School Library Journal
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Gr 9 Up-What happens when a UC Santa Barbara college student agrees to a last-minute study abroad switch with a straight-laced political science student from Oxford? In alternating chapters of the novel (Candlewick, 2009) by Abby McDonald, American party girl Tasha and studious British girl Emily share their experiences of being thrust into a new culture. Both girls are running form their situations for different reasons and find their new environments challenging and isolating in ways that they didn't foresee. Katherine Kellgren does a fabulous job with both the accents and the personalities of the two girls, making their journeys of self-discovery come alive. The story does contain a fair number of adult situations-drinking, partying, and wild college action-but these situations are realistic and don't come across as gratuitous. Tasha is running away from an incident where a video of her making out with a celebrity has gone viral on the Internet, and her resolution of what has become a common and often devastating situation is handled with sensitivity and smarts. The girls get to know each other and become a support system through instant messaging and phone calls, not meeting until the very end in a satisfying conclusion. A fabulous listen with a smart and sassy voice and complex characters that will engage teenagers.-Genevieve Gallagher, Charlottesville High School, Charlottesville, VA (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

Tubgate: the popular term used to describe California party-girl Tasha's videotaped hot-tubbing with a famous actor. It's all over the Internet and has made her life a living hell and so she accepts a last-second foreign-exchange swap with straitlaced Oxford sophomore Emily. The plot splits into alternating story lines, with each girl suffering vastly disparate academic requirements, hesitant first friendships, and romantic customs. Finally, the two use e-mail to send each other a switch survival guide, but putting on acts (Emily as slutty wild child infiltrating Santa Barbara's junior Stepford experience and Tasha as sober scholar stressed over minimal academic criteria ) is more difficult than they guessed. Though the title portends bubbly identity mishaps and it's true that this would make a slam-dunk teen movie McDonald's debut is more sober than it sounds, and you can almost feel her copious talents bursting at the seams of the restrictive plot. With its intelligent writing and interesting takes on feminism, this will be plenty popular with the intended set, but it's what McDonald does next that should be really interesting.--Kraus, Daniel Copyright 2009 Booklist

Publishers Weekly
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First-time novelist McDonald skewers college life in this comic novel that has an uptight Oxford student switching places with a University of California party girl. Both are eager to flee their home campuses: Tasha is trying to dodge publicity surrounding her hot-tub antics with a TV star (aka "Tubgate"), and Emily has just been dumped ("As much as I-and my liberated, post-third-wave feminist self-hate to admit it.... This is all because of Sebastian"). A global exchange program seems the perfect escape, but creates more problems than it solves. While Emily has trouble loosening up in Santa Barbara (she had intended to spend the semester at Harvard), Tasha struggles to convince her peers and professor that she has a functional brain. McDonald plays with stereotypical images of Americans and Brits, painting both in broad strokes, but also challenges standard definitions of feminism. Though the protagonists' traumas, romantic interests and growing self-awareness are perhaps too neatly paralleled, the characters' strong personalities and the book's easy sense of humor will keep readers entertained. Ages 14-up. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

When Tasha's hot-tub exploits hit the tabloids and Emily's boyfriend dumps her, they both look for a quick escape from college. An exchange program provides an opportunity, provided they do a complete swap: Tasha's sunny U.C. Santa Barbara for Emily's Oxford in chilly England. Tasha, a blond, tan party-girl, vows to make the most of top-tier Oxford by staying away from booze and sticking to her studies. Emily, an anal-retentive academic all-star, wants to loosen up and enjoy the beachy scene at UCSB. The girls supply funny, self-deprecating narration in alternating chapters, and their distinct voices highlight marked differences in attitudes and aesthetics. When both suffer humiliation attempting to fit in, they e-mail each other for help. What seems like a formulaic plot takes interesting, unexpected directions as the girls navigate unfamiliar terrain, face unexpected cruelties and discover new parts of themselves. Important questions emerge from this frothy novel: Can't smart girls embrace frivolity, beauty and sexuality without guilt? Can't they have fun and be serious too? McDonald cleverly answers. Her ostensibly simple, bubble-gum debut is actually chock-full of substance. (Fiction. 14 up) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Horn Book
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Scandal at home causes Tasha to flee to Oxford University; a broken heart motivates her uptight British exchange-student counterpart, Emily, to live for three months in Southern California. As the chapters alternate between Tasha's and Emily's perspectives, the plot falters with too many farfetched circumstances. Humorous incidents, such as Tasha's experience at a feminist protest, carry the story to a predictable yet entertaining conclusion. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.

School Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Gr 9 Up-Both Tasha, a California beach babe who prefers fun in the sun to studying in the library, and Emily, her British polar opposite, are forced out of their comfort zones in this amusing story of a student exchange gone wrong. The only thing that these girls have in common is that they are both trying to escape something. For Tasha, it's the embarrassment of baring it all (literally) online and the reputation that follows. For Emily, it's an ex-boyfriend and, hopefully, her control-freak ways that caused the split. Now they are living one another's lives on opposite sides of the Atlantic. Can laid-back Tasha survive an intense course load and disapproving classmates at rigorous Oxford? Can Emily loosen up and learn how to be spontaneous and casual? This is a quick, enjoyable read about how finding oneself often requires leaving behind everything familiar and embracing the unfamiliar. It is also about discovering that the people you think you have the least in common with are sometimes the ones you can truly trust, as well as learn from. Tasha and Emily demonstrate that although they cannot change the past, they can accept it and become better people because of it. McDonald does an excellent job of presenting these lessons in a humorous and entertaining manner.-Robyn Zaneski, New York Public Library (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.