I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
A Little in Love by Susan E. Fletcher Published by Scholastic Inc. on August 25th 2015
Genres: Young Adult, Love & Romance, Historical, Europe, Girls & Women
Pages: 288
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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Paris, 1832 A girl lies alone in the darkness, clutching a letter to her heart. Eponine remembers being a child: her swing and the peach tree, and the baby brother she loved. But mostly she remembers being miserable. Taught to lie and cheat, and to hate the one girl, Cosette, who might have been her friend. Now, at sixteen, the two girls meet again, and Eponine has one more chance. But what is the price of friendship--the love of a boy?
A Little In Love by Susan Fletcher is a book that I feel like I have been reading forever and according to my spreadsheet, it is the shortest eARC that I have. Alas, you are here to learn about A Little In Love and so I will tell you all about it. Susan Fletcher’s young adult book is the story of Eponine from Les Miserables in her own words. You might want to check this out if you’re a fan of the book, musical, or movie.
A Little In Love is all about Eponine’s life – from childhood to the A Little Fall Of Rain moment. The book begins in Montfermeil, which is where the Thenardiers have their inn. They live a life that is crooked and essentially wring every single penny they can get out of people. One day, a woman drops off a little girl at the Inn and pays the Thenardiers to keep her. That girl is Cosette. At first, Eponine is friendly with Cosette, but then her mother admonishes her and instructs her to be mean and cruel. Eventually Cosette is taken away by Jean Valjean, events happen, and the Thenardiers find themselves penniless and living in Paris with a bad sort of crowd. Eponine finds herself falling in love with the boy who lives across the hall from them, Marius.
As a character, I have always loved Eponine. I mean, she’s so interesting in the musical because of the whole unrequited love thing and she really never had a chance, especially given her family. In this book, A Little In Love, Eponine struggles with being good versus being bad. Her family is the actual worst. She finds that jealousy and resentment get the best of her and so she acts out of pettiness and in doing so, really hurt other people. Yet, at the same time, she wants to be kind and make amends and live on the right side of the law. I did think this was really an interesting look at Eponine.
Susan Fletcher’s A Little In Love is a great book to hand a youth who loves the musical Les Miserables but is not quite ready to handle the doorstopper that is Victor Hugo’s masterpiece. I would say it works for middle graders and people on the very young end of YA. Otherwise, I did feel that the book got really repetitive and I just never felt super invested. My hopes were pretty high, but you know if I was Marius, I would say this book is like getting an Eponine instead of a Cosette (see what I did there). It certainly has its audience, just I am not that audience and that is perfectly fine.
Other reviews of A Little In Love by Susan Fletcher:
On My Way By Marie – “The author captured Eponine’s heart with a hauntingly romantic and poetic beauty.”
Across The Words – “a beautifully written book that made me fall in love with Eponine even more.”
The Book Nut – “If you love Eponine you’ll enjoy yourself.”
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Oh bummer. Sorry you didn’t like this book. I read it last summer and LOVED it! I have always been a huge Eponine fan, so I was sympathetic to her already. I really enjoyed hearing her story instead of Cosette. I don’t really see the appeal of Cosette. Eponine is so tortured and interesting.
Thank you so much for linking my review! Sorry you didn’t like the book much — I definitely agree that it’s more targeted towards a younger audience. I viewed it as more of a novella for the actual book since it was so short and only focused on a small slice of the book.