Epic Fail by Claire LaZebnik

Epic Fail
Claire LaZebnik
Publisher: Harper Teen
Release Date: August 2, 2011
Pages: 288
Source: Publisher

Rating: 4.5 stars

Will Elise’s love life be an epic win or an epic fail?


At Coral Tree Prep in Los Angeles, who your parents are can make or break you. Case in point:


As the son of Hollywood royalty, Derek Edwards is pretty much prince of the school—not that he deigns to acknowledge many of his loyal subjects.


As the daughter of the new principal, Elise Benton isn’t exactly on everyone’s must-sit-next-to-at-lunch list.


When Elise’s beautiful sister catches the eye of the prince’s best friend, Elise gets to spend a lot of time with Derek, making her the envy of every girl on campus. Except she refuses to fall for any of his rare smiles and instead warms up to his enemy, the surprisingly charming social outcast Webster Grant. But in this hilarious tale of fitting in and flirting, not all snubs are undeserved, not all celebrity brats are bratty, and pride and prejudice can get in the way of true love for only so long.

Since I heard about Epic Fail, I have been very excited for it. I am a huge fan of Pride and Prejudice, so when I found out this contemporary book that was based on Pride and Prejudice was coming out, I was thrilled. Epic Fail turned out to be a wonderful read, and I am very anxious to check out more from Claire LaZebnik after finishing this one!

I really loved the plot. It was so much fun to read. I loved trying to figure out what major plot points from Pride and Prejudice LaZebnik would through in. Throughout the entire book I was waiting for this to happen or that to happen, but what was very cool was that LaZebnik really took liberties with the story and it wasn’t simply a modern retelling. It was this really unique story, with obvious similarities.

I loved the characters. I thought Elise was a great character and narrator; I really liked her tone of voice. I couldn’t help falling for Derek right away, he was just wonderful. Chase and Juliana were such likable characters, you couldn’t help but to just love both of them!

I would really recommend this fabulous YA debut from Claire LaZebnik. It was entertaining and was a really light read, I found myself reading straight through it. With its great writing and fabulous cast of characters, I found a new favorite read.