The Reverse Commute took me a little while to get through. Once I picked it up I could read a few chapters before bed. I enjoyed how the plot is different than most books. The theory behind they bet the characters made was definitely out if the normal bet. Its intriguing to read through the emotion. I did enjoy the reading journey but it missed the WOW factor for the need of "I need to keep reading" I would still recommend this book and rate it three stars.

When I read the first chapter I thought I would love this book. Unfortunately it was not to be. The rest of this book did not live up to that first chapter. I found the whole premise weak and slightly confusing. I persevered, but in the end only made it half way through. Not for me.

Readers sometimes complain that a book they expected to enjoy just feels "off," but they can't explain why. I always suspect there's some kind of internal dissonance -- of the sort you create when, for example, your accessories totally clash with your outfit.

This was the case with The Reverse Commute. The first chapter was very strong, but things fell apart soon after that. It felt "off." At first I thought it was the dialogue, which (no matter who was speaking), consisted of run-on sentences that, because they lacked A LOT of punctuation, made it seem as if everyone was blurting out his or her words breathlessly. It felt as if the author, Chris Worthington, believes commas within quotation marks are a stylistic sin.

Soon, though, I noticed a major inconsistency. The book is set in the U.S. (in Texas, Los Angeles, New York and New Jersey), and most of the cast are Americans. But again and again and again, British phrases crept into their language. The drinking water "tastes of washing up liquid." The main character, J.J. (a Texan), "posted his keys to his landlord," rather than mailing them. His girlfriend threatens him that he'll "hear from her solicitor." She "left deep tyre tracks" in his lawn. There are references to "physiotherapy" and "glandular fever" (physical therapy and mononucleosis to us Yanks.) In a restaurant, he scribbles a note on a "serviette."

To be fair, when a book about Americans is written by a Brit and published first in the U.K, those Britishisms may not matter. But the publisher who buys the American rights really should do a through edit to clean them up. Ah. Now I see. Troubador Publishing is an independent U.K. publisher, and Matador is its self-publishing arm, so there may have been scant editorial staff.

I liked Worthington's character development. The main characters were well-defined and evolved (some of the lesser figures were a bit caricaturish, though.)

I'm not going to attempt a plot summary, especially since it was a bit muddled and never lived up to the promise of that first chapter.

According to the Goodreads author page, Worthington first released this book 7 years ago under the title "Setting the Record Straight." It has been re-released under his preferred title, maybe to drum up interest in his forthcoming book Operation Red Sequoia.

Thanks to NetGalley for an advance readers copy.

This story is very well written and easy to read, and the characters are great, but I don't really get the point of it all. The last half of the book also has a lot of repetitions and banalities, so this is more a waste of time than entertainment.

The first chapter had me gripped but very soon my interest waned. I think the plot idea is clever but the execution of it seemed to lose itself and I couldn’t accept the way the incidents throughout the book suddenly erupted. Not one for me I’m sorry.