Elise Benton and her family have just moved to Los Angeles. She and her sisters are enrolled in Coral Tree Prep School where everyone appears to have famous connections; Elise on the other hand is only attending the school due to the fact that her mother is the new principle. A fact that doesn’t make her the top of people’s lists of people to be friends with, that is until she catches the attention of school heartthrob Derek Edwards. Derek Edwards has the most famous parents in the entire school meaning that every guy wants to be his friend and every girl wants to date him. Derek however, to the outside world appears to hardly ever smile and be quite moody and standoffish. Elise seems to like Derek for him and not because of his parents and Derek opens up to her more than he seems to with anyone else. Meanwhile her sister Juliana becomes extremely smitten with Derek’s best friend Chase. Throw in the most popular girl in school Chelsea and charming Webster to cause problems along the way and you have an enjoyable book.
I enjoyed the book on the whole. The plot however may seem a little more predictable than a normal book due to being based on Pride and Prejudice. I don’t think that is necessarily a bad thing as regardless of whether you’ve read Pride and Prejudice or not it works very well as a standalone book. If you’ve read the book then it gives a modern twist on it so really it is a win win book for all. Despite all the obvious similarities I didn’t even realise until very near the end of the book.
It was a light hearted, predictable and a quick read, which sometimes is all I want from a book. I really enjoyed seeing how Derek started to open up with Elise and slowly started revealing more personal things about himself that he had never told anyone else. She slowly begins to understand his more famous life and world more and Derek even starts to introduce Elise to it more by taking her to a movie premiere. I didn’t enjoy reading chapters with Elise’s family, I found her younger sister to be particularly irritating. I also found some of the scenes where a certain person took advantage of the more famous students at Coral Tree Prep to be difficult and unenjoyable to read. I’m not entirely sure why I just didn’t enjoy those chapters. I also found the way characters reactions to some situations such as when Juliana thinks that Chase has cheated on her, a little annoying to read but the book moves on so quickly it doesn’t give you time to dwell.
Truthfully I could take or leave this book. I’m glad I read it and I enjoyed reading it but it wouldn’t be on the top of my pile of books that I would recommend to others. I would however love to have a sequel to find out how Derek and Elise end up in later life. I think that if you’re a huge fan of Pride and Prejudice and feel like you would enjoy reading a modern day remake or you really enjoy books of this genre then I do think you will really enjoy this book.
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