I didn’t think You Again could possibly live up to the blurbs adorning its covers. “I loved it!” says the quote from Karen Robards. “. . . impossible to put down until the final, wonderfully satisfying page is turned,” said Kay Hooper. “Heh,” I thought. But what do you know? Robards et al were right.

Jessica Myles, a general practitioner at Rhode Island General, divorced her brilliant, mercurial husband eight years ago. She’d be happy to ignore his existence for the rest of her life if only he’d stop doing the damndest things, like win the Nobel Prize in medicine. Or run into her at a medical convention clad only in brief red Speedos.

Terrified of putting her heart and serenity on the line again, Jessica runs from him. Literally. She barely manages to escape to the safety of her home and Cattoo, her cat. However, her life only becomes more complicated. Not only is her ex hounding her, she becomes the target of a sociopath, who drugs her and sets fire to her bedroom. Jessica, with the last of her strength, manages to eject Cattoo to safety on a tree branch ten feet away.

The next time Jessica wakes up, she finds herself with a brand-new black fur coat, complete with paws, claws and a recalcitrant tail. Apparently her spirit, fleeing her suffocating body, jumped into Cattoo’s body, and Cattoo, faithful cat that she is, made room. She finds out that her body didn’t die in the fire, but is now lying comatose in the hospital. She’s feeling pretty bleak, until her stubborn Texan of an ex shows up at her house.

That’s when the fun begins. Sam is not a cat person. He thinks they’re arrogant, sneaky and annoying. But this particular stray cat seems to think Sam is her personal property, constantly meowing at him and using all kinds of bizarre ploys to get his attention. Jessica, on the other hand, is annoyed at Sam’s refusal to listen to her and his tendency to treat her like a very small dog. She knows Sam can sense her spirit on an unconscious level, but the rational scientist in him won’t allow him to acknowledge it. Then she finds out that Sam is the next target for the sociopath who tried to kill her, and she knows she will do anything to save him.

In a way, this book is a tongue-in-cheek exploration of the Big Misunderstanding plot. Jessica and Sam’s divorce was nothing but a Big Misunderstanding. When, after eight years, they finally get some time alone to talk, one of them can’t even form proper consonants. The constant miscommunication and Jessica’s attempts to adjust to being a cat are hilarious, although with a slightly dark edge to it, thanks to the presence of the villain and the suspense sub-plot. Nicholson has a talent for writing action and suspense stories; some of the big-name authors who have jumped on the romantic suspense bandwagon could learn a few things from this book.

The characterization is handled deftly. Jessica is as an extremely insecure scion of a long line of overachieving WASPs. Her cold, intellectual exterior hides a painfully shy personality. Anyone who was brought up in a competitive household could probably identify with Jessica’s feelings of insecurity, even inadequacy. What makes her a sympathetic character is her sense of humor and her humanity, which she reveals when she’s trapped in her cat’s body. The account of Jessica’s experiences while inhabiting her cat’s body, with all its advantages and drawbacks, is entertaining and believable (although if I’m not mistaken, cats can’t see color, which is a small detail Nicholson forgot about). It’s also surprisingly sexy. There is little actual sex in the book, since Jessica is a cat for most of it, but the description of how she feels when Sam pets her, or when she breathes in his scent, is very sensual. Sometimes downright erotic.

We never get to directly see Sam’s thoughts or feelings, but thanks to Nicholson’s talent, he’s almost as fully developed as Jessica. He’s boisterous yet sensitive, a brilliant scientist with endearing lapses of absent-mindedness, a cat person beneath his dog-loving exterior. His sense of humor is irresistible. Seeing Jessica and Sam fall in love, presented in a series of flashbacks, has an intensity and a glow to it that comes mostly from Sam and his sense of fun.

You Again is more of an A- than an outright A for a couple of reasons. Though this book is an interesting exploration of the Big Misunderstanding, and although Big Misunderstanding plots are tolerable when they’re written well, eight years worth of it is a little bit much. I understand that Nicholson wanted to pick the story up when the two of them were fully adult and hade established careers, but eight years. . well, is eight years. Secondly, Nicholson’s occasional references to Jessica being unliberated because she loves Sam’s strength rubbed me the wrong way just the teeniest bit. Is wanting to feel dainty or sheltered particularly unfeminist? Chronic dependence on a man definitely qualifies; a love of muscled arms and a strong chest probably doesn’t.

Despite these small flaws, You Again is probably the most unusual and one of the most well-written mainstream series romances I’ve read. If you’re not afraid of stories that are a bit off the beaten track, you should grab this at your friendly local used book store and treat yourself to a few hours of fun, intelligent entertainment.