Freaky in Fresno is a blast. It’s a YA with a lot of romance, but the focus is more on family and friendship, so we’re talking more rom-com than romance novel. In this book, two cousins who were raised like sisters but have grown apart, switch bodies Freaky-Friday style. What ensues involves romance, make-up, an angry chihuahua, wolf dogs, classic horror movies, and a very beautiful car. I loved it, although it was a little too fluffy for an “A” grade.

Ricki works for the Starlight Drive-In Theater. She loves horror movies and horror cosplay and has a crush on her coworker, Jake. Ricki resents her glamorous cousin, Lana, believing that Lana ditched Ricki as soon as Lana became obsessed with makeup and fashion.

Lana is a BubeTube channel star who specializes in make-up tutorials. At first, I thought “BubeTube” was a joke of Ricki’s but no, that’s its name. Anyway, Lana has a fake relationship with another star, named Erik (contrived for publicity), who she does really like (unbeknownst to him). Lana is being managed by her ambitious mom and, in contrast to the messy Ricki, Lana is always dressed and made-up to camera-ready perfection.

The two cousins used to be very close, but they grew apart as Lana became more and more popular online. Everything changes when their hippie Aunt May rolls into town and gives them a 1966 bubblegum-pink Buick Skylark convertible (!) on the condition that they spend a lot of time in it together. As the girls fight about who gets to drive it first there’s a flash and the next day they wake up in each other’s bodies. Hijinks ensue.

This is a sweet, funny, silly book with more of a focus on relationships than on the awkwardness of the body switch (although there’s also plenty of that). While I will never say which of my own relatives this book reminded me of, I certainly saw a lot of myself in both Ricki and Lana. I related to how family casts us into certain roles and how family can pull together and apart depending on how much we rely on each other in times of crisis versus how much we try to impress each other. Even though this story is pure cotton candy fluff, there’s an emotional core that feels real, especially since the relationship between the Aunties (that is, Lana’s mom, Ricki’s mom, and May) gets explored as well as the relationship between the cousins, establishing multi-generational patterns.

The romances are cute but barely there. Auntie May and the Drive-In owner get their own romance, which is fun since I’m always in favor of seeing romances between older people. Jake and Erik are always confused yet always reliable, cute, kind, and patient. It’s easy to see why the girls like them, but their personalities are basically reduced to “excellent boyfriend material.”

The focus of the book is much more on the relationship between the girls. I loved that they find common ground in a mutual admiration for Jamie Lee Curtis. Ricki likes her because of all the horror movies that Curtis starred in, and uses her character in the Halloween franchise as an inspiration for dealing with anxiety. Lana likes her because of Curtis’ role in Perfect and as a beauty icon with staying power. Even Lana’s fashion nemesis, who goes by Her Royal Highness (HRH), turns out to be a lovely person who points out that “Curtis was one of the first female celebrities to appear in a woman’s magazine without an ounce of makeup or retouching…She did a whole before and after photoshoot with and without makeup and Spanx to show what a difference it made. Very real and empowering and fabulous!”

Eventually all conflicts are resolved in suspiciously convenient ways and with a lot of hugging. I believe the word “pat” applies here. Everyone, including HRH and Lana’s horrible mom, gets to be humanized and gets another chance to try to be a decent human. The only exception is a real-estate developer who exists to be evil.

I can’t give this book an A because elements of the ending are too convenient to be believable (even in a book about magical body-swapping) and the romances are so underdeveloped. However, I do give this book a very enthusiastic B+ because it was so much fun and sweet without being too cutesy. We need more books in which people are decent and recognize the decency in others. Also, they are correct — Jaime Lee Curtis is “a sage who holds all life’s wisdoms.” I’ll never argue with that.