Prada and Prejudice by Mandy Hubbard

From the Publisher

To impress the popular girls on a high school trip to London, klutzy Callie buys real Prada heels. But trying them on, she trips...conks her head...and wakes up in the year 1815!

There Callie meets Emily, who takes her in, mistaking her for a long-lost friend. As she spends time with Emily's family, Callie warms to them—particularly to Emily's cousin Alex, a hottie and a duke, if a tad arrogant.

But can Callie save Emily from a dire engagement, and win Alex's heart, before her time in the past is up?

More Cabot than Ibbotson, Prada and Prejudice is a high-concept romantic comedy about finding friendship and love in the past in order to have happiness in the present.

Publishers Weekly

Readers don't need to be Jane Austen fans to appreciate Hubbard's debut, a time-bending tale with some Pride and Prejudice elements. Awkward, plain-Jane teenager Callie is on a school trip abroad when she spies a pair of “totally classic” Prada shoes in a shop window and buys them on impulse, hoping to impress more popular girls on the trip. Unfortunately, moments after trying the shoes on, she trips, falls and blacks out. The next thing Callie knows, she is in 19th-century England, where she is mistaken for a duke's childhood friend arriving for an extended visit. With nowhere else to go, Callie stays at the duke's castle, and during the next four weeks, she becomes good friends with the duke's cousin, develops a love/hate relationship with the duke and shocks nearly everyone in the castle with her feminist ideology and numerous faux pas (“You could have heard a pin drop when I asked if they had ketchup,” she says). Part comedy of manners, part romantic fantasy, this fast-reading, playful novel takes the idea of feeling out of place to a hilarious extreme. Ages 12–up. (June)

Children's Literature

Callie is clumsy, unpopular, and, to top it off, a geek. She is more comfortable spouting random mathematical or scientific facts than talking to the rest of the girls on the school trip to London. In order to find instant popularity, Callie spontaneously purchases a pair of red Prada pumps, but while wearing the pumps out of the store, Callie trips and hits her head—and wakes up in the year 1815. In order to have a roof over her head, Callie pretends to be Rebecca, an American friend of Miss Emily Thorton-Hawke. Callie then spends the next few weeks trying to help Emily break her engagement to a man she does not love while trying to figure out how not to fall helplessly in love with Emily's cousin Alex, the Duke of Harksbury. This fun novel not only pokes fun at social rankings (both modern and that of 1815) but also shows the power of being true to yourself and going after your heart's desire. This is a must read for any Austen fan, fashion fan, or chick lit fan in general. Reviewer: Joella Peterson

School Library Journal

Gr 7-10–Fifteen-year-old Callie’s class trip to England is, like most things in her life, remarkably unremarkable. Ever since she was overheard making a derogatory remark about cheerleaders by one of the most popular girls in school, Callie has been permanently on the “D list.” To her misery and embarrassment, she has been ditched by her class-trip “buddy,” leaving her stranded at their London hotel. A scheme to join fellow classmates on a surreptitious trip to a hot club leads to her tripping spectacularly over her new Prada heels. Upon waking from her blackout, Callie discovers that she has been transported to Regency England and is now the long-lost American friend of Emily, a well-to-do teenager. True to her character, she makes a series of faux pas with the titled gentry, earning her the disapproval of a matriarch and a dashing 19-year-old duke. Although her adjustment to an 1815 lifestyle is rough, she begins to appreciate her friendship with Emily and her surprising budding romance with the duke. Callie’s perpetual awkwardness, chronic foot-in-mouth syndrome, spiritedness, and openness make her genuinely likable. Endearingly funny episodes involving a “Heart and Soul” pianoforte duet and a CPR rescue in front of an astonished crowd are contrasted with Callie’s determination to rescue Emily from an engagement to a suitor 30 years her senior. Although some aspects of the book and character traits are stock and predictable, this is a fun and charming read, sure to be popular with fans of humor and romance.–Jennifer Schultz, Fauquier County Public Library, Warrenton, VA

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