Falling In Love With English Boys by Melissa Jensen
Release Date – December 23, 2010
Publisher Website – Penguin/Speak
Publisher Social Media - Twitter
Pages - 293 pages
My Rating- 7/10
**purchased**
Here is the Goodreads synopsis
Sixteen-year-old Catherine Vernon has been stranded in London for the summer-no friends, no ex-boyfriend Adam the Scum (good riddance!), and absolutely nothing to do but blog about her misery to her friends back home. Desperate for something-anything-to do in London while her (s)mother's off researching boring historical things, Cat starts reading the 1815 diary of Katherine Percival her mom gives her-and finds the similarities between their lives to be oddly close. But where Katherine has the whirls of the society, the parties and the gossip over who is engaged to who, Cat's only got some really excellent English chocolate. Then she meets William Percival-the uber-hot descendant of Katherine-and things start looking up . .
Falling in Love With English Boys has everything you could want - romance, humour, chocolate, and swoony love interests.
The telling of the story is unique in that it’s told through two different perspectives via blog and diary entries. The author uses blog entries for our modern Cat, and diary entries for Katherine. I thought this was really unique, and gave it a fun feel. The historical aspect to Katherine’s diary entries was a pleasant surprise. The mention of poets (Lord Byron), the war, and proper behaviour were fascinating.
I could see people having issues with the style of writing. Cat uses a lot of slang, and spells words differently. The text messages she puts in her blog posts are an example. It felt natural to her character though, so it worked for me. I had to laugh at her calling her Mom (S)mother.
The two main characters Cat and Katherine were both likeable enough. They both had a spark, a sense of humour and were different enough from each other that the two different narratives did not get confusing. I enjoyed the new friends Cat meets in London. They were fun, helped bring Cat out of her shell a bit, and the type of girls you would want to befriend yourself.
The parallels between Cat and Katherine’s story are often apparent. It made sense to have their journeys entwine. History and the present collide to provide a cute, sigh inducing ending to the story.
Is the plot a little predictable? Yes. Is it heavy on the romance? Yes. It’s one of those fun, make you happy books that doesn’t take it self seriously. It’s something you wish could happen. I want to go to England and meet my own cute English guy now.
You’ll want to read this one eating your favourite British chocolate (I recommend a Curly Wurly) and drinking a nice cup of tea. You’ll be wishing you had your own English boy to fall in love with.
