There are a lot of good things to like about The New Me. It was refreshing to read a book that was more about female friendship than flirting and dating. I love a good romance as much as the next person, and I certainly enjoyed the flirty parts in this book, but it was nice that dating/marriage wasn't the end goal here.

There was an excellent contrast here between the type of relationship between friends we've known our whole life and friends we meet as adults. Anna and Marley have been friends for so long they've become trapped in playing the same roles and acting the same way they always have. When Marley meets Reese, she gets to be the person she wants to be. Disregarding the whole mistaken identity thing, for the most part, Marley gets to be herself. The way these contrasting storylines came together was an excellent example of what female friendships can be with open communication and honesty.

Unfortunately, the whole 'mistaken identity' trope threatened to ruin any enjoyment I got out of The New Me. I honestly almost DNF this so many times because Marley was so obnoxious. It was like déjà vu how many times we have to read the same internal monologue. I don't know how anyone could stand to be around her - the number of times another character had to bring her back to the present because she'd gone off in her head on another tangent would've driven anyone crazy. She came off as ditzy and self-centred, and on top of all of that, it was just so unnecessary. It's not like she pretended to have Anna's job or life; she literally just swapped her name and pretended she was engaged. It made literally no sense and served no purpose - she could've turned to anyone at any time and said, 'Oh sorry, my name is Marley, and I'm single. It's actually my best friend Anna who's engaged,' and the whole story would've still worked out the same way.

I'm glad I finished The New Me but it would have been much more enjoyable without the whole 'withholding information to make the plot more interesting' thing.