Prada & Prejudice

June 29, 2009
Readers don't need to be Jane Austen fans to appreciate Hubbard's debut, a time-bending tale with some Pride and Prejudice
elements. Awkward, plain-Jane teenager Callie is on a school trip abroad when she spies a pair of “totally classic” Prada shoes in a shop window and buys them on impulse, hoping to impress more popular girls on the trip. Unfortunately, moments after trying the shoes on, she trips, falls and blacks out. The next thing Callie knows, she is in 19th-century England, where she is mistaken for a duke's childhood friend arriving for an extended visit. With nowhere else to go, Callie stays at the duke's castle, and during the next four weeks, she becomes good friends with the duke's cousin, develops a love/hate relationship with the duke and shocks nearly everyone in the castle with her feminist ideology and numerous faux pas (“You could have heard a pin drop when I asked if they had ketchup,” she says). Part comedy of manners, part romantic fantasy, this fast-reading, playful novel takes the idea of feeling out of place to a hilarious extreme. Ages 12–up.

July 1, 2009
Gr 7-10-Fifteen-year-old Callies class trip to England is, like most things in her life, remarkably unremarkable. Ever since she was overheard making a derogatory remark about cheerleaders by one of the most popular girls in school, Callie has been permanently on the D list. To her misery and embarrassment, she has been ditched by her class-trip buddy, leaving her stranded at their London hotel. A scheme to join fellow classmates on a surreptitious trip to a hot club leads to her tripping spectacularly over her new Prada heels. Upon waking from her blackout, Callie discovers that she has been transported to Regency England and is now the long-lost American friend of Emily, a well-to-do teenager. True to her character, she makes a series of faux pas with the titled gentry, earning her the disapproval of a matriarch and a dashing 19-year-old duke. Although her adjustment to an 1815 lifestyle is rough, she begins to appreciate her friendship with Emily and her surprising budding romance with the duke. Callies perpetual awkwardness, chronic foot-in-mouth syndrome, spiritedness, and openness make her genuinely likable. Endearingly funny episodes involving a Heart and Soul pianoforte duet and a CPR rescue in front of an astonished crowd are contrasted with Callies determination to rescue Emily from an engagement to a suitor 30 years her senior. Although some aspects of the book and character traits are stock and predictable, this is a fun and charming read, sure to be popular with fans of humor and romance."Jennifer Schultz, Fauquier County Public Library, Warrenton, VA"

Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2009
Grades 7-10 Those who have seen the television series Lost in Austen, about a young woman who walks through a door and finds herself in the midst of Pride and Prejudice, will feelon familiar territory. Here it is 15-year-old Callie, on avisit to London, who trips on her Prada pumps and wakes up in 1815 England. Although there are no Bennetts about, theres dear Emily, who assumes Callie is an American cousin, andthe young Duke of Harksbury, with whom Callie immediately crosses swordsverbally, of course. Naturally, with speech, activities, and conventions being so different, much hilarity ensues ina story thatssomething of a comedy of errors. But there are also secrets to be unwound as Callie tries to save Emily from what could be a loveless marriage, and romance to be had in the comely form of the duke. Why (and how) Callie goes back in time is never satisfyingly explained; still, if you dont look too closely, there is fun to be had here.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)