Be Your Own Heroine by Sophie and Charlotte Andrews - Blog Tour, Review & Giveaway

Today I’m happy to be welcoming a previous visitor and a new visitor all in one post! Sisters Sophie and Charlotte Andrews have written Be Your Own Heroine, which has the sub heading of learning the life lessons from heroines in literature, including Pride & Prejudice's Elizabeth Bennet. Sophie Andrews has visited Babblings of a Bookworm before, with her book Be More Jane, but her sister Charlotte is a first time visitor and I welcome them both. The publisher, CICO books, is also offering a giveaway of a physical copy to a UK or US address!

Let’s begin by looking at the blurb.

Book Description

Having brought you the wisdom of Austen in Be More Jane, eager reader Sophie Andrews joins forces with her sister Charlotte and turns her attention to what can be learned from the heroines of other stories from past and present. Whatever your taste in authors, there will be strong female characters you can relate to, from Jo March, the tiger-sister in Little Women, to Eleanor Oliphant, the socially bemused heroine of Gail Honeyman's prize-winning first novel. There are spirited young women such as Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice, and Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter series; and then there are the survivors – July in The Long Song and Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games. Sophie and Charlotte show how these six inspirational young women can inspire you and guide you through life's challenges. Whether you are faced with hard times at home, in love, or at work, these characters have something to teach you.

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Be Your Own Heroine - My Review

Be Your Own Heroine looks at the heroines of literature, six in particular, and looks at the number of life lessons we can learn to be our own heroine (or hero, let's be inclusive here!). The heroines particularly focussed on are Elizabeth Bennet from Pride & Prejudice, Jo March from Little Women, July from The Long Song, Eleanor Oliphant from Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games, and Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter series, but other stories are also referenced, such as Jane Eyre.

‘Can we learn from great female characters in our other favourite books? Can we even become our own heroine by taking lessons from their stories?’

In this book the authors look at these heroines, and extrapolate a number of lessons that we can learn, such as a heroine needs friends, heroines aren’t perfect, heroines learn to love themselves, heroines are proud of where they come from, etc.:

‘It is challenging to be true to who you are in the face of derision and mockery. It can be tempting to take the easier way out and back down from confrontation, or pretend to be from a different background or place, but sooner or later we need to accept who we are and where we have come from.’

The range of stories is quite diverse, and I thought I might be less interested in the heroines of stories that I am not familiar with, but in fact the similarities and differences between the heroines cross the genres and times of the stories and are brought together really nicely.

There is also some humour with some very niche pieces of advice!

‘Retaliating with a nest of mutant wasps may be tempting and satisfying – but it is not advisable!’

Very sage piece of advice there :)

I have a slight reservation about this book which is the spoilers. Of the six main heroines, I’d read 3 of the books, have one on my colossal TBR pile, had heard of one, and one was completely new to me. At the beginning of the book, there is a section introducing the main six heroines which gives a summary of their story, and a spoiler warning for one of these heroines in particular. As this was the book on my wish list, I skipped this section as suggested but there are details of the plot of this book used as examples in other parts of the book. I don’t know how spoilery the details will turn out to be, I tried to skim those examples and not take them in! I suppose there is an argument that the older the book you give plot details of, the less of a spoiler it is but some of the plot details come without warning, such as the fate of Nancy in Oliver Twist or the end of Jane Eyre so you might be hijacked with story details you may have wanted to stay ignorant of and read for yourself.

This book is only 60 pages long, but actually that number is deceptive, because the print is really quite small, so it has more content than the page count would imply. There are some custom illustrations with relevant scenes to the examples throughout the book. I thought this was a sweet little book filled with really positive messages. It doesn’t say that it’s aimed at a younger reader but I felt that’s who I would buy it for. This was a nice short read and I’d rate it as a 3½ star read.

Author Bio

Sophie and Charlotte Andrews are sisters who both love to lose themselves in books. Charlotte’s passion for reading and writing began in her earliest years. She studied Latin American literature as part of her degree at Warwick University, but especially enjoys historical fiction. Younger sister Sophie appreciates many different genres – however her true love is for all things Jane Austen, an enthusiasm that was initially sparked by studying Pride and Prejudice at school. She started her blog, Laughing with Lizzie, in 2012, aged 16, and soon began to participate in Austen events and festivals around the country. As a founder member of the Jane Austen Pineapple Appreciation Society, she organises house parties, balls and picnics and starred in the 2017 BBC documentary “My Friend Jane”. Her first book, Be More Jane, was published in 2019 by CICO Books. Sophie lives in Berkshire.

Contact Links:

• Laughing with Lizzle blog • Facebook • Instagram • Twitter •

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Buy Links

Be Your Own Heroine is available to buy now in Hardcover.

• Amazon US • Amazon UK • Amazon CA • Add to Goodreads shelf

Giveaway Time!

Cico Publishing is kindly offering a hardcover giveaway to a UK / US reader. To enter, please comment on this blog post by the end of the day worldwide on 27 October.

Note about comments: If you have any problems adding your comment please contact me and I will add your comment for you :)

 

Be Your Own Heroine Tour Schedule

October 19   Diary of an Eccentric/Book review and giveaway

October 20   More Than Thornton/Book review and giveaway

October 21   Babblings of a Bookworm/Book review

October 22   So Little Time/Spotlight Post

October 23   My Jane Austen Book Club/Spotlight post

October 24   For Love of Austen/Book review

October 25   More Agreeably Engaged/Book review and giveaway

October 25   Sarah Johnson Books/Book review and giveaway

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