Great Retelling of an Austen Classic

So it’s sort of impossible to be a fan of romance in stories and not appreciate Jane Austen. Even if you wouldn’t choose to sit down and spend the day reading one of her classic stories, you still have to recognize them for what they are – iconic romances that inspire story after story even today.

Claire LaZebnik’s latest, The Trouble With Flirting, is a clever take on Austen’s Mansfield Park. In it, Franny is a student working a prestigious summer theater program in a humbling role: assistant to the costume designer (who just happens to be her very serious and tediously boring aunt). To say the least, Franny’s not thinking it’ll be a really exciting summer… until the theater participants arrive. One of the students there is a guy Franny’s had a crush on for years, and she starts spending as much time as she can with him and a new group of friends. Of course, she tries to get his attention by flirting with a guy who’s showing some interest in her, and that’s where the trouble with flirting really begins.

I’m a fan of Franny in this. She’s spunky and smart and she stands her ground in most situations. And, even though she’s stuck being the costume designer’s assistant, she’s not sulking around and being miserable… she’s out there having fun, making the best of it, getting the guys. She’s someone I would have waned to hang out with in high school.

Check out The Trouble With Flirting! Hope you enjoy. :)

New Adult fiction and one excellent title to start with… Friday Night Alibi by Cassie Mae

A new genre has been created. Young Adult used to cover a broad range of ages, from lower middle school up into college. As we all know, a sixth grader is light years away from a college student in maturity, interests, culture… Having one genre to cover all of those ages was a bit too much.

So, with the ever growing interest in young adult fiction (because it’s awesome), you’ll see some subdivisions branching out. Middle grades and Teen Fiction are fairly self explanatory, but what about New Adult?

New Adult is the term that is used for books with protagonists and characters in that post-high school but pre-career and marriage time of life. They’re older, more mature, and wresting with very adult issues, but they’re still young. They don’t have everything figured out and they don’t always know where they’re going, but they’re making progress.

I think this new genre is great. I’ve enjoyed reading a dozen or so new adult titles already, and the issues dealt with in these books are close enough to issues I still deal with in my thirties that I can relate easily to the characters. I think it’s unfortunate, though, that many new adult authors are putting heavy doses of graphic sexuality and foul language in their titles. It reminds me of a child actress going out and thinking she has to do nude scenes in adult movies before she’s seen as fully grown up. It’s annoying, especially when it just seems extraneous in the middle of a really good story.

One new adult title I can whole heartedly recommend, though, is Friday Night Alibi by Cassie Mae. In this book, we get all of the romance and drama and happy we want, without sex scenes that border on pornographic. I’m looking forward to reading more from Cassie Mae!

The Scent of Rain – Kristin Billerbeck

I have been reading Kristin Billerbeck’s books for years, and I always enjoy them thoroughly. Billerbeck is a Christian author, so I appreciate the clean cut content of her books, but I also appreciate that she’s able to write Christian books without having her characters be all perfect and cheesy. She captures very real characters who struggle with issues of faith and temptation and decision-making just like we ALL do. Plus, she’s a smart and witty writer, which I love. :)

In The Scent of Rain, the protagonist is Daphne Sweeten, a perfumer straight out of training in Paris who suddenly finds herself left at the altar and without her greatest asset as a perfumer – her sense of smell. Determined to get on with life and figure out what to do with herself, Daphne goes ahead and reports for her first day of work at a new company, faking her sense of smell the whole way.

Of course, she meets all new people who love and support her, deals with the heartache of being left at the altar, and even finds room in her heart to love again (because really, if she didn’t fall in love again, the book would be sucky and depressing). Daphne is a stubborn, flawed, and hard-headed protagonist that you just can’t help but love and root for.

Upper high school, college, and early career girls are probably the one’s who like this the best, though I’m not putting any age restriction on it. The content is certainly appropriate enough for middle school and relevant enough for those of us who have been out of school for longer than we’d care to admit. And if you like this one, check out Billerbeck’s other titles! Enjoy.

~Melissa

Friday Favorite: Secrets of My Hollywood Life

Jen Calonita has an impressive way of writing intriguing stories that you’d like to go into and visit for vacation without making them so scandalously inappropriate that I have to worry about putting them on my summer reading lists for middle school. I appreciate that about her. I also love that while it’s good for upper middle schoolers, it’s also great for all high school grades. Heck, I loved it as an adult.

This series, The Secrets of My Hollywood Life, features a protagonist named Kaitlin Burke. She’s a famous teenage TV star in Hollywood, and throughout her adventures and dramas and everything else we get an insider’s look at the life of a Hollywood starlet. It’s very fun. And, as Calonita is a former entertainment editor for Teen people, you definitely get a legit inside look!

In this first book, Kaitlin wants to know what it’s like to be a regular, not-famous teenager in high school and goes behind the backs of almost everyone around her to enroll in a local school under a false ID. Of course, she falls for the school’s hottest lacrosse player (and who wouldn’t, really?)… lots of crazy things happen. And, while this book does have a fully satisfying ending, you totally want to start reading the next book as soon as you finish this one to figure out what happens with Kaitlin and her crew. It’s awesome.

Check this book out, buy it, invest in the rest of the series… you’ll love it. Enjoy!

~Melissa

Funniest Books I’ve Ever Read…

A few years ago, I read Louise Rennison’s Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I didn’t realize it was part of a ten book series. Then, this summer, I happened to notice a film version of it available for rent on Netflix. I put it in my queue and prepared myself for yet another disappointing book-inpired movie. I was pleasantly surprised by how good the movie version was, and it inspired me to check into Rennison’s other books. Imagine my surprise when I found another nine books featuring the Angus protagonist, Georgia Nicolson! It was pretty exciting. (I know I’m a book nerd, ok?)

I put all of the books on hold at my local library and waited until I had them all to start reading. Then, when they were all finally in, I tore through all nine books following Angus… in a matter of ONE WEEK. Several times, as I was reading in the evenings while my husband was watching TV, I would seriously laugh out loud at the sheer hilarity of the books. I’m seriously considering buying all of the books so I can reread them whenever I need to have a good laugh.

A note about content – some of the titles sound a bit risque sexually… but the content is not. Though all of Georgia’s friends are preoccupied with boys and the constantly rate themselves on a “Snogging Scale” (snogging is British for kissing), the girls never do anything beyond kissing with their boyfriends, and there’s very little inappropriate language in the books. Out of all the young adult series I’ve read, this one is pretty clean.

Basically, in the series, (don’t worry – no spoilers – this is VERY general) Georgia Nicolson and her group of friends navigate their way through a year or so of school at Stalag 14, an all-girls high school. The group calls themselves the Ace Gang, and they are absolutely hilarious together – constantly trying to pull little pranks, getting in trouble, and torturing the school’s staff. Georgia’s family is crazy (maybe certifiably) and full of funny situations, and Georgia’s love life is, well, complicated but constantly interesting and exciting.

I’d recommend this series to teenagers… mature upper grade middle school girls through high school and adult readers (especially if you work with or have teenage girls). Here are all ten books of the series, in order: