Mini Reviews (XII)

Love, Lies and Lizzie - Rosie Rushton
For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn? What would happen if Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice was set in the twenty-first century? When Mrs Bennet inherits enough money to move to the kind of village she has always dreamed of, her daughters find themselves swept up in a glamourous life of partying and countryside pursuits. But Lizzie and her sisters soon discover that, beneath the very smart surface, lurks a web of intrigue and rivalries . . .

Love, Lies and Lizzie is a retelling of Austen's famous Pride and Prejudice. Since I am among the few who never have read the book, or even seen one of the movie adaptions (gasp!) I wasn't sure what to expect from this story. And while I recognized the names of some characters, I still didn't know what their motives where or what they had in store for Lizzie.

It's hard to say if people who know the story will enjoy this book more than people who have never read Pride and Prejudice!

This book was a bit confusing at first, it was hard to keep track of all the Bennet sisters! But after putting this book away for a couple of weeks I started reading it today - and finished it in a few hours! And it was quite enjoyable :) A nice read, but far from the best book I've read.

Rating: 3 of 5





The Summer I Turned Pretty - Jenny Han

Some summers are just destined to be pretty.

Belly measures her life in summers. Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August. Winters are simply a time to count the weeks until the next summer, a place away from the beach house, away from Susannah, and most importantly, away from Jeremiah and Conrad. They are the boys that Belly has known since her very first summer -- they have been her brother figures, her crushes, and everything in between. But one summer, one wonderful and terrible summer, the more everything changes, the more it all ends up just the way it should have been all along.

This book reminded me a lot of the book The Boys Next Door by Jennifer Echols; it's about a girl spending her summer in a house by the water, hanging out with two brothers and having a crush on the older one of said brothers.

Present events are mixed up with Belly's memories from previous summers. For me, the memories wasn't that fun to read, and I actually skipped a few of them...

I thought I had this book all figured out, but then Belly surprised me by picking the other brother! Which was a nice change! (But hey, still two books to go! Things can change.) The sequel called It's Not Summer Without You is already realeased, so I think I'll borrow it from the library to find out what will happen to Belly :)

I guess this book was an okay read, but I found it quite boring at times. Many other reviewers seem to love this story though, so maybe it just wasn't my kind of book. In my opinion The Boys Next Door & Endless Summer is much better! ;)

Rating: 3.5 of 5