Falling in Love with English Boys by Melissa Jensen

Title: Falling in Love with English Boys

Author: Melissa Jensen

Publisher: Speak

Release Date: December 23, 2010

Source: Purchased

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

Sixteen-year-old Catherine Vernon has been stranded in London for the summer-no friends, no ex-boyfriend Adam the Scum (good riddance!), and absolutely nothing to do but blog about her misery to her friends back home. 

Desperate for something-anything-to do in London while her (s)mother's off researching boring historical things, Cat starts reading the 1815 diary of Katherine Percival her mom gives her-and finds the similarities between their lives to be oddly close. But where Katherine has the whirls of the society, the parties and the gossip over who is engaged to who, Cat's only got some really excellent English chocolate. Then she meets William Percival-the uber-hot descendant of Katherine-and things start looking up . . .

When I saw Falling in Love with English Boys at the bookstore, I hadn't really heard much about it. All I really knew was that Melissa Jensen had another book coming out soon. But the story sounded quite interesting, and as it turned out, I really enjoyed the book.

Cat has been sentenced to a summer in London while her mother researches a woman who's been dead for close to 200 years. While most teenage girls would die for the chance to spend a summer in England, Cat wants nothing more than to be back home in Philadelphia, spending the summer hanging out with friends. But then Cat meets Will, a handsome British boy and descendant of the woman her mother is studying. With Will in the picture, Cat all of a sudden finds herself a lot more interested in London and the history of the Percival family. Between spending time reading the 200 year old diary of Katherine Percival and complaining about her mother, Cat finds herself making new friends and maybe, possibly falling for a certain handsome British boy.

I am a big fan of stories that take place in two different time periods. In the case of Falling in Love with English Boys, there were two parallel stories, one taking place in the present tie and the other at the beginning of the 1800s. What makes the story even more interesting is that even thought the two storylines were 200 years apart, they were still connected, mainly by a diary. And because of the diary, Cat was quite aware of the story going on in the past. I really enjoyed seeing the two stories develop side by side and even more so, I loved seeing Cat get so wrapped up in Katherine's stories. Despite the two girls being 200 years apart, I loved seeing them come together.

Cat and Katherine were wonderful characters and I loved all the similarities between them. Both were new to London and felt kind of lost in their new environment and at times wanting to be elsewhere. But I still preferred Cat over Katherine, probably because we were from the same time period. At any rate, I loved seeing both girls grow and come into their own, neither one afraid of going after what they wanted, even if it had the possibility of ending in heartbreak. And of course, in the present day there was also Will. Will was the charmingly handsome descendant of Katherine's family. He was perfect for balancing Cat's slightly crazy personality, thought sometimes he kind of failed int eh communication department. But that flaw was easily overlooked and forgiven in the end. And not just because of the British accent.

Falling in Love with English Boys was a great read, one I really enjoyed from start to finish. I now can't wait to read Melissa Jensen's upcoming book, The Fine Art of Truth or Dare.