Novel Review: Sass & Serendipity by Jennifer Ziegler

Rating (Out of 5): ~1.5

Genre: YA Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Delacorte Press (Random House)

Release Date: 2011

Spoilers?: Some.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Teaser Tuesday.

Goodreads Synopsis:

For Daphne, the glass is always half full, a situation is better managed with a dab of lip gloss, and the boy of her dreams—the one she's read about in all of her novels—is waiting for her just around the corner.
For Gabby, nothing ever works out positively; wearing any form of makeup is a waste of study time, and boys will only leave you heartbroken. Her best friend, Mule, is the only one who has been there for her every step of the way.
But when the richest boy in town befriends Gabby, and Daphne starts to hang out more and more with her best and only friend, Mule, Gabby is forced to confront the emotional barriers she has put up to stop the hurting. And for once, her sassiness may fall prey to her definition of stupidity.

The Cover:

I rather like this cover. It's simple and very pretty and eye-catching. I like that it focuses on the relationship between the sisters and not the romance, although that doesn't actually reflect the book very well.

Quotes:

•  "At night everything seemed harsher. Noises. Shadows. Memories.” (Hardback, pg. 29)
• "'So I should just give up all my dreams [of love] because they failed? What about your plans? I mean, if lots of kids drop out of college because it’s hard, maybe you shouldn’t waste your time going. Same difference.’” (Pg. 166)

Review:

I am so very disappointed with this book. I’ve liked both of Ziegler’s other books. I guess I expected so much from it, because it really let me down.

First of all, I’ve never read Sense & Sensibility. I don’t believe I’ve seen any movies based on it, either. I know some people were upset about the comparison, though, as apparently this is nothing like it. And, correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought it was a sister story? About how sisters find out how important the other is? How they end up getting along by the end of the book? Because, I mean, that’s not even close to what happened in this book.

Second of all, I hated both main characters. They’re both selfish bitches, and I can’t believe I read 369 pages about them.

I’ll start with Gabby, the one I liked the least. Gabby is a bitch. She’s rude to everyone, insulting, blowing up at everything, taking anything anyone says and making it into some insult that she can take offense at. There is not a single thing to like about her, in my opinion. She’s hateful and rude and I don’t see how she even has one friend. She’s given some sob story about a boy she kissed who died and how that really scarred her or something. But, I mean, she kissed the boy once, had like one conversation with him, and then he died. There was no reason for her to fall for him or develop any real feelings for him during that time. Plus, it was like five years ago or something.

She has a love interest, who I honestly don’t understand why he likes her. She’s a hateful person, and I didn’t even want to be reading about her. I didn’t see how he kept flirting with her and was still interested at the end of the book, when she was never anything but rude and hurtful to him. There was absolutely no attraction between them, as far as I was concerned.

Then there’s Daphne. I liked that she tried staying in a good mood, no matter how much others tried bringing her down (namely Gabby). But she was also a brat, and a bit of a bitch, and hugely naïve. She falls for a guy after, like, one conversation, and no doubt the guy ends up being a jerk. And then another guy, Mule, ends up being nice to her, and she blows him off. She was a bitch to Gabby and her mother, whereas Gabby was just hateful about everything to everyone.

I will admit that I liked the attraction between Daphne and Mule. I like Mule all around. And I like that their dad was emotional. Their mom was all right. Gabby’s love interest was all right, and I did kind of like him. But overall none of these things were fleshed out enough. None of them got enough development.

And to top it all off, Gabby and Daphne were both unbearable. I hated them both. And it’s completely unbelievable to me that they were distasteful for 360 pages, and then I was supposed to believe they were all better in the last 9 pages. That’s laughable, it’s so ridiculous—at least, if it weren’t so angering. It did really piss me off, it was so bad, and so disappointing.

I am glad that this book is finally over, and now I don’t have to think about it anymore.