The Pursuit of Happiness by: Tara Altebrando

The Pursuit of Happiness

by: Tara Altebrando

From Amazon:

Dressing up as an eighteenth century farm girl is not how Betsy Odell imagined spending the summer before her senior year of high school, but her history professor father insists she take a job at Morrisville Historic Village. To make matters worse, Liza Murphy, only the biggest freak from school -- piercings, tattoos, bleached hair -- works as a farm girl too. As far as Betsy can tell, her summer will be miserable and any chance of ever being popular is doomed.
When tragedy strikes Betsy close to home, her boyfriend and 'friends' are nowhere to be found, and her job becomes a welcome escape from the real world. James, a Morrisville employee from the next town over, is probably the greatest -- not to mention cutest -- guy Betsy has ever met, and Liza is surprisingly normal and fun. Caught between two worlds -- old and new -- Betsy is soon struggling with two versions of herself. Combining backdrops of historic Morrisville with the normal teenage world of beach parties, learning to drive, and broken hearts, Tara Altebrando writes a hilarious and fun novel of one girl's search for love and happiness?and the unlikely places she finds them.

From Me:

Okay - let me just say it. I am a history junkie. Everything history related immediately enthralls me, and this book was no exception.

I read it because it's about a girl with my dream job. For years I have longed to actually go and work at say, Mount Vernon (this place is actually doable considering my great-grandmother lives on a portion of the land.)

This has always been a dream - call me a loser, at least I'm an honest one.

So I read it because of this reason, but I was not dissapointed at all.

It's about a girl named Betsy who's mother has recently died. It's about her struggle for normalcy afterward, from getting rid of her no good boyfriend to accepting other people for who they are, and not who they seem to be.

She learns so much about herself in this book its crazy. We literaly watch her transform from sad and timid, to strong and accepting.

Seeing this process is what I mainly adore about this book - actually feeling part of her transformation, and seeing who she becomes was just great and had me smiling when I put it down. She learns to put her pain into outlets - like art. Which is exactly what she does.

And then there's James. James James James. He is a really great character, not only does he love history, and help Betsy along the way, but he likes to carve cute things out of wood :]

He's one of my favorite leading "Men."

This book gets a 10 because it's great. I would recommend it to anyone.

*Review by Christina