Prada & Prejudice by Mandy Hubbard

Callie falls head over heels -- literally!

Callie is tired of being a clumsy geek-girl. So during a school trip to London she buys her ticket to popularity: a pair of real Prada pumps. But then she wobbles on the cobblestones, trips in her too-high heels, and when she comes to, it's the year 1815!

Luckily she meets kindhearted Emily, who mistakes Callie for a long-lost friend. Sparks soon ignite -- of the nice and not-so-nice variety -- between Callie and Alex, the handsome but totally arrogant Duke of Harksbury. Too bad Alex seems to have something sinister up his ruffled sleeve . . . 

Can Callie save Emily from a dire engagement, win a kiss from Alex, and prove to herself that she's more than just a loud-mouth klutz before her time in the past is up?

Stars: 3/5

Cover: B-

Callie goes on a trip to London with her classmates, and isn't enjoying herself like she thought she would. When she hears the popular girls talking about going to a club, she knows they aren't going to invite her. To make herself feel better, she goes and gets "retail therapy." 

When she sees the 5-Story Prada store, she decides she'll win her way into the popular girls' hearts by buying a pair of beautiful $400 pumps with her mom's credit card that is reserved strictly for emergencies.

She doesn't make it ten steps, though, before her heel gets stuck in the cobblestone, and she falls down, hitting her head. When she comes to, she wakes up in what seems to be a forest, seeing as there are trees for as far as she can see.

She comes across a castle, and meets a girl named Emily who mistakes Callie for her childhood friend, Rebecca. Callie pretends to  be Rebecca just so that she can go in and use their phone. When she asks to use the phone, Emily has no clue what a "telephone" is. Callie is under the impression that the family is just living in the past or something.

Callie plays along, because she'll get a ride into town with them in the morning.

It is in town that she realizes she is somehow in the year 1815.

Callie has no clue how to get back, so she stays with Emily and her cousin, Alex, who is a duke. Callie finds out a horrible secret about Alex, and then finds out that Emily will be going into an arranged marriage with a man who is twenty years older than her.

Callie tries to help Emily out, sure that after she helps Emily, somehow she'll be able to go home.

I first picked up Prada & Prejudice because I had read Mandy Hubbard's other novel, You Wish, and really enjoyed it. I am sorry to say, though, I didn't enjoy Prada & Prejudice as much as her other book.

I thought the writing was okay, and the characters were kind of two-demensional. But putting that aside, the plot didn't stay dull for very long at all, and I found myself really looking forward to finding out what happens to Callie, and how she gets back home.

I think for a debut novel, it wasn't that bad. I think it just wasn't as good as I was expecting because I had such high hopes for it!

I wish the narrator would have talked about how much she was scared she wouldn't be able to get back to the 21st century, because it didn't really seem to be that big of a concern of Callie's when, hello, it really should have been.

But all-in-all, it was a fast paced, entertaining read. I just don't think I'll be re-reading it again anytime soon. I'll lend it to a friend though, and tell you how good she thought it was when she finishes it.

FTC: I bought this book.