Title: My Faire Lady
Author: Laura Wettersten
Genre: Young adult fiction
How I got the book: I bought it
Summary (from Amazon):
When a cheating boyfriend leads to an unexpected summer job, Rowena discovers that the best way to let go of the past might be to dive right into it. “Verily,” this is “fine fare” (Kirkus Reviews).
Rowena Duncan is a thoroughly modern girl with big plans for her summer—working at the mall with her best friends, taking trips to the Cape, date nights on the beach—until she catches her boyfriend making out with another girl. Heartbroken, she applies to an out-of-town job posting and finds herself somewhere she never expected: the Renaissance Faire.
As a face-painter doubling as a serving wench, Ro is thrown headfirst into a vibrant community of artists and performers. She feels like a fish out of water until Will, a quick-witted whip cracker, takes her under his wing. Then there’s Christian, a blue-eyed stunt jouster who makes Ro weak in the knees. Soon, it’s not just her gown that’s tripping her up.
Trading in the Internet and electricity for stars and campfires was supposed to make life simpler, but Ro is finding that love is the ultimate complication. Can she let the past make way for her future?
My Review (may contain spoilers!):
Okay. I think I have a love-hate relationship with this book.
The premise of the book was great. I thought having the main character work at a Renaissance Faire for the summer was cool. They had to be “in character” the whole time the park was open as though they actually lived there in those times. It was interesting to read about the knights and wenches and such.
The characters weer pretty good, too. I loved Will. Suze was awesome. I didn’t like Christian, but you’re not really supposed to like him. Rowena, on the other hand…
Rowena is the main character. This may sound harsh, but she kind of ruined the book for me. She decided to take on a job at the Renaissance Faire to get away from her ex-boyfriend Kyle. They had dated for a long time and then he cheated on her.
Sad, right? I’m sure she feels awful. That stings a lot.
But for more than half the book all she did was talk about Kyle and compare other people and things to him and what they used to do together. She tried to get together with Christian (and then Will) purely based on looks than anything else. Rebound, pretty much.
She redeemed herself in the end and kind of figured things out (I assume she’s about 17 so I have to give her some slack on that front). So instead of three stars, I decided to bump the rating up to four stars.
My other complaint was that she was an artist who wanted to do that for a living, but her parents expected differently of her. It was kind of a sub-plot, but wasn’t touched upon nearly enough throughout the book, in my opinion. Was it resolved at the end? Yes. But I still wish there was more build-up for that.
The overall book was good. The premise was interesting and it was nicely written. It was just the main character that I felt needed some work.
My Faire Lady by Laura Wettersten gets 4 out of 5 stars.
Favorite Quote:
“All I’m saying is that if you want to do something you’re in love with, maybe you should stop listening to your parents and listen to your heart instead.” –Laura Wettersten, My Faire Lady
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