Review: Prom & Prejudice by Elizabeth Eulberg

Title: Prom & Prejudice
Author: Elizabeth Eulberg
Publisher: Scholastic Point
Pub. Date: 1.1.2011
Genre: Contemporary YA
Keywords: Retelling, Prejudice, Romance, Elite Schools, Friendship
Pages: 231
Description (from Goodreads):

After winter break, the girls at the very prestigious Longbourn Academy become obsessed with the prom. Lizzie Bennet, who attends Longbourn on a scholarship, isn’t interested in designer dresses and expensive shoes, but her best friend, Jane, might be — especially now that Charles Bingley is back from a semester in London.

Lizzie is happy about her friend’s burgeoning romance but less than impressed by Charles’s friend, Will Darcy, who’s snobby and pretentious. Darcy doesn’t seem to like Lizzie either, but she assumes it’s because her family doesn’t have money. Clearly, Will Darcy is a pompous jerk — so why does Lizzie find herself drawn to him anyway?

Will Lizzie’s pride and Will’s prejudice keep them apart? Or are they a prom couple in the making? Whatever the result, Elizabeth Eulberg, author of The Lonely Hearts Club, has concocted a very funny, completely stylish delight for any season — prom or otherwise.

I adored Elizabeth Eulberg's THE LONELY HEARTS CLUB, so, coupled with my lifelong love of Jane Austen, PROM & PREJUDICE was a must read. Eulberg's novels are light and rather fluffy and PROM & PREJUDICE is just over 200 pages, making it a quick read... perfect for a weekend.

The characters were likeable and the similarities between Eulberg's reimagined versions of Austen's characters were easy to see. I liked that the reader was able to draw parallels between P&P and PROM & PREJUDICE. Although, in PROM & PREJUDICE, Lizzie's mother is, thankfully, nothing like the Mrs. Bennett of P&P. This Mrs. Bennett was much more supportive and considerably less interested in connections.

I did think that there were times when Eulberg would have been better off straying a bit further from Austen. For example, the language was archaic at times and didn't seem to fit the contemporary setting. I would have preferred Eulberg to abandon her attempt to match dialogue... it made the conversation awkward and, at times, almost forced. 

Overall, I'd recommend PROM & PREJUDICE, but I preferred THE LONELY HEARTS CLUB. Read Eulberg's debut first, then pick up her sophomore release if you like the first.

Review copy provided by Amazon Vine.

Review: Beauty Queens by Libba Bray

Title: Beauty Queen
Author: Libba Bray
Publisher: Scholastic
Pub. Date: 5.24.2011
Genre: Contemporary YA
Keywords: Survival, Pageants, Satire, Girl Power, Self Discovery
Pages: 400
Description (from Goodreads):

The fifty contestants in the Miss Teen Dream Pageant thought this was going to be a fun trip to the beach, where they could parade in their state-appropriate costumes and complete in front of the cameras. But sadly, their airplane had another idea, crashing on a desert island and leaving the survivors stranded with little food, little water, and practically no eye liner.

What’s a beauty queen to do? Continue to practice for the talent portion of the program – or wrestle snakes to the ground? Get a perfect tan – or learn to run wild? And what should happen when the sexy pirates show up?

Welcome to the heart of non-exfoliated darkness. Your tour guide? None other than Libba Bray, the hilarious, sensational, Printz Award-winning author of A Great and Terrible Beauty and Going Bovine. The result is a novel that will make you laugh, make you think, and make you never see beauty the same way again..


Libba Bray is one of the craziest, off-the-wall writers I've ever experienced. And reading her books is just that - an experience. Bray's novels are always entertaining, but BEAUTY QUEENS took things to whole new level. 


No subject is spared by Bray in the satirical BEAUTY QUEENS... thank goodness. This biting satire calls out the ridiculousness of pop culture, the backwards and shady nature of big corporations, and confronts the idea of beauty and what it means to be a woman.


BEAUTY QUEENS is girl power... not in a cutesy, yay-I'm-a-girl! way, but in a I'm-a-woman-hear-me-roar! way. This book is silly and humorous, but, in the end, it had a serious message. Each of the surviving, stranded beauty queens had something to hide... something that shouldn't have had to be hidden in the first place. There is no checklist for beauty or for being a strong, successful woman and Bray's BEAUTY QUEENS is a testament to that.


BEAUTY QUEENS is a novel I'll definitely be loaning out to the women in my life. It's laugh-out-loud funny, a bit romantic, a bit wild, and a whole lot of kickass. Bray doesn't disappoint.

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If my review wasn't convincing enough, the author gives you plenty of reasons to check out BEAUTY QUEENS:







In addition, Scholastic has launched a new online community called This Is Teen to connect readers with their favorite YA authors and books. Visit their page on Facebook for all the latest news on Libba Bray and her new book Beauty Queens: www.facebook.com/thisisteen.

Review copy provided by Amazon Vine and Big Honcho Media.