LOLA AT LAST By J.C. Peterson

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

LOLA AT LAST By J.C. PetersonLola at Last by J.C. Peterson
Published by HarperTeen on 2/28/23
Genres: Contemporary, Retellings, Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 393
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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Join Lola Barnes, a.k.a. a modern Lydia Bennet, at the beginning of a summer gone truly wrong: where a boat party-turned-fiery-fiasco ends with the ship, Lola’s summer plans, and her reputation truly sunk.

(The boat was barely on fire, for the record—and all the partygoers were just fine.)

Luckily, this disaster of a summer has another thing in store for her: a path of self-discovery she never saw coming.

Given an ultimatum—jail time, or spending the summer with the nonprofit Hike Like a Girl—she laces up her hiking boots and takes to the wilderness. Along the way, she’ll encounter unexpected friends, a sweet romance, strength she didn’t know she had—and herself, Lola, at last.

Short and Sweet Review

Lola’s summer is not off to a great start, the friends she thought she had want nothing to do with her and to make matters worse she ends up catching a boat on fire that belongs to her brother in law and sister. To pay for her mistakes Lola ends up having to join Hike Like a Girl, a nonprofit where she should rediscover herself and figure a lot of things out while out in the wilderness.

Lola at Last is the companion novel to Being Mary Bennet, in this book we meet the illustrious Lola who was shipped off to France but came back after that didn’t work for her. Anyway we see the aftermath of Lola being gone, her friends aren’t really her friends she’s like an outcast now trying to figure out how to fit in again. Lola uses humor as a coping mechanism but it comes off as if she really doesn’t care especially if she’s in the wrong. Lola has a way of making things about her and she needed a lot of character development. I think the Hike Like a Girl actually did Lola a lot of good, she needed to get away from the people she thought were her friends and just start fresh. Lola is not excited about joining HLAG at first she makes the experience pretty awful for the other girls with her temper tantrums and showing up late, but eventually she turns her attitude around and starts to make an effort. We also see Lola try to rekindle her relationship with her twin sister Kat which got strained when Lola went to France. There’s also a romance between Lola and Ezra and I thought this was a cute relationship. Ezra makes Lola want to try to be a better person but Ezra also has some doubts about if Lola can change from the reckless girl she used to be.

This was a pretty entertaining book, I liked reading about all of the hikes the girls are going on. I was worried that Lola wouldn’t have much character development, there was a lot of ups and downs with her behavior but eventually she figured out what kind of person she wanted to be and learned from her past mistakes. I liked the characters and the plot and Lola was a good character and I liked seeing her growth. Pick this book up, because it’s definitely a breath of fresh air, kind of makes me want to try hiking.


BEING MARY BENNET By J.C. Peterson

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

BEING MARY BENNET By J.C. PetersonBeing Mary Bennet by J.C. Peterson
Published by HarperTeen on 3/15/22
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 381
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
Buy on Amazon

For Marnie Barnes, realizing she’s a Mary Bennet is devastating. But she’s determined to reinvent herself, so she enlists the help of her bubbly roommate and opens up to the world.

And between new friends, a very cute boy, and a rescue pup named Sir Pat, Marnie finds herself on a path to becoming a new person entirely. But she’s no Lizzy, or even Mary—instead, she’s someone even better: just plain Marnie.

Short and Sweet Review

Marnie has always been fine with who she is until someone tells her she’s more like Mary Bennet than Lizzie. This makes Marnie want to change who she is so maybe the people around her will realize how great she is.

Marnie feels like the black sheep of her family and feels like she doesn’t live up to her sisters accomplishments so she decides to try to win the Hunt Prize. She comes up with the idea to have kids read books to shelter dogs and that’s where she meets Whit one of the volunteers at the shelter and someone who helps her with her project. The problem here is that Whit is one of Marnie’s love interest in the book but she’s obsessed with Hayes (a friend of the family). Honestly Whit was a great guy and for some reason Marnie can’t see Hayes for the sleezeball he is.

Throughout the book we see Marnie become closer with her roommate Adhira, which I loved because they both needed a good friend in their life. We also see Marnie become closer with her family it was almost like she was alienating herself from them and not the other way around, I loved the relationship between her and Lindy. My favorite thing about this book was one of the shelter dogs, Sir Pat he was just so sweet and loving.

Marnie our main character went through a lot of character development in this book and thank goodness for that because who she was in the beginning made me see why she didn’t have that many friends. Marnie liked correcting people and she didn’t say the right things. But as the book goes on she becomes more self aware and more likable as a main character.

This was a good heartfelt read, I liked that Marnie eventually realized that she didn’t need to change everything about her but embrace the things that made her quirky. I also liked how she realized that some people shouldn’t have a place in your story. The plot was great and the friendship and family relationships were beautiful and just made me smile in the end, and so did the dogs, pick this book up!