Women bond over Louboutins
Someone Else's Shoes: A Novel
Women's Fiction; Women's Friendship Fiction
Pamela Dorman Books
February 7, 2023
Hardcover, paperback, audiobook, kindle
448
“Very few authors have the power to make you laugh on one page and cry on the next. Moyes is one of them.” —The New York Times A story of mix-ups, mess-ups and making the most of second chances, this is the new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Jojo Moyes, author of Me Before You and The Giver of Stars Who are you when you are forced to walk in someone else’s shoes? Nisha Cantor lives the globetrotting life of the seriously wealthy, until her husband announces a divorce and cuts her off. Nisha is determined to hang onto her glamorous life. But in the meantime, she must scramble to cope--she doesn’t even have the shoes she was, until a moment ago, standing in. That’s because Sam Kemp – in the bleakest point of her life – has accidentally taken Nisha’s gym bag. But Sam hardly has time to worry about a lost gym bag--she’s struggling to keep herself and her family afloat. When she tries on Nisha’s six-inch high Christian Louboutin red crocodile shoes, the resulting jolt of confidence that makes her realize something must change—and that thing is herself. Full of Jojo Moyes’ signature humor, brilliant storytelling, and warmth, Someone Else’s Shoes is a story about how just one little thing can suddenly change everything.
Women empowering women & the importance of friendships drive the plot of Someone Else’s Shoes
In Someone Else’s Shoes, Sam and Nisha live worlds apart. Nisha married rich and enjoys a lifestyle of unlimited luxury. Sam struggles with an emotionally abusive boss, a husband who has fallen into a deep depression and barely making ends meet at the end of each month. One day at a gym, the two ladies accidentally swap bags, and that results in Sam having to walk a day in Nisha’s recognizable, red-soled Christian Louboutin heels.
While Sam’s complicated life starts to shift little by little the day after finding those shoes, Nisha’s completely collapses when, on the same day, her husband decides to leave her literally out in the cold with nothing. The shoes turn out to be a magnet between the two of them, promising to turn both of their lives around. While Nisha fights to recover her belongings and negotiate a divorce settlement with her snaky POS husband, we follow Sam as her life hits rock bottom and then starts to look up.
There are some advantages to being an American woman over forty who no longer has any fucks left on the shelf, and he can see it.
Nisha
I’ll be honest; I really struggled with Nisha’s character. Nisha is fundamentally spoiled, selfish, and self-centered. I’m convinced even when she seemed to be considering other people, her actions were fundamentally out of self-preservation. I don’t believe she deserved the friendships she made as she learned to navigate her new life. I would read full books focused solely on those other women in the book—Jasmine, Sam and Andrea are fighters with the kindest hearts and much more interesting stories than Nisha’s.
You can change a person, but probably only so much.
Nisha
However, even with my dislike for Nisha, Someone Else’s Shoes was a beautiful story of friendship and women empowering each other. While the story is written with Jojo Moyes’ heartwarming and vibrant style, the story is a bit predictable and also ambitious thanks to multiple POVs and side characters that outshine our main ones.
Darienne was 15 when her aunt gave her a copy of Princess by Jean Sasson, and she has been hooked on books ever since. Originally from Puerto Rico and now living in Maryland, she’s always looking to visit new coffee shops and bookstores. Her favorite genres include YA, spicy romcoms, and women’s fiction. Thanks to the Bees, she’s also now obsessed with romantasy series. Other loves include lavender lattes, sassy coffee mugs, sunrises, sleeping in, small-town charm, and big city lights. One day, she’ll write that book that lives in her head.
