Reviews

Princess Izzy and the E Street Shuffle by Beverly Bartlett

mlcarl's review

1.0

I thought I would love this book. It's about a princess and references Bruce Springsteen. Sounds right up my alley. But no. The narrative style was hard for me to handle. It's told as a sort of tell-all biography about a princess in a fake European country in the relatively near future. But it's not told linearly or really in any sort of understandable order, which made it incredibly hard to follow at times. It's filled with plot twists, some are completely predictable, and some are just over the top in the worst way. And for being named after a Bruce Springsteen song, there were very few Springsteen references and they were rather gimmicky. Overall, I was rather disappointed.

princess_starr's review

2.0

Upon rereading this book, I have a much different reaction to it. Maybe it’s because I don’t read tell-all biographies, so I’m already not a fan of the style, but the narration came off as being catty when I think the author was going for witty. My main problem is with some of the plot “twists”—if only because there’s a twist at the end of the last twenty chapters. At that point, it stops being surprising and more plodding. (And some of the twists you could probably guess from the beginning of the book.) Also, the Springsteen references don’t contribute to the plot, and come off as more of a gimmick (“Cover Me” inspires a glove craze? Seriously?) and there’s too many pop culture references that come off as overbearing instead of witty.