Emmalee: A Review

Goodreads (description):

Sometimes love is blind.

Emmalee Bradford thinks she’s an expert at matchmaking, and she won’t rest until all her friends are as happy as she is. Especially Hannah, the girl she’s decided to make popular. Everyone loves Emmalee's advice--everyone, that is, except her annoying neighbor Chase Anderson, who has taken it upon himself to "fix" her.

This modern version of Jane Austen’s Emma is the hilarious journey of a girl who believes she knows all about love. But when it comes to recognizing the perfect guy for her, Emmalee is absolutely clueless.





My Review:

Once again Jenni James has written another super cute and fast read contemporary Jane Austin!

In this one, we follow a girl named Emmalee. We see her a bit in Pride and Popularity, and I didn't particulary like her in that one. Honestly, I didn't really like her in this one.

But, let me explain.

I really like this story, because we get to see how Emmalee grows up. She goes through a series of events that make her realize that the way she is acting is really unacceptable. For her teenage years, after her mom remarried, she has grown up spoiled and rich, and has grown to be a bit snobbish. Or really, a lot snobbish. Not only that, but she thinks she is the perfect match maker, when really she sucks at it. It's kind of funny sometimes actually.

Anyway, she chooses a new best friend and who she is determined to make just like her, when really her new friend, Hannah, is indirectly teaching Emmalee how to not be so... clueless to other people's feelings. Emmalee's lifelong neighbor, Chase Anderson is also trying to do the same for her, just not as subtly. It's great.

Chase is my favorite in here. I love the relationship he has with his little sister. May I just say that it is always attractive when guys love their sisters and are nice with them? He was an instant like for me. Also, I loved how he would set Emmalee straight. He wouldn't let her talk bad about other people when he was around her. In fact, he had something nice to say about everyone, and did his best to help Emmalee see the good too.

One thing I really liked about Emmalee was that she didn't take any crap from anyone. When one of the guys started being rude to her, she was like, "oh heck no." I liked how she was independent and yes, she was reliable, if not all together nice about it.

I would like to think of this book as a coming of age book. Emmalee really discovers herself at the end, after a huge disaster. She matures a lot from the beginning of the book and I did like her in the end. I like the choice she made to change and try to be a better person. I also loved how despite her shortcomings, Chase stuck by her side and helped her all along the way. He was always there for her, since the beginning, because he could see the potential she had to be a good person. Amazing.

I give this a 4.5 out of 5!