Sass & Serendipity by Jennifer Ziegler

This book came out the year Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility turned 200. This novel plays homage to the classic with a modern twist.

Gabby and Daphne are sisters with nothing in common. Gabby, the older sister, has stepped up to help her mother after her father left them. She's the sensible sister who works hard, studies to get good grades, and does her best to make sure her sister behaves. Considering how her father broke her mother's heart, Gabby doesn't believe in love and wants nothing to do with boys. Daphne, on the other hand, lives in a romantic fantasy world of happily ever afters. She meets the new boy in town and instantly believes he's her soul mate. She is spoiled and irresponsible because she's so wrapped up in her dream world to pay attention to the harsh realities of her family's situation. Then a financial crisis leaves the family dependent on the one boy in town Gabby can't stand - the person responsible for the death of the only boy Gabby ever had feelings for. When her mother has to go out of town, Gabby is forced to be even more responsible for her oblivious sister. Pretty soon everyone has boy issues, whether they want them or not.

This book does a decent job of maintaining the gist of Austen's novel. There are modern issues that fit nicely into the story that all seem realistic. However, for two-thirds of the novel I couldn't stand either main character. Daphne is a spoiled brat who desperately needed a reality check and Gabby was so narrow-minded and critical of everything she was just downright unlikeable. I could understand where each girl is coming from, but they were both so extreme that they were annoying. In the last hundred pages both girls received a bit of a slap in the face which thankfully brought them around to some resemblance of sanity.

Aside from some unbearable main characters, the book wasn't horrible. You could relate to the character even if you couldn't stand them and the book makes you believe change and happily ever afters are possible.
MMK