Thursday, January 30, 2014

PRINCE CHARMING BY SARA CELI


Synopsis 
School. Tests. Scholarships. Goals. 

Senior class overachiever Geoff Miller thought he had it all figured out. All he needed to do was make it through the next six months, graduate, and get on with his life. 

College at the University of Virginia beckoned him-- and he just wanted to put the last horrible four years at Heritage High School in the "done" folder. 

Geoff just didn't count on two things: Laine Phillips, and sex. At first, his passing crush on the school princess seemed to Geoff like a distraction from a boring life in a snobby Greater Cincinnati suburb. Then one day, it turned into something more... 

Six months. Not that long, right? 

Reactions
An interesting romance that mixes elements of Cinderella with contemporary reality into a cute tale. 

Geoff lives with two jealous half-brothers and a stepfather with whom he can not communicate. Here begins the similarity with the Cinderella myth. This young man whose family life is not necessarily easy, see life throught strange glasses. He thinks that everybody is against him. 

The more, the reader advance into the story, the more you see that the hero found himself in this situation because he has created a distance between himself and his entourage. 

His intelligence and his ability to study make him want to leave his school and escape the life he leads. But his teenage negativity does not reflect on the reality. Geoff does not take the time to enjoy the moment and he constantly judges his surroundings until he met Laine. 

Personally, the beautiful princess charm has not operated on myself. I found Laine's reactions not as realistic as those of Geoff. But she is an important female character to address the problem of violence against women and the need to be perfect in the eyes of others. 

Specifically, because if you do not reveal yourself as you are and hide your troubles behind a smile, it will be difficult for your relatives to behind the facade. Just because people are focused on themselves and that what's made them blind. 
This side of the story was very interesting and well pictured by Sara Celi. 

I was less sensitive to the romance that lacked emotion for my taste. But that does not diminish the quality of the story and messages developed by the author that I enjoyed. 
Not at all what I expected...

Sentences 

"I rehearsed the phone call twelve times before I made it : five times in the shower, four in front of the bathroom mirror, twice while I ran on the treadmill in the workout room, and once more as I scrubbed the tiles on the kitchen floor on Saturday morning." 

From Geoff: "I loved holding her, She was like something forbidden that only I could have." 

From Laine: "What can I say?" She gave me a sad smile. "I'm good at hiding things, Faking it, That's my specialty." 


*PRINCE CHARMING BY SARA CELI 

Traduction du synopsis
Le lycée. Les contrôles. Les bourses d'études. Les objectifs. 

Le perfectionniste élève de terminale, Geoff Miller, pensait qu'il avait tout compris. Tout ce qu'il avait à faire, c'était de survivre les six prochains mois, obtenir son diplôme et se concentrer sur sa vie. 

Alors que l'université de Virginie lui fait signe, il veut juste mettre les dernières quatre horribles années au lycée Heritage High School derrière lui. 

Mais Geoff n'avait pas compter sur deux choses: Laine Phillips et le sexe. 

Dans un premier temps, son béguin passager pour la princesse de l'école semble être pour Geoff comme une distraction dans une vie ennuyeuse dans une snob banlieue de Cincinnati. Puis un jour, cela se transforme en quelque chose de plus...  

Six mois. Ce n'est pas si long, n'est-ce pas ? 


Impressions 
Une romance intéressante qui mélange des éléments de Cendrillon à la réalité contemporaine pour en faire un récit actuel. 

Geoff vit avec ses demi-frères jaloux de son intelligence et un beau-père avec lequel il ne parvient pas à communiquer. Voilà le mythe de Cendrillon qui débute avec un jeune homme dont la vie familiale n'est pas forcément facile. 

Mais, plus on avance dans l'histoire et plus on s'aperçoit que le héros s'est retrouvé dans cette situation à force d'avoir crée une distance entre lui et son entourage. Son intelligence et sa facilité pour les études lui donne envie de quitter son lycée et la vie qu'il mène . Mais sa négativité d'adolescent n'est pas le reflet de la réalité. Geoff ne prend pas le temps de vivre l'instant présent et juge constamment son entourage jusqu'à sa rencontre avec Laine. 


Personnellement, je n'ai pas accroché sur la jolie princesse dont les réactions ne m'ont pas semblé aussi réalistes que celles de Geoff. Elle ne m'a pas charmé mais elle est un personnage féminin important pour aborder le problème de la violence sur les femmes et sur le besoin d'être parfait aux yeux des autres. 


Car concrètement si vous ne vous dévoilez pas tel que vous êtes et que vous cachez vos ennuis derrière un sourire, il sera difficile à votre entourage de passer outre la façade. Tout simplement parce que les gens sont centrés sur eux-mêmes. Ce côté de l'histoire m'a beaucoup intéressé.

J'ai été moins sensible à la romance qui a manqué d'émotions à mon goût. Mais cela n'enlève en rien à la qualité du récit et des messages développés par l'auteur que j'ai apprécié. 

Pas du tout ce à quoi je m'attendais.

Source
*Arc provided by the author. I received this book in exchange of a fair and honest review.



ENJOY AN EXCERPT


“Sure.” She bit her cherry-red lip, and watching her do it almost made me fall out of the chair. Still, she made no move to take a seat. “I wasn’t going to come over and talk to you—but, well, I just wanted to say that—well,” she broke off. “Never mind.”

“Seriously, do you want to sit down?” I asked again.

“Yeah.” She looked over her shoulder. “I just don’t want to be alone right now.”

As I hurried to move my school stuff out of the way, she slid into the metal chair and tossed her own book bag on the floor. Then I just stared at her, because I didn’t know what to say, and I couldn’t figure out why she’d sat down next to me. It just didn’t make much sense. The library had plenty of open tables, and even more computer desks. Hell, she could have had a whole section to herself if she wanted it.

So why me? Why me? WHY ME?

“Have you started the paper?” I asked when the awkwardness became too much for me to bear.

She nodded. “Yeah, last week. I’m about three quarters of the way done with the outline.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I like English literature a lot, especially that time period.”

I sat back, surprised. No one liked Langston’s class. No one. Right? And she didn’t seem like the English type, since she never talked much in that class. I had assumed she got in just because of who she was in school and the magic spell she seemed to have over everyone—even the teachers. “So, you’re telling me you like AP English?”

She gave me a blank look, as if I shouldn’t be surprised about this.

“Well, that’s awesome. I can’t get into it. At least, not that stuff we’re learning right now.”

“It’s not that bad, Geoff. Some of it is kinda romantic.” She disappeared underneath the table and came back a few seconds later with a thick green binder, a blue pen, and her own iPad. She opened up the binder and pulled the iPad out of the case as a small smirk danced on her face.

“Wait. Are you going to study here?” I paused. “With me?”

“Sure I am. This is a library.” Laine winked. “You do know how these work, right?”

“But I mean—”

“And you look so—I don’t know—lonely sitting here all alone.”

“So you just thought you’d plop down and study with me?”

“What? Don’t you want me to?” She tilted her head and frowned, as if she didn’t understand why I’d asked the question. “That’s what people do in a library. They study. Sometimes together. Of course, I could always go study with one of the freshmen.”

But even as she said this, she made no move to get up from the table we shared. Meanwhile, all the attention in the room had turned to her. Everyone in the library stared, transfixed. She was like that ring from The Lord of the Rings. My precious.

Good fucking grief. Of course I would make that kind of lame analogy.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
New Orleans born Sara Celi has lived all over the United States. She calls the Greater Cincinnati area and the Queen City home. 

She has spent more than a decade working in journalism and broadcasting, with jobs both on-air and off-air at TV stations in Louisiana, Ohio, and Oklahoma. Her work has appeared in numerous online publications, magazines and newspapers, and she is a contributing author to Chicken Soup For The Soul: The Power of Positive. 

Sara graduated cum laude from Western Kentucky University in 2004. In her spare time, she likes to read, shop, write, travel, run long distances, volunteer with the Junior League, and fund raise for Cooperative for Education, a non-profit providing educational opportunities for Guatemalan kids. 




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