Tris & Izzie by Mette Ivie Harrison

TRIS & IZZIE
Author: Mette Ivie Harrison
Source: Amazon Vine
*I received this book free of charge in exchange for an honest review*

Reading level: Ages 12 and up
Hardcover: 272 pages
Publisher: EgmontUSA (October 11, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1606841734
ISBN-13: 978-1606841730

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.

I wasn’t familiar with the fairytale of Tristan and Isolde, but the summary intrigued me when it said that it involved love potions and falling for the wrong person.  I was thrilled to step away from the normal paranormal of vampires, shape shifters and mermaids for a bit and step into a book involving magic and teen angst.  I have to say though that this book is not as great as that cover unfortunately. The cover is so pretty with all the flower petals and shirtless guy, but the reading material inside is less than memorable.


With not much background to base an emotional tie to the characters on, I wasn’t really invested in the story enough to enjoy what was going on.  The main character is at times naive and predictable,  but the path that the author takes her on really isn’t explained well enough to understand why she is on this path.  The secondary characters were just as much unappealing as the main character.  The bad guy is the cliched bad guy that makes you cringe whenever he speaks from predictability and not evil creepiness. 


Overall, this book was a disappointment to me.  The cover was basically the only thing I enjoyed about this book.  Not one I would reread again in the future.