#29 [2024/CBR16] Someone Else's Shoes by Jojo Moyes

I've read a couple of books by Jojo Moyes now, and I've found them interesting and fun to read. So, I decided to listen to Someone Else's Shoes (2023) as my next audiobook. The book takes place in London. Sam Kemp, a hardworking, frazzled mom, accidentally picks up the gym bag of Nisha Cantor, a rich and privileged woman. 

This accidental switch has pretty drastic consequences for both of them. Sam is headed to an important work meeting, and her only shoes are now the six-inch Louboutin heels in the bag. She puts them on and suddenly people are treating her differently. The situation is much worse for Nisha. She has to run across the street to her hotel in the gym robe and flip flops, but when she gets to her hotel room, the bodyguard forces her out with nothing. He says her husband is finished with her and she cannot go back inside. Nisha goes from a woman with everything to a woman with nothing in the blink of an eye. She is furious at her circumstances and will do anything to get her bag back, so she starts trying to track down Sam.

As the book continues, we learn more about the two women. Sam's frustrated at home. Her husband has been suffering from depression. Sam feels bad for him, but she doesn't know how to help him and she's been handling all the burdens of her horrible boss, the house, her parents, and their daughter with no help. The shoes shock her out of her rut and encourage some changes. Nisha had a very difficult childhood, and pulled herself out of poverty with her marriage to her husband. But it forced her to become someone else. She's unhappy and unfriendly. Her troubled son is in a boarding school at her husband's request, and she is isolated and alone. Eventually the two women come together and they team up in a way.

This was another fun book to read by Moyes. I was horrified by what Nisha's husband did to her, and felt very bad for Sam's circumstances. Maybe some characters and plots were a little over the top, but it didn't make it any less interesting to read. The women all working together in the end was also very satisfying. This book was easy to follow on Audiobook, and I always looked forward to hearing more of the story. Light and fun, but with some real emotion as well.