Leah Marie Brown

This book should not have worked. It was the second in a series in which I had not read the first. The author seemed to have a "kitchen sink" mentality to plotting, throwing things into the story for the hell of it, and the main character was cringe-worthy in her poor life choices.

...and yet.

I bought the first book before I had finished chapter 5, which should say something about how I enjoyed the book. The main character was endearing in her earnestness and her foot-in-mouth syndrome. And the situations she managed to get herself in were highly entertaining. I loved her two friends, Poppy and Franny, who are more than they appear, and wish that they had played a larger role in the book.

I wish the book had been longer. At its current length, it never felt rushed, but was more shallow than it would have been if there had been more pages devoted to learning about the characters. I also wish that the author had spent less time introducing one-off characters we never saw again after I started liking them.

All in all, a solid chick-lit read. I'm looking forward to reading Faking It, and reading Vivia's backstory which was hinted at pretty heavily in Finding It.

Review copy courtesy of the publisher via Netgalley… (mehr)

Very loosely inspired by Emma, what it lacks in story it makes up for in fun.

Following the deaths of her father and aunt, Southern Belle Emma Lee heads to an inherited home in the Costwalds with grand plans for becoming a matchmaker, but like her literary namesake, Emma Lee’s matchmaking skills prove somewhat questionable.

If you’re looking for a traditional Emma re-telling, I’m not sure if this will hit the mark for you, there are some characters with similar names, and some with similar traits (Emma Lee has Emma’s good intentions and obliviousness down), and Emma Lee does a little matchmaking, but it does not follow Emma beat for beat. I didn’t have a problem with that, I liked that this mostly did it’s own thing, and there are a ton of references to Jane Austen’s books as well as other literature, which I loved and it couldn’t have been more fitting that Emma Lee, while reading Emma for the first time, jumps to the wrong conclusions about certain characters.

I enjoyed Knightley here a whole lot more than the Knightley in the original, to be fair, given the era, this Knightley is much more free of social constraints so he’s able to be bemused rather than infuriated by Emma Lee’s actions and bemused just makes for a much more charming love interest than a guy constantly correcting the heroine’s behavior does.

As I mentioned above, there isn’t a lot of plot here, even the matchmaking schemes are more afterthought than front and center, but I didn’t really miss the plot all that much, I was too busy being entertained by the humorous dialogue, sparky romance, the female friendships and the dog with the wonky ear.

I received this through a giveaway.… (mehr)