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funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Not the best book from Meg Cabot, but still good. Jean was a bit annoying sometimes (mostly when she started to believe she's a witch and she have to protect everyone from Tory). It is a good book, but not extraordinary. It didn't keep me wanting to not stop reading. I read 2 years ago,and I loved it! So I decided to read it again this year and, I was not in the book like before...
Ps: Sorry for the mistakes you may saw, my first language is french!
Ps: Sorry for the mistakes you may saw, my first language is french!
I enjoyed this book, it was a very cute young adult novel. I was not into the whole witchcraft confusion with her cousin thinking that she was a witch. I felt like it had a sweet ending and I would read it again.
Oh my gosh - does the girl ALWAYS have to get the guy at the end of Meg Cabot books? Her books are pretty predictable, because you KNOW that the story will end with the realization of a romantic relationship between the heroine and her love interest. Too, the main character is the book was way too goody-goody to be relatable. The thing I like about most of Cabot's characters is that they're kind of bumbling and flawed. Jinx was too innocent and pure-hearted to be believable. My advice: Go for the Princess Diaries instead!
I love Meg Cabot, I really do. Some of her books are my all time favourites. But this book was not one of her better works. It was just ok. Nothing special. The crazy cousin thing was weird and Jean being a witch felt like a side thing, not the main development. Everything else was pretty good, that's why I give this book 3 stars.
The beginning is very slow and it took me till the last couple chapters to actually get into it. I found myself falling asleep while reading the first half of the book. But once the book finally started to get interesting I wasn't able to put it down.
Overall this was an enjoyable read and it, like all of Cabot's books, flew by quickly. Like many young adult novels it's a story of a young girl coming to terms with herself. Or at least that's what the novel says, I didn't so much feel it.
One of the big issues presented at the start of the book is that Jean (nicknamed Jinx) is unlucky. When, in the first chapter, her family mixes up the date of her arrival and she has to get herself home from the airport, Jean chalks this up to her constant bad luck. When she is presented with nice things early on in the book she is sure her bad luck will strike and they'll be taken from her (sooner rather than later, most likely). But that never happens and we never do get to see this eternal bad luck that inspired the book's title. I really wanted to go into the book, take Jean by the shoulders, and tell her that that's life. There's good and bad and you just gotta deal.
That's another thing. Jean borders on TSTL. As the climax is approaching someone Jean trusts actually tells her that she needs to watch out for the antagonist (who is acting wildly out of character). Jean is too determined to be happy by the sudden change to worry as she should. And when the climax actually happens Jean walks knowingly into trouble with nothing but magic (which she's been trying NOT to learn about) on her side when the safer, more logical course of action would be to get an adult.
The phrase "preacher's daughter" is thrown about quite a lot in the book. Jean is in fact a preacher's daughter and makes it clear early on that she's a good kid, which doesn't help her make friends at her new private school. But as Jean finds herself pulled back into the world of magic she's tried so hard to leave behind it becomes clear that "preacher's daughter" is nothing but words. The book never says anything about what kind of church Jean's mother preaches at but I think it's safe to assume it's a Christian one. There should have been some conflict there. If she really was raised as a stereotypical preacher's daughter there was no discussion of how being a witch might conflict with that.
This book wants to sell itself as coming-of-age, but it didn't feel that way to me. In the end Jean, in many ways, feels less wise than she did at the beginning. She's come to terms with many parts of her identity, but others have been brushed casually aside. We leave her the same naive teen we found her, only her naivete has shifted just enough that she feels she's grown when really she hasn't. And that's just frustrating.
One of the big issues presented at the start of the book is that Jean (nicknamed Jinx) is unlucky. When, in the first chapter, her family mixes up the date of her arrival and she has to get herself home from the airport, Jean chalks this up to her constant bad luck. When she is presented with nice things early on in the book she is sure her bad luck will strike and they'll be taken from her (sooner rather than later, most likely). But that never happens and we never do get to see this eternal bad luck that inspired the book's title. I really wanted to go into the book, take Jean by the shoulders, and tell her that that's life. There's good and bad and you just gotta deal.
That's another thing. Jean borders on TSTL. As the climax is approaching someone Jean trusts actually tells her that she needs to watch out for the antagonist (who is acting wildly out of character). Jean is too determined to be happy by the sudden change to worry as she should. And when the climax actually happens Jean walks knowingly into trouble with nothing but magic (which she's been trying NOT to learn about) on her side when the safer, more logical course of action would be to get an adult.
The phrase "preacher's daughter" is thrown about quite a lot in the book. Jean is in fact a preacher's daughter and makes it clear early on that she's a good kid, which doesn't help her make friends at her new private school. But as Jean finds herself pulled back into the world of magic she's tried so hard to leave behind it becomes clear that "preacher's daughter" is nothing but words. The book never says anything about what kind of church Jean's mother preaches at but I think it's safe to assume it's a Christian one. There should have been some conflict there. If she really was raised as a stereotypical preacher's daughter there was no discussion of how being a witch might conflict with that.
This book wants to sell itself as coming-of-age, but it didn't feel that way to me. In the end Jean, in many ways, feels less wise than she did at the beginning. She's come to terms with many parts of her identity, but others have been brushed casually aside. We leave her the same naive teen we found her, only her naivete has shifted just enough that she feels she's grown when really she hasn't. And that's just frustrating.