Friday, October 21, 2011

Epic Fail by Claire LaZebnik

***
From HarperTeen:

Will Elise’s love life be an epic win or an epic fail?
At Coral Tree Prep in Los Angeles, who your parents are can make or break you. Case in point:
As the son of Hollywood royalty, Derek Edwards is pretty much prince of the school—not that he deigns to acknowledge many of his loyal subjects.


As the daughter of the new principal, Elise Benton isn’t exactly on everyone’s must-sit-next-to-at-lunch list.


When Elise’s beautiful sister catches the eye of the prince’s best friend, Elise gets to spend a lot of time with Derek, making her the envy of every girl on campus. Except she refuses to fall for any of his rare smiles and instead warms up to his enemy, the surprisingly charming social outcast Webster Grant. But in this hilarious tale of fitting in and flirting, not all snubs are undeserved, not all celebrity brats are bratty, and pride and prejudice can get in the way of true love for only so long.



This book was unapologetically Pride & Prejudice. From the names of the characters – i.e., Juliana, Elise, Layla & Kaitlyn Benton vs Jane, Elizabeth, Lydia & Kitty Bennett, to the ridiculously wealthy Derrick (Mr. Darcy) and his little sister Georgia (Georgiana). There were some differences, it being a modern adaptation and all, but the essentials were all there. Prejudice, misunderstandings, manipulation and of course, humiliation.

I found myself smiling as I read many of the exchanges between Elise & Derrick. I also enjoyed the despicable Grant Webster (George Wickham) and Chelsea (Charlotte). I felt that LaZebnik was trying too hard to make Mrs. Benton as embarrassing as Mrs. Bennett and that it sometimes disrupted the flow of the story. I did not find Mr. and Mrs. Benton to be very believable characters, but otherwise, the story was quite enjoyable.

 
I am giving Epic Fail 3 stars because I did not quite love it, but I did enjoy it.

 

~Shel


1 comment:

  1. My favoriet read, though it is not very scary is Charlie Brown's The Great Pumpkin- what a treat especially after all the years.

    Thanks for this great giveaway.
    your1chef at aol dot com

    ReplyDelete