A review for Tris and Izzie by Mettie Ivie Harrison

Posted by Donna
Expected Published Date: October 11th, 2011
Finished Date: July 6th, 2011
Source: ARC - NetGalley 
Format: Egalley
Pages: 272
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The Blurb from Goodreads: 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.
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***Spoilers***
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The Review: When I found out this book was up for review on NetGalley, I immediately snapped it up because I’ve always been a massive fan of the story ‘Tristan and Isolde’.....however, I can honestly say I’m definitely not a fan of this book.

Izzie is a witch, a young witch who doesn’t really understand or know how to us her powers. She’s happily dating Mark, the captain of the Basketball team but when new boy Tristan starts school, she can’t help think there’s something about him. While trying to pair her best friend Brangane and Tristan together, Izzie steals a love potion from her mother and tries to get both Brangane and Tristan to drink it. But when Izzie accidently drinks it with Tristan, it leaves them bound together, falling in love and throwing them into the world of magic.

Firstly, don’t let the blurb fool you. This book sounds totally to die for but guess what, it’s not. Tris and Izzie is supposed to be a modern re-telling of the German fairy tale but the only thing that was slightly similar to the original story was the names of the characters and Tristan’s wasn’t even his proper name. To say the least I was more than a little disappointed with this story. 

I had seen a few negative reviews around before starting this book, so I did try and not let them affect my opinion on the story but it was so hard when you completely agree with the other people. The story was not well developed, the characters were not well developed and the story was, in my opinion poorly written. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not an expert books but when I look at some of the other books I’ve read over the past few months and compare then, I can definitely spot the faults. 

Izzie as a character, I found to be quiet annoying. Mostly, all the way through with her match making and then her feelings towards Tristan. She tries to fight her feelings but after taking the love potion their romance is pretty instant which I didn’t like because it didn’t feel right. There was no suspense and then suddenly Tristan is declaring his love for Izzie but yet she is still in love with Mark. She refuses to listen to the advice that people around her have given and pretty much sends Tristan away as soon as she realises there’s something more going on. Only then to change her mind two seconds later once trouble arises. 

The second issue I had was with Izzie and Mark who are supposed to be in true love so they claim. However, as soon as Mark realises that Brangane is in love with him, with the snap of your fingers their suddenly declaring their love for one another and Izzie is giving her blessing. It was honestly done within seconds and it was so totally unrealistic. Then there’s Tristan, strong and handsome Tristan. Who all we actually really know about him is he has snow white hair and his name isn’t actually Tristan. The way his character comes across in the book, it totally out of place, his accent and way he talks, I just didn’t get it and he’s one character that just didn’t do anything for me. 

And finally, the magic in the story was another thing that felt out of place. You’re introduced to a magic community and demons that aren’t interesting and aren’t developed enough to make you truly understand the story. In the end, I’d read three quarters of the book and skipped to the last page to see what happens. I just couldn’t read it any longer.

Thinking back on the story now, it may suit a younger audience. An audience that isn’t going to want to much detail, maybe the age range of 11 – 16 years old but this book definitely wasn’t for over 16 year olds. 

Thank you NetGalley and Egmont for giving me to the opportunity to review this book.