Sue Limb

what a funny book. I love how neurotic her worrying could get and how much she could just wind up her own story. Very good at showing how your point of view can be total tunnel vision!!!

But, I am still floored by how many teen books there are where the main character is a habitual liar? What makes lying...pointless and, even, harmful to yourself! How is that easier than the truth? I know when I was younger (I know, a different time, different generation, yadda yadda) I loved the brutal and show more ugliness that came with honesty. How can lying be better than watching someone squirm and get uncomfortable with the truth. Then YOU are NOT the one uncomfortable, they are. With a lie, well, you are covering for that repeatedly and YOU are the one uncomfortable!

I guess I was lucky, I grew up in a house where honest WAS the best policy and your punishment would be less if told the truth than if you lied.
Who knew we were raising a whole generation of habitual liars!? show less

The random library catalogue search which generated this novel was 'love triangles', only the romantic entanglements in Enlightenment actually form more of a love quadrangle,with the most unassuming heroine ever as the common link. The blurb from The Times on the cover suggests that Jane Lockhart is 'witty, sharp and charming', but I would have to disagree. Jane is a whinging doormat who marries in haste and repines at leisure, until united her with her heart's true desire through the (deus show more ex) machinations of Romancelandia. The secretive husband I could just about work with, even though I couldn't figure out why Jane fell for William so quickly. The final chapters, however, were one convenient arrangement too many. And the key to any 'love triangle' is that the reader should care for the characters, either by wanting a couple to stay together or wickedly cheering on the other man/woman, but I only pitied Sir Thomas, a pale imitation of Mr Knightley, never really got to know William, and couldn't stand the saintly Jane.

The narrative style is what I term 'faux Austen', peppering modern day English with archaic words like 'babe' for infant and 'agitated' for excited, which works fairly well. The clonking great message of 'free love' that Sue Limb forces on her characters doesn't succeed in 'translating' the late eighteenth century to quite the same degree, however. Basically, a young woman marries the wrong man, but because of the laws of the time, she is unable to divorce her husband and marry the man she really loves. Even though said husband is a wretch who only married poor Jane for convenience, and the man she wants to marry has since married her sister, and the man's son is also in love with Jane, etc. I knew that everything would be resolved to suit Jane, but had fun guessing how the husband and sister would be removed from the equation.

A competent novel, with a powerful story, undone by bad casting. show less

Reviewed by Marie Robinson for TeensReadToo.com

This is a book with a great sense of humor. It's a story about 15-year-old Jess, who lives in England and hosts a French exchange student for two weeks. The basic plot revolves around Jess and how she and her friends react to their temporary French invasion (every student in Jess' French class hosts an exchange student), but the real story is about a young teenager finding her way among her friends, accepting herself, and maneuvering through the show more usual crushes and teen angst that every girl experiences. What stands out here is that where many girls would wilt in the face of conflict, Jess always holds her ground and is true to herself. In that way, she is quite the role model.

This novel is a good introduction for teens and pre-teens into the chick lit genre. Unlike some critics, I like chick lit �" usually. The genre is categorized by smart characters, an engaging plot, a smart sense of humor, with a little escapism thrown in. When done right, chick lit novels are reminders that reading is supposed to be fun.

Jess is never given a physical description. This allows the reader to imagine herself as Jess. She is not the prettiest or most popular girl in school, but she is pretty enough, she is smart, she is a good friend, and even though she doesn't get the boy she has her eye on, she still remains the heroine of her own story.

The one decent teenage boy in the story, who is also the only friend with whom Jess can truly be herself, is sadly a somewhat stock gay male sidekick character. And while Jess has a good relationship with her parents, they are somewhat dim. At times I had to wonder exactly who was parenting whom. But, while Jess' parents aren't the strongest characters, they did share an obvious and genuine affection for their kid, which is nice to see.

While the plot is lively and the pacing fast, the real star of this story is the language. Sue Limb has a knack for writing smart, witty dialogue that at times relegates the plot to just details. Read this book for the humor and you won't be disappointed. show less

As if having your minestrone soup filled bra inserts explode all over you and teen god Weezer isn’t bad enough, having the aftermath captured on film by a camera hidden in the loo most certainly must be the worst thing ever to have happened to fifteen year-old Jess Jordan. In her attempt to get her hands on the offending video she must fend off the advances of dreamy Ben, cajole her tone-deaf best friend Flora through a band rehearsal and sing the praises of oddball Fred. Told with show more laugh-out-loud humor and a healthy dollop of sweetness this story of teen angst is pure fun. show less