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Wednesday, September 26, 2018

Emma and the City by Amy Hilliges

Title:  Emma and the City
Author: Amy Hilliges
Publisher: 18th September 2018 by Red Envelope Press
Pages: 346 pages
How I Read It: ARC book
Genre: womens fiction, chick lit, contemporary romance
My Rating: 3.5 crowns

Synopsis:

It-girl and blogger Emma Worth appears to have it all: beauty, brains, connections and a fabulous Manhattan apartment. Emma makes it her business to tell others what to wear and who to date because she knows best. Obviously.
Despite her designer outfits and glitzy New York lifestyle, something's missing . . . If she only knew what it was. That is, until a hot A-lister swoops into her life and sends Emma's pulse racing and fills her head with red-carpet fantasies.
Emma's neighbor Adam Knightley is disapproving, telling her she needs to fix her priorities and stop chasing celebrity pipe dreams. The man would look hot on a red carpet himself if only he’d stop frowning for more than five seconds.
When Emma’s matchmaking backfires and her meddling causes mischief, what's a girl to do? Try to lie her way out of it, of course. Anyway, who cares, right? Because Emma's finally getting the kind of attention she deserves. Except in her fantasies, things looked a lot different. And it didn’t feel this heartrendingly painful . . .

Love her or hate her, Emma is back––with a sexy makeover, 21st-century problems, and another chance to redeem herself in this grippingly entertaining, thoroughly original retelling of the Jane Austen classic.

My Thoughts

I cannot deny it, I am a sucker for an Austen adaptation. Now admittedly they usually centre around Pride & Prejudice or Persuasion. The remaining ones, you can empathise, would be a little harder to adapt in some ways to modern times. So whilst this book was good, to make that transition from past to present, you have to let go of some traditional preconceptions.

"As her friend, you need to watch out for her feelings, not think about how great you’ll feel and how much you’ll be patted on the back if—and that’s a big if—they get together.”

This book is well written and easy to read - you will get through it quickly - it’s light and entertaining. Some of the changes are obvious, others less so - for example: Emma rather than devoted to her father, is estranged from him and our dashing hero Knightely is divorced - heaven forbid! On the flip side, there are sensible alterations such as the whole fiasco surrounding the family business which I very much appreciated. You will recognise characters and scenarios and, for me, that is what the essence of an adaptation is about.

"You’ve spread lies that could ruin lives! Juliette’s for one.”
Yes, he was angry indeed. “You have got to stop meddling in other people’s lives.”

Now to Emma herself. Emma is not one of my favourite Austen tales due to her behaviour. In Austen’s classic she may interfere but on most occasions, her heart was in the right place. For the modern adaptation, the author has really amped it up - alot! Personally, she has gone too far and created a really unlikeable character - selfish, snobbish and most definitely obnoxious! She is the classic ‘mean’ girl and therefore, not a true reflection of what Austen was working towards. Do not despair! The other characters more than make up for it! Adam Knightley is wonderful and a fabulous dashing hero, but heroic because he still tells Emma exactly as it is. Add to that the likes of Belinda Bates even naive Hailey and they bring the a lovely modern twist.

Another problem I have concerns the ending. Whilst I loved reading it, I felt that the acts of Emma redeeming herself were too easy and that was a little disappointing. Make her work for it people! She upset so many people and it could not all be forgiven so easily. I also quickly got over the many steamy scenes and the lewd language; for me, they were detrimental to the overall package, Emma shouldn’t be describing people as ‘stupid, insecure b****’.

"Her blatant hedonism was there for all the world to see."

Overall I found this to be a satisfying contemporary adaptation set in NYC. I whizzed through it very quickly which is always a good sign. If you liked Austen’s original,  give it a try but leave all assumptions at the door.




This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher and provided through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The quoted material may have changed in the final release

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