Retell Me a Story Book Review: Catherine by April Lindner

Welcome to another day of Retell Me a Story fun!  In case you've missed out on anything so far, check out the previous posts:
- Welcome and giveaway post, 
- A guest post from Nikki of BookPairing on The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood, 
- A list of new and upcoming retellings, 
- A guest post from author Diane Zahler on fairy tale mixers,
- A review of one of Diane's fairy tale retellings, The Thirteenth Princess,
- A fun Robin Hood guest post by Suey of It's All About Books, 
- A guest post by author Marissa Meyer on fairy tale scavenger hunts,
- A review of a fairy tale mash-up, Enchanted by Alethea Kontis,
- A guest post by Angie of Angieville on classic retellings 
- A review of The Turning by Francine Prose, a retelling of The Turn of the Screw
- A guest post where author April Lindner answers my questions about classic retellings

Catherine by April Lindner
Publisher: Poppy
Publication date: January 2013
Pages: 320
Source: ARC from publisher
For: Review

Chelsea's always thought her mother, Catherine, was dead. Until she finds a letter from her that might mean she's still alive. So she sets out to find her and ends up at The Underground, a club run by the enigmatic Hence - a person who might just know where Catherine went.

Things I Liked: 
I think what I love about Lindner's retellings is that they take these delightful classics that we know and love (well, sometimes love) and fit them so perfectly into the present day. This book was so fascinating! It kept me reading and following along with Chelsea's journey all the way through. Even though I pretty much knew the story line and where things would go (well, there were some ending surprises) it was still so fun to follow along. I think lovers of music will once again find the musical references more interesting than this non-musical-savvy reader. All around, a very nice update. I love the touches of the original (at least the ones I remembered) that were here and there.  I liked that the story focused more on the second generation than on that all-consuming romance of Cathy and Heathcliff. Still, the two of them seemed to haunt the entire story, as they should.

Things I Didn't Like:
I'm not sure what kept me from loving it, but I just couldn't completely adore it. Perhaps it was the sort-of romance between Chelsea and Cooper. Or it was the rather neat ending, even though it was a bit disturbing along the way.  Or it could be that Wuthering Heights is just a weird, weird book and this retelling can't quite shake that weirdness. 

Read-alikes:
Reminds me of Jane by April Lindner
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

BOOK CONTENT RATINGS:
s-factor:!@
some, no f-bombs

mrg-factor: X
one or two parts, glossed over

v-factor: ->
just a bit of violence near the end

Overall rating: ****

So, I'm interested to know how fans of Wuthering Heights like this OR if haters of Wuthering Heights would want to read this update.  
(As a heads up, I've got my ARC of Catherine available in the Retell Me a Story giveaway!)

If you buy through my Amazon linkage, I will get a very small percentage