Book Review: Tris & Izzie

By: Mette Ivie Harrison

Published by: EgmontUSA

To Be Released on: October 11th, 2011

Source: ARC from publisher at TLA

2 stars: I really wanted to like this much more than I did

Pre-Order/Purchase from: EgmontUSA| Amazon| Barnes & Noble

A modern retelling of the German fairytale "Tristan and Isolde", Tris and Izzie is about a young witch named Izzie who is dating Mark King, the captain of the basketball team and thinks her life is going swimmingly well. Until -- she makes a love potion for her best friend Brangane and then ends up taking it herself accidentally, and falling in love with Tristan, the new guy at school -quoted from Goodreads

I have been so excited to read this story! Everything from it's eye catching cover, to the title and it's premise screamed "Read Me". I was looking forward to seeing the spin Mette on this popular retelling. I liked the idea having magic exist in the real world mixed with a classic love story. Despite liking the magical lore in this story, I felt the story itself didn't live up to the expectations I had, had for it.

I really do love retellings of classics stories, but this one didn't quite live up to the hype I had wanted it to have. I felt the plot jumped around too much for me. I felt it was incomplete at times. I wanted more of explanation for things that were happening and the reason behind some of the character actions and I didn't get that. I wanted to see Izzie grow into her character and learn her magic instead of being told that she just knew. I wanted more to the story than what I felt I got.

My biggest compliant with the story is the characters. I felt they weren't in-depth, realistic characters that I could relate to or connect with at all, and I really wanted them to be. I didn't buy into how quickly they fell in and out of love or changed how they felt about each other so rapidly. It wasn't relatable and it took away from the story for me. For example, I didn't find it relatable at all when the two characters who have loved each other and been together for over a year and then something happens to the annoying best friend who's since voiced her love for the said boyfriend, and the boyfriend not only does something totally out of character but completely uncalled her to the "ex-girlfriend". The ex-girlfriend a few pages before was still his girlfriend and they both love each other still. This whole scene and the scene leading up to what happens wasn't just confusing to me, it lost my attention with the story.

I feel frustrated with this story, especially since it's one I've been so excited to read. The characters had so much potential, but they just didn't do it for me. I wanted to feel that undying love and chemistry between them and I didn't. I liked the creative side to this story, but the plot and the characters just didn't deliver what I hoped they were going to. There were too many inconsistencies for me to really love the storyline like I wanted to. If you're a fan of the classic story of Tristan & Iseult, than you may love this re-telling.