Book Blurbs

The large print edition of Kissing Mr Wrong arrived yesterday.  It's always a bit weird seeing your work in print - did I really write this? - but as I turned the book over in my hands and started to read the blurb I felt even weirder.  Did I really write this?  became more of an urgent question as the blurb referred to two characters, Alex and Gus.  But the book that I wrote was surely about Lu and Nick?  

Then, dimly, I remembered back, back to when I started writing the novel and I had to give the publisher something to go on.  This blurb was it...The basic  story line is still the same, give or take a hamster, but the characters evolved into different people and therefore acquired different names.  (I'm at the same stage now with the new book, I'm working with Rosie and Tom, but I have a feeling that's not going to be their final names.)

Does it matter?  I mind, because I'm the author and I feel it reflects badly on me.  But will readers mind?  I think I'd find it unsettling to read a book and realise that the blurb didn't match the contents.  I've felt that way when the book cover shows the characters and/or setting at odds with the descriptions inside.  It's almost as if you're being cheated.  I don't want my readers to feel cheated, but I'm not sure there's anything I can do about it now.  Drat, drat, drat.

And to add to this writer's woes, top of my To Do list this weekend is to write a blurb for the publisher for my new book...