The Last Best Kiss by Claire LaZebnik
.Summary :
Anna Eliot is tired of
worrying about what other people think. After all, that was how she lost
the only guy she ever really liked, Finn Westbrook. Now, three years after she broke his heart, the one who got away is back in her life.
All
Anna wants is a chance to relive their last kiss again (and again and
again). But Finn obviously hasn’t forgotten how she treated him, and
he’s made it clear he has no interest in having anything to do with her.
Anna
keeps trying to persuade herself that she doesn’t care about Finn
either, but even though they’ve both changed since they first met, deep
down she knows he’s the guy for her. Now if only she can get him to
believe that, too....
Hey guys, so I was saving this book for my first review on this blog and let me tell you, this is not going to be pretty.
My review :
I'm a huge Jane Austen fan, really big. I love her, I don't love all of her books, but I genuinely love her. Out of all of her books, Pride and Prejudice is my favorite, followed by Persuasion. The Last Best Kiss is a modern adaptation of Persuasion, and there are not a lot of things I love more than modern adaptations of classical novels, believe me.
I read Epic Fail (adaptation of Pride and Prejudice) a few months ago, and I started reading it without knowing it was an adaptation. However I soon realized it was, and that only made me love the book even more. Now, I'll be honest, because I read so many books in such short periods of time, it's very hard for books to grab my attention, but when they do it's because there's something special about them. If I can remember the characters or what happens in a book months after reading it, said book is a winner.
Now, I really wanted to enjoy this book, I mean I loved Epic Fail so much, and I love Persuasion's plot. I was really interested to see what it would be like with younger characters and a modern setting. The book wasn't bad, it was just not what I expected. I feel like it didn't really capture the plot of the original novel like Epic Fail had for Pride and Prejudice. It's crazy typing this, but for once it wasn't the female lead character that bothered me but the male. Well, she bothered me too, but not as much as he did. Anna did something very wrong to Finn when they were 14/15, and when he comes back a couple years later, he totally ignores her. Now, no problem so far, it's just the original plot. What bothered me was how Finn not only flirts with other girls in front of Anna (like Wentworth does in Persuasion), but he actually engages in a romantic relationship with one of them, WHICH DOES NOT HAPPEN IN THE ORIGINAL BOOK. Now this might have been a personal choice made by the author, because they're all teenagers so they're all hot for each other, but it was what bothered me the most. In Persuasion, Wentworth does seem interested in Louisa Musgrove, but we know he never intended to propose to her or anything, and the reader quickly understands he’s just trying to hurt Anne’s feelings. However in this book, Finn actually seemed really into Anna’s friend (see, I already forgot their names), and totally over Anna, which TOTALLY DEFEATS THE POINT OF THE ORIGINAL NOVEL.
Anyways, apart from that, the book was really just boring, I liked that it was pretty realistic when it came to school and the pressure society puts on teenagers for their SATs and stuff, but mostly boring. I liked Anna, I found her smart and funny sometimes. But I torn about one aspect of her personality : her passivity. I liked that she was ready to put her feelings for Finn aside and let him be with her friend (still can’t remember her name), I liked that even when they flirted in front of her she didn’t get mad and was still very close and nice to that friend. But this is also what pissed me off, she is getting her heart broken and does NOTHING, just sits on the side and watches. But I guess that’s her personality, and that’s something Anne also does in Persuasion.
I didn’t like the book because it didn’t go as I expected it to, which is a studio reason to dislike a book, I know. I found that nothing really happened, and the characters were flat, and most of them were redundant. I wished I had loved this book. I’m sad I didn’t. But I wont’t give up on Jane Austen modern adaptations !
My rating : ✦✦✦✧✧
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