Book Review :: Scones and Sensibility by Lindsay Eland

Title: Scones and Sensibility
Author: Lindsay Eland
Genre: Middle Grade Fiction

Publisher: EgmontUSA
Publication Date: December 22nd 2009
Source: Borrowed from library

Did I like the cover?: I really love the cover art. It's actually why I picked it up to read from the library.

This book reminds me of: Jane Austen, of course. It also reminds me of the TV Show, Dawson's Creek because of the way the main character speaks.

The main character reminds me of: The middle child of Modern Family, Alex Dunphy. She's smart and kind of an oddball in her family because of her intelligence.

Summary from Goodreads:
Seek tirelessly and you shall not find a contemporary heroine of middle-grade literature as refined and romantic as Miss Polly Madassa. Still swooning over the romantic conclusions of Pride & Prejudice and Anne of Green Gables, twelve-year-old Polly decides her purpose in life: helping along lonely hearts in search of love. Polly's only task this summer is to make deliveries for her parents' bakery, leaving ample time for this young cupid to find hearts to mend—beginning with the kite-store owner, Mr. Nightquist, who will pair perfectly with Miss Wiskerton (the unfairly labeled town curmudgeon). Polly's best friend Fran Fisk is in desperate need of a mother ever since hers ran off with a man she met on the Internet; Polly must find a match for Mr. Fisk. And while she's at it, it wouldn't hurt to find Clementine, Polly's teenaged sister, a beau worthy of her (so she can shed that brute, Clint). Polly's plans are in full swing, so she definitely cannot be bothered by the advances of classmate Brad Barker.

But maybe Polly should have turned her attention to Miss Austen's Emma next, because she quickly learns the pitfalls of playing matchmaker. How will Polly patch up her own relationships, while ensuring that destined love can take its course?

Review:
I chose to read this book because of the beautiful artwork on the cover. The story sounded intriguing from the recipe on the back and I was sold. Unfortunately, the story itself wasn't as great as I was expecting.

The main character, Polly is a very bookish young lady of 12 years. She loves Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice in particular) and Anne of Green Gables. She loves all the romance of the books - the language, the relationships, everything. So much so that she models her own life after her favorite characters.

She speaks the way Elizabeth Bennett would speak in Pride and Prejudice. This is cute for the first half of the book or so, but it gets pretty aggravating towards the end. For me, it was hard to believe that a 12-year old would maintain speaking so grandiosely throughout the WHOLE book. It reminded me of the old TV Show, Dawson's Creek, because the characters on the show did not speak like normal teenagers would. They spoke fast and furious and the vocabulary they used was definitely above average for a teen. The main character in this book does the same thing and I'm surprised that her family and friends put up with it for so long. I think this is an issue for this book because it would be hard for a pre-teen/tween to read and understand. The language of Jane Austen is not easy to read even for adults. I had to re-read a lot of passages myself just to understand what Polly was really saying.

Polly decides to play match-maker on her summer break to the fellow people in her seaside town. Her ideas of romance, however, seem to muddle her ability to see that she is just meddling in everyone's business.

What I did enjoy about this book was the fact that Polly's family owned a bakery and the author's descriptions of all the yummy pastries that Polly would deliver sounded very delicious. Even though Polly is overly meddlesome and the language gets old after awhile, you do believe in her and root for her (at least for most of the story) because she really does have good intentions even if she going about it in all the wrong ways.

Overall:
It was an okay book. It was quick to read and I think the pre-teens/tweens might enjoy it if they are familiar with Jane Austen and Anne of Green Gables. Otherwise, I'd pass on it.

Rating:
2 out of 5 stars

This is book #15 of the year. I am participating in the 2011 Goodreads Reading Challenge. My goal is to read 50 books this year.