Book Review: That Girl, Darcy: A Pride & Prejudice Story by James Ramos

That Girl, Darcy: A Pride & Prejudice Story, by James Ramos
2015, 281p, YA Contemporary Romance
My Rating=3.5 Stars
Source: Received a copy from eBooks for Review for an honest review



IT IS A TRUTH UNIVERSALLY ACKNOWLEDGED that geeky guys never get to date the pretty girls with permanent scowls.

To Elliott Bennett, life is simple. It’s all parties, skateboarding, and arguing over who would win in a fight between Hulk and Superman with his friends. It’s his senior year, and he wants nothing more than to soak up his final year of freedom before real life begins.

That is, until Darcy Fitzwilliam and her best friend Bridget move in to the only mansion in the neighborhood. When Elliot meets Darcy at a party, he finds out that she isn’t into skateboarding (which he lives for), she hates science-fiction (which he loves), and she thinks his friends are a pack of morons (which, honestly, might be half true)—and yet, there’s something irritatingly intriguing about her.

When Elliot’s cousin Jake starts to date her friend Bridget, it complicates Elliot’s plans to ignore the scowling Darcy for the rest of the year. Why is Darcy so . . . ugh? Elliott doesn’t know, but for some reason, is determined to find out—even if she doesn’t know the difference between Star Trek and Star Wars.

This sounded like a fun read--P&P with a twist. The main character is male this time and they're in high school. Elliott is a senior, looking forward to his final year of high school. He meets Darcy at a party and she blows him off. When she starts attending his school, he's prepared to ignore her but other relationships that develop make that difficult to do.

Elliott is likable from the beginning. He describes himself as average and a geek since he knows more about fictional galaxies than real ones. His parents are after him to make a plan with his life but he's dragging his feet. Some of his friends are obsessed with girls and he's the voice of reason among them (their conversations annoyed me for the most part).

Darcy was mysterious and didn't seem interested in making friends. After Elliott's first encounter with her, his thoughts were that she was rude, stuck up, condescending and scarily pretty. When Elliott met a former friend of hers, she also appeared to be petty and mean. Of course, there's more to her than that and we saw the different sides to her as the story progressed.

This book started out a bit slow but did pick up about halfway through. The author did a good job capturing teen angst and drama. It was a fun take on a well-known and well-loved story!

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James Ramos was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, the oldest of four siblings. He wrote his first story at age nine and counts Frank Herbert’s Dune as his biggest influence. He currently lives in Phoenix, Arizona, where he is studying English. He is a self-proclaimed “dorkasaurus,” and has a roommate (who is a cat). He is almost never without a sonic screwdriver.

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