Review: Suddenly You

Title: Suddenly You
Author: Cecilia Gray
Genre: YA, Jane Austen-paralit, romance
Published: 7 May 2013
Pages: 128
Rating: 7 / 10
Challenges: NetGalley Challenge

Synopsis: "Fanny doesn't want to be at The Jane Austen Academy. She intends to lay low until graduation when she can try out for the Olympic track team. She doesn't need friends or love. She only needs her running.

But The Academy is in danger. In an effort to save it, Fanny joins forces with the friends she never knew she wanted. Suddenly, Fanny finds herself center stage in the middle of the Academy's biggest love triangle as the lead in the school play...only this track star can't afford to break a leg." (from GoodReads)

My Review: This was my least favorite of the Jane Austen Academy novellas available now, and I'm not sure why. Maybe I read through them too quickly and got burned out? Maybe the enjoyment I got out of Kat's book made it difficult for me to enjoy Fanny (who is honestly my least favorite Austen heroine) and her adventures as much? The romance part of the story itself is pretty similar to Mansfield Park in that Fanny has a crush on someone she views as unattainable (NOT her cousin this time, hooray!) and she spends a lot of time mooning over him and trying to fight off the advances of Josh (as Henry Crawford this time). This book frustrated me because so much of the conflict could've been avoided if Fanny just communicated with people more (her mom, Tran, Josh, Lucy) instead of just letting everything happen to her and then dealing with it. The best part of this book for me was the surprising character development of Josh. He's been the bad guy in four different stories, and it seems like he's finally getting some growth. I'm really looking forward to what happens to him in Emma's story.

This was still a good story, my quibbles aside. It's cute and fun and a really quick read. I'm excited about the last two books in this series and can't wait to read them!

Other Reviews:

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