Title: Legally Blonde
Author: Amanda Brown
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Book to Film, Chic lit, Contemporary
Dates read: 7th – 8th June 2019
Pace: Medium
Format: Novel
Publisher: Sphere
Year: 2001
5th sentence, 74th page: Why might we not want a trial… uh, to start up that soon?

This blonde is anything but dumb…

Elle Woods, University of Southern California socio-political jewellery design major, is blonde, spoiled and desperately in love with Warner Huntingdon III. But when Warner announces he’s dumping her to go off to Stanford, Elle decides that a little thing like law school won’t come between them. Anything Warner can do, she can do better.

Elle’s Stanford misadventures begin badly, and it seems the one place blondes definitely don’t have more fun is law school. But then Elle’s asked to defend one-time fitness queen Brooke Vandermark on a murder charge. Seizing the opportunity to prove her worth to Warner and her fellow classmates, she vindicates all who are blonde at heart with a tip any Cosmo girl should know.

Legally Blonde was made into the hugely successful 2001 film starring Reese Witherspoon.

I only recently found out that this was a book. And man am I glad that I picked it up. Like the movie, the book is a fun, easy read. Very cutesy and, in many ways, completely unrelatable (I’m not exactly a “Legally Blonde” kind of girl). But it was fun. And easy. And I read it over the course of less than 24 hours. Like I said, it was just so damn cute and easy.

This is one of the few cases were I actually liked the movie a bit more than the book. Reese Witherspoon just does such a phenomenal job of bringing Elle Woods to life. And she’s impossible not to love. The Elle Woods who comes to life on the pages is completely lovable too. But she’s not quite as adorable, and a lot more superficial. Kind of annoyingly so at times. But her optimism and naivety kind of makes up for the stereotypical blonde image…

One of the biggest differences between the book and the film is that many of the characters have different names. Their personalities are also a little more two dimensional, but still relatable. But the law lessons are more intense. You can tell that Amanda Brown actually went to law school. Studied the monotony that is apparent on the page. And she obviously also enjoyed some parts of the law, since these are the bits that are much better explained. In some parts I actually wanted to go to law school myself! But only in some… I like my degree.

Legally Blonde is one of those books that I’ll pick up again and again. It’s the perfect balance of a good storyline, fun characters and accessible language that makes the words just fly by. And, since I’ve seen the movie so, so, so many times, I know what’s going to happen. So it’s perfect for those reading slumps or times of intense pressure where you just can’t quite seem to concentrate fully…

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Image source: Amazon