The Basics:
Someday Maybe by Ophelia London
Entangled: Embrace
Book 2 in the Definitely Maybe series
New Adult, Romance
Published October 20, 2014
Source: Received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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Why I picked up this book:
I really liked the first book in the series.
Blurb:
Some guys are impossible to forget.
Rachel Daughtry has a 10-year plan that leaves no room for mistakes. Or not-so-serious boys—including Oliver Wentworth, the freshman boyfriend she's never forgotten. Now she's back in San Francisco with an awesome-slash-scary new job. Unfortunately, The Plan doesn't cover things like meeting her best friend's new “secret” guy...Oliver.
Fortunately, no one knows that Rachel and Oliver were ever together, and endless bikini wax torture couldn't make Rachel hurt her friend. But it's killing Rachel. She's not over him. Not even a little. And as her 10-year-plan crumbles around her, Rachel realizes that maybe—just maybe—Oliver feels the same way.
Now Rachel is on the verge of losing all control. And her best friend. And the love of her life...
My thoughts:
I cannot talk about Someday Maybe without talking about the first book in the series. I loved Definitely, Maybe in Love when I read it last year. I love Pride and Prejudice and I thought London's adaptation was excellent.
Unfortunately for Someday Maybe, I've never read Persuasion, which I gather is Austen's tale of love lost and found again. So it didnt come with that added boost of joy as I compared storylines and anticipated moments and so forth.
So... Rachel and Oliver both seemed like pretty honest characters. Rachel had made some poor decisions and was trapped by them, but she didn't *want* to hurt anyone. She was also conscious of the fact that she'd kind of sucked when it came to handling Oliver and her relationship during freshman year, and that made me like her even more. Making a mistake and realizing you've made it and regretting it are all good character development things in my book.
Oliver was a bit harder to get a fix on, manly because I missed having Oliver's perspective - the back and forth of perspectives by chapter in so many new adult books has really spoiled me! Having to be more clever than our heroine and read into his actions? Geez! Maybe I'm becoming a lazy reader.... Regardless, he seemed like a good guy, and I'd kind of like to spend more time with him in future books in the series, to get to know him better.
One thing I didn't really buy into was the friendship with Meghan - Meghan didn't seem like a particularly great friend to me, and I was surprised by the lack of 'air-clearing' between these two. I'd like to think that such great friends would at least attempt to address things when things felt a little weird, right?
Now, story-wise (clearly secondary to characters for me), there's the present storyline and then flashbacks to tell us the story of Oliver and Rachel *before.* I did find that the flashbacks dragged a little - I didn't care so much exactly how things went down, as long as I had the gist of it. But I do think that overall, these bits were necessary to really develop the relationship between Oliver and Rachel in the present, so do power through them!
Bottom line:
Someday Maybe is a solid contemporary romance. It was a relief to read a new adult without the characteristic uber-angst - sometimes the parade of damaged characters in this genre can be exhausting!
I can't really speak to it as an adaptation of Persuasion but I can say that overall, I found the book pretty entertaining!
4 stars
For fans of Ophelia London, new adult, contemporary romance, second chance at love stories.
The Basics:
Love Bites by Ophelia London
Entangled: Bliss
Romance
Published August 18, 2014
Source: Received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Why I picked up this book:
I wanted a novella or two to lighten my reading load (which backfired because I ended up buying a stack of books) and I liked the marine twist on this contemporary romance
The Basics:
Definitely, Maybe in Love by Ophelia London
Entangled Publishing LLC
New Adult, Romance
Published October 28th, 2013
I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Blurb:
Her theory of attraction is about to get a new angle
Spring Honeycutt wants two things: to ace her sustainable living thesis and to save the environment. Both seem hopelessly unobtainable until her college professor suggests that with a new angle, her paper could be published. Spring swears she’ll do whatever it takes to ensure that happens.
"Whatever it takes," however, means forming a partnership with the very hot, very privileged, very conceited Henry Knightly.
Henry is Spring's only hope at publication, but he's also the über-rich son of a land developer and cash-strapped Spring’s polar opposite—though she can't help being attracted to the way he pushes her buttons, both politically and physically. Spring finds there's more to Henry than his old money and argyle sweaters…but can she drop the loud-and-proud act long enough to let him in? Suddenly, choosing between what she wants and what she needs puts Spring at odds with everything she believes in.
Definitely, Maybe in Love is a modern take on Pride and Prejudice that proves true love is worth risking a little pride.
What worked for me:
As previously established, I'm a sucker for a good Pride and Prejudice update. Maybe it's that the Darcy character has to swallow all that formidable pride to apologize and make good with the Lizzie character. Yes, Lizzie has her own pride and prejudices to overcome, but there's something about a sexy, arrogant man humbling himself for love that gets me. Every. Single. Time.
So, how does London handle Austen's tale? Really well. This version is reasonably faithful to the original text. We've got stand-ins for most of the main characters, with some doing double duty (as in the case of Julia acting as both Jane and Lydia). There's lots of updates for the original plot - I wasn't feeling the lack of anything (though there are elements that have been dropped entirely).
Perhaps most importantly, Henry makes an excellent Darcy. Henry's got the upper-class thing going for him in terms of a wealthy family and loads of opportunities that are foreign to us normal people. He's hot, he's initially really stand-offish and he's gradually revealed as both an all-around nice guy AND a sucker for our heroine, Spring.
Spring's a bit more complicated. She's big on her issues revolving around the environment. It's hard to see past her complete commitment to her cause, which has involved making herself over in the image of what she thinks the ideal environmental warrior should be. Even her two best friends comment on how aggressive she's become on this front, and how off-putting that might be for someone who doesn't know her very well.
Without being too spoilery, I did like the moment when Spring is forced to confront one of her hot button issues face on, and her willingness to acknowledge she may not have had all the facts. I think this is an important step towards softening her stance a little, and making her that much more likeable.
Possibly my favorite part of this book - okay, no, Henry was my favorite part - definitely my *second* favorite part of this book is that Spring struggles with her own identity throughout this novel. She's recently undergone this self-imposed make-over to make herself appear more committed to her causes, but she's still floundering with her thesis, and I think she's struggling to make a bold statement about who she is within the context of a movement that is so characterized by stereotypes. This development of identity/finding oneself is a critical part of the New Adult genre - for me, at least - and I really appreciated the way that London incorporated it.
What didn't work for me:
I think seeing Spring interact with characters who shared her passion for the environment and sustainability might have emphasized her identity issues. I do realize that this would have veered away from the original Pride and Prejudice story but perhaps there might have been a clever way to tease that out a little bit?
For all the intellectual/academic basis for Spring and Henry to come together, I really couldn't believe that he was the *only* student at Stanford who understood Spring's sustainability thesis. It was a bit of unnecessary contrivance to bring together the two characters - the attraction combined with convenience of being neighbours (and willingness to help!) could have been enough to make Henry Spring's best choice instead of only choice?
I also didn't think it was necessary for Spring to be noted as a virgin mid-way through the book. First, it set my expectations regarding how far her relationship with Henry would advance. Second, when there was a later discussion about her using random guys to satisfy her needs, it read a little strange. That said, I felt like her experience or lack thereof was a non-issue for me - it didn't bother me that she *was* a virgin, it just seemed like a strange detail to include at the time it was shared in the book.
Bottom Line:
If you love a good Pride and Prejudice adaptation, you're going to enjoy Definitely, Maybe in Love. London adeptly puts a modern spin on the tale, giving us a sexy hero to root for, a modern heroine trying to find herself and a cast of supporting characters that complicate everything!
I definitely recommend this book.
4.5 stars
For fans of Pride and Prejudice adaptations, of the New Adult genre, of young love and sexy heroes.
