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wordsofclover 's review for:
Anna K: A Love Story
by Jenny Lee
3.5 stars
I received a free digital copy of this book from the publishers/author via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
In the New York 1 per cent, there’s a whole different type of royalty when it comes to the teenagers of the rich and privileged. When 16-year-old Anna K meets Vronsky on a journey home to New York to help her cheating brother placate his girlfriend, she’s struck with love at first sight. The only problem is, Anna already has a boyfriend - the perfect Alexander. And Vronsky has been dating Kimmy, who believes she’s in love with him too - even though she’s dazzled poor Dustin who knows he doesn’t have much of a chance with the third hottest girl in school. Between parties, dog shows and Coachella, there’s a whole lot of drama as Anna and Vronsky face their feelings for one another, despite whatever burns down around them.
This is a very fun, flavoursome teen version of Anna Karenina which just enough crazy parties, alcohol and drugs to really keep a reader fulled for more, more, more. I think squishing Anna Karenina down into a teen story would be a really tough job but I think Jenny Lee definitely did a great job here with characters who despite being wealthy beyond measure, are not total scumbags either and are actually characters full of heart and who you really want to root for. I actually liked these teen characters way more than the original characters they were based off - which could be down to the air of teen innocence they all still had clinging to them, despite the copious drugs they had sampled in their short lives.
Think Anna Karenina, meets Gossip Girl, meets Cruel Intentions - and you’ve got Anna K!
While I enjoyed this read, and I really felt like the dramatics were ramped up enough in the last 20%, I just couldn’t put it down, I don’t think this book will be for everyone. You need to love the unbelievability that is the life of a rich New York teenager - think Gossip Girl and 90210 - and the absolutely dramatics that comes with teenage characters not akin to Georgia Nicholson in Full Frontal Snogging - but at a whole other level! Some people will absolutely hate the level of crazy and over the top everything is in this book from the very first scene that is Lolly finding out Steven cheated on her while in the Hermés store, and then locking herself in his mother’s closet and taking naked selfies in his mother’s fur coat. There’s a lot of teenage slang in this book as well which I found quite hard to read a lot of the time as it’s not something I like in books at all. A lot of it is really cringe, and I do find it hard to believe that teenagers actually talk like that (but hey I’m an old person now so what do I know!).
I 100% do not think this book will age well, and will only have a few golden years to it from its publishing date which is a shame because you can tell how much heart and effort was put into the book. There are just one too many pop culture references in it, that in a few years time and as young people now grow into teenagers and pick up this book, they probably won’t care much about. I can’t see 16/17 years old now wanting to read a lot about Justin Bieber and One Direction, and I do think this will be the same in this book in a few years albeit Ariana Grande and Billy Eilish. There’s also way too much unneeded movie info dumps in this book due to some of the characters being movie buffs. This does come from the author being a TV producer and obviously a film fan, but I just think a lot of that dialogue could be cut and wasn’t necessary.
I really liked Dustin and Kimmy’s story which wasn’t a surprise as Kitty and Levin were my favourite in Anna Karenina. I do wish Dustin and Kitty together got a little bit more time on the page as that didn’t really happen as much as I wanted it to.
You also have to be okay with insta-love with this book, due to it being based on a book that is all about love at first sight! And also teens doing hardcore drugs a lot of the time too, obviously.
In the acknowledgements, it seems this book is being made into a TV show before it’s even being published and that is interesting after reading the whole book. And looking back, it makes some sense that the book seems written for the sole purpose of becoming an on-screen adaption. It will be intersting to watcher and I’m looking forward to seeing the modern day Anna K and Vronsky come to life.
Full video review (spoiler free): https://bit.ly/3cNeTjj
I received a free digital copy of this book from the publishers/author via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
In the New York 1 per cent, there’s a whole different type of royalty when it comes to the teenagers of the rich and privileged. When 16-year-old Anna K meets Vronsky on a journey home to New York to help her cheating brother placate his girlfriend, she’s struck with love at first sight. The only problem is, Anna already has a boyfriend - the perfect Alexander. And Vronsky has been dating Kimmy, who believes she’s in love with him too - even though she’s dazzled poor Dustin who knows he doesn’t have much of a chance with the third hottest girl in school. Between parties, dog shows and Coachella, there’s a whole lot of drama as Anna and Vronsky face their feelings for one another, despite whatever burns down around them.
This is a very fun, flavoursome teen version of Anna Karenina which just enough crazy parties, alcohol and drugs to really keep a reader fulled for more, more, more. I think squishing Anna Karenina down into a teen story would be a really tough job but I think Jenny Lee definitely did a great job here with characters who despite being wealthy beyond measure, are not total scumbags either and are actually characters full of heart and who you really want to root for. I actually liked these teen characters way more than the original characters they were based off - which could be down to the air of teen innocence they all still had clinging to them, despite the copious drugs they had sampled in their short lives.
Think Anna Karenina, meets Gossip Girl, meets Cruel Intentions - and you’ve got Anna K!
While I enjoyed this read, and I really felt like the dramatics were ramped up enough in the last 20%, I just couldn’t put it down, I don’t think this book will be for everyone. You need to love the unbelievability that is the life of a rich New York teenager - think Gossip Girl and 90210 - and the absolutely dramatics that comes with teenage characters not akin to Georgia Nicholson in Full Frontal Snogging - but at a whole other level! Some people will absolutely hate the level of crazy and over the top everything is in this book from the very first scene that is Lolly finding out Steven cheated on her while in the Hermés store, and then locking herself in his mother’s closet and taking naked selfies in his mother’s fur coat. There’s a lot of teenage slang in this book as well which I found quite hard to read a lot of the time as it’s not something I like in books at all. A lot of it is really cringe, and I do find it hard to believe that teenagers actually talk like that (but hey I’m an old person now so what do I know!).
I 100% do not think this book will age well, and will only have a few golden years to it from its publishing date which is a shame because you can tell how much heart and effort was put into the book. There are just one too many pop culture references in it, that in a few years time and as young people now grow into teenagers and pick up this book, they probably won’t care much about. I can’t see 16/17 years old now wanting to read a lot about Justin Bieber and One Direction, and I do think this will be the same in this book in a few years albeit Ariana Grande and Billy Eilish. There’s also way too much unneeded movie info dumps in this book due to some of the characters being movie buffs. This does come from the author being a TV producer and obviously a film fan, but I just think a lot of that dialogue could be cut and wasn’t necessary.
I really liked Dustin and Kimmy’s story which wasn’t a surprise as Kitty and Levin were my favourite in Anna Karenina. I do wish Dustin and Kitty together got a little bit more time on the page as that didn’t really happen as much as I wanted it to.
You also have to be okay with insta-love with this book, due to it being based on a book that is all about love at first sight! And also teens doing hardcore drugs a lot of the time too, obviously.
In the acknowledgements, it seems this book is being made into a TV show before it’s even being published and that is interesting after reading the whole book. And looking back, it makes some sense that the book seems written for the sole purpose of becoming an on-screen adaption. It will be intersting to watcher and I’m looking forward to seeing the modern day Anna K and Vronsky come to life.
Full video review (spoiler free): https://bit.ly/3cNeTjj