Patron Login
Processing Request
Prada & prejudice / Mandy Hubbard.
Processing Request
Reviews
Booklist Reviews 2009 May #2
"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 feel on familiar territory. Here it is 15-year-old Callie, on a visit to London, who trips on her Prada pumps and wakes up in 1815 England. Although there are no Bennetts about, there's dear Emily, who assumes Callie is an American cousin, and the young Duke of Harksbury, with whom Callie immediately crosses swords—verbally, of course. Naturally, with speech, activities, and conventions being so different, much hilarity ensues in a story that's something 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 don't look too closely, there is fun to be had here." Copyright 2009 Booklist Reviews.
PW Reviews 2009 June #5
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. (June)
[Page 130]. Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.