P.S. I Like You

So if you are following me on Instagram, you know that I am reading Obstinate Headstrong Girl edited by Christina Boyd but as I haven’t finished the book yet, I’ll tide you over with one of these. I had thought this was a Non-Austen Read for Austen Readers, but after rereading my review-I realize this is closer to a retelling of Pride and Prejudice.

Hmm…

So without further ado-let’s get onto the review!

P.S. I Like You by Kasie West

So I like to buy books for people as gifts, especially those under 18 as they have more free time and I want to encourage reading. All my nieces and nephews know this and expect it.

This past February marked the 15th birthday of one of my nieces and I found myself falling into a problem. I haven’t read as much new Young Adult novels and I knew there that if I got her one from when I was her age she wouldn’t be interested. They would be talking of razors and sidekicks, etc-terms they don’t know.

What?

My coworker and I had been talking of different books for young adults and she brought up Kasie West, that she supposedly writes clean young adult romances.

Hmmm…

So flash-forward six months, I’m trying to figure out what book to get my niece when I remember Kasie West. Only West has written a lot of books, so I wasn’t sure which one to get her.

Huhhhhhhh

So I googled “best Kasie West books” picked a list at random, Awkwordly Emma: Emma’s Definitive Ranking of Kasie West’s Books. The number one book was P.S. I Like You and as it was on sale on Amazon I bought it. You know I cannot resist a deal.

The book order came with a snippet to read on your kindle immediately, which I did, and then the next day when Amazon dropped the book off, I was hooked enough to peruse it.

I started reading, just planning to check out a chapter-but instead I was sucked in.

Lily Abbot is a junior in high school. She likes reading, music, and creating her own clothes from thrift store finds. She is shy, but hides behind of shell of impassiveness and an “I don’t care” attitude. Inside she secretly lacks confidence.

Pretending all the time…

She’s horrible when it comes to dating as she finds it incredibly difficult to talk to guys, as she freezes or rattles on.

She comes from a large family-older sister, two younger brothers, goofy parents who’s job earnings fluctuate they go from well to lean.

Lily’s best friend is Izabella, they have been friends forever, with only one black spot in their history together, Cade Jennings.

When they were freshman, Lily was doing poorly at P.E. in volleyball, with everyone lobbing their balls toward her. Cade Jennings, handsome jock only made things worse as he nicknamed her magnet-“as she attracts all the balls”, a nickname that continues to follow her around to this day.

Ugh.

So how did he impact their friendship, well Izabella dated Cade and Cade and Lily would go at it like cats and dogs, with Izabella having to choose between them and picking Lily.

It is two years later, and Izabella is now dating the sweet and kind Gabriel-but Lily and Cade still go at it every time they see each other.

Lily is frustrated with her family as she wants to enter this song writing contest, but finds herself without any time to herself to write. She starts writing in Chemistry class, but then is caught by the teacher.

Her precious notebook of possible songs being threatened at being confiscated, she then starts writing on the desk-just a little.

The next class she is surprised to find something written on the desk in response. This begins a friendship between Lily and her mystery pen pal as they write each other little friendship notes every class, hiding them under the desk.

At first Lily thinks it is a girl, but when she realizes that it is a guy she starts falling for him.

Love him.

As she writs out her feelings, when talking to him, she lets her guard down and really becomes herself-no masks, nothing fake, the real Lily.

The same goes for her mystery guy-a guy who completely releases his feelings and becomes true to himself.

Lily does’t want to know who it is as she doesn’t want to be disappointed if it turns out he has a girlfriend or is anything less than the perfect man she built up in her dreams-but she starts trying to find out who it is.

Time to get on the case!

But then she discovers it is her archenemy Cade?! Oh no, what’s a girl to do.

How can this amazing person she writes to be the same jerk she goes to school with? How could she have fallen for her best friend’s ex? Who is the real Cade, the letter writer or the school hotshot?

Sh knows she should give this whole thing up before he realizes who she is, before Izabelle realizes it, before she falls even harder…but can she do it?

So this reminded me of Pride and Prejudice meets The Shop Around the Corner with the way that Lily has a prejudice against Cade and Cade has his pride.

Both have to work through those things-Lily realizing maybe her disliking Cade had a bit more to do with her being jealous that Izabelle’s time being taken up by someone else and one nickname he gave her-and Cade letting his pride be torn down (in front of the whole school).

There is even a scene when Cade and his friend are talking about school stuff and his friend mentions that Lily is at the craft fair and is cute and Cade says she’s tolerable, but not handsome enough for him.  (Okay not in those words, but that just flashed in my head when I read his response.)

We also have Sasha, a popular cheerleader, who is after Cade and does all she can to try and trap him into getting with her, constantly flirting with him nonstop, and even pretending to be his mystery letter writer. Like to me-that sounds like Caroline Bingley, and if she had the opportunity to pretend something Elizabeth did that Mr. Darcy found appealing was her-you can bet anything she would do it. She constantly makes fun of Lily in front of everybody and talks smack of her to Cade.

 

We also have the incredibly kind Izabelle and equally kind and adorable boyfriend Gabriel (hands down Jane and Mr. Bingley) try to set Lily up with a guy that is who I believe is Mr. Collins. Very little personality besides one thing, tries to go after Lily even when she makes it clear she is not interested, and their disastrous date-modern Collins to a T.

I can’t remember the name of this character, and I can’t look it up in the book as it is with my niece, but Lily has a crush on a guy she thinks is “cool” and “artsy”. He doesn’t turn out to be a cad like Mr. Wickham, but Lily does realize she didn’t really “see” him for who he really was. And he makes a promise that he will call someone up to see about fixing her guitar strings, and reneges-just like Wickham promised to come to the ball but then doesn’t show up.

As I mentioned before, Lily comes from a large family with two silly parents. While they love each other and treat each other with respect-they are pretty goofy and their antics of competing, along with other things, often deeply embarrass Lily. The same goes for her siblings.

So embarressed

In Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth starts to view Mr. Darcy in a different light when he’s in his home-seeing what his servants say about him and seeing him more relaxed-in this Lily starts to think she was wrong about Cade being a jerk when she sees him in her home. He is the coach for her younger brother’s team and he speaks highly of him, he is much more relaxed and open in Lily’s house and with her family.

Open and smiling

I loved the letter writing, as that always gets my heart! So in Pride and Prejudice, a letter changes Elizabeth’s mind about Darcy, while in this book it is a series of letters. Of course that part makes me think more of The Shop round the Corner, with Cade and Lily verbally duking it out in the physical world, while falling in love through paper. And then like how Jimmy Stewart’s character, Alfred Kralik, finds out the truth and tries to figure out what to do about it-made me think of when Lily discovers it is Cade.

But then Cade does a final letter to let Lily know how seriously he cares for her-P.S. I like you.

This was a cute adorable read, and if you are an Austen fan-I think you will love it. Or you can use it as the foundation to give a teen, the next one being an actual copy of Pride and Prejudice.

For more on Pride & Prejudice, go to The Jane Austen Book Club (2007)

For more Pride & Prejudice variations, go to The Colonel

For more books based on Jane Austen, go to North by Northanger (Or, the Shades of Pemberley)

For more love letters, go to Love Notes: To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (2018)

For more young adult books, go to Pride, Prejudice, and Personal Statements

I Want to Give You What You Love: Age of Adaline (2015)

Most Romantic Moment #2

The Age of Adaline (2015)

So I was recommended this film by a friend, but I didn’t like it.

It wasn’t horrible, but this sort of thing has been done before and I felt this film didn’t really do anything new or different. I also didn’t like how she was with both the father and son.

But there was one thing I found extremely romantic, so I wanted to include it in my countdown.

Adaline Bowman was born on New Year’s Day on 1908. She married and had daughter, only to sadly become a widow a few years later.

In 1937 she was driving in a snowstorm and fell into a freezing pond. She died, but was brought to life when lightening struck the water.

What?!

Since that day, Adaline doesn’t age, remaining 29 and being forced to constantly be on the move.

I need to get out of here

This New Year’s Eve, she meets Ellis Jones at a party, introducing herself as Jennifer. He’s interested, but Adaline knows it isn’t the best idea to be romantically involved, as she has had things go wrong 40 years ago.

However, Ellis won’t give up  and the two begin to seriously date. He invites her to come with him for his parents 40th anniversary. When they get there Adaline realizes that Ellis’ father is one of her past boyfriends, William, the one from 40 years ago.

At first William seems to buy that the women he met all those years ago is not Adaline/Jennifer, but “her mother”. But then William spots something that confirms that she is the woman from years past. Will Adaline be able to live in peace or have to take off again?

Most Romantic Moment: I Brought You the Type of Flowers You Want

So you guys know what I think of being given flowers.

I would prefer something that will last a long time.

So Ellis has tried a few things to woo Adalind, but nothing has worked.

Hmmm….

But then he realizes what Adalind really loves:

And instead of bringing flowers, he brings books with flower names.

How sweet!

This is so romantic! He took the time to think and see what would make her happy and give her that, instead of something clichéd or easy.

To start Romance is in the Air: Part V, go to I Did It for You: Edward Scissorhands (1990)

For more Moreland quotes, go to Sleep is Not Important

For more on books being the best gift, go to Post Approved

Post Approved

So I was reading through my Emily Post’s Etiquette, the 14th Edition on gift giving.

I was going to a baby dedication and wanted to see of we are supposed to bring a gift or not. I mean I didn’t want to be rude.

So I read it, and yes I was supposed to. But then I continued reading the rest of the gift giving as it talked about weddings, anniversaries, baby showers, birthday parties, etc. As I read I noticed that Post kept mentioning one item as a suitable gift. And what was that gift?

A BOOK!

Yes, she says that a book is an acceptable gift for any occasion.

So there everyone! I have been Post approved. My idea of a book as a perfect gift is spot on.

So that is what everyone will be getting for their gifts. After all:

For more on how books make the best gifts, go to Crazy Book Lady

For more book-filled posts, go to What Are Your Priorities?

Is This Really Just the Same?: Daring Chloe

Have you ever read something, watched a movie, or seen a TV show and it gives you an extreme case of deja vu?

Hasn’t this been done before?

Maybe it isn’t exactly the same storyline, but there is just enough similarity that it just keeps pushing on the front of your mind.

And that’s what Daring Chloe is.

Daring Chloe (Getaway Girls #1) by Laura Jensen Walker

So while this book isn’t exactly like it, the plot does bring to mind Emma.

So first let’s talk about the book, and then the similarities.

Chloe is about to marry her dream guy, Chris, when he breaks off the engagement right before the wedding as he realizes marriage isn’t “for him” as he has other things he wants to do first with his life.

Her friend Adam was the one who relayed the message, the one who told her all along that Chris wasn’t right for her.

You should have listened to me

Meanwhile, a very saddened Chloe doesn’t know what to do until one of her friend’s makes a suggestion. You see Chloe loves book and belongs to a book club that meets once a month to choose and discuss books. But now, instead of just reading the book, they will go on adventures too, in a way, “live” the book.

I know, awesome right!

Taking fandom to the EXTREME!

But while Chloe is trying to move over her heartbreak, it seems as if Adam is entering every facet of her life and always trying to give advice and help her, but instead reminding her more and more about Chris.

But Chloe has her faith in God, good friends, and a whole library to help her through the pain.

So now, why did this book remind me so much of Emma? Well all because of two characters, Chloe and Adam.

Nothing else of the story is really anything like Emma, except for these two’s relationship. They are good friends, although Adam is harboring a secret crush on her, (obvious to everyone except Chloe).

Also like in Emma, Adam tries to help Chloe by supporting her, but also being the one to advise or call her out on things. And Chloe, just like Emma, has a tendency to believe she is right, even when she is clearly wrong.

And just like Emma and Mr. Knightley; they eventually come together in the end. Realizing that they are perfect matches for each other.

I thought the book was okay until the end as that was predictable and a bit corny. However, the book club of reading and acting them out was inspiring. I might just do that in the future.

For more on Emma, go to Emma (1996) AKA the Kate Beckinsale Version

For more books based on Emma, go to Mr. Knightley’s Diary

For more books based on Jane Austen, go to The Dashwood Sisters Tell All: A Modern Day Novel of Jane Austen

For more Emma adaptions, go to 200 Years of Glorious Emma

Crazy Book Lady

So you all know how much I love to read, right?

So the other day I was at church when someone gave flowers to their spouse for their wedding anniversary. I was telling my friends that I think flowers are nice but they die. And what does that say about how you feel?

I mean they are nice, but they really don’t send the right message. You know what would be better. A book.

Think about it, a book lasts forever (or typically longer than any human will and much longer than flowers). You can take it any where with you. Enjoy it over and over and over again. Yes, books are PERFECT !!!!!!!

Yep:

So as I was telling my friend this, a young boy overheard our conversation and said that if I loved reading books I was boring and was going to live the rest of my life alone.

So I guess instead of being a crazy cat lady, I guess I will be a crazy book lady.

Sounds good to me!

For more book filled posts, go to Preowned Perfection

For more of my everyday life, go to Walking on Pins and Needles