What a fun light-hearted summer romance. It’s based on 'Pride and Prejudice' with the main characters being in the generation after the five Bennett sisters. The mothers share the same names as the girls in Jane Austen's classic – Jane, Elizabeth, Lydia, Mary and Catherine – but it does get a bit complicated with all the cousins in the next generation. Lydia's daughter Lily is our heroine and she is a gem! Lydia might be shallow and a bit flighty but Lily is certainly not. The setting reminded me of Palm Beach, north of Sydney, and the long summer school holidays where all the wealthy Sydneysiders landed for weeks at a time - so nostalgic 💕

With so many characters, it’s all pretty light and there’s not a lot of depth in anybody but it’s still a promising romp. Essentially film star people come to the beach and the various plot elements of 'Pride and Prejudice' play out. This is a debut for mother-daughter team Kate and Angourie and it’ll be fun to see what they come up with next.

Thank you Kate and Angourie Rice, and Candlewick for the ARC. Opinions on my own.

I was unable to finish this book and thus will not be posting a full review. I did not enjoy the story, unfortunately, and could not continue. Thank you for the opportunity and consideration.

This was really poorly written, super hard to understand what was going on, no real introduction to any characters, really shallow plot line as well

I found this book to be quite challenging to engage with. Despite my hopes that the story would improve as I continued reading, it unfortunately didn’t resonate with me. It felt like the authors were attempting to portray characters with mindsets reflective of the 1700s, which didn't mesh well with the modern setting, making the story feel somewhat inauthentic.

Additionally, I struggled with the romance between Dorian and Lily. Given their age difference—she's in high school and he's 24—I found it difficult to relate to their connection. Their feelings seemed intense, yet their interactions were minimal, which left me questioning the authenticity of their love. Moreover, the subplot involving Lily's mother running away with a 22-year-old felt like a major turning point that I found hard to accept. Overall, I believe the story could benefit from a more cohesive approach to character development and age-appropriate relationships.

A cute and modern take on Pride and Prejudice. Loved the premise of this one. It's a fun teenage rom-com which is a light romantic read.

Thank you Holiday House and NetGalley for this e-arc in exchange of my unbiased review.

I am sadly DNF'ing this book at 3% because, in the first chapter alone, there were 27 spelling errors (incomplete words). The first couple of times were ok, but I'm not about to spend the rest of this book piecing together words like a jigsaw puzzle.

That aside, the dialogue was jumpy and jarring, and you're really just thrown into the middle of a scene with little introduction to who was speaking, where they were, and really what was going on.

Thanks to NetGally for the ARC, but this one was a miss for me.

I'm all in for a good YA, but this gave SUCH YA vibes that I felt like the overall message of the book was lost in the tweenagness of the story.

Thank you Netgalley and Holiday House for a copy of this review in exchange for an honest review.

I really hate giving a book 1 star, it is one of my least favorite things to do. I feel an author took time to write a book and they deserve at least two. But, in this case somewhere beyond the million and six editing errors. How did this book even get published to Netgalley with this many mistakes? Seriously I counted 45 times in the book where I could not even piece together the letters to even form a coherent sentence. Maybe that is Pippi Beach talk but, I do not think so.

The story it was flat, boring, a mom running off with a twenty-two-year-old, leaving her children. That part made me angry because it had no rhyme nor reason for the story. Like let's come in make the kids move because their mom who think she is a teenager runs away but all the while we are going to go back to Pippi in the end because she shows back up admitting she was an idiot.

Then Lily is in love with Dorian but never even said she liked him? I mean come on. This book was horrible. Absolutely horrible. I wish I would have not wasted the time even reading it but because I said that I would leave an honest review that is what I am doing. Hoping that the published final version is readable. Then maybe I will update my rating.

While this book has an overall good concept, I was looking for more in terms of writing style. It seemed rushed and not very developed. I'd love to see this go back to some editing. Maybe take out some characters as there are a lot or focus on developing characters. The dialogue also seemed to be a bit stunted.

The story was decent and the summer romance was cute. However, it felt a bit slow paced for my taste. Unfortunately, it didn't quite match the vibes I was looking for.

Devored this one. An amazing celebrity romance. Made me think of the Celebrity Crush and it was PERFECTION.

Rating: 2.75 stars

In Stuck Up and Stupid, we follow Lily as her perfect summer at Pippi Beach takes an unexpected turn when Hollywood heartthrob Dorian Khan arrives with his flashy entourage. She’s convinced he’s just another arrogant celebrity—until their paths keep crossing, forcing her to question whether she misjudged him.

At first, I wasn’t sure where the story was going, and by the end, it felt a bit scattered. The characters were well-developed and felt real, but the book tried to tackle too many things at once, leaving some elements underwhelming. The romance, in particular, felt underdeveloped and rushed into the second half—I never fully believed Lily’s feelings for Dorian. The writing was solid, but the shifting perspectives were sometimes confusing, and I think the story would have flowed better if told in the first person.

Overall, it had a lot of potential, and despite its flaws, it kept me entertained!

~
Thank you Candlewick for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Stuck Up and Stupid by Angourie Rice and Kate Rice is a charming and modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice set in the world of high school drama and social media pressures. The story follows Lizzie, a sharp and independent high schooler, and her reluctant interactions with the seemingly arrogant and privileged Will Darcy. From the start, it’s clear the authors are paying homage to Austen’s classic while putting a fresh, contemporary spin on the story.

2.5 stars; This is a lighthearted, comedic take on Pride and Prejudice that made me interested right away from the get-go. However, I’m not sure the execution of the idea held my attention for the rest of it. There were too many characters to keep track of and too many names to remember that it just got to be overwhelming. I also wish there was more character development between Lily and Dorian. And while I can appreciate that Lydia and Jane are taken directly from P&P, it feels a bit like false advertisement to market it as a YA romance when half the story is also about the mother. Maybe this just wasn’t for me.

Thank you to Angourie and Kate Rice, and NetGalley for providing me with a free eARC in exchange for my honest review!

2.5⭐ I just could not get into this book. I nearly dnfed, but wanted to give it a chance. There were so many characters to keep track of and I didn't like that it was in third person. The characters felt flat and the pacing was strange. I liked the idea of it being a Pride and Prejudice retelling, but the book overall just didn't work for me.

This story was pretty good. It is a cute summer romance. Overall, I think it moved pretty slow. I would have liked to see more depth with the characters as well. I did have a good time, but it’s not a book I think I will recommend u less I know that it specifically fits what someone is looking for.

Sinopsis en español:

Lily tiene todo el verano extendido por delante: un sinfís días de sol y amigos en la hermosa playa de Pippi. Luego llega la superestrella Dorian Khan, con su grupo de tipos de Hollywood. Mientras que la mayoría de los lugareños, incluida la madre obsesionada con el glamour de Lily, están encantadas de estar tan cerca de los A-listers, Lily no puede evitar verlos como superficiales y arrogantes, especialmente Dorian, el más famoso de todos. Pero a medida que los caminos de Lily y Dorian continúan cruzándose, ella comienza a preguntarse si lo tiene todo mal. La dramaturga Kate Rice y su hija, la actriz de Hollywood Angourie Rice, se unen para escribir una novela romántica para adolescentes de aquellos que saben de primera mano cómo es realmente la industria cinematográfica internacional. Inspirado en el siempre popular fandom de Austen, Stuck Up and Stupid es para una generación de adolescentes que definitivamente NO buscan amor.



Reseña:


No me gustó ni el estilo de escritura ni la historia, de verdad que lo intenté, pero me costó horrores terminarlo.
No compartiré mi reseña con ningún otro sitio como Goodreads o Amazon para evitar afectar a la autora.



Gracias NetGalley por el ARC.

The excitement I felt when starting this book steadily left me, replaced by a mild curiosity with snippets of "ah yes, this would happen". Overall one and a half stars rounded up, due to me being a curious person.
This is a retelling, reimagining, of Pride & Prejudice. (Largely) Set in Australia it dutifully follows P&P which, for a lover of said book, is kind of fun. I'd never imagined if the storyline would hold in current times, even though I think its lasting quality is rooted in its timelessness, right?
Austen wrote a societal critique and yes, Stuck up and Stupid does pull of criticism on life anno now. But... But. There's a lot of people and given there's a lot of people in P&P, too, this shouldn't be a problem. But it is, because there's so many names, and some -inconveniently- are in Pride and Prejudice too, but they're not the same (of course, I expected them to be, probably my bad). And overall they were hard to distinguish. Which, in a lot of words, basically means they're flat characters, hard to remember.
It does paint a nice picture of boozy Australians, and LA where "everything is surface", and I assume that was the criticism.

I received a copy from NetGalley in return for my honest opinion

This needs much more development in writing , plot , characters etc. it was hard to connect and root for the characters. The plot was repetitive and overall just hard to follow.

Thank you NetGalley and Candlewick for the ARC of Stuck Up and Stupid by Angourie Rice and Kate Rice. Although I still have no idea how Lily came to have the feelings she proclaimed to have for Dorian, I still think this was a cute and easy read, though it did fall a bit flat. The beginning of the book was confusing initially, trying to differentiate all of the characters being named, but it did not take long to follow along. I feel like the characters needed more depth, as I didn't really feel anything for any of the characters except anger and irritation towards the mother. None of the characters were well developed enough to have a strong personality or allow me any attachment to a character. Dorian's character was very flat, and I was baffled by Lily's response because they had only a few conversations, most of which ended in an argument. I realize they are supposed to be the mains, but I don't love either of their characters. Lily had a decent character development in the end, but Dorian stayed boring with no personality through the entire book. Overall, it was not a bad book if you want an easy and simplistic YA book to read.