Enthusiasm
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- £3.49
Publisher Description
Prepare to fall in love with this “wry and engaging” (Booklist) young adult romance as it rekindles your own fervor for life, friendship, and the wonders of true love.
“When someone asks for a reading suggestion, Enthusiasm is the first word off my tongue.”—Stephenie Meyer, author of the Twilight Saga
“Enthusiasm, like Pride and Prejudice, bubbles over with romantic misunderstandings and comic confusion.”—The New York Times Book Review
There is little more likely to exasperate a person of sense than finding herself tied by affection and habit to an Enthusiast.
Julie’s best friend, Ashleigh, veers wildly from one obsession to the next, dragging Julie along on her crazy schemes. Then Ashleigh picks a new obsession, Jane Austen’s great love story, Pride and Prejudice, which just so happens to be Julie’s one and only passion. With Ashleigh’s encouragement, Julie finds herself sneaking into a dance at an all-boys’ prep school clad in a vintage frock and ready to dance the quadrille. But when both girls fall for the handsome and gallant Grandison Parr, Julie will have to choose between loyalty and love. Or will Ashleigh’s embarrassing antics drive their Mr. Darcy away before Julie gets the chance?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Despite the fact that Julie Lefkowitz is often exasperated by her best friend Ashleigh, "an Enthusiast," the 15-year-old loyally tolerates and often takes part in Ashleigh's various crazes. Ashleigh's current interest is the book Pride and Prejudice, and her latest scheme is to crash a formidable boys' school to attend a dance and find a 21st-century version of Mr. Darcy for herself, as well as a suitable companion for Julie. Dressed in vintage gowns, the girls do manage to slip into the dance and hook up with two agreeable young gentlemen. The problem is that both girls become smitten with the same guy the shyer, more refined of the two boys. What follows is a sequence of witty exchanges, comic errors and miscommunications that could be taken right out of a Jane Austen novel. When all four characters get cast in a play, opportunities for passionate encounters abound; love triangles emerge and eventually evolve into appropriate romantic pairings. Those familiar with Jane Austen's writing style and themes will most appreciate the many overt and subtle references to the 19th-century author. If a couple of episodes seem a little over the top (as when Parr allegedly gets locked out of campus and climbs through Julie's window to share her bed for the night), readers caught up in this debut novel's romantic whimsy and humor will willingly suspend their disbelief. Ages 12-up.
