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.
My first thought when I finished the book was: Hm… This book has almost no relation to it’s title.
Then I remembered all the misunderstandings and communication breakdowns.
I actually liked this book. It made me feel like I was reading something similar to Anna and the French Kiss. I don’t know what, but I just felt this weird sense of Déjà Vu. A good kind, I guess, because I ended up really enjoying the book. Hehehe…
So Elise’s sister, Juliana sees Derek’s bestfriend, Chase and she’s like:
And Chase is like:
And together they’re like:
So Derek and Elise are forced to be like:
Elise gets really irritated with Derek because he has a past he doesn’t want to tell her but it involves:
(Get it?) TRUST NO ONE WHEN YOU’RE RICH AND FAMOUS.
He does drop really obvious hints that he likes her but he gets unsure of himself and starts to cover things up so Elise never gets it.
Which kind of cracks me up at times but it gets really frustrating after awhile.
I found their constant misunderstandings very entertaining from time to time, like how Derek had lashed out at Elise and finding out she had no idea what was going on.
A few reasons why I thought the book was cute was because
-Derek had no idea how to handle his emotions and kept on sabotaging himself. He liked Elise and had tried asking her to the dance but ended up pissing her off with his bluntness. He wanted to protect her from Webster but pissed her off (again), pushing her closer to his enemy. But when he finally confessed that he wanted to start afresh, I found it absolutely adorable, because even then you could tell that he had no clue how to conduct himself around her.
.
Oh my God, I really am a character sadist.
-It had so many sweet moments.
“He only invited me because of you and Chase.’
‘Right,’ she said, following me inside. ‘He’s never shown the slightest interest in you before. I mean, he’s never stared at you like you’re the only person in the room when we’re all together. Or sulked around for days because you turned him down for a dance. Or touched the sleeve of your sweater when he thinks no one’s looking-‘
‘He’s never done any of that,’ I said. Then, less confidently, ‘Has he?”
-It was really perky. Characters could have been in a state of confusion, but never down right depression.
- “Everyone at Coral Tree Prep was good-looking. Really. Everyone. I didn’t see a single fat or ugly kid all morning. Maybe they just locked them up at registration and didn’t let them out again until graduation.”
- “Juliana’s a year older than me, but she sometimes seems younger – mostly because she’s the opposite of cynical and I’m the opposite of the opposite of cynical.”
-The book really made me laugh.
- “He can’t ground her if he’s already killed her,” I pointed out when Juliana quoted this to me. “Well, he can, but it wouldn’t have the same impact.”
- “I cursed myself not only for forgetting to turn my phone off but for ever thinking that having a rock music ringtone was cool.”
5/5 Stars! Definitely up there beside Anna and The French Kiss and my re-read worthy shelf. It’s a pretty light read and it makes you happy reading it, so why not?
😀
It was a great find for me!
Cherie
Synchronise 