First & Then

by Emma Mills

[girlinthepages]

I'll be the first to admit I haven't read Pride & Prejudice (For shame! I know, I know, I am an English major anomaly) and have only seen a handful of Friday Night Lights episodes (the rest of my family was obsessed and binge watched it on Netflix last year). However, I was still very intrigued by this book because 1. The cover is gorgeous and 2) It is pitched as a combination of two very different things. Sadly, this book really didn't live up to the rave reviews I had seen from many other bloggers, and I found many of the characters to be rather boring to read about (especially the main character). BUT I will say that one thing this novel captured very, very well is the portrayal of teenage rejection and heartbreak when that one person you've been crushing on forever admits that they know, and even worse, that they don't return your feelings. Devon and Cass' relationship was such a classic, realistic depiction of this high school phenomenon and I felt myself cringing and feeling for Devon's unrequited feelings for him. This book also featured a great platonic friendship between Devon and Jordan, without any underlying romantic tension.

Overall: If you're not a huge fan of Pride & Prejudice to pick up the references, the novel doesn't really offer a lot to set it apart from other contemporaries. There were some interesting family dynamics (such as Foster and Devon) and a wide range of male/female high school relationships, but I honestly wasn't really charmed by Ezra or Devon as main characters, so I wasn't really that invested in their love story.