Book Divas

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 . . . (Summary courtesy of Goodreads.com)

I fell absolutely in love with nearly everything about Melissa Jensen's Falling in Love with English Boys. The title immediately piqued my interest, and the cover is gorgeous. The story is told through Cat's blog posts to her friends at home and Katherine's diary entries. The book held to all the staples of a good romantic comedy - it is funny, fairly light-hearted, and very romantic - while also going above and beyond the basics. Jensen goes very in-depth with the English setting, which I enjoyed; we get to "see" quite a few locations, and it feels very real. Between the two girls, one romance was pretty predictable and one was less so, but through all the twists and turns of the book, I found myself wondering, "How are they going to end up together after this?!"

I loved the pop culture references, Cat's British friends, and the utter realness of Cat and Katherine - they made for a very enjoyable read. It was a little difficult adjusting to the breaks in the story at first, when it shifted from Cat's blog to Katherine's diary, but once I became more used to it I appreciated how the diary entries correlated somewhat with Cat's experiences. I would highly recommend Falling in Love with English Boys, because it is a highly satisfactory romantic comedy with the added bonus of English boys. You will not be disappointed!
 

• Publisher: Speak
• Date of Publication: December 23, 2010