Review: I really wanted to like this one
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 03 28, 2014
First Impression...I totally love Pride and Prejudice.  I love re-tellings of that book.  I've read this author before and loved that book.  I love the cover.  The blurb sounds so fun. I was ready to love it.The Characters...Spring. I don't like her.  I mean I really don't like her.  She's decided to make her self over into someone who is concerned about the environment and animal rights so that she can be taken seriously but in doing so she has become closed minded and judgmental.  Besides I don't think it had the "taken seriously" effect she was hoping for.  The one thing she did that hit my hot button the most was that she refused to listen to music by male artists.  I really can't deal with women like that.  It's one thing to be a strong and self-sufficient women but quite another to man-bash.  By 20% I wanted to stop because I couldn't take her anymore.  But then I looked at all the reviews.  So many people love this book.  I had to keep reading.  By 40% she was little more tolerable and a reading friend suggested I look for her good qualities.  That got me to 60% and by then she had chilled enough that I could finish the book.Now Henry was a different story.  In the original Pride and Prejudice, it was Mr. Darcy I really didn't like and Elizabeth I liked from the beginning.  For this one it was the opposite.  At first, we don't get much about Henry and that could have been part of my issues with the book.  Once we do start to learn about him, it's clear that Spring has him all wrong.  Little tidbits make it clear he is misrepresented and not the evil guy Spring things he is.  He was a reason I kept reading.  I wanted to know more about him and, frankly, to see what he would do next.  He put up with Springs unfair representation of him waiting patiently for her to figure that out.  I respected that.The Story...I get the point of this story.  Same as Pride and Prejudice.  I loved P&P; but I really struggled with this one.  I finally decided that it was the modern issues that were the problem for me.  I encounter people who judge and look down their condescending noses because others don't think they way they do.  It really is an issue for me.  People are a product of their choices and their experiences but we are all people.  I don't deal well with people who choose something and then judge others for not making the same choice.  It never bothered me in Pride and Prejudice because I was far removed from the issues of that day.  Here, not so much.I think if I could have overcame my anger at Spring for her pride and prejudice I might have enjoyed this one more.  I do think it's a brilliant way to modernize the story even if it hit some of my personal buttons.Could I Put It Down...Yes. I had to talk myself into picking it back up.  I had to promise myself something I really wanted to read as soon as I finished this one.In The End...A lot of people love this book and I think if Pride and Prejudice is a favorite than this is a must read.  But for me, I just struggled too much with Spring's closed mindedness to enjoy the story.  In the end, I decided on 3 stars because I ended up liking the second half of the book.