A Great and Terrible Beauty

By Libba Bray
2005, Random House

I enjoyed this book mainly for the fact that it manages to be set firmly in the British Victorian era, but still have a modern air and sensibility. The characters act in such a way that you could imagine them in your high school, twittering behind other girls’ backs, saying those comments that are the barbed non-compliments girls are so famous for. The story follows Gemma Doyle as she enters a girls academy after spending her first 15 years living in India. She’s quickly initiated into life in an all-girl environment and shows herself to be quite adept at holding her own.

The story is slow moving. You know that things have to happen, Gemma has newly discovered “powers” and there are good and evil influences all around her, but it gets tripped up on the setting and every day minutia of the life of a “proper wife in waiting”. This is the first book in a trilogy, but I’m going to have to wait until I have some serious time to devote to the second and third before I finish the story.

X23: Target X

By Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost

Art By: Mike Choi and Sonia Oback

2007, Marvel Publishing, Inc.

This book is actually a graphic novel. Can you believe I read a graphic novel? I thought it would be fun to read something X-Men for the 'X' book on my list. It turns out it’s not so easy to go to a comic book store and browse for a “good book” like you can in a book store. I learned that the smaller comic books, excuse me…graphic novels, are only parts of stories so you have to buy a bunch to get a complete set. Bummer. I asked the guy working there for some help and he explained that you can buy books that are a whole set brought together. He recommended a couple and I got this one. It’s about a girl who’s life is tied to that of Wolverine (the Hugh Jackman character), but has been used by bad people and is now trying to figure out what to do. It was pretty cool and once you got used to the different way of reading the story it flew by. I’m actually thinking I might go back to see if they have more stories with this character.
So there you go, that’s my branching out for the month. Maybe next month I’ll try reading a non-fiction book (gasp!).

More Books

I've been on a bit of a reading tear lately. Although, I must admit that most of the books in this post are quick reads. And all but one were mysteries which I tend to read really fast because I have to know "who-dun-it" as soon as possible.

The Secret of Platform 13

Eva Ibbotson, 1994

Eva Ibbotson has quite an imagination. I've read some of her stories before so I knew I was going to like this one. She writes about ghosts and monsters, but it's all very matter of fact and there are very few bad monsters, most are just misunderstood. It's a cute story about a kidnapped prince and the rescue party that is send to retrieve him, and even though it's very full of characters you never feel lost or confused. It's straight-forward good vs. bad and you root for the underdog the whole time. Very worth the read.

The Sea of Monsters and The Titan's Curse

Rick Riordan, 2006, 2007

I really liked the first book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series and was ready to keep reading about the characters, but the 2nd and 3rd books were amazing. The stories were better with scarier monsters and narrower escapes and you keep learning more and more about the world of the "half-bloods" and greek gods. And now there is an overarching story line that you can see running through all the books and you can see Percy and his friends headed towards. It's like when you're reading Harry Potter and you know there that each book is it's own story, but the battle against Voldemort is brewing under the surface in each one. Still... each books is so good and they keep building on each other so you can't put them down. When I finished the Sea of Monsters I immediately went to the library to get the next one and I'm kinda pissed that the 4th one is checked out. Definitely read these!

The Name of This Book is Secret

Pseudonymous Bosch, 2007

This is one of the quirkiest books that I've read in a while. It's told by a narrator who is conflicted because he thinks the story is too secret and dangerous to share, but he just can't help himself. So he changes all the names and only describes things if he's sure you won't be able to track them down and jumps in to the narrative every so often to warn you about impending danger or explain why the characters did what they did. It's very entertaining and creative. The main characters are two 11 years olds so it's definitely written for that audience. It's full of logic and actions that only make sense to the naive and un-worldly 6th graders, but it's still a great story and worth the effort.

The Library Card

Jerry Spinelli, 1997

Jerry Spinelli is a really good author. He's able to tell stories that are real and full of true feeling, not fluffy or fake, but at the same time make them relatable to a younger audience. Maniac Magee is a great example of that and his series of 5 short stories that make up The Library Card are also. Each story follows a different person as their life is affected by a small blue library card. Some use it to learn, others use it to remember, and others use it to connect. There's an element of magic in the stories, but it's not overt or cheesy, it just feels special. Of course I picked this book up because of the title, but I'm glad that I did. It's stories are touching and remind me of one of the reasons that I love sharing books and stories with people.

End of Summer Reads

It’s officially the end of summer. It’s been raining off and on all week and it was dark by 7:20pm tonight (darn Central Time Zone). It all goes downhill from here. Despite the depressing loss of sunlight I’ve managed to read some good books lately. So here are my end of summer reads:

Q is for Quarry
Sue Grafton, 2003
Sue Grafton has quite a series going, and it worked out very well for me since I needed a ‘Q’ book for my reading challenge. The A, B, C books are mysteries that follow Kinsey Millhone, a private detective in California, as she tackles cases. They are fun and suspenseful and hard to predict. They’re also amusing because they are slightly dated. They are set in the 90s before cell phone and PDAs and lots of modern technological conveniences that would be beneficial to someone in Kinsey’s line of work.
Overall they’re great stories. I’ve read two of them out of order, and they can definitely be read as individual books, but I think you could get even more out of the stories by reading them in order.

Mansfield Park
Jane Austen, 1814
Jane Austen is very good. Her stories are so calm, yet cover so many events and emotions. I’ve read all but one of her books and I have to admit this is probably my least favorite. It’s very long and it seemed to drag more than the other books she’s written. I’ve seen two different movie versions of this story, and never realized how much they condensed the book. As much as I admire Fanny Price’s moral character, I kept getting annoyed at her crippling shyness. It’s a good book and well worth the time it takes to read, but if you could only read one Jane Austen book, I would say go with Persuasion or Pride and Prejudice over this one.

The Lightning Thief
Rick Riordan, 2005
For those of you who are slightly depressed that there are no more Harry Potter books coming out and slightly mad that Warner Brothers has decided to move the next Harry Potter movie release back from this November to July 2009, there is hope. The Percy Jackson and the Olympians series follows Percy and his “half-blood” friends as they navigate the world of mythological monsters and gods. The world of Greek mythology is real and Percy is learning what it means to be the son of a god and to see all the creatures and monsters that he’d always thought were just tall tales.
This is a great story. It had been recommended by a couple of people, but I just now got around to reading it. It’s well written with exciting adventures and action sequences. It’s chocked full of Greek mythology, but you don’t have to be an expert to understand what’s going on. It’s a quick, fun read that’s perfect for lazy rainy days, when you are yearning for HP type adventures.

The Big Over Easy and The Fourth Bear
Jasper Fforde
I loved these books. It’s been a while since I read something that was so creative and fun, yet complicated and compelling. These are the first two books in the Nursery Crime Series. They tell the story of Detective Inspector Jack Spratt and his Sergent Mary Mary who run the Nursery Crime Division of the Reading Police Force. They investigate the cases involving PDRs or Persons of Dubious Reality.
In the first book, The Big Over Easy, Humpty Dumpty has fallen off the wall. Was it an accident or was there foul play involved? In the second book, The Fourth Bear, Henrietta “Goldilocks” Hatchett has gone missing and the last people to see her alive were the three bears. Adding to Jack’s problems is the fact that the Gingerbreadman – “psychopath, sadist, genius, convicted murderer and cookie” – has broken out of prison.
There are so many ways that these books could fall flat, but they don't and I'm sure it's because the author is intensely talented. They are full of nursery rhyme characters acting out their stories in incredibly creative ways, but at the heart of the books is a really good who-dun-it mystery that truly keeps you guessing.

Summer Reads

I’ve gotten a bit behind on reviewing the books I’ve been reading this summer so I thought I would do a couple quick reviews to get back on track.

Twisted
Laurie Halse Anderson, 2007
Ms. Anderson is a very good author who writes with a gritty sense of reality to her stories. Her characters are flawed and their lives can be hard, but their stories, while intense, are relatable and good reads. This is the story of a high school boy who pulled a prank at the end of the school year and has been working off his community service all summer. The summer of hard labor in the sun has turned him from geek to hottie. His life has changed, but he's finding being noticed by the “in” crowd can bring just as much negative as positive.

If a Tree Falls at Lunch Period
Gennifer Choldenko, 2007
Kirsten has had a rough summer. Her parent’s are fighting and her best friend has been gone. She’s not really excited about starting school again, but does her best to keep a good attitude. Walker is starting at a new school as one of the only black students. He knows life will be hard, but this school is what he’ll need to get a good start in life and keep out of trouble. When the two of them become friends they learn something that makes each of them really have to question what they’ve known and what their future will look like. Very good author and an interesting story told from both main character’s point of view, going back and forth from chapter to chapter. The ending seemed a bit too easy, but it was a great read.

Fearless Fourteen
Janet Evanovich, 2008
The fourteenth book in the Stephanie Plumb series is a no different than the others. It’s really fun, really quick and slightly frustrating. The fun characters are back. Lula, Grandma Mazur, Joe Morelli and more, plus more quirky residents of Trenton, NJ join the ride. As much as I like these books I’m about at the end of my patience about the Ranger vs. Joe dilemma that Stephanie is in. I think she’s in a rut and needs to choose one guys over the other and make some changes in her life. But regardless, this is another fun book and I’m gonna keep reading the adventures when new ones come out.

Just Like That
Marsha Qualey, 2007
Hanna is a really cool girl. She’s someone that I would want to be friends with, but I have a feeling that people that are that well adjusted and sure of themselves in high school don’t exist outside of books. I took a chance with this book because I needed an author whose name started with a ‘Q’ for my A~Z Reading Challenge. It was a “blind date with a book” and I think I’d be willing to go on a second date if they asked. Hanna has an event happen in her life that really makes her question who she is and what she wants in life. The author does a superb job of making her search real and relatable and I’d love to read more that she’s written.

Montmorency: Thief, Liar, Gentleman?
Eleanor Updale, 2004
This book is set in England in the 1800s (one of my favorite places and time periods) and tells the imaginative story of a convict who uses his skills as a thief to set himself up in high society. His plundering finances a new more gentile way of life, but without even realizing it he truly begins to change, slowly becoming the gentleman that he only started out pretending to be. There are sequels to this story, but I think I’ll stick with the first one since it’s so satisfying of an ending.

A ~ Z Reading Challenge Update

I would like to report that I am over half-way done with the A ~ Z Reading Challenge that I decided to do for 2008. I now have 22 books left to read in the remainder of the year. 22 books in 4.5 month? Cake!
I'm a bit behind on posting reviews of the books I've been reading, but I'll get to them eventually. The important thing is that I'm really enjoying myself and I'm already thinking of what challenge to do next. I might try reading all the Hercule Poirot mysteries by Agatha Christie, or maybe I'll take a shelf in my bookcase that has too many unread books on it and make it a challenge to read the shelf. So many choices!
Be sure to keep checking my original post for updates and feel free to ask for any recommendations. I've been forcing some of my finds on my close friends and family, but I'd be more than willing to shove books at strangers.
Happy Reading!

Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie

By Jordan Sonnenblick

2004 - Scholastic Press

I've read another book by this author and I really enjoyed it. He writes from the teen male perspective really well. He does a really good job of telling stories that you could imagine really happening. I'm not, nor have I ever been, a teen male, but I almost feel like I can relate to the main character because he is so real and his voice is so true. (how's that for a pretentious phrase)

Steven is just starting high school and trying to figure everything out. He's lusting after the hot girl in class and working hard to be the best drummer in the all-city jazz band. His life takes a dramatic turn when his little brother, Jeffrey, gets sick. Everything changes and he has to figure out who he is and learn what he can and can't do to affect his situation.

It's a great story, and a quick but satisfying read.

Slaughterhouse Five

By Kurt Vonnegut

1969 - Dell Publishing

Every now and then I like to read a book that falls into the "literature" category. Normally, I gravitate towards very light, general fiction within the young adult sphere, but I recognize that there are good books out there that I might not immediately think to read. This is one of those books. People like to talk about how they had to read it for a class in high school or college and what they did or didn't get out of it.

It was creatively written in that it was a story within a story, kind of like Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. I thought that was interesting. And it kind of centers around the bombing of Dresden during WWII, which I will admit I don't know much about, but made for an interesting centerpiece. But other than that I didn't really like it. It was just weird. When the literary types rave about a book and say how it had deep meaning and all that, they lose me. Here's a direct quote from the back of the book: "Billy Pilgrim's odyssey through time reflects the mythic journey of our own fractured lives as we search for meaning in what we are afraid to know." What?! That sounds so pretentious and it means nothing to me.

It's a book about a guy who writes a book about a character who was a prisoner of war during WWII and managed to survive the bombing of Dresden and who gets "unstuck" in time so keeps popping in and out of different periods of his life, which include a number of years when he was abducted by aliens and placed in the "human" exhibit in their zoo. Again...WTF? If the description of the book was ever actually clearly stated anywhere I wonder how many people would actually read it.

Zathura

By Chris Van Allsburg

2002 - Houghton Mifflin Company

This is a picture book so I almost feel like I’m cheating by having it on my reading list, but I really don’t think the quality of a book can be judged by it’s length or whether or not it has illustrations. Chris Van Allsburg has quite an imagination so reading any of his picture books is a treat. This particular book is loosely a sequel to Jumanji. Both books have been made into very clever and fun movies, but I have to say I almost always like the book better.
This book is a more simplified version of the movie (which I saw first) and I like it because of that. It’s still a great imaginative adventure in outerspace, but it’s quick and engaging without really over-thinking anything. Two thumbs up.

Love, Rosie

By Cecelia Ahern

2005, Hyperion Books

I heard about this author because she got a lot of buzz because her father was the Prime Minister of Ireland from 1997 until just recently. I imagine she had trouble being seen as a successful author apart from who her famous father was. I, for one, think she has talent. Her first book was P.S. I Love You, which was adapted into a very sad, yet touching movie.

This book, Love, Rosie tells the story of two best friends, Rosie and Alex, who become best friends at the age of 6 and remain tight for years and years. It follows their lives, but the twist is that it is completely told through correspondence. You read about their lives through e-mails, letters, IM conversations, birthday cards and more. It’s so creative and rather well done. It does take a little while to get into it because there is no narrative so you have to pay attention and kind of fill in the blanks yourself. But it’s not hard and it's fun to see what happens next. The two main characters are a bit of a departure from the goodie-goodie hero and heroine that are the usual fare in books. You are definitely rooting for them as you read, but you laugh along as they get in trouble and make sketchy decisions. I also love that it's set in Dublin. I’d say it’s worth picking up and reading at your leisure.

The Mother-Daughter Book Club

By Heather Vogel Frederick
2007, Simon & Shuster Books for Young Readers

This was a very interesting take on the “put un-like people together with a gimmick and they’ll grow and become great friends” type book. It’s set in Concord, Massachusetts, the historical town that was home to Louisa May Alcott, so the characters in the book read Little Women. It was a really cute story and even though you knew it was going to have a happy ending it was still great fun to read. I loved that there were so many characters. It made it more interesting and fun that there were so many people interacting. I also really liked that the author snuck in a lot of history, both about Concord, Mass and Louisa May Alcott. It was a “twinkie” book where the reader secretly learns a little history. Nice. It also didn't hurt that one of the moms was a librarian and was really the coolest of all the moms...in my unbiased opinion.

A Year Down Yonder

By Richard Peck
2000, Dial Books for Young Readers

When I made the list of books that I wanted to read for the A to Z Reading Challenge, I had no idea that two of them were related. I didn’t even realize I had two books by the same author. I read A Long Way from Chicago last weekend, and this week read the sequel A Year Down Yonder. While the first book was about Joey and his little sister Mary Alice on their summer visits with their grandma, the second is about Mary Alice alone. Here’s the summary from the book: “During the recession of 1937, fifteen-year-old Mary Alice is sent to live with her feisty, larger-than-life grandmother in rural Illinois and comes to a better understanding of this fearsome woman.”
I loved this book. It was just as good as the first set of stories, if not better. It has such a great feel to it. You wish the characters were real people and you could meet them and hear more stories about them. There was one story in particular that had me laughing so hard I had to set the book down to get control of myself. And then I got the giggles every time I thought about it. If you’re a fan of books like Holes by Louis Sachar you’ll really enjoy this one.

Thirteen Little Blue Envelopes

By Maureen Johnson
2005, HarperCollins Publishers

I’ve had this book on my shelf for a while now, but I finally got to it since it’s on my A to Z Reading Challenge list. I’m glad I did. This is the story of a girl from New Jersey who follows a “quest” set out for her by her aunt who sent her 13 little blue envelopes that she can only open as she completes each task. She starts in London and heads all over Europe with only her backpack and the instructions in the envelopes.
It’s one of those books that inspires you to backpack around Europe and try to have an adventure or two, but it still manages to tell the story of a girl trying to figure out what her aunt wants her to learn and who she really is.
As a small side note: She meets a family touring in Amsterdam with the last name Knapp. I think that’s the first time I ever saw my last name in print, as a story character. It was kinda weird to read her talk about Mrs. Knapp and Mr. Knapp. And they were kind of annoying. Oh, well.
Overall…great book. I read it in 2 days, less than 24 hours, it was that enthralling.

The Host

By Stephenie Meyer
2008, Little, Brown and Company

This is the first book for adults written by the extremely popular and talented author of the Twilight series. It’s long (619 pages), but it’s so worth it. It’s a “scifi” story set on earth, but aliens called souls have come and taken over the planet by taking over human bodies as their own. Not all humans disappeared, though. There are some who are hiding out, resisting the souls and there are some that won’t go away even when a soul enters their body. They are rare, but Melanie the main character in the story, is one of them. It’s such a creative story and you really can’t predict where it’s going to go next.
There were moments where I was sure it was going to go in a direction that I wouldn’t like so I had to set it down for a while, but when I did pick it up again I was always rewarded with creativity and emotion that just increased my desire to know what was going to happen next.
I also have to say that it has one of the most satisfying endings of any book I’ve read in a long time. Two thumbs up. Beware friends…I’m going to try to get you to read it next.

A Long Way from Chicago

By Richard Peck
1998, Dial Books for Young Readers

I took this book to read on the train to Chicago. I thought it was only appropriate, and it’s pretty small so it didn’t make my purse too heavy. It’s a fun compilation of stories about a boy and his younger sister who visit their grandmother every summer starting in 1929 through 1935. They are fun little vignettes full of crazy “country” characters and a grandma who takes the cake in the ‘dances to the beat of her own drummer’ awards. I loved how certain characters came back each year and as the kids grew their understanding of who their grandmother was and why she did the things she did grew also. Set in the depression era, it’s a historical fiction story that is a great read.

The True Story of Hansel and Gretel

By Louise Murphy
2003, Penguin Group (USA)

This was the most recent selection for my local book club, and it was rough. It’s a re-telling of the Hansel and Gretel story originally written by the Grimm Brothers, but this version is set in Poland and the end of WWII. It’s the story of two Jewish children who are taken in by an old woman outside a village, and it also follows the story of their father who joins the resistance not knowing if his kids are alive or not.
If you enjoy reading stories about people’s lives during the Holocaust and WWII, this is a great example of that. It really does a good job a telling these characters’ stories. You can imagine what it was like to live in this small Polish town while the Nazi’s advantage was declining and they were getting more desperate and cruel. It wasn’t one I would normally read because I like to read books that don’t make me sad or make me think, and this one did both of those things. I think I would recommend it, but I’d say know what you’re getting into.

From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

by E. L. Konigsburg

1967 - Aladdin Paperbacks

This is one of those books that has won awards and been raved about for years and years by teachers and librarians and parents all over the world. I read it when I was a kid, but I didn't remember much about the story so I decided to read it again. It's a good story, but I'm not sure it's quite as good as everyone has been telling me it is.

It's the story of two kids, Claudia and her younger brother Jamie, who run away from home and decide to live in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. It's very, very dated, which I had a hard time getting past. Jamie is in charge of their money and keeps harping about how much everything costs when the amounts given are so low. 10 cents to take the bus, and crazy stuff like that.

I also had a hard time reading about how they adapted to living in the museum. They slept on a bed that was on display and stashed their bags in open vases and a sarcophagus. I kept cringing each time they touched something like that. My job as an archivist is to protect documents and items for the next generation. Reading about some kids using priceless artifacts for storage made it really hard to enjoy the adventure of living in the museum. I'm much more aware of the damage that can occur when things are stepped on, sat on, slept on and even just innocently touched. It all adds up and can lead to irreversible damage.

So, I guess if you aren't an archivist or a museum curator, this would be an innocent adventure story about a young girl trying to find her place in the world and her helpful brother who tags along, but I don't think I'd recommend it to anyone in my field.

Heroics for Beginners

By John Moore
2004 – Ace Books

I have kind of a loud laugh and I really like to laugh and I tend to laugh at just about anything (movies, tv commercials, stupid jokes, people falling down), but when I’m reading and I come across a funny part I am more reserved. I tend to smile and quietly chuckle. Every now and then, I come across a book that makes me laugh out loud quite heartily. It happened when I was reading the first Harry Potter book and it’s happened each time I read a Stephanie Plum novel. It happened again with this new book that I randomly picked up last summer.

It’s called Heroics for Beginners and it follows the story of Prince Kevin who is normally a laid back diplomatic type, but is forced into action when an Ancient Artifact (Model Seven) is stolen from a neighboring kingdom and the king promises his daughter’s hand to the hero who can bring back the artifact and defeat the Evil Overlord and stop him from completing his Diabolical Plan. Kevin’s problem is that he is in love with the Princess (they’ve actually been secretly dating for a year) and has no desire to see her married off to some other candidate.
This book is intensely tongue-in-cheek. It pokes fun at itself like a less raunchy Mel Brooks parody, but at the same time you’re rooting for Kevin and Princess Becky who secretly follows him trying to be his comic sidekick even though she can’t tell a joke to save her life. It’s full of minions, evil assistants, kidnapped scientists, a really menacing Diabolic Device, and an Evil Overlord who started as an Evil Schoolteacher (he gave pop quizzes, and no partial credit for math problems).

I actually liked this book so much that I had an intense desire to read portions of it out loud, and I hate when people do that. Nevertheless, here’s one of the parts that I loved. Kevin and Becky have been captured and they are in the torture chamber of the Fortress of Doom being interrogated by the Evil Overlord, Voltmeter:

“I don’t know anything.”
Voltmeter made a motion with his hand. Stan [the chief minion] brought over a small wooden desk and set it in front of Kevin. He set an inkwell down on it and put a pen in Kevin’s hand.
“You will spare yourself and your friend a lot of pain if you cooperate.”
“If I talk, will you release my companion?”
“Kevin!” said Becky. “Don’t do it!”
“I’ll release you both,” said Voltmeter.
“Yeah, well ok then.”
“Kevin!”
…
[Voltmeter] produced a blue examination booklet from under his cloak and laid it down in front of Kevin. “You have ten minutes to write down everything you know.”
Kevin raised his hand. “Does spelling count?”
“Certainly. You may open your booklet…now.”

See what I mean. Hi-LAR-ious!

The Sisters Grimm: The Fairy Tale Detectives

By Michael Buckley
2007 – Amulet Books

The Sisters Grimm are two sisters, Sabrina and Daphne, who have been moving from foster home to foster home since their parents disappeared a year and half ago. Their latest home is with an eccentric woman who claims to be the grandmother they believed to be dead. Their adventures begin almost immediately upon their arrival. They discover they are descended from the original Grimm Brothers and are part of a long line of detectives who solve crimes involving the “EverAfters”, characters straight out of the fairy tales that now live in their town.
It was a pretty fun story even though the older sister, who’s point of view you follow, is a bit annoying. There was also the issue of the odd sentence that was so jarring that it brought me out of the story, when with some more editing, it could have flowed much better. I also didn’t enjoy the fact that most of these fairy tale characters are openly antagonistic to the Grimm Family. The story tells that the EverAfters are trapped in the town because one of the Grimm brothers had a witch cast a spell to keep the other EverAfters from harming the humans. In order for the spell to hold, at least one Grimm descendent has to stay in the town too. Because of these circumstances the EverAfters who would like to be free wouldn’t mind if the whole Grimm family perished. It really goes against the grain. In most stories where the fairy tale characters mix with real characters, the fairy tale characters are usually the human’s allies. Not so in this book which was kind of disconcerting.
Nevertheless, it was a light and quick read and it’s the first in a series that left some mysteries unsolved. I think it would be worth my time to keep reading to see how the other plots unfold.

Pride, Prejudice and Jasmin Field

by Melissa Nathan
2000 – HarperCollins

This was a great book. It’s an updating of Pride and Prejudice with a fun twist. The main character is Jasmin Fields. She’s a columnist in a London paper who has been given the role of Lizzie Bennett in a benefit performance of the book that’s been turned into a play. The play is being directed by, Harry Noble, a huge star both in the theater and in Hollywood, but Jasmin thinks he’s an arrogant cad. The book follows the story of Jasmin and the other people who’ve been cast in the play and watches as their lives mirror those of the characters they play.
Being a fan of Jane Austen, this was really fun to read. I’ve never read a book or seen a movie that did such a good job of updating the plot while staying so close to the original story. The play within the book is a great devise, and even when I knew what the characters where going to do and how it was going to end, I still read it with excitement to see how the author would work things out.
I’ve already recommended this book to a couple of people and I’m going to make my mom read it too. If you enjoyed Pride and Prejudice and if you like British settings, you’ll enjoy this book.