Published: May 17th 2007
Details: Hardcover, 224 pages
Summary (Goodreads):
When the character actors at Disney World go on strike, the teens hired as replacements learn that it isn't exactly the Happiest Place on Earth. Ella gets to be Cinderella, simply because the shoe fits. It should be a dream come true, but Ella no longer believes in dreams. Luke is a fur character, Dale the chipmunk. Chip is played by his girlfriend, Cassie, who is perfect in every way. Why, then, does Luke find himself more drawn to imperfect things like the theme park's Phantom? A team-building scavenger hunt brings Luke and Ella together. As they uncover the Magic Kingdom's treasures, they discover an undeniable magic between them.
At first, I found this book to be a bit hard to follow. There isn't much of an introduction and you just jump right into the story. Ella and Luke spend the summer working at the happiest place on Earth with a bunch of other people around their age including Luke's hot girlfriend Cassie (which makes you wonder, why did they make her a chipmunk if she's so hot?) and Ella's best friend. Ella doesn't believe in dreams coming true much, and how could you blame her with the tragedy she's carrying around with her that no one but her best friend knows about? Luke's whole life after DisneyWorld is planned out for him and Cassie is urging him to be smart and take it. But it's not what Luke really wants. So what will he choose? The path already set out of him or is he going to risk it all and find his happily ever after? The book switches off from Luke's point of view to Ella's point of view.
I'm a huge huge huge fan of Disney, so that's why I picked up this book. When I started reading it and it was a lot of complaining about how much they hated their jobs, I was starting to re-think reading this book since one of my biggest dreams is to work at Disney. But I realized, they're in Florida and not California, the weather must be much hotter out there and there are some people who really do hate working at a theme park, I for one, loved it. Ella struck me as someone I'd like to sit down and have a conversation with. Everything she says is thought provoking. She doesn't always make sense but to Luke, she makes perfect sense. And the whole time you're urging Luke to ditch miss Barbie and run off with Ella already!
I enjoyed reading this book. To the point where I stayed up until 5:30AM this morning just to finish it. The lack of sleep was worth it. It's a romance book without the cheesy predictable romance. It relates a lot of what really happens in real life. The struggles, the secrets, the questions you ask yourself and the wants. I highly recommend this book!
I'd never heard of this book before but it sounds really really interesting. I am glad that you chose to review a book that is a little bit older. So many times all I see are reviews of new books.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, you have an award on my blog.
like the commenter above, i've never heard of this book. thanks for the intro and great review :)
ReplyDeleteThat makes three of us because I had never heard of this book either, but it sounds adorable. I love Disney too, and enjoy saying that my first boyfriend {elementary school} was Prince Charming, for a summer job at Disney.
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