Prada and Prejudice

by Mandy Hubbard

[ladygrey]

I have to admit I was disappointed in this book because I liked the premise. But Callie was a thoroughly unlikable character and that ruined pretty much the entire book. She's insipid and rash and ignorant and rude and therefore incredibly annoying. I almost stopped reading several times because I couldn't take it. But I kept waiting for the turn, which I had to believe was coming, where she would learn to not rush to judgement and pay attention to someone other than herself and learn to be gracious and kind. And the turn did come, eventually. But that last 50 pages weren't enough to redeem the rest of the book.

And I know some of Callie's foibles were necessary to set up the [b:Pride and Prejudice|1885|Pride and Prejudice|Jane Austen|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1320399351s/1885.jpg|3060926] dynamic. But Elizabeth Bennet is a very likable character. She's kind and strong and loves fiercely so it's easy to identify with her and to see Mr. Darcy as cold or arrogant or withdrawn. Until of course you know and then you can go back and see the places where he is actually kind and a good man. But Callie is thoroughly unlikable from the beginning. I cringed with every assumption and outburst. I can't see what Alex would like about her at all - even if she challenged him she was rude and ignorant (I hesitated to put this on my regency-romance shelf because Callie was such and idiot about the whole thing that none of it was really romantic at all). Alex, on the other hand, was obviously kind and had good intentions from the beginning.

I'm glad I read [b:Ripple|7912474|Ripple|Mandy Hubbard|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1311706067s/7912474.jpg|11193861] first because I liked it. If I'd read this first I'd have probably written [a:Mandy Hubbard|2274221|Mandy Hubbard|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1284581915p2/2274221.jpg] off and not read her work again.