REVIEW: Tris & Izzie

Tris & Izzie

Mette Ivie Harrison

Goodreads Description:  A modern retelling of the German fairy tale "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.

My thoughts:  I was expecting a silly pointless story that would barely keep me awake, but WOW!  Um, I LOVED this book!  And I am pretty sure that this isn't going to be a series, which makes me want to cry. 

Izzie is a regular girl who is dating and in love with a boy named Mark.  Her mother is a witch, and Izzie knows that she could just get a love potion to make her love for Mark last forever, and have it returned as well.  But Izzie doesn't see the need for it, because their love is so strong already.  She is sure that they will last forever.  Then a new boy comes to school, Tristan.  He fits right in with Izzie and Mark's circle.  Izzie's best friend Brangane seems kind of down the whole beginning of the book.  She is in love with someone, but this someone doesn't even notice her.  She won't tell Izzie who it is, which to me makes it obvious that it is Mark!  Izzie has no clue though.  She decides that she will get one of her mother's love potions out of her cabinet and make Brangane and Tristan fall in love.  Tristan drinks his half of the love potion, and then Izzie accidentally drinks the other part.  Whoopsie!  So now they begin to fall in love.  However, Izzie doesn't realize that she isn't the greatest at reading the labels for her mother's potions, and that it wasn't a love potion at all.  Her love for Tristan, and his love for her, is real.  Brangane decides to call Izzie out on it, right in front of Mark.  She gets her to take a truth potion and Izzie admits that she is in love with Tristan, much moreso than she is in love with Mark.  Brangane also takes the love potion, and willingly admits to Mark that she loves him, much moreso than  Izzie does.  Man this love SQUARE is exhausting!  In the end, everybody is happy and the world is still spinning smoothly. 

Tris helps Izzie figure out more about her magical abilties (which she thought were nonexistent).  They both begin an adventure and work to complete the mission that Izzie's father and Tris' mother and father died for.  This was my favorite part of the book!  I wish this part had been extended a little more, as I love the whole idea of magic and Izzie learning so much about herself!

I loved the characters.  Izzie really does love Mark, and she wants it to stay true.  She is the best girlfriend any guy could want.  Mark seems like kind of an idiot sometimes, but he really loves Izzie too.  They are the perfect couple...the type that is too good to last.  Brangane is supposed to be Izzie's best friend, but I couldn't stand her!  She was too mopey and was more concerned about herself than her best friend.  In my book, it doesn't matter what you feel for your best friend's boyfriend, get over it!  I felt like Brangane was constantly wanting everyone to feel sorry for her.  Ugh, that was annoying!  Izzie's mom was sweet.  I liked that she lied to Izzie about her magic to try to protect her, since Izzie was perfectly content with no magic!  I also loved that she was an ambulance worker who sometimes used magic to help those she picked up.  She wasn't selfish, made the best decisions for everybody, and really cared about other people.  Tristan loved Izzie too....but I felt like it was the weird obsessive kind of love.  I think it was just that he believes that there is only one true love and he was sure she was the one.  Tristan was there for Izzie in ways that Mark could never be, and he was always putting her first.  He was even ready to die for her!

Oh man I just cannot praise this book enough.  I just love it love it love it!  It was nice and short too, which is hard to find in a book with such a huge plot!  Sometimes I am too impatient to read a long book and I need a shorter condensed version!  This was definitely it, and I don't think it missed a thing!

My rating: ☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ ☺