The Forgotten Book by Mecthild Glaser
Published by Feiwel & Friends on January 2018Genres: Young Adult
Pages: 368
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
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A Jane Austen-inspired YA tale about a sixteen-year-old girl who finds a magical book—and discovers that anything she writes inside it comes true.
Emma is used to things going her way. Her father is headmaster of her prestigious boarding school, her friends take her advice as gospel, and she's convinced that a relationship with her long-time crush is on the horizon.
As it turns out, Emma hasn't seen anything yet. When she finds an old book in an abandoned library, things really start going Emma's way: anything she writes in the book comes true.
But the power of the book is not without consequences, and Emma soon realizes that she isn't the only one who knows about it. Someone is determined to take it from her—and they'll stop at nothing to succeed.
A new boy in school—the arrogant, aloof, and irritatingly handsome Darcy de Winter—becomes Emma's unlikely ally as secrets are revealed and danger creeps ever closer.
Review: The Forgotten Book by Mecthild Glaser
Review:
This is a hard book for me to review.
There were certain things I liked about it. I like the overall story line of the book and the mystery surrounding the magic and lore of the book. I liked the setting a lot. The school was a fun setting, especially the library that they were using for their club.
Sadly, I wasn’t engaged in the story though. This is a mishmash of Pride & Prejudice with hints of Emma. Add a magical book and a curse and I thought it was perfect for me! But I was mostly distracted by the P&P story line. I was usually comparing the characters and the plot to P&P or Emma which took me out of the story. And while I liked the magical aspects of the book, they didn’t make a whole lot of sense and I was left with more questions and not a great sense of the rules of the magic.
The romance was secondary, which was both good and bad. Good because the romance wasn’t the most interesting thing about the book so it was good that it didn’t take up pages and pages. Bad because it was not really well developed and it seemed more like the two characters were faint echos of the original Darcy and Lizzy and not their own complete characters.
And the ending was just… not very satisfying. I’m sorry, this book just wasn’t for me. It was too much of a jumble of different elements I like but none of them really worked together.
Overall, I think some teens will like this book but for me, it was watered down and distracting.
Kimberly majored in Songwriting and currently works full time in the music industry. When she's not listening to music, knitting or writing, you can find her outside reading her favorite genres: Young Adult, Adult Fiction, Mystery, and Romance.
I’ve had that happen too. Comparing a book to another and it’s characters. I can see that happening for me with this too as I adore P&P! Probably why I don’t read many of them. Sorry this didn’t work for you.
Exactly! It’s kinda worse than simply not liking the story because I couldn’t stop comparing it and couldn’t enjoy the story! I think other people will enjoy it but I had a hard time.
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