Who: Claire LaZebnik
What: Epic Fail
When: August 2nd, 2011
Where: Harperteen
Why: Premise Interest
How: For Review
Will Elise’s love life be an epic win or an epic fail?
At Coral Tree Prep in Los Angeles, who your parents are can make or break you. Case in point: As the son of Hollywood royalty, Derek Edwards is pretty much prince of the school—not that he deigns to acknowledge many of his loyal subjects.As the daughter of the new principal, Elise Benton isn’t exactly on everyone’s must-sit-next-to-at-lunch list.
When Elise’s beautiful sister catches the eye of the prince’s best friend, Elise gets to spend a lot of time with Derek, making her the envy of every girl on campus. Except she refuses to fall for any of his rare smiles and instead warms up to his enemy, the surprisingly charming social outcast Webster Grant. But in this hilarious tale of fitting in and flirting, not all snubs are undeserved, not all celebrity brats are bratty, and pride and prejudice can get in the way of true love for only so long.
Epic Fail was a funny, cute, and positively romantic retelling of Pride and Prejudice that is the type of read you curl up and read in one sitting (which is totally what I did.)
Epic Fail is a Pride and Prejudice retelling set in LA, in a private school for the offspring of the rich and famous. Elise, as well as her three other sisters, have been uprooted from Massachusetts to Hollywood because her parents got a new job at a totally snobby private school, which Elise has to attend. There her older, soft-spoken sister meets the boy of her dreams, Chase, and Elise is lumped together with Chase's best friend, Derek, who is cold and doesn't exactly like opening himself up to people due to the fact his mom is the biggest star in Hollywood.
Elise was funny, up-tight enough that I gave her narrative voice and personality when it came to Derek and just how irritating she found him, and mostly, she just had a good voice! She was straight-forward about her decisions, although stubborn, and proved himself someone kind-hearted whenever it came to her older sister, who was a total sweetheart as well. Layla was a complete pain in the butt and I suppose her Pride and Prejudice equivalent was as well? She was selfish and just followed the "in crowd", which ends up getting her in a lot of trouble! Chase was a sweetheart as well (you see why him and Jules are so good together) and Elise's parents were probably my least favorite part of the whole story. Her parents were so annoying. Unnecessarily strict (I understand disciplined, but their rules were extreme, to say the least) and totally embarrassing, i'm afraid it'd probably be as annoyed as Layla if I had to deal with them.
Finally, we have Derek and Elise. Their relationship was absolutely adorable, despite their ups and downs. I looked forward to every meeting, their little quips and sweet moments. Heck, even their arguments! They had a chemistry to them that I appreciated. Webster? Total loser, never ever thought he had a chance!
Overall, a cute and heart-warming book! Definitely recommend!
-Harmony
