Enthusiasm

Julie's best friend Ashleigh, is an Entusiast. She gets really into something and it consumes not only her life, but any life in her proximity too. Julie, being the good friend that she is, tries to talk her out of some of the crazier schemes, but mostly to no avail. Everything is just as it should be though, until Ashleigh locks on to Julie's obsession—Pride and Prejudice. Now Ashleigh has it in her mind to find them true love...by crashing a party at an all boys school. Julie now has to try to stop her friend from not only embarrassing herself, but her too. It might not be all bad though, maybe they can find true love...or at least some cute boys.

Right of the bat, one thing that bugged me was them using crisp all the time. What does that mean?! I have never heard it in my life. There's already a word that means cool...it's COOL! Anyways now that I'm done with that rant, this book was actually pretty fun. It was a bit on the short side, which sometimes works but I felt this one could have used a few more chapters. It ends just as it's getting really good. It takes place mostly in the fall/winter time period, so it's a good read for the current season.

The handsome stranger seemed both handsome and charming. He was super swoon-worthy and I would totally date him if I found him in real life. Some of the things he does are just TOO amazingly charming. His friend sounds nice, but sort of dorky. He's like a dorky miscreant though, because he's always trying to get into trouble. Not on purpose necessarily, but he does things that would get him into trouble and make it easy to get caught. Ashleigh was pretty intense. I would feel exhausted all the time if I was friends with her. She seems lovely and smart and nice and loyal, but she has way too much energy for her own good. This is probably why she gets so obsessed with things.

There weren't too many reference to Pride and Prejudice that I noticed, but I haven't read it recently. If you've been watching The Lizzie Bennet Diaries you'll catch on to the references they do make. This was a fun little read about boys and enthusiasm. If you're looking for something fairly light and quick, I'd definitely recommend you try this one.

First Line:
"There is little more likely to exasperate a person of sense than finding herself tied by affection and habit to an Enthusiast."

Favorite Line:
"Asleep in my bed, awake in my bed, in that limbo between waking and sleeping that's known as tenth-grade European history, I dreamed about it."

Reader reviewed by Jen

Title: Enthusiasm

Author: Polly Shulman

Summary: Julie has a best friend named Ashleigh. Ashleigh is an enthusiast; every once in a while she gets a new obsession and throws herself fully into it, dragging Julie along with her. But when Julie's passion Pride and Prejudice is Ashleigh's latest craze, Ashleigh emulates everything about the 19th century (speech, dress) and worst of all a quest for her "Mr. Darcy". So Ashleigh's attempt to find him leads them to the local boys school meaning love, but who for?

Thoughts: Who doesn't have a friend like this. I found Ashleigh a charming and cute character, but she could bridge to annoying every once in a while. I also at times felt like this book was more about Ashleigh than Julie and at other points she felt absent. Julie is a good character but she is a bit clueless and doesn't seem to be sure of herself. I liked the hero in this book also. As for the plot, even though we have a touch more insight than Julie, there are some things I think that she should have picked up on. The plot' is super-good and gets quick, exciting, and a bit suspenseful at the end. I did find the pacing plodded at the midway point. There was also a kissing scene which I felt was really awkward. Overall it was cute, sassy and I like the offbeat incorporation and references to Pride and Prejudice. CarolynMackler fans, this is right up your alley. 

Cover: The cover is gorgeous, it has a nice colour scheme, a good title treatment and a nice image. I'm kinda miffed that Ashleigh is our cover girl and not Julie.

Rating: 3 stars 

PS: For Canadians this is a Chapters/Indigo bargain book, its $2 for the hardcover!