Romance Bingo Square - YA

A quick read, entertaining but a bit shallow in terms of feelings. Lizzie attends Longbourne Academy as a scholarship student, making her an outcast at the school. She has just two friends, Charlotte (fellow scholarship student) and Jane (Lizzie's room mate). At the beginning of the book, Lizzie meets Charles and Darcy (from Pemberly Academy, the sister school to Longbourne) at a welcome back party and is in instant dislike of Darcy; likewise, Darcy is immune to Lizzie's charms due to her status at school. Add there is Charles' twin sister, a Pemberly drop out named George Wick, and Jane's little sister Lydia, and well, the gang's all here (here being small town Connecticut).

The story was fun to pass to the time to and gain another square completed for the bingo. Lizzie and Jane are adorable and you can really tell their friendship runs deep. Lydia is just exhausting as a human being and just as stupid/naïve to fall for Wick as in the original. I connected with Darcy more here than I did in the original, but he was a little too thirsty for Lizzie's affections so soon into the story. Lizzie was the best character - she knew herself and had no problems standing up for herself and her friends. She also kept her wits about her, especially in dealing with Darcy and Wick. Wick is still an asshole of the highest order. The fact that she and Darcy were together in the end and both of them opted out of prom rang true for the story and was the best ending.

I have come to the last of the winter 2017 edition of 24in48 read-a-thon with a time total of 17 hours. I am damn proud of myself. I am going to spend most of tomorrow night writing reviews and updating my progress reports for each of my challenges. I have read longer and more books in this go-around than in any other read-a-thon to date. Here is what I read:

1. Finished Lowcountry Bordello (Liz Talbot #4) by Susan M. Boyer for Romance Bingo - Love is Murder

2. March Volume 2 by Rep. John Lewis et al for Pop Sugar prompt - book with pictures

3. Prom & Prejudice by Elizabeth Eulberg for Romance Bingo - Young Adult

4. Double Love (Sweet Valley High #1) by Francine Pascal and Kate William - for Romance Bingo - Twins square and Pop Sugar prompt - Loved as a child

5. Food: A Love Story by Jim Gaffigan (audiobook) for Pop Sugar prompt - Book about food

3 out of the five books completed were from the library.

I didn't start reading until 12pm and only did 8 hours of reading. But I did check in to Twitter a lot to see everyone at the marches , which ate up some reading time. I finished Lowcountry Bordello (that ending!), and finished March Volume 2 (decided to buy the entire trilogy for my home library come Monday - I cried at the end), and started and finished Prom & Prejudice. I also spent 20 minutes reading aloud to the kids (3 picture books). So I am still on track for completing my read-a-thon TBR. I haven't done a single challenge and probably won't at this point. My main concern is reading as much as I can and hitting between 15 and 18 hours.

This weekend is a five-day vacation for my son, due to school being closed (for students; teachers are still at work due to training requirements). This comes after last weekend's unexpected four day weekend (Friday was a snow day - the 1/2 inch of accumulated white stuff totally was worth closing school...and Monday was a holiday). And the kids are now on countdown to their respective birthdays. Just saying, keep me and my sanity in your thoughts.

This weekend is also the winter edition of 24in48 Read-a-thon. I found that breaking up my reading into four hour blocks is easiest to accomplish (3 blocks per day) and allows me to sleep. I'm going to try and knock out a few Romance Bingo squares and Pop Sugar prompts, so I went with some quick reads for the TBR:

1. March Volume 2 by Rep. John Lewis

            I read the first volume last year and my library just got this volume in; fingers crossed that volume 3 has at least been ordered. Pop Sugar prompt: book with pictures.

2. Prom and Prejudice by Elizabeth Eulberg

           A re-telling of Pride and Prejudice for YA Romance square. My first attempt at filling this square didn't end with a HFN or HEA (OOPS!), so it was disqualified in my opinion. This time, I read the last few pages to ensure this book did have a correct ending before I borrowed.

3. The Sun Trail (Warriors: Dawn of the Clans #1) by Erin Hunter

    Pop Sugar prompt: book with a cat on the cover. Found this while looking for a YA romance book.

4. Double Love (Sweet Valley High #1) by Francine Pascal and Kate William

            Double time: meets Romance Bingo square for twins and Pop Sugar prompt: book from childhood. First read this book when I was eight (a long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away....New Jersey in the 1987).

For those of you participating in 24in48, good luck on your goals and I hope you have fun!

You know what, I'll start this next to continue on my YA reading streak. I feel like I need to get back to reading more of these books, though I've heard mixed reactions towards this book. I'm looking forward to it though. Have had it as an ARC for a while, so I'm tackling the stack.