Alterations by Stephanie Scott is a charming, modern twist on My Fair Lady set in the world of fashion. Amelia dreams of transforming herself and leaves Miami for a fashion internship in New York, but returning home means facing her longtime crush. Filled with humor, romance, and personal growth, it’s a delightful read for fans of contemporary YA and romantic makeovers.

This book was amazing and I don’t know why this title was stuck in “will not be giving feedback”


Amelia is in love with the handsome Ethan, she has loved him since her family moved into the little house that is on the Laurenti property. The problem is that her family works for the Laurenti’s, and therefore he barely notices her. Taking a chance on her dream Amelia listens to her abuelita and attends a fashion internship in NYC. While there she grows more confident in both her fashion and herself. When she returns home Amelia make an unlikely friend in Liam, Ethan's brother, he seems to be interested in more than just her help with his new fashion app. Ethan for the first time also seems to be vying for her attention, even with his beautiful famous girlfriend on his arm. Now she is stuck between two guys, the one she has dreamed of and the one that has dreamed of her. Who will she choose? Her world is about to burst at the seam.


I love Amelia she is so talented and creative. While she has had a crush on the same guy for most of her life she learns to move on and follow her dreams. I would totally follow her on Instagram, I know her designs would be gorgeous.


Ethan has the classic case of “you didn't know what you had til you lost it” finally realizing that Amelia is more than just the daughter of the cook. But the question is does he likes her for the right reason?


Liam is definitely a bit of an underdog here, he isn't the likeliest of love interests. He has lived in his brother's shadow when it comes to Amelia.


I would definitely send this to Disney and tell them I found their next big movie. I think that anyone who reads this book will fall in love with it.


5/5⭐️

Alterations is unfortunately not for me. I had tried this book and set it down in hopes of one day coming back to it, but now it is time to mark as DNF.

This book was cute. It was somehow a retelling of Sabrina. I love the banters they throw at each other and the nerdy references!

Amelia was talented and smart but lacking the character improvement. I don’t know why though. It’s just lacking.

Overall, great cute read!

I did not finish Alterations by Stephanie Scott, and will not be writing a review for this reason. The story seemed cute, but was too underdeveloped for my liking.

I’ve been eyeing this lovely book since it was revealed it would be a YA version of Sabrina that takes place in my home state and in the city of Miami, specifically. When the cover was revealed, I knew I was most definitely going to read this novel.

Overall:

I don’t usually read contemporary YA. I feel like if I’m going to escape from life with a book, I need an escape from the everyday. I tend to lean to fantasy and science fiction or historical fiction to do so. However, Alterations incorporated one of my favorite topics, fashion, so I just HAD to pick it up.

And I wasn’t disappointed! Amelia’s fashion design skills weren’t just on the sewing table. She deftly utilized modern-day technology, such as apps like Instagram, to build a large following and make herself a taste maker in the fashion industry. Pretty savvy for a girl who should only be focused on being hopelessly in love with a boy who never seems to notice her. I liked that Amelia was stronger and a more feminist than Sabrina was in the movies.

Amelia travels to NYC to participate in a summer fashion camp and the many, many parallels to Project Runway begin. There is sewing, learning and, of course, DRAMA. Much of it is caused by Amelia herself, who needs to gain her strength to deal with the circumstances of her life. I found myself yelling at her a lot, especially “GET IT TOGETHER, AMELIA!!”

Overall, I can see a film company like Disney or Freeform buying the rights to turn this book into a perfect movie for teen girls. There is drama, fashion, overcoming the odds, technology, empowerment, KISSING. Basically, this book contains everything you need to come out of it feeling positive and good about taking a chance in life.

Judge a Book by its Cover: A whimsical tie-in to Amelia’s fashionista ways and her trip to the Big Apple. This cover is just adorable!

Body Count: While the book takes place in Miami, this is not Scarface.

Bizarre Love Triangle: The brothers Laurenti were Amelia’s seeming two choices for love. Ethan just never escaped this smarmy aura that surrounded him from his first appearance on the page. Since this story is told from Amelia’s perspective, I was never sure if Liam was as much of a dud because the story was told from her perspective and she didn’t seem to pay much attention to him or if he was actually a wet blanket (sorry team Liam!). If you’ve never seen the original Sabrina movie, I urge you to watch it and see how much cuteness potential there is for both the love interests. Stephanie Scott captures this struggle perfectly.

Open tab/Last call: I will wear my best vintage dress and have a cafe con leche waiting at La Carreta (the original location) for Stephanie.

I wasn't able to get into this one. I tried until 33% and decided it just wasn't for me. Thank you for the opportunity to read this title.

The cover of this was so eye catching that I couldn't help but look into it further, and I wasn't disappointed. The story was cute and the perfect weekend read. I love how it looked into everything heartwarming from family to young love and self discovery. I will definitely read more from this author.

You’ve seen Sabrina, right? (The Audrey Hepburn flick where she plays the chauffeur’s daughter in love with the son of the family who employs her dad? If you haven’t, you are missing out, and you should probably go watch it now.) Scott wrote Alterations as a kind of 21st century YA take on Sabrina, and in terms of frothy, fashion-y fun, it works as a pretty successful homage.

Amelia has spent her life living on the Laurenti family estate, where her abuelita works as the family’s chef. Amelia has grown up watching handsome, popular Ethan—and his brother Liam—from afar, dreaming of the day when her crush will finally notice her. But Amelia’s abuelita thinks it’s time for Amelia to find a life away from the Laurentis, and she sends off Amelia’s discarded application to a prestigious New York City summer fashion program for teens. Though she’s nervous at first, soon Amelia is living the Project Runway life, shopping at Mood, making her designs work, and even showing an evening gown on the runway at the end of the program. More importantly, she’s making friends, boosting her confidence, and finally—though not without a few snags and some back-pedaling—coming into her own. (This was the best part of the book.) When she returns home, she’s a different girl from the shy, insecure girl she used to be—and Ethan finally notices her. But, as it turns out, Amelia’s long-time crush may not actually be the Laurenti brother she really wants to be with.

This is definitely a predictable teen romance, but if you like that kind of thing—and I do sometimes—it’s a pretty charming one. Amelia learns to define herself by much more than whoever she happens to have a crush on at a given time, and her friendships are just as important to the story as her love connections. I like that she makes mistakes (like lying to a new friend that Ethan is her boyfriend in a moment of stupidity), accepts and apologizes for them, and moves on. And I think her relationships with her mom and her grandmother feel warm and realistic. I did feel that the second half of the book dragged after Amelia came home from NYC—that part just wasn’t as interesting to me as the fashion school arc, and it seemed to take needlessly long for Amelia to realize that Liam was the Laurenti for her. But this is the kind of book I’d read by the pool or in the hammock, when what you want is something light and cheerful that you know will leave you with a happy ending. It’s fun, and sometimes that’s just what I want from a book.

I apologize I couldn't get into this book so I did not finish it.

Loved that the MC was latina but I wasn't sold on the entire book as a whole. Maybe it will take a reread to convince me to switch it up.

Amelia Blanco lives for fashion. Especially the designing part, her dream is to become a designer someday. But that world seems far away. In real life she lives at home in Miami with her abuelita and she helps her mom, who is a cook for the wealthy the Laurentis family The son of the Laurenti's is her boyfriend, and though their worlds are very different, it works.

And then her abuelita signs her up for a month-long fashion internship at a fashion academy in New York. There a whole new world opens up for her. People of her age who are just that into fashion as she is. And more important, she starts to develop her own designing style!By the time she returns to Miami, Amelia feels like she can accomplish anything, and surprises herself by agreeing to help Ethan's awkward, Steve-Jobs-wannabe brother, Liam, create his own fashion app. As Liam and Amelia get closer, Ethan realizes that this newly confident, stylish girl may be the one for him after all . . . even though he has a reality TV star girlfriend he conveniently keeps forgetting about. The "new and improved" Amelia soon finds herself in between two brothers, a whole lot of drama, and choice she never dreamed she'd have to make.

Alteration is the perfect YA novel for fashionista's. But also if you are not that into fashion, this is a very cute read! The cover already sparks attention, you see the NYC skyline and stitching needles interwoven, what a great find!
The storyline was nice and cute. Amelia is a very nice and creative main character, her passion for fashion just sparks of the pages! What was nice was the different worlds that she and Ethan come from, I liked how the author didn't make him snobby, and their romance just worked, and it got a nice tension between the two brothers which was fun to read. It lived the story up and it never got boring, and how they where creating and launching the fashion app was just awesome!

A very nice novel filled with fashion, a fun storyline and characters, loved this one!

What a great YA novel! Loved the drama, family, relationships, and love stories woven throughout. Such a terrific story!

Alterations is a retelling of the movie Sabrina. Both the original version with Audrey Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart and the 1995 remake with Julia Orman and Harrison Ford are pretty fantastic. I was excited to see how Ms. Scott would adapt the material for a younger audience living in the 21st century.

Stephanie Scott's Sabrina character, Amelia Blanco, is an aspiring fashion designer who lives with her mother and grandmother in the service apartment of the wealthy Laurenti family. Amelia's longtime crush, Ethan Laurenti, doesn't notice Amelia until he sees how much she's changed after a summer internship in New York. By this time Amelia was begun to help Ethan's twin brother, Liam, with a fashion app. Cue lots of confused feelings.

I really enjoyed the Miami setting and all the fashion in this book. Liam was really sweet. The crazy reality TV show was amusing. This is a cute read.

I really love the book! I love the way she trend the fashion and even though in hard times. I like how the character been responsible to herself when she got to New York and I like how she become at the end. I didn't expect it to happen! This book give me such great emotions and I'm in love while read it!! :D

Alterations is a wonderful retelling of the classic movie Sabrina. The original movie featured Audrey Hepburn as Sabrina, the daughter of a rich family’s chauffeur. Humphrey Bogart plays Linus, the more serious of the family’s two sons, with William Holden playing David, the playboy of the family. Sabrina has pined for David her whole life, but he doesn’t notice her until she spends two years in Paris, and then she returns and must decide what (and who) she wants. In this retelling, Amelia takes the part of Sabrina. She’s the daughter and granddaughter of the maids to the Laurenti family, who are pretty well-off. She has a HUGE crush on Ethan Laurenti, one of the family’s teenage sons, and is rather indifferent towards Linus. Instead of going to Paris for two years, she leaves the family’s home to go to a fashion internship in New York for the summer, leading to interesting developments in her life, as she figures out who she is and what she wants.

Having known the movie, I already knew how the story was going to play out in this novel. That being said, it was still quite a joy to see it played out, and had some hidden surprises that made the novel very relatable (particularly for YA readers, but also for me as an adult reader). Amelia is a very well-developed character. She narrates the book, and it’s really interesting to see her go through several metamorphoses as the book goes on. Like most teenagers, she’s very unsure of herself when leaving home for the first time, and that leads to her making some unwise decisions, and a very realistic turn of events caused by her choices. Also, while she’s unsure of herself, she also realizes that she has to figure out who she wants to be, and that maybe that person is not the person she has been for so long. It was a joy to see her come to these realizations and change, and then get nervous, and then change again. It was a very realistic character arc.

The secondary characters were also fairly well-developed. The brothers have their own distinctive personalities, and they are developed realistically throughout the book. Amelia’s friends from the internship, as well as her best friend from home, are also painted in very realistic lights, from the new friends’ emotions when Amelia’s poor decisions are revealed, to her best friend from home’s unease when Amelia returns as a slightly different person. Some of these emotions weren’t specifically outlined, but as I saw things from Amelia’s point of view, I really could figure them out based on past experience, which is part of what made the book so relatable. We’ve all had pieces of Amelia in us at one time or another, and we can all empathize with her journey, as well as enjoy her romance. I recommend this book to lovers of YA romance, but also just readers who love great coming of age stories. Also, if you’re a fan of Sabrina, you’ll enjoy this modern retelling. The book releases a week from today on December 6.

Note: I received this book from Netgalley and Bloomsbury SPARK in return for a fair and honest review.

Sometimes retellings are a major flop, but Stephanie Scott “makes it work” in her Sabrina-retelling, Alterations.

Alterations follows Amelia Blanco, an aspiring fashion designer and Ethan Laurenti fan girl. Amelia shoves her unrequited feelings for Ethan aside after an amazing New York internship for the summer. When she returns, however, Ethan appears suddenly interested. Life gets even more complicated when Ethan’s dorky brother, Liam, recruits her to make a fashion app and the Laurenti family is pulled into reality television drama.

I’ve never seen the movie Sabrina, but definitely want to after reading Alterations. Although I can’t say with 100% certainty how faithful an adaptation the book is, it seems like Alterations uses many much-loved aspects of the movie but throws in a few of its own twists and turns to keep readers on their toes.

As for the characters, while several fell into some romantic comedy tropes, I think the main character Amelia displayed a lot of growth and I really loved the influence of her lifestyle throughout the book. In the beginning of the novel, Amelia shows complete insta-love for her next door neighbor, Ethan. As the book progresses, however, Amelia learns to stay true to herself and follow her own dreams and passions. I also love how Amelia’s family ties into the book. The author emphasizes how Amelia’s family and their choices impacted Amelia’s life and how it influences Amelia’s interactions with others.

The other characters were hit-or-miss. I felt like Amelia’s art friends blurred into the background. Out of the two who continued into the rest of the book, I couldn’t even remember why one was so important. For the Laurenti brothers, they were pretty stereotypical for a romantic comedy story. I felt that particularly with Ethan, I never understood why he suddenly became interested in Amelia after she came back from New York besides the tie-in to the original story. One character that I really enjoyed was Haylo, a girl in the reality series towards the end of the book. The author could easily make her a stereotypical mean girl, but Haylo actually had a lot of depth and heart, which I appreciated.

I found the plot in Alterations to be extremely well-paced, except for one minor snag. In college, it usually takes me awhile to get through books through classes and homework. Alterations, however, only took me a few hours one morning– I couldn’t put it down until I finished the story. The only part that I wished was shorter would be the internship part. I felt like it carried on a little too long and was a little slow for me compared to the rest of the book.

Overall, Alterations was cute and predictable rom-com book. While the characters were slightly stereotypical, I couldn’t put this book down! I give Alterations four out of five stars.