more struck by how real the characters felt set beside a less believable plot. The plot is coincidences all the way down. My only other complaint is that the author gets a bit didactic about how important friendships between women are. I enjoyed these friendships a lot. The solidarity between women in this book is one of it’s most heartwarming features. I just wish the author had stuck with showing us instead of telling us.

After listening to the author speak about her goals for this book, I was even more impressed by it. After a tough year during the pandemic, she wanted to write something that was more of a caper. She set out to write the sort of escapist book she wanted to read. She definitely achieved that! The plot may have strained belief, but it was also a ton of fun. It sounds like Moyes believe characters are the most important part of a story and comes up with thorough backstories to make her characters feel more real. That approach really paid off here. This book also led to some great discussion with my mom, who read this at the same time, so I have to recommend this as a great book club read.

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