Review: Epic Fail

Epic Fail
by Claire LaZebnik
Released: August 2, 2011

Product Description:
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.

Review:
I started this book out because it seemed like a really good fast read, and it definitely met all my expectations.  About halfway through I realized this was a modern version of Pride and Prejudice which in itself is a great story.  So I was excited to see how it would play out in modern California.  We start off with the first day of school where Juliana and Elise have just moved to a new city and everyone seems to be a child of someone famous.  Julianna automatically falls for Chase who is super sweet just like her, which leaves Elise to hang out with his best friend Derek the son of very famous parents.  This is where her biggest lesson is learned throughout the book to never judge someone by who they associate with (or in this case who their parents are). I loved seeing the interaction between the two of them because she's so, in Derek's words "challenging". Of course there is always someone there to mess up a perfectly good relationship because they are jealous or just angry - this would be Chelsea who is Chase's sister who tries to break him and Juliana up. Then Derek and Elise figure out what really went on and put everyone back to where they should be with each other. My favorite part in the book had to be when Elise and Derek finally got together near the end - I literally had butterflies in my stomach. It was so sweet and exciting, I loved it. A great read especially if you love the concept of Pride and Prejudice. Can't wait to see what this author comes up with next.