Category: book review

Novel written by Ada Bright and Cass Grafton

There’s something meta about this book mentioning truth is stranger than fiction; Jane Austen appears at the museum dedicated to her, characters are linked across time and bloodlines. If you missed the first book (like me); Jane Austen has a necklace that lets her travel through time! Now you’re caught up.

It’s written by a pair who’ve produced several Austen inspired books. I’m working on a partnership myself – glad to see they work!

Rose (with her new beau) is pulled back in time by Jane Austen. The difficulties of daily life for a modern person dealing with lack of plumbing and electricity are brushed over, focusing instead on the emotional journey of the characters. Lack of medicine does play quite a large part in the plot but its the constant little annoyances, the minutiae, that are missing.

Austen family members make an appearance and are drawn in broad strokes; Mrs Austen, difficult; Cassandra, helpful; Edward, upright; Charles, mischief maker. Jane Austen herself is more difficult to pin down, a lot relies on the friendship established in the previous book.

It’s very readable, has a little bit of chemistry, but may only be interesting to those who are already fans of Austen.

It’s not clear if this sequel was planned, but a third was (the end points to it); an outline existed in July 2020 but it hasn’t been mentioned since. Let’s be fair though, the pandemic derailed a lot of plans. If it’s ever published, I’ll read it.

Review of Emmett by L. C. Rosen

In the tradition of Clueless this adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma is set in a rich kids high school. In fact Emmet would slide right into Bronson Alcott High; he’s also very like Cher – aware of his privilege, trying to do good, but pretty clueless. The Mr Elton character even responds to Emmet’s attempting to match him with “Harriet” with “as if.”

Earlier in the year I attended a script reading of Em by Sam Brooks, also a queer take on Emma with a main character named Emmet. (Someone please stage this play and invite me, I beg you.) So the name and concept is having it’s time.

I adore (most) Austen adaptations and have a soft spot for those that include diversity, which this has in spades. It’s an upbeat book but doesn’t shy away from the difficulties of sexuality, family, loss and the façade of social media. Once you get past figuring out who each character represents (took me till mid way to recognise Miss Bates) the sense of anticipation is electric; you know what’s coming, but they don’t. Oh, and the delight when you predicted correctly!

Reading about teens having sex is uncomfortable (reading about anyone having sex is uncomfortable for me) but it’s never literally shown and messages of physical and emotional safety are central. The difference in how Gen Z conduct relationships than previous generations is summed up pretty well. “I didn’t profess my undying love for you… I offered you some sex. It’s not a big deal.”

Emmet is a wonderful modernisation of Emma; they share a philosophy of ‘the ends justify the means.’ He congratulates himself on a job well done when he only made one over-worked person pass out.

Review of the novel by By Linda Corbett

Of course I was going to pick up this book, it’s a phrase very close to my heart. (Have I mentioned my whole “Jane Austen as Life Coach” thing?) Despite the few things I point out that could have been better it was an excellent read and hard to stop thinking about till I finished it. A charming Austen / cosy /chick lit read.

Maddy has the coolest job ever, but like most in Romancelandia not necessarily one you could actually make a living from, she’s an agony aunt in the persona of Jane Austen. After a firing she never investigates (hello employment laws?) she takes an unexpected opportunity to move to the country when she inherits her long-lost-black-sheep-second-cousin’s house. As all small places in books have, quirky characters abound. There’s a Mr Darcy author character, he and his dog end up “lodging” with Maddy.

There’s a romance but all sex is off page, there’s a Wickham character but he doesn’t pack much punch, there’s a mystery but it doesn’t get fully resolved. Why her cousin was ostracised is never explained and his redemption wasn’t much of one either. This could have been explored further. It would have been lovely for her to work out why her cousin chose her to inherit, why he chose never to contact the family (which could have been explained if his reasons for leaving had). Honestly, I assumed he was gay and either he excommunicated himself knowing his parents would disapprove, or they kicked him out.

It’s unfortunate that the cover and even the blurb don’t entirely match the inside of the book, though not an unheard of occurrence in publishing, still disappointing. Equally disappointing is the main character apparently being a journalist but not understanding basic journalistic principles.

Also there were bodies found during a building project? Who cares if they’re ancient! Tell us everything!!

The Bennet Women is set in an American university residence hall amongst a diverse cast of women – Black, Asian and Trans. One of the lovely things about this representation is that these identities do not define the characters. Nor are their experiences used to traumatise the character or reader – we are all aware who they are, it’s constantly in the back of their minds. There is a very satisfying scene where EJ (Lizzy) clearly articulates exactly what life is like as a female engineering student; she views this speech as a failure but I wanted to applaud.

Adaptations, fanfiction “based on” and “inspired by” stories give us an opportunity to wonder “what if?” What if Lizzy was a black woman? How would this identity influence her life, her character, her actions? It’s a delight to revisit characters and plot points with the authors new twist. Lady Catherine seemed to be absent, I only recognised her when she confronts EJ.

A lot of the conflict from Pride and Prejudice is avoided and I like that. I’m not a fan of conflict. The characters actually communicate, they go to therapy, they assess situations maturely (most of the time). It’s a relief to escape the boring trope of characters not being able to be together because “reasons.” This awareness means that Wickham’s grooming young vulnerable women goes from sub text to text, these women are equipped to recognise a predator.

Two plot points were left to drift. EJ and her family don’t deal with the borderline eating disorder she had when she was younger, it’s mentioned then brushed off. They do deal with other reasons she gave up dancing which was a wretch to her younger self. EJ and Will (Darcy) agree to take down Jordan (Wickham) but never follow through, he does get his comeuppance but we don’t get to witness it. The ending drags a little but is necessary to tie up other loose ends. But it must be pointed out that everyone knows Dr Who is not filmed in London (read the book to find out why that’s relevant).

I was lent this book by a fellow romance writer from the Wellington-Kapiti branch of Romance Writers of New Zealand (thanks Lisa!).

Who wants an up close and personal experience with Jane Austen? Me, says every Austen fan ever. This book will give you that promised experience. You’ll get to see how Jane thought, how she felt, what her daily life was like, and then, what she thinks of her popularity and the advancements in technology since her time.

This novel takes some liberties with Jane Austen’s life, but hey, it’s fiction. In fact, it’s fantasy. Time travel isn’t real people, no matter how much we wish it were. While it’s true that Mrs Austen and Jane didn’t necessarily get along all the time, there is no evidence to suggest that her mother was ever outright opposed to Jane’s writing career as she is cast here.

After a disastrous incident with a potential suitor, and a nasty gossip, Jane takes a chance and discovers a path to find her one true love which lands her in modern Bath. Here her fate is linked to that of former Hollywood darling, Sophia Wentworth (sound familiar?), who is in Bath shooting an Austen adaptation. She at first thinks Jane’s appearance is a prank pulled on her by the show for interesting behind the scenes footage.

Sophia and Jane’s stories are wound together, showing the difficulties of love and being an independent woman in any timeline. As Jane’s views widen, her life in the past begins to disappear, creating ripples into her future timeline. In the end it comes down to what is more important – her love or her art?

To start off you need to know this is a work of fiction. It’s unclear why this was created rather than researching and telling the real story about the formation of the Jane Austen Society. Especially as now this will be taken as fact rather than the history. It’s evident from the notes in the back that the author did some research about places and names, the latter to avoid naming actual individuals.

The author wanted to “write about a group of people traumatised … who came together over their shared love of … Jane Austen.” She did this very well, all the characters are leading miserable lives in what appears to be a pretty miserable time (post WWII), making this a difficult read. There is an attempt to make Chawton feel like “something out of a Jane Austen novel.”

The position and treatment of women was particularly bleak. “Austen saw what lack of money meant for the women in her life, and this consuming fear was … telegraphed most loudly in all her books.” I was glad the characters discussed Jane Austen with each other or it would have been too much to bear.

One of the characters observes; “we love Jane Austen because her characters … are no better or worse than us. They’re so eminently, so completely, human.” But the characters in this book didn’t seem very real. Perspective jumped from one to another between paragraphs though each had their own section.

Despite a couple of twists and turns Chawton cottage is secured for the society and all the characters get their happy endings, they are rushed into them in the last two chapters.

I finished this book more because I felt I should rather than from any enjoyment of the text.

Charlotte is a picture of domesticity. The bulk of the book is a retelling of Pride and Prejudice from Charlotte’s perspective but it takes us a while to get there. From Charlotte’s view we hear that “Mrs Bennet would be in danger of expiring with joy” when considering Mr Darcy’s proposal to Elizabeth. This is the best of the book, the new storyline isn’t as enchanting.

Charlotte maintains her sense, for at least some of the novel, and she observes that “Mr Darcy spoke too little, and Mr Collins too much.” It’s amusing to see how Mr Darcy’s visiting Elizabeth at Hunsford threw the peaceful household into “minor storms of domestic havoc.”

There are echoes of Emma as Charlotte realises that “it was poverty only that made celibacy contemptible in the eyes of the public,” something her new friend Anne de Bourgh as a wealthy woman will never have to worry about. As so often happens in adaptations Anne emerges as an entirely different character with a backbone.

It is comforting to see Charlotte really find her place in her marriage. She was “safe, appreciated and occupied” and that “while her husband did not often speak sense, he always spoke kindly” although she did sometimes suffer “a tax of mortification” for his words.

This story is really a continuation of Pride and Prejudice allowing us to see how Charlotte and Elizabeth cope with married life. It veers strongly from the characters in the original when it comes to Anne and later Charlotte, which feels like such a shame after getting to really appreciate her.

“In the midst of so large a family, (Mary) was utterly alone” and after the inevitable death of her father she is adrift in the world still attempting to find her place. I’ve often felt Mary was hard done by but this author manages to make me feel sorry even for Mr Collins and dislike the sweet Mr Bingley when they point out he only likes Jane because she’s beautiful. The book is something of a study in relationships. Charlotte becomes Mary’s confidant and they are so well suited you wonder why they weren’t friends before. Caroline Bingley rears her ugly head again as does Lady Catherine but it’s Mrs Bennet and her lack of affection for her daughter who is the real villain.

It’s a massive book, separated into five parts but it’s about half way through that it begins to feel like a different book. The first half is a continuation of Pride and Prejudice then at the half way mark it becomes your typical regency romance – a very drawn out one. The book is mostly told from Mary’s perspective (in third person) but we slide quietly into other characters thoughts and motivations reasonably regularly. At the start of the book there’s a sadness about her, a worry about finding her place which I identify with but makes it at times painful to read but don’t worry she has her happy ending.