As mentioned in last month's review of Goodnight Mister Tom, one of my goals this year is to read three classic novels and here is number two: A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Last year, I read The Secret Garden for the first time (I know, I know, I'm having a second childhood with all these books!) and loved it so it made sense to pick this one up.
The edition I own is the Rifle Paper Co edition and the cover design was totally what made me buy it. The inside is just as beautiful with illustrations dotted throughout the book.
A Little Princess is about a young girl called Sara who grew up in India while it was still a British colony. She is sent to a boarding school in England and although she is used to a life of luxury, is actually very down to earth. However, one day, tragedy strikes and she ends being a poor orphan due to the unfortunate and premature passing of her father. We follow Sara as she is forced to work for free under the Mistress of the boarding school.
What really made this book for me were the illustrations and the cover. The plot was okay though I didn't really warm to any of the characters so the only thing that got me through were the beautiful drawings that would appear once or twice in each chapter. Overall, A Little Princess gets 7/10 from me.
The Problem with Forever by Jennifer L. Armentrout
I'm going to begin with this: I rarely cry when reading. Even when the plot is designed to try and make the reader shed a few tears, my tear ducts still hold strong. The Problem with Forever is one of the exceptions to that rule (throughout the years, I'm pretty sure this is only the second or third book to make me actually bawl like a baby).
The book centres on two teenagers: Rider and Mallory (or Mouse as she is sometimes called by Rider). They are foster kids who have been through a whole load of terror earlier in their childhood. Separated for the last four years after they were 'rescued' from a home of horror, Mallory now lives with new foster parents; both doctors. She decides to brave public school for the first time after being home-schooled and that's where she meets Rider again.
Cue all the feels.
It is clear the love and affection these two teenagers have for each other. I mean, they already had one things in common: arguably the worst part of their respective lives.
As we find out more about how both of them have coped (or not) in the previous four years, we are also led along a path of heartbreak in the present too. Not only for them but for the other characters too. Jennifer Armentrout also does an excellent job of writing about Mallory's anxiety in a realistic manner and in no way glamourises it.
This is one of the best teen/young adult novels I've ever read and I would not hesitate to recommend it if you like something that isn't your teenage romance novel. The last quarter of the book had me in tears! If I could rate this book more than 10/10, I would but for now, it will have to make do with full marks.
I adored The Problem with Forever too... I may or may not have also cried. Amazing book. And I really want to re-read A Little Princess; it's been so so long since I read it and I think I'll have a new appreciation for it if I read it now.
ReplyDeleteZoe xoxo