Posts Tagged: birgham distributing

This modern high school adaptation of “Pride and Prejudice” is a battle of wits as Chloe desperately tries to remain the only girl who can avoid the inevitable—falling for Taylor

With as many young adult books as I read there are very few I would definitely recommend to my daughters and friends as completely worth the time and purchase. But Pride and Popularity is one I can whole heartedly stand behind. Jenni James takes Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice into the 21st century and adapts it to teens. I found myself totally immersed and grinning ear to ear at the end.

Chloe has been burned by the popular crowd at her old school and at age 15 is determined it won’t happen again when she relocates with her family to Farmington. The only problem is that there happens to be an uber popular, stunningly cute and charming boy there. But mark Chloe’s words to her two best friends…Taylor Anderson will NOT win her over. Forget the fact that Taylor has beautiful blue eyes, serves others plus is ever persistent in his attention. (Girls and moms alike will swoon at the fact that Taylor’s middle names is Darcy.)

Pride and Popularity not only won my heart, it also addresses withholding judgement, the risks of online sites for young teens, and the importance of involved parents. The characters are real, the teen perspective spot on. I can not wait to see all of Jenni James re-tellings in her Austen series. She’s a YA author to watch! Thanks so much to Brigham Distributing for sending me such a fun amazing book.

Our exclusive interview with author Jenni James:

What lessons do you hope to pass on to your readers and teens?
Mostly, that teens today aren’t as the YA world has been portraying them lately. That they can be normal and still be cool and get the guy at the end. I guess I’m championing for all the normal teens out there. J

My most favorite author (apart from Jane Austen of course) is Judith A. Lansdowne. She’s a regency romance writer… and an incredible friend and person. I love love love her! While living in England, I’d emailed her to ask for some pointers on the ball I was throwing, we began emailing back and forth. It was during one of these emails she encouraged me to write, telling me that through my letters she could tell I’d make a wonderful writer. I thought back on that conversation often a year later when I finally sat down and began writing.

We heard you have some exciting movie news…can you share?
*waggles eyebrows* Do I ever?!?! Hehehe! But, er… I can only say this much: I have a producer *very* interested in making all 6 of the Jane Austen Diaries into movies and filming in Farmington, NM… which would be amazing for Farmington. Oh, and I can say—recently, as of *very* recently—I’ve had significant interest from an amazing director who’d like to come on board.

What has been the biggest surprise about this whole process?
How much fun writing is! I so thought it’d be boring, but I was way wrong. Writing your own stories is so much more amazing than reading someone else’s.

Oh goodness! What don’t I like to do? I love to paint portraits and sing and plan elaborate parties and cook and bake and well… a whole bunch of things. My favorite movies tend to lean toward very sappy and wonderfully romantical love stories. –The simple, cute, perfect ones. *sigh*