Finding Mr. Darcy: High School Edition by Erin Butler Pages: 198
Published by Swoon Romance on September 16, 2014
Genres: contemporary, Love & Romance, Young Adult
Source: eARC from Publisher
Sixteen-year-old Liza Johnson takes fangirl to a whole new level of crazy when she decides to take dating advice from her literary hero: Jane Austen.
With the help of her best friends, Liza sheds her ancient-speak and complete Austen wardrobe for something a bit more modern in an attempt at finding her very own Mr. Darcy.
Enter Will, the new kid and Liza's Darcy incarnate. Add her BFF's ex to mix and the sexy Brit who kisses with an accent, and Liza is in trouble.
So, what's a girl to do? Without her mom to go to relationship advice, Liza turns to the only person she can truly trust with matters of the heart via her mother's copy of COMPLETED WORKS OF JANE AUSTEN.
It's too bad Austen's heroines have never played Spin the Bottle or Seven Minutes in Heaven. Liza's determined to find her true Austen-esque happy ending, but if she can't trust herself instead of books, she just might end up in her own tragic love story.
Finding Mr. Darcy is a younger feeling YA story that will appeal to people who enjoy Jane Austen and a heroine has to kiss many frogs to find her prince kind of story. There are guys galore at this high school. And Liza seems to be jumping all over the place. She wasn’t really, but there are three…count them three love “interests” in this book. Finding Mr. Darcy: High School Edition was a cute read and I was pleased with the way things turned out. I did have some character issues with the book but the Jane Austen aspect of the story and the writing were wonderful.
Liza starts out as kind of a loner with her best friend Janie. I really liked Liza and Janie both at the start of the story. Liza was kooky with her Jane Austen t-shirts and proper way of speaking. She was endearing. She lost a little bit of that appeal to me throughout the story with the way she was ping ponging back and forth between the guys and how she wouldn’t tell Will how she felt. She is young though and at times she acted immaturely, like someone her age is prone to do.
Janie is a good friend. She was jealous at times, but I thought considering everything she was remarkably loyal. I think I liked Janie most of all. Will, Ben and Ryan are the guys in this book. Let’s just cut Ben out of the equation because I don’t think anyone will actually put him as a front runner, but Will and Ryan had me going back and forth quite a bit. There are ups and downs with all of the characters throughout the story and you feel like you are thrown into a Jane Austen inspire high school soap opera. Or maybe the Jane Austen contemporary version of the vampire diaries or something.
I did enjoy the way Erin Butler wrapped everything up. I think Liza ended up with the best guy for her, but it was almost too much at times for her to figure it out. I enjoyed the story, but I think it would appeal most to a younger YA crowd. The Jane Austen aspect of the story was by far my favorite. I loved Liza’s trip to England and I loved all of the Austen inspired assignments and balls that they had. This made me want to dive back into Pride and Prejudice. I’m glad that Liza had a few epiphany growth moments about herself and how she was acting towards the end of the story as well, they redeemed her in my eyes. Finding Mr. Darcy might not have been my favorite book of 2014, but it was a good read. One that I think fans of Ms. Austen and a girl just trying to find her way in high school might really enjoy.
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kindlemom1
I am a huge Austen fan and this does sound like a cute read even if it does have a younger tone to it. I am glad you enjoyed it overall.
Thanks for the chance to win!
Stefanie @ Calledhis.com
Looks really cute 🙂 I love love that style of contemporary/historical 😀
Nikolina
Thank you for your thoughts on this book!
Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction
Your thoughts on this book mirrored my own almost exactly. Loved it for the Austen aspects, but it felt a little young to me and I got a little bit frustrated with her indecision.
Michelle @ Book Briefs
Yea and it was tough because the parts that I liked, I really really liked. But I just wanted to shake the girl a lot. I mean just pick someone. It was interesting though.
Thanks for stopping by Nicole 🙂
Enrique Herrera
Thanks again for hosting such a generous contest! ^_^