Publication: October 19th 2015 by Future House Publishing
Source: Received a free copy of this in exchange for an honest review from ebooksforreview.com. Thank you!
Goodreads Summary: IT IS A TRUTH UNIVERSALLY ACKNOWLEDGED that geeky guys never get to date the pretty girls with permanent scowls.
To Elliott Bennett, life is simple. It’s all parties, skateboarding, and arguing over who would win in a fight between Hulk and Superman with his friends. It’s his senior year, and he wants nothing more than to soak up his final year of freedom before real life begins.
That is, until Darcy Fitzwilliam and her best friend Bridget move in to the only mansion in the neighborhood. When Elliot meets Darcy at a party, he finds out that she isn’t into skateboarding (which he lives for), she hates science-fiction (which he loves), and she thinks his friends are a pack of morons (which, honestly, might be half true)—and yet, there’s something irritatingly intriguing about her.
When Elliot’s cousin Jake starts to date her friend Bridget, it complicates Elliot’s plans to ignore the scowling Darcy for the rest of the year. Why is Darcy so . . . ugh? Elliott doesn’t know, but for some reason, is determined to find out—even if she doesn’t know the difference between Star Trek and Star Wars.
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My Thoughts:
I'm quite torn about this book. I liked it in some ways and in other ways I just couldn't get on with it. Of course, like I'd assume all readers of this, I'm a huge fan of Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice and was interested in reading a different perspective of it that not only was a contemporary retelling but also a gender swap. However, my overall feelings after finishing this book is simply: meh.
I appreciated that the author chose to include everyone from Austen's original work and we get to see all characters in contemporary terms and gender swapped. It was initially a little difficult for me to figure out who was who in the beginning but I did eventually grasp who all the characters were. I know that it couldn't have been easy to translate all of the characters into modern times; however I feel that not all of them needed to be translated. Some characters such as Mark, George, and especially Andrew, lend very little to this contemporary retelling and are noticeably space-fillers in my opinion.
The plot ran very slowly for me. It took me almost an entire month to read this when books usually take me a week at most to finish. I think it's because the entire time I just couldn't shake the feeling of meh. I was trying to be open-minded and unbiased while I read it and push all remembrances and comparisons to the original out of my mind and by doing so it made me dislike the storyline even more. There are just some things don't translate well from the time period of Austen's to our modern day times. How often would you see a friend move two states over with another friend to start a new high school with her? How would Bridget simply be able to stop going to school because she didn't want to see Jake any longer? Why do none of these kids have cell phones when that is a staple in our society? Why did these kids not have a Christmas break? The play takes place on December 22/23 based on the timeline given and it is a Monday. These kids are still going to be in school on Christmas Eve/Day? Just a few of the qualms that I had when reading this book.
Bottom line, if this was not based on a very much beloved classic, this book wouldn't hold anything for me on its own merit. The translation of events and the characters obviously had some sincere effort put into them and I definitely recognize and appreciate that. But like I said, if this wasn't based on a classic that people were familiar with, the storyline would feel awkward and strange.
Likes: Elliot. Darcy. Nicole. Jake. Lucas. Elliot's skateboarding and bookloving. Darcy's art love.
Dislikes: Some events and characters just do not translate well into modern times. Multiple grammar/spelling errors (who were these betas??). The draw to this simply is that it is a retelling of a classic. There is very little merit of its own.
Overall:
Recommend? No.
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