Sass & Serendipity

June 1, 2011

Billed as a retelling of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility but reading more like "sisters on the verge of a nervous breakdown," this potentially buoyant comic novel sinks under the weight of its unwieldy high concept.

Dad's departure, leaving Mom to cope on a small salary without child support, turned Gabby, 17, into a grumpily dutiful misanthrope who's given up on love. She helps at home, works a miserable job and studies hard, then vents her frustrations on her irresponsible sister and faithful, torch-bearing Mule. Hiding a secret, Gabby repeatedly rejects overtures from handsome, wealthy Prentiss, who's gone out of his way to help her family. At the other pole of emotional dysfunction, immature and self-centered Daphne, 15, carries her fantasies of finding true love with a boy she's barely met to scary extremes. Ziegler's affectionate portrait of small-town Texas life and sharply observed secondary characters, such as Sheri who "always gave compliments as if she were complaining," bring the story to intermittent life. With their intense emotions permanently set to 11, though, the exasperating sisters have little in common with Elinor and Marianne. Austen's attention, humor and insight weren't given to deep emotions in themselves, but to how we govern them—and what happens when we don't.

Readers are advised to stick to the original. (Fiction. 12 & up)

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

August 1, 2011

Gr 7 Up-The only thing the Rivera sisters have in common is that they live in Barton, TX. Both girls are dealing with their parents' divorce but they take different sides. Fifteen-year-old Daphne blames her mom for her dad's disappearance while Gabby, 17, is sure that it is her dad's fault. She is an independent realist and spends most of her time with her best friend, Mule Randolph. Daphne is a dreamer and always looks on the bright side. She only has eyes for Luke, and she's so sure that he will ask her to the prom that she uses much-needed money to buy a dress well in advance. The siblings' lives don't get much better when their mom tells them that they are losing their home and must find a new place to live. With both girls finding companionship in unlikely places, they are brought together and see one another's point of view more clearly. While the book is slow at times and there is little action other than sisterly drama, there's bound to be an audience for this novel. It comes out just as the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility is being celebrated. Even though there is no correlation between the books, the author hopes that readers will find an appreciation for the Rivera sisters just as they did for the Dashwoods.-Karen Alexander, Lake Fenton High School, Linden, MI

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2011
Grades 8-10 Zeigler celebrates the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility with this modern retelling. Sensible Gabby and her perky, romantic sister Daphne don't exactly see eye to eyeat least when it comes to their family, school, boys, jobs, clothes, or appropriate behavior. But like the Dashwood girls, Gabby and Daphne learn what being a sister truly means through good times and, especially, bad. Ziegler, in true Austen fashion, enjoys putting her characters through tangled romances that never end up quite where you expect. The male characters are well defined and very likable, a pleasant surprise in a novel written from the points of view of two strong female protagonists. There's a lota lotof fighting, and the mess of high-school broken hearts can become exhausting, yet firsr and foremost, this is asweet, sometimes sad, and very moving tale of sisters. It's also an excellent introduction to the original.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)