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For Darkness Shows the Stars, by Diana Peterfreund – A Review

Posted in Book Reviews, Jane Austen Sequels Book Reviews, Young Adult Fiction Book Reviews, tagged Book Review, Books, Diana Peterfreund, For Darkenss Show the Stars, Jane Austen, Persuasion, Reading, Young Adult Fiction, Young Adult Novel on 19 June 2013 | 4 Comments »

From the desk of Kimberly Denny-Ryder

Several months ago I kept hearing a lot of buzz about a book by Diana Peterfreund entitled For Darkness Shows the Stars. Nearly every blogging friend I had seemed to be reading and raving about this novel. As I did some research on it I discovered that it’s a young adult, sci fi/dystopic version of Jane Austen’s Persuasion. I was 100% interested. When Laurel Ann suggested I review it for Austenprose, I was at first super excited and simultaneously nervous. What if it didn’t live up to my expectations? Nerves aside, I dove in eager to see how Persuasion translated into a dystopic world.

Many years ago, the scientific over-manipulation of food, animals, and even people resulted in an event known as the Reduction, which set humanity back hundreds of years technologically and socially and ushered in a new nobility that outlawed most forms of technology. Elliot North is a member of this group, and understood that it was not her place to run away with her childhood sweetheart, a slave known as Kai. Now, years later, the world has begun advancing back to its former glory. A new generation is beginning to reignite progress and cause change, and with this comes the stagnation of the old elite. Therefore, Elliot’s estate is forced to rent land to the Cloud Fleet, a mysterious group of shipbuilders, in order to make ends meet. Little does she know that one of these men is Captain Malakai Wentforth, the same man she loved but dutifully left so many years ago, now under a new name. Although she wonders if this may be her second chance at love, Kai does not seem so sure. He also holds a secret which could alter the very course of their humanity for good or otherwise. Will Elliot be able to persuade him to give her a second chance? What will Kai do with his secret?

At first this book moved very slowly in my opinion. It took me a good 70 pages to really become invested in the story and understand the history as to how the world got to be in its present state. The terminology of all the different social classes was confusing at first, as the “racist” terminology that the upper class used was completely separate from how the underprivileged classes spoke. After I understood this, however, the book definitely caught my attention. Elliot is a conundrum of a character, as she’s stuck in this in-between place of fearing how modernization and technological advancement could harm society again, but also seeing how said advancements could help the depressing current state of affairs. She has all these people on her farm that she needs to feed, yet doesn’t have enough money or time to grow enough food. Therefore, she sees what genetically modifying food could potentially do to save hundreds around her. On the opposite spectrum her grandfather is extremely sick, but comes to find out that there are medications and procedures that had they not been outlawed could have prevented his continual deterioration. She’s a revolutionary in her own right, doing everything in her power to help those around her. The inner battle that she experiences for the majority of the book is an understandable one, and one that can be relatable in multiple contexts. She has all these things that she has been taught to fear, yet sees the benefits of certain modifications once Kai and the Cloud Feet people become a part of her life. She learns that not everything has to be a lesson in extremes, that everything doesn’t have to be either one way or another, and that sometimes the hardest sacrifices you have to make yield the best and worthiest results.

One thing that truly surprised me about this book was the characterization of Elliot’s father and Kai. Elliot’s father was extreme and harsh. The events towards the end of the novel and his reaction to certain revelations were frankly shocking. Upon first glance he seemed aloof, but he’s actually very observant and conniving. He knows exactly what buttons to push to get the results he expects. Additionally, I felt similar feelings about Kai. The level of his anger, rudeness, and spitefulness was too extreme in my opinion. At one point he violently grabs Elliot and is unforgivably rude to her. It’s understandable that he is angry over what happened between the two of them four years prior, but it just seemed a tad too much at times.

Upon finishing this book, I read the prequel, Among the Nameless Stars. The prequel delves into Kai’s journey after he leaves the North State but before he returns to it for the events of this novel. It definitely helped me get a better understanding of the emotional turmoil that Kai faced alone. His anger became more understandable, but only slightly. I’d recommend reading the prequel after For Darkness Shows the Stars, as there are things revealed that are better left as surprises.

I truly enjoyed the way that Peterfreund adapted Austen’s work into this dystopic world. It fit surprisingly well, especially the whole idea of differentiating social classes. The small pieces of the novel told in an epistolic fashion made me all the more anxious for the “Wentworth letter” (I can happily tell that you the letter does not disappoint.) Peterfreund has definitely earned a new fan in me, and I’m excited to continue this new series with her as she adapts The Scarlet Pimpernel next.

Peterfreund’s website describes this series as, “In a distant future, teens work to rebuild their societies in breathtaking adventures inspired by timeless classics.” This series is made up of novels about hope, change, love, and redemption. I can’t think of traits I’d want the current teenage generation to learn more. This is definitely a series I’d recommend sharing.

4 out of 5 stars

For Darkness Shows the Stars, by Diana Peterfreund
Balzer + Bray (2013)
Trade paperback (448) pages
ISBN: 978-0062006158

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Presumption: An Entertainment: A Sequel to Pride and Prejudice, by Julia Barrett – A Review

Posted in Book Reviews, Jane Austen Sequels Book Reviews, tagged Book Reviews, Books, Historical Fiction, Jane Austen, Jane Austen Sequel, Julia Barrett, Presumption and Entertainment, Pride and Prejudice Sequel, Reading on 12 June 2013 | 19 Comments »

This is my sixth selection for The Pride and Prejudice Bicentenary Challenge 2013, our year-long event honoring Jane Austen’s second published novel. Please follow the link above to read all the details of this reading and viewing challenge. Sign up’s are open until July 1, 2013.

My Review:

Before Mr. Darcy’s Little Sister (2010), Miss Darcy Falls in Love (2011), Georgiana Darcy’s Diary (2012) or Loving Miss Darcy (2013), or any of the other numerous Pride and Prejudice sequels elevating Georgiana Darcy to main character, there was Presumption: An Entertainment, by Julia Barrett (1993). Of all of the minor characters in Pride and Prejudice Mr. Darcy’s younger sister is the logical choice to continue the story. She has many points in her favor. Being young, beautiful, wealthy, and accomplished she is certainly heroine material—and living at Pemberley with her brother Fitzwilliam and sister-in-law Elizabeth does not hurt either.

The first Pride and Prejudice sequel ever published, Pemberley Shades (1949), also continued her story. What could go wrong in this scenario you ask? Well plenty, if the author takes the liberties that Barrett does—but that does not mean the story is not enjoyable—if you can abide change, and the characters acting in a conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman, or lady. I will hint that the title Presumption foreshadows more than mirroring Austen use of verbs in her own titles.

Published the same year as another early Austenesque sequel, Pemberley: or Pride and Prejudice Continued, by Emma Tennant, Austen fans must have been agog to see two books available at the same time. Since there were very few Austenesque novels before them, and even fewer still in print, they were forging virgin territory. It appears that the media was surprised too and Presumption received some early rave reviews: “An elegant emulation and continuation of Pride and Prejudice. . . . Jointly composed by two admirers of Jane Austen, the book often achieves crisp replication of her style. . . . Presumption shows how sequel-writing can, like parody, be a sharp exercise in literary appreciation.”—Peter Kemp, Times Literary Supplement. Wow, any author would be thrilled to receive such praise from the esteemed London newspaper that Austen mentions in P&P and read herself. In the pursuit of more backstory I read reviews at Amazon.com. They are more recent, but general public was more critical and at times abusive. This was not surprising considering that it was someone tinkering with Austen and her beloved characters.

I first read Presumption in 1999, and like Pemberley: of Pride and Prejudice Continued, my first impressions were not as favorable as I had hoped. As I explained in my review of the later, you must put yourself into the shoes of a reader pre-P&P 1995 (Austen Renaissance), because everything in the Jane Austen universe changed dramatically after the airing of the A&E/BBC mini-series starring Colin Firth. It altered the way we think of her as an author and introduced her writing to many new readers—now primed and ready to consume anything Austen related—including the new burgeoning Austenesque sequel genre. In this year of Pride and Prejudice’s 200th anniversary of publication, in addiction to re-reading the novel, I wanted to re-visit many of the early sequels. So here we are—and back to Georgiana Darcy and her romances.

On the eve of Georgiana’s coming out ball, we are reintroduced to many of the original characters from Pride and Prejudice and a few new ones too. It has been two years since the marriage of Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet. The couple is very happily married, but because of her previous social standing, Mrs. Darcy feels the slight of relations and Society and is overcompensating by planning Georgiana’s coming out party at Pemberley. Mr. Darcy is focused on improvements to his estate and has hired a young architect James Leigh-Cooper who has arrived and is staying at Pemberley for the duration. Also on the guest list are Darcy’s imperious aunt Lady Catherine de Bourgh and her sickly daughter Ann who have chosen to stay with family friend and neighbor Sir Geoffrey Portland of Denby Park while they are in Derbyshire. The majority of the story involves Georgiana’s choice of suitors while orbiting characters such as Elizabeth’s sisters Lydia Wickham and her husband George, Jane, husband Charles, and his sister Caroline Bingley and others.

While Barrett writes in a style of the period, it is at the same time modern and accessible. I found myself laughing quite frequently at her wit and the blunders. She trips up on facts quite frequently that readers in 1993 may not of caught, but modern and more savvy Austen readers today will catch in a flash: Georgiana is 17, and should be 19 according to my calculations; Elizabeth is called both Lizzy and Lizzie (oh my); and other tidbits that I will let you discover. Just let them pass and enjoy the story. Unfortunately, Barrett broke the cardinal rule of Austenesque fanfiction: do not, DO NOT, have Austen’s character acting outside their established personalities. (Spoilers: avert your eyes and skip if you are squeamish. Elizabeth’s Aunt Phillips, obliging hostess and gossip of Meryton, is imprisoned for theft? And, Caroline Bingley, who strove every day to be higher in her station, elopes with a scoundrel?) Yes, characters can change and grow emotionally, but within reason. The plot is rather thin, and blunders aside, my second reading improved my opinion over-all. As an early effort I admire Barrett’s bravery and wit. But, in comparison to the four recent Georgiana sequels mentioned at the top of this review, Presumption lives up to everything that its title alludes to.

3 out of 5 Regency Stars

Presumption: An Entertainment: A Sequel to Pride and Prejudice, by Julia Barrett
University of Chicago Press (2^nd ed 1995)
Trade paperback (238) pages
ISBN: 978-0226038131

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Jane, Actually: or Jane Austen’s Book Tour, by Jennifer Petkus – A Review

Posted in Book Reviews, Jane Austen Sequels Book Reviews, tagged Books, Historical Fiction, Jane Actually, Jane Austen, Jennifer Petkus, Reading, Sanditon, Science Fiction on 9 June 2013 | 12 Comments »

From the desk of Jeffrey Ward

What would YOU say to Jane Austen if it became possible to communicate with her personally after two centuries? Jennifer Petkus’ third novel, Jane, Actually explores that possibility with an endless array of “what-if’s:” Is there an afterlife? If so, in what form? If departed souls are immortal, will the living be able to communicate with them? Will one departed soul be able to contact another departed soul? How will departed souls legally verify their identities? Can a disembodied soul fall in love with another disembodied soul?

A little background is necessary. In her debut novel, Good Cop Dead Cop, the author establishes a discovery that enables departed souls to contact the living via a technological marvel known as the “afternet.” In her second novel My Particular Friend, Petkus mashes together Sherlock Holmes with Jane Austen’s Bath for a Regency romp that is impossible to pin a label on. With great warmth and humor the author ingeniously mashes together the “afternet” with the very-alive but disembodied soul of Jane Austen and you actually get Jane, Actually.

Jane’s identity has been legally verified by the afternet authentication committee and she has finished her incomplete novel Sanditon, she has acquired an agent and staunch promoter in Melody Kramer and a grand book tour is planned. Although Jane communicates easily over the afternet, she is invisible, so the search begins for a suitable avatar to be her visual embodiment. A young acting student coincidently named Mary Crawford is one of the finalists. She knows next to nothing about Jane Austen, not even the literary significance of her own name. However, Jane takes a liking to her and she is chosen over more qualified candidates. Getting Jane and Mary to “sync-up” using the afternet proves difficult and frustrating but they warm to each other nevertheless.

Everything appears to be progressing smoothly but there is trouble afoot for Jane in the person of Dr. Alice Davis, one of the world’s most foremost subject matter experts on Jane Austen. One of her English counterparts, fellow expert and journalist Courtney Blake, has discovered a never-before-seen letter that Sotheby’s London auction house has verified as written in Jane’s hand. Dr. Davis plans to spring this revelation on Miss Austen at the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) general meeting and prove this Jane Austen is a fraud if she is unable to define her own letter’s contents.

Her unlikely and unwitting accomplice is Stephen Abrams a doctoral candidate whom she advises. Stephen meets Jane’s avatar Mary and the beginnings of a romance ensue. Mary is utterly devoted to Jane but poor Stephen is unaware to what extent Dr. Davis plan is to discredit Jane’s identity.

Jane also has been communicating with an Albert Ridings for a decade via the afternet. Albert died during World War I and was from the same general region as Jane in Hampshire, England. She has disguised her identity this entire time, not wishing him to get caught up in her celebrity. Their relationship appears to have progressed to intimate fondness and even love for each other but her lack of forthrightness may jeopardize his trust and faith in her.

The author’s depiction of Jane Austen is chillingly authentic. She is intelligent and savvy, having eavesdropped on practically every development in the two centuries since her death. As this reviewer suspected, Jane is kind and loyal but does not suffer fools as she turns on those who wish to manipulate her with caustic wit. She shows mastery in most things except perhaps her own confused feelings about love. A precarious romantic moment is in the air for both couples as the invisible follow the visible through a country dance at the JASNA meeting:

“It was time for Stephen and Mary to progress through the line and Albert and Jane effortlessly followed them.‘But love requires hands to hold and lips to kiss,’ Jane said. ‘Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments as the man said.’ Albert said in response.” (A quote from Darcy in P & P)

As it was all but impossible to categorize My Particular Friend, Jane, Actually: or Jane Austen’s Book Tour defies literary labels as well! It is part science fiction, part fantasy/paranormal, part romance, part mystery/suspense and ALL Jane Austen. Is it absurdly fantastic? Yes! Is it compellingly entertaining? Double-yes!!

The author’s love for Jane Austen pours forth from her impressive research and footnotes. And, before you lose yourselves in Jane, Actually, be sure to read the introductory explanation on the complexities of the afternet v-e-r-y carefully. One wonders what Jennifer Petkus will come up with next when she comes back to earth. Her creative imagination, character development, and gifted writing skills apparently know no boundaries.

5 out of 5 Regency Stars

Jane, Actually: or Jane Austen’s Book Tour, by Jennifer Petkus
Mallard Sci-Fi (2013)
Trade paperback (406) pages
ISBN: 978-0615796710

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The Passions of Mr. Darcy, by Sharon Lathan – A Review

Posted in Book Reviews, Jane Austen Sequels Book Reviews, tagged Book Reviews, Books, Darcy Saga, Jane Austen, Jane Austen Sequel, Mr. Darcy, Pride and Prejudice, Pride and Prejudice Sequel, Reading, Sharon Lathan, The Darcy Saga on 29 May 2013 | 5 Comments »

From the desk of Kimberly Denny-Ryder

Some series are just too good to let go, whether they be movies, TV, or books. Sharon Lathan’s Darcy Saga, inspired by Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, is one such series. I’ve had the pleasure of reading all six of the previous novels, and I was sure that book seven, The Passions of Dr. Darcy, would not disappoint me in the least. So, without further ado, I sat down and began to read about another member of the Darcy family: Uncle George.

While a young Master Fitzwilliam Darcy is enjoying his childhood at Pemberley, another member of the Darcy family is out making a name for himself in the world. Dr. George Darcy, Fitzwilliam’s bright and engaging uncle, has quickly become noted around the countryside as one of the greatest physicians in the area. He enjoys all the attention, but becomes restless and decides to make a drastic change that will take him away from all the rich and bland clientele he is used to. So, he sets off on an assignment with the British East India Company, which at the time had expanded far and wide into the Indian subcontinent. Excited to take on this new opportunity, Dr. Darcy then embarks on a journey that is full of wonder and experiences that will last forever. He then returns after many years and recounts his tales to the now older Fitzwilliam Darcy, his wife Elizabeth, and their family. We join in the experience as Dr. Darcy describes the adventures which have shaped him into the gentleman he is today.

Let me start by saying that I was definitely excited to read this book as I knew that it was an epic story. I’m a big fan of overarching story lines that span a lot of space and time, such as The Odyssey, Great Expectations, Les Miserables, and the Outlander series. This piece was a great addition, as we travel across every reach of the Indian subcontinent for over 30 years with George, exploring its vibrant and rich history and the intriguing characters that he meets along the way.

Lathan is an expert in character development, as I’ve alluded to in my reviews of her prior works, so I expected no different when I read the extraordinary highs and lows that George experiences in his time there. Particularly poignant were the joys and sorrows he feels when finding and losing love, and we laugh and grieve along with him. The best part about George’s journeys are that they take him from being a slightly arrogant and sure-footed doctor to a man who discovers that there is so much more to life than the small sliver that he has previously experienced in England. He lets these new journeys mold him into a wise and caring man who enriches the lives of those whom he meets through his gift of medicine. His travels soften his rough edges and make him into the kind of man that Fitzwilliam can hope to be in his own future.

In short, Lathan has made a touching story of a man who finds himself in India. It was a journey which I was happy to take and I expected no different from a work penned by Lathan. I’m so glad that I got to read this installment of the Darcy saga and this is definitely a work to add to your own lists.

4 out of 5 Regency Stars

The Passions of Mr. Darcy, by Sharon Lathan
Sourcebooks (2013)
Trade paperback (432) pages
ISBN: 9781402273490

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The Best Intentions: A Regency Romance, by Candice Hern – A Review

Posted in Blog Events, Book Reviews, Regency Era Book Reviews, Regency Romance Reading Challenge 2013, tagged Book Reviews, Books, Candice Hern, Giveaways, Reading, Regency Romance Reading Challenge 2013, Swag, The Best Intentions on 22 May 2013 | 29 Comments »

This is my fifth selection in the Regency Romance Reading Challenge 2013, our celebration of Regency romance author Candice Hern. We will be reading all of her traditional Regencies over the next nine months, discussing her characters, plots and Regency history. You can still join the reading challenge until July 1, 2013. Participants, please leave comments and or links to your reviews for this month in the comment section of this post.

My Review:

“Hell is paved with good intentions.” ― Samuel Johnson

I just couldn’t resist throwing in this famous quote by the great literary genius, poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer of the 18th century, Samuel Johnson. His moral and literary influence on Jane Austen has been well documented by scholars. Austen’s inspiration on her beneficiaries including Georgette Heyer, the greatest Regency romance novelist of the 20th century, and now the next generation with Candice Hern gives her novel The Best Intentions a six degrees of separation that writers dream about. The hero, heroine, antagonist and secondary characters all act with “good intentions” using moral judgment to rationalize their actions. What ensues is a social comedy of manners that takes a sly look at what motivates Society in the Regency era—and like Johnson, Austen and Heyer, Hern gives us a dose of humor and romance to soften reality.

It is 1814. Peace is at hand in England after decades of war with France. Bonaparte has been exiled to Elba and British soldiers are returning home. Like Jane Austen’s novels, The Best Intentions is not about the war or government politics. It is about two or three county families at a manor house in Northamptonshire and two people who do not want to marry anyone, but by social stricture must do so, and how the best intentions of their family and friends try to influence them.

Miles Prescott, the Earl of Strickland, has secretly put himself back on the marriage market after the death of his wife two years ago. After his failed first attempt to attach himself to a new bride two months ago at a country house party at Chissingworth, (A Garden Folly), he is dead set against a young romantic Miss and determined to find an older woman who has known love and only seeks security and comfort. He jokes that he will marry anyone who likes his two daughters, and, is young enough to give him an heir. His older sister Lady Tyndale is an unstoppable force. She is determined to see him married and arrives at Epping Hall with two cousins in tow: Lady Abingdon, a beautiful young widow, and her nineteen-year old half-sister, bookish and unpolished Hannah Fairbanks. Presently acting as Hannah’s chaperone, Charlotte wants to “seriously pursue this fine lord without the added baggage of an unmarried, bookish bumpkin under her wing.” On the other hand, Hannah is not interested in courtship and marriage, at all. The only true pleasures in her life are books and architecture. The one reason she is being somewhat reasonable about this trip is to see St. Biddulph’s church near Eppingham, the most historically significant Saxon building in England.

Unpolished and impulsive, things pop out of Hannah’s mouth before she knows it, a bracing surprise to the earl and his guests at Epping Hall, but a humorous and enlightening for the reader! The contrast between this geekish colt of a girl and her calculating older sister is startling:

“Men were stupid creatures, Hannah decided as she watched the earl and Mr. Wetherby chatting with Charlotte on the other side of the drawing room as they waited for dinner to be announced. How easily they fell victim to her sister’s manufactured charm. They appeared completely captivated. Charlotte had their undivided attention as she spoke to them in her whispery for-gentlemen-only voice.” p. 50

Like Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice, Hern gives the reader the opportunity to question “what is the difference in matrimonial affairs between the mercenary and the prudent motive? Where does discretion end, and avarice begin?” Hannah may be straight out of the schoolroom, but she sees quite clearly the way of the world—the motivations of both men and women for matrimony—sex and money, and she wants no part of it. Lord Stickland has known love and lost it; he now is resigned to settle for an unromantic alliance. Will he choose the wife that his sister and his defeated spirit want, or the most unlikely of the two cousins?

Even though I guessed in the first chapter who would end up with whom, the character arch in The Best Intentions is one of the most memorable of Hern’s novels. Hannah Fairbanks is my favorite of her heroines: she is like a cross between Austen’s young, impressionable Catherine Morland in Northanger Abbey and spirited and outspoken Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice; two heroines I greatly admire, who when combined cancel out their negative characteristics and blend to make one unique and delightful young lady. The reserved and practical Miles is a hunk to boot, so get ready for witty dialogue and swoon worthy romance. I highly recommend it.

5 out of 5 Regency Stars

The Best Intentions: A Regency Romance, by Candice Hern
CreateSpace (2012)
Trade paperback (232) pages
ISBN: 978-1479277599

A Grand Giveaway

Author Candice Hern has generously offered one print copy or one digital copy of The Best Intentions to one lucky winner. Leave a comment stating what intrigues you about this novel, or if you have read it, who your favorite character is by midnight PT, Wednesday, May 28, 2013. Winner to be announced on Thursday, May 29, 2013. Print book shipment to US addresses only. Digital copy delivery internationally. Good luck!

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A Garden Folly: A Regency Romance, by Candice Hern – A Review

Posted in Blog Events, Book Reviews, Regency Era Book Reviews, Regency Romance Reading Challenge 2013, tagged A Garden Folly, Book Reviews, Books, Candice Hern, Fiction, Giveaways, Historical Fiction, Reading, Regency era, Regency romance, Regency Romance Reading Challenge 2013, Swag on 24 April 2013 | 43 Comments »

This is my fourth selection in the Regency Romance Reading Challenge 2013, our celebration of Regency romance author Candice Hern. We will be reading all of her traditional Regencies over the next nine months, discussing her characters, plots and Regency history. You can still join the reading challenge until July 1, 2013. Participants, please leave comments and or links to your reviews for this month in the comment section of this post.

My Review:

In landscape design, a garden folly is a structure whose only objective is to deceive. They have no purpose other than as ornament—to delight the eye and draw one to their door to evoke a romantic scene or time. How apt that author Candice Hern chose to name her Regency romance A Garden Folly, since her main characters are follies themselves.

Set at the Kent grand country estate of the Duke of Carlisle, two impoverished sisters impersonate aristocrats to entrap rich husbands, while the wealthy and titled owner of the dukedom, and the continuing custodian and creator of its grand landscape, hides behind the mantle of head gardener to avert interaction with Society. Both hero and heroine have serious trust issues. How they will overcome their personal challenges is a serpentine path that teasingly twists, turns, and surprises the reader until the last page.

Catherine and Susannah Forsythe are down on their luck. Living in genteel poverty in the wrong side of London with Aunt Hetty was not what they had expected at this time in their lives. Their father, Sir Benjamin Forsythe, squandered their family fortune before he died two years ago, but they still have beauty and wits in their corner. A surprise invitation from Aunt Hetty’s childhood friend, the Duchess of Carlisle, for her annual summer house party at Chissingworth may be their only chance to catch rich husbands. Determined to pull off the deception that they are wealthy young ladies, Catherine, with the help of their servant McDougal, magically acquire all the tools needed to disguise their poverty: clothes, carriage, jewels and servants. Now they must set their caps for the right man, steering clear of the wrongs sorts: “penniless younger sons, clerics, or half-pay officers.” Arriving in style, the deception begins.

Stephen Archibald Frederick Charles Godfrey Manwaring, Duke of Carlisle, is a serious gardener and devout bachelor. At two and thirty he has managed to avoid marriage and his mother’s annual summer garden party, devised to introduce him to marriageable young ladies, for years. Since the enigmatic duke has succeeded eluding polite Society most of his life, he has been tagged an eccentric half-wit. He has, however, devoted his life to the management of his estate’s landscapes, collecting rare plants and avoiding love. Catherine, also a great admirer of rare plants is thrilled at the chance to be in the country again and happily strolls the gardens to drink in the verdant countryside and profuse flora of the magnificently landscaped Chissingworth gardens. When the young duke and young the masquerading fortune hunter collide in the garden, he is roughly dressed and she mistakes him for the head gardener. She is a passionate admirer of rare flowers, especially hybrids, which are his favorites too—so he lets the deception continue. They agree to meet again the next morning, and thus begins his infatuation with a new rare flower named Catherine. She, on the other hand, is deep into discovering the “right” husband for her beautiful but dim sister Sukey and herself, and with the help of McDougal, who runs recon to determine who among the 60 guests are listed on the top 50 bachelors under 40 in Britain, is totally oblivious to who she is actually meeting every morning to tour the gardens. Also among the guests is Stephen’s friend Miles, the Earl of Strickland, a recent widow who takes a shine to Catherine. There are many other eligible bachelors to pursue until nearsighted Susannah goes after the wrong green-coated man and all of the weight of finding a rich husband falls on Catherine. As she and the head gardener become more than friends, and an earl is courting her, Catherine must decide if she should marry for love or money.

The British are indisputably passionate gardeners. Setting A Garden Folly at a country estate at the height of August, the peak blooming season, allowed the author to take us on a fabulous journey through the gardens as they would have appeared in Regency times:

“With this in mind, she wandered through the surprisingly informal arrangement of gardens. In the dressed grounds nearest the house, high, clipped shrubbery hedges of sweetbrier, box, and hawthorn surrounded each garden. Moving through the enclosed hedges was akin to walking through the various rooms of a house, each room different from the last. One was awash in bright colors of summer, the gravel paths bordered with stocks, pinks, double rocket, sweet Williams and asters. The morning sun fell upon spires of delphinium sparkling with dew. Her artist’s eye was drawn to the glitter of the moisture on the indigo and royal peaks, and she paused to seat herself on a nearby stone bench. She pulled a pencil and a scrap of paper from her pocket and roughly sketched the familiar blossoms.” p. 36

Hern is renowned for her Regency research and descriptions in her novels. Usually we are treated to vintage clothing fabrics and home interiors, but in this case we are delightfully entertained with flora and folly. The landscape as an artist’s canvas can be formed and molded and admired. So can people, and I was not only struck by our journey through the gardens of a vast country estate, but through the transformation of the characters.

Catherine was determined that she and her sister marry for money to save and protect their family. During Regency times that was not uncommon, but her mercenary motives eventually catch up with her as she reveals her true motives to the head gardener/Stephen as a fortune hunter of the worst sort. As her “veneer of perfection” to Stephen crumbles, he sees her fierce determination to bag a fortune—a large fortune—and is disgusted. Her heartless calculation repulses him and reinforces his trust issues. He is certain that no one can love him and not his title. He will not reveal that he is duke until he has secured her affection as a commoner; she will not let herself love a man who cannot provide for her in a grand style. Two people who have been forced by circumstances to be “follies,” destined for heartbreak.

I can’t honestly say that I admired Catherine and Stephen’s motives, nor their personalities, but by the end things do evolve and their facades change. How we are taken down the garden path is a delightful excursion. This garden geek was not only entranced by the picturesque views and swooning fragrance of an English garden, but by the transformation of the characters by love. A Garden Folly was the perfect antidote to a dark winter of rain and snow. A refreshing journey of discovery and delight.

4.5 out of 5 Regency Stars

A Garden Folly: A Regency Romance, by Candice Hern
CreateSpace (2012)
Trade paperback (236) pages
ISBN: 978-1479165766

A Grand Giveaway

Author Candice Hern has generously offered one print copy or one digital copy of A Garden Folly to one lucky winner. Leave a comment stating what intrigues you about this novel, or if you have read it, who your favorite character is by midnight PT, Wednesday, May 1, 2013. Winner to be announced on Thursday, May 2, 2013. Print book shipment to US addresses only. Digital copy delivery internationally. Good luck!

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The Tutor’s Daughter, by Julie Klassen – A Review

Posted in Book Reviews, Regency Era Book Reviews, tagged Book Review, Books, Christian Fiction, Historical Fiction, Julie Klassen, Reading, Regency era, Regency romance, The Tutor's Daughter on 17 April 2013 | 4 Comments »

From the desk of Katie P.

In keeping with her much loved style of traditional Regency romances, Julie Klassen has recently published her sixth novel, The Tutor’s Daughter, a romantic mystery set in Regency England. This novel blends the satisfying romance of Jane Austen with the Gothic surprises of Charlotte Bronte, coming together in a delightful style that is all the author’s own.

Ever since her mother died, Emma Smallwood has helped her father run his all-male boarding school. At twenty-one, she has found her time consumed by the many school related burdens that her father, in his grief, has ignored; teaching history, geography, and math, as well as trying to make ends meet for the quickly failing academy, with only a few moments to spare to dream about travel and adventures of her own. But just when the last pupil graduates and Emma runs out of all options to restore Smallwood Academy to its glory days, a letter arrives offering a new position to both Emma and her father, as tutor and tutor’s daughter for one year at Ebbington Manor along the stormy coast of Cornwall. While her father is overjoyed to leave the place that reminds him of his departed wife, Emma unearths long buried memories, ones that remind her of two particular pupils from her father’s academy. Phillip Weston, of the kind blue eyes, warm friendship, and stolen kiss, and Henry Weston, of the flashing green eyes, malicious pranks, and partner in one hard-to-be-forgotten dance. For Emma has discovered that the letter and advantageous job opening is from none other than Lord Weston, the father of both her friend, and her nemesis.

On her arrival at Ebbington Manor, Emma is disconcerted by the mysteries that seem to be in every dark corner and abandoned wing of her new home, as well as in the lives of everyone she meets. She and her father arrive virtually unexpected and are treated with suspicion from Lady Weston and disdain from Rowan and Julian Weston, the twins they are to teach. From the desperate cries that wake her in the middle of the night, to the hauntingly beautiful piano music that no one admits to playing, Emma is torn between staying uninvolved and seeking out the answers to all her questions on her own. But when she receives bloody threats and the animosity of Mr. Teague, the local who makes a living from salvaging cargo from wrecks, Emma finds herself caught up in a whirlwind of treachery, not knowing who to trust. Should she trust Lizzie, Lady Weston’s young and mercurial ward, Philip, who is the same friendly and flirtatious man she remembered, or Henry, who has transformed into a man of resolve and courage? With her life in danger and her faith in God tested, Emma must make her choice and discover the answers to all the many secrets, even those of her own heart.

The Tutor’s Daughter is definitely a novel of suspense. Every character–every chapter–has some newly uncovered mystery or clue. Sometimes this got to be a bit much—as I was reading I tried to tie in all the individual “clues” to one big mystery, only to discover that there were literally nine different secrets, large and small, that are all revealed at the end. At 409 pages, this should be considered an epic. Julie Klassen seemed to want to add everything possible to this book, from historical anecdotes about Cornwall, wreckers (those who salvage leftover cargo from wrecks), and special needs children, to romantic peril tied in with faith in God. All of this together made for a well written and exciting, if sometimes exhausting, read. Some of the most interesting parts of this book were Emma’s flashbacks of her growing-up years at her father’s academy. They provided much needed insights into who Emma really was, since at the beginning of the book she seems more repressed (busy as she is with taking care of her father and the school). Her past relationships with Henry and Philip Weston are slowly revealed by flashbacks chapter by chapter, so almost like an onion (or a flower if you’d rather a more romantic allusion), her back story is revealed layer by layer. By the end of the novel I found myself, almost without realizing it, very much attached to the main characters, much more so than when I first met them.

One of my favorite parts of The Tutor’s Daughter is Henry’s point of view past and present. Through his eyes you can see his take on some of the same events that Emma remembers (and cringes at), sometimes from a drastically different angle.

On a whim, he decided to toss pride aside and try transparent honesty instead. “Do you recall the last time you and I danced? I am afraid I was rude to you.” She ducked her head, embarrassed. “You didn’t like being forced to dance with me than any more than now, I imagine.” It was his turn to be taken aback. “Miss Smallwood, you are mistaken. I am very much enjoying dancing with you.” She stole a glance at him from under her long lashes. “And the last time we danced?” He grimaced, almost wishing he hadn’t brought up the past. “I had a dashed wart on my hand and was afraid you’d be repulsed.” She looked up, a grin quivering on her lips. “That was all?”

“That was enough. Dashed embarrassing.”

Her grin widened. He wasn’t sure if he liked her reaction or not. She seemed to be enjoying his mortification a bit too much. She said, “You might simply have said so.”

“In front of that lot? Never. Probably would have given me the nickname Wartson before the day was up.” p. 204

Julie Klassen did a fine job varying the conversations and emotions shared between the two main characters—there was a perfect balance of light-hearted banter–

“I have a good stance. Let me help you.” She grinned. “Just try to remain vertical so you don’t butt me with your very large head.”

He smirked up at her. “One wonders how I’ve found hats to fit me all these years.”

“I imagine your hatter is exceptionally well paid.” He placed his hand in hers but warned, “If I start to fall, let me go. Do you hear? I don’t want to have to put my back out lifting you up again.” p. 349

–and powerful interchange–

She walked through the water, her steps made slow and arduous by heavy, sodden skirts. Her eyes remained fastened on his. Another wave sprayed through the window, pelting Emma’s face. Her eyes filled with tears, too many to be blinked away, and salt water both warm and cold ran down her cheeks. She saw answering tears in his eyes. And somehow she knew the tears were not for himself but for her.” p. 348

–that made the climax, as well at The Tutor’s Daughter as a whole, a book well worth the read.

Rating: 5 out of 5 Regency Stars

The Tutor’s Daughter, by Julie Klassen
Bethany House Publishers (2013)
Trade paperback (416) pages
ISBN: 978-0764210693

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Mr. Darcy’s Diary: A Novel, by Amanda Grange – A Review

Posted in Blog Events, Book Reviews, Jane Austen Sequels Book Reviews, The Pride and Prejudice Bicentenary Challenge 2013, tagged Amanda Grange, Book Review, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Jane Austen, Jane Austen Sequels, Mr. Darcy's Diary, Pride and Prejudice Sequels, Reading, The Pride and Prejudice Bicentenary Challenge 2013 on 10 April 2013 | 40 Comments »

This is my fourth selection for The Pride and Prejudice Bicentenary Challenge 2013, our year-long event honoring Jane Austen’s second published novel. Please follow the link above to read all the details of this reading and viewing challenge. Sign up’s are open until July 1, 2013.

In 2005 author Amanda Grange gave Pride and Prejudice fans what they had been craving for centuries—Jane Austen’s classic story retold entirely from the perspective of its iconic romantic hero—Mr. Darcy. It was certainly not the first novel to explore this concept, but Mr. Darcy’s Diary remains, after many other attempts, the best in a very crowded field of Darcyiana.

I first read Darcy’s Diary eight years ago when it was released in the UK. I paid a fortune for the first edition to be shipped to the US. I did not regret it. My copy retains its place of honor on my Austen sequel bookshelf, along with the five other novels in her Austen Hero Diaries Series that Grange has since produced. She has a large international following for her work which she has earned through honest homage and clever craftsmanship.

Writing a first person narrative of a classic hero who is a bit of a prig in the original story has its challenges. In Pride and Prejudice the reader sympathizes with the heroine Elizabeth Bennet in her dislike of Mr. Darcy. We meet him and draw our conclusions of his personality from her perspective—he is a proud and disagreeable man—we see why she thinks so, but we do not know why.

Seeing the same events unfold from his eyes does not absolve him of his bad behavior, but as the narrative progresses, we are more sympathetic to his reasons. As we discover his inner thoughts and outward actions, our second impressions countermand his arrogant noble mien: we learn details of his chance intervention of the elopement of his sixteen-year old sister Georgiana with his nemesis George Wickham; we see his management of his soft-hearted friend Charles Bingley and learn why he is guiding him by the manipulation of his confidence and Bingley’s sisters; we see his attraction to Elizabeth Bennet spark and grow from his original cool intolerance to his admiration of her “fine eyes” and saucy impertinence—and his puzzlement of her brusque behavior to him.

‘Oh,’ she said, ‘I heard you before; but could not immediately determine what to say in reply. You wanted me, I know, to say “Yes,” that you might have the pleasure of despising my taste; but I always delight in overthrowing those kind of schemes. I have therefore made up my mind to tell you, that I do not want to dance a reel at all – and now despise me if you dare.’

‘Did I really seem so perverse to her? I wondered. And yet I could not help smiling at her sally, and her bravery in uttering it.’ p. 40

Close readers of Pride and Prejudice will recognize lines of Austen’s original dialogue (like Elizabeth’s speech to Darcy quoted above) interlaced with Grange’s new text. This ingenious co-mingling is seamless and we partake in many of the important passages where Darcy interacts with Elizabeth in the original novel, and then his private reaction. This works for this reader because Grange does not try to write like Austen in Elizabeth head, but as Grange in Darcy’s.

For those who are a student of character (like our heroine Elizabeth) it is interesting to observe our hero Darcy’s view of events from a male perspective. The whole Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus theory plays out beautifully and Grange takes full advantage of the differences in the sexes and how they think and react to the same scene when Elizabeth arrives at the Netherfield Ball.

“I continued walking towards her. ‘I am glad to see you here. I hope you had a pleasant journey?’ I asked. ‘This time, I hope you did not have to walk!’

‘No, I thank you,’ she said stiffly. ‘I came in a carriage.’

I wondered if I had offended her. Perhaps she felt I had meant my remark as a slight on her family’s inability to keep horses purely for their carriage. I tried to repair the damage of my first remark.’” p. 51

Clueless! There is some hope of improvement. As Darcy’s admiration of Elizabeth grows, it begins to humble his pride. While he is in Kent visiting his aunt Lady Catherine de Bourgh, we begin to see the change as he reacts to Elizabeth’s explanation to Darcy’s cousin Colonel Fitzwilliam of his behavior when they first met at the Meryton Assembly.

“In her eyes, my refusal to dance became ridiculous, and I saw it so myself, for the first time. To stride about in all my pride, instead of enjoying myself as any well-regulated man would have done. Absurd! I would not ordinarily have tolerated any such teasing, and yet there was something in her manner that removed any sting, and instead made it a cause for laughter.” p. 78

Even though many will know the final outcome of the story, Grange keeps us in suspense by adding new scenes and inner thoughts that only Darcy would be privy too—and now we are too. What fan of Pride and Prejudice, and Mr. Darcy, could possibly resist reliving a cherished novel and walking in his shiny, black Hessian boots? I couldn’t.

5 out of 5 Regency Stars

Mr. Darcy’s Diary: A Novel, by Amanda Grange
Sourcebooks (2007)
Trade paperback (320) pages
ISBN: 978-1402208768

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The Ashford Affair: A Novel, by Lauren Willig – A Review

Posted in Book Reviews, Edwardian Era Book Reviews, tagged Book Blogs, Book Reviews, Books, Downton Abbey, Edwardian-era, Historical Fiction, Historical Romance, Lauren Willig, Out of Africa, Pink Carnation Series, Reading, The Ashford Affair on 8 April 2013 | 5 Comments »

From the desk of Christina Boyd

In a departure from her Napoleonic spy romances of the Pink Carnation Series, New York Times bestselling author Lauren Willig ventures into new territory with The Ashford Affair. Entwining one generation’s story with that of another, from post-Edwardian British society to modern day Manhattan to a coffee farm in Kenya, the long veiled secrets of a woman are unraveled.

Clementine Evans, a focused, driven law associate on the cusp of making partner in a large Manhattan firm, attends her beloved grandmother Adeleine’s 99th birthday and is accidentally enlightened to a family secret. At 34, Clemmie, feeling like her life is nothing but a 70-plus hour workweek, and a failed engagement, this intrigue becomes more than a distraction to the un-fulfilling, lonely details of her days.

“Clemmie slid the picture back into the drawer. There was another underneath it, a studio portrait of a woman, her head tilted. Her pale hair was crimped in stylized waves around her face and her pale eyes gazed soulfully into the distance. She looked, somehow, strangely familiar, her cheekbones, the shape of her lips, as if Clemmie had seen her somewhere before.” p. 65.

But trying to get any information from her own tight-lipped mother proves difficult. And how is it that her ex-stepbrother knows more about the family histories than she does?

Adeleine Gillecote’s parents die when she is almost six and she grows up as the mouse-brown ward of her aristocratic aunt and uncle at Ashford Park, a grand English country house. Though brought up with her cousins, Addie never overcomes the status of a poor relation. Despite this, her best friend from almost the start is her vivacious, beautiful, golden cousin, Bea, who takes Addie under her wing, sheltering Addie from her unwelcoming mother, and earning her love and fidelity. As the girls grow and experience the pre-WWI balls and English society, Addie tries not to begrudge Bea’s beauty or her unaffected graces. But when a man comes between the two, it appears all loyalties come to an end, and, escaping to Kenya still isn’t quite far enough. “Addie pressed her fist to her lips, trying not to think what she was thinking. She closed her eyes, fighting a terrible certainty, the certainty that what she was hearing was true, that this was Bea, that Bea had, did, and always would do what she liked, regardless of the consequences, regardless even of Addie.” p. 196.

Although this latest offering is a non-Pink novel, fans of Willig’s the Pink Carnation Series will be giddy with delight when they meet the handsome, cynical and witty descendant of Lord Vaughn. Yes! That Vaughn from The Masque of the Black Tulip.

“He looked feline himself, all boneless grace, with the measureless self-satisfaction afforded by knowing his ancestors had been dining off gold plate when others had still been scratching about in the dirt: the Honorable Theophilius Vaughn, the despair of the ancient line. According to his frustrated family, he had both the morals of a cat and all of its nine lives.” p. 248.

“The spawn of Vaughn.” Ha!! Her words from her website, not mine!

Some have described this novel as Out of Africa meets Downton Abbey. *sigh* Well, use those cinematic visuals if you must, but I can honestly attest, The Ashford Affair is so much more. Much more. This is the kind of the novel that will stay with you; keep you mulling over the vibrant characters and intrinsic detailing long after you’ve inhaled that satisfying last page. Lauren Willig’s The Ashford Affair is brilliant! Glittering brilliance.

5 out of 5 Stars

The Ashford Affair: A Novel, by Lauren Willig
St. Martin’s Press (2013)
Hardcover (368) pages
ISBN: 978-1250014498

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Giveaway Winner Announced for An Affair of Honor

Posted in Blog Events, Regency Romance Reading Challenge 2013, tagged An Affair of Honor, Books, Candice Hern, Giveaways, Historical Romance, Reading, Regency romance, Regency Romance Reading Challenge 2013, Swag on 4 April 2013 | Leave a Comment »

26 of you left comments qualifying you for a chance to win a copy of An Affair of Honor by Candice Hern. The winner drawn at random is

sherrysbooks who left a comment on March 29, 2013

Congratulations Sherry! To claim your prize, please contact me with your full name and address by April 10, 2013. Please tell me which item you have won and if you would like a print or digital copy. Print book shipment to US addresses, or eBook internationally.

Thanks to all who left comments, and for all those participating in the Regency Romance Reading Challenge 2013. The challenge is open until July 1st, 2013, so please check out the details and sign up today!

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Attempting Elizabeth, by Jessica Grey – A Review

Posted in Book Reviews, Jane Austen Sequels Book Reviews, tagged Attempting Elizabeth, Book Reviews, Books, Fiction, Jane Austen, Jane Austen Sequels, Jessica Grey, Pride and Prejudice, Reading, Time Travel on 3 April 2013 | 6 Comments »

From the desk of Veronica Ibarra

Ever love a book so much that it is committed to memory? Have a favorite book that provides comfort and escape from life’s more troublesome realities? Pride and Prejudice is just such a book for many, including Kelsey Edmundson, the heroine of Jessica Grey’s new Jane Austen-inspired novel Attempting Elizabeth, who is magically transported through time and dimension jumping right into the story.

Kelsey is a grad student with a deep and abiding geeky love for TV, movies, and books, particularly Pride and Prejudice. She is also in recovery after a bad breakup. In an effort to help Kelsey get back into the game of life, her roommate Tori Mansfield coerces Kelsey into putting on her shortest dress and best boots for a night of dancing. Kelsey, however, is not at the top of her game, suffering through a dance with an overly grope-y acquaintance, manages to insult the Aussie hottie Mark Barnes, and then utterly fails to redeem herself as the evening comes to a close.

If that is not bad enough, the next day Kelsey’s given a second chance to make a better impression with Mark on a group hiking excursion. Unfortunately, hiking is not really Kelsey’s thing and her foul mood prompts more ill-judged comments. Then without a chance to freshen up, the group goes out for dinner, where Kelsey’s downward spiral continues as she spills her drink and the sight of the woman who had put the nail in the coffin of Kelsey’s last relationship hanging all over Mark sends her into a bit of self-pity relapse.

This is when Kelsey seeks comfort in the way so many of us can relate. Dressed in her “rattiest sweats” and armed with a glass of wine and her favorite book, she settles on the couch for some escapist reading. Kelsey escapes far more effectively than she intends as she comes to inexplicably inside the body of Georgiana Darcy. Kelsey is confused. Not only is she inside the world of her favorite book, but being Darcy’s sister is no way to enjoy the experience.

Kelsey’s efforts to cope with her “delusion” are hilarious until she finally discovers the key to returning to her reality. However, reality finds Kelsey still unable to say or do the right thing around Mark, who fate seems to keep throwing at her. Kelsey wonders if it was just a fluke that got her into Pride and Prejudice or if there is a way to repeat the experience. With the exciting discovery that it is possible, Kelsey’s mission becomes jumping into Elizabeth in order to be with Pride and Prejudice’s hero, Darcy. But Kelsey finds that becoming Elizabeth is not so easily done and that her emotional baggage may have something to do with it.

Through Kelsey’s various character jumping Grey demonstrates a keen understanding of the characters Jane Austen created, and also looks at them through the eyes of a modern woman dropped into their world as a participant and not merely as an observer. This presents an added challenge for Kelsey who must fight against her desire to deviate from Austen’s story or suffer on repeat—to truly understand that, you really have to read Attempting Elizabeth.

While Kelsey can jump into Pride and Prejudice and live there with the Regency society, it is Regency as Austen wrote about it. Still the need of maids for dressing, how bathing is handled, and even how relieving oneself is done are only hinted at, but not explored in detail. How the lack of indoor plumbing alone does not kill Kelsey’s determination to be Elizabeth can only be explained by her desire to be with the real Darcy. If you have read Pride and Prejudice then you know that Elizabeth and Darcy do not hit it off from the get go and that there is a lot of time between meetings, we are talking months of time. Even having an escape hatch, I am not sure I would have the same determination as Kelsey.

Kelsey’s journey to true love and through the pages of Pride and Prejudice is fun and quirky. Her internal dialogue is full of references to things Austen would have known nothing about, such Star Wars and Quantum Leap. At the beginning of every chapter there is a quote from a movie, television show, or book, but the details are not given until the end of the story. I am not sure if Grey intended it to be a guessing game or not, but I had fun playing it that way as I read. I got sixteen out of twenty-two. Not sure how geeky that makes me, maybe slightly above average. It is also kind of interesting how the quotes fit with the chapters, but even without them the book is a fun read I would recommend.

4 out of 5 Regency Stars

Attempting Elizabeth, by Jessica Grey
Tall House Books (2013)
Trade paperback (320) pages
ISBN: 978-0985039660

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What Matters in Jane Austen?: Twenty Crucial Puzzles Solved, by John Mullan – A Review

Posted in Book Reviews, Jane Austen Critiques & Analysis Book Reviews, tagged Book Reviews, Books, Jane Austen, Jane Austen Analysis, Jane Austen Nonfiction, John Mullan, Nonfiction, Reading, What Matters in Jane Austen on 31 March 2013 | 14 Comments »

From the desk of Sarah Emsley

“The closer you look, the more you see,” writes John Mullan in What Matters in Jane Austen? Elizabeth Bennet learns this lesson in Pride and Prejudice when she reads and rereads Mr. Darcy’s letter “with the closest attention” to understand why he separated Bingley from Jane and why he doesn’t trust Wickham. Mullan’s compelling analysis of detail in Jane Austen’s novels persuades us that “Little things matter.” In a series of chapters on what he calls “puzzles,” he asks questions about details and discusses how and why they matter. In the process, he demonstrates that the popular pastime of answering quizzes about the novels is not necessarily trivial, but can lead us to a deeper understanding of Jane Austen’s careful craftsmanship and her innovative contributions to the history of fiction.

Mullan pays attention to everything from the ages, names, looks, reading habits, sex lives, incomes, and deaths of Austen’s characters, to the narrative techniques she uses when she shows us their thoughts, when she breaks the pattern of narration to address her reader directly, and when she departs from the consciousness of her heroine to give the point of view of another character. Details about income, for example, show how in Mansfield Park “The reader truly attuned to the value of money should know that the Price family could live a more comfortable life than they do.” Mullan makes the excellent point that “Willoughby reads his way into the Dashwoods’ hearts”—and that while the 1995 film of Sense and Sensibility shows Willoughby and Marianne reading Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116, in the novel they read Hamlet, a choice of play that “testifies to the literary seriousness of the Dashwoods, and to the willingness of Marianne’s suitor to take on the most demanding parts.” When he asks “What Makes Characters Blush?” he shows how Austen uses blushes to signal guilt, which sets her apart from other contemporary novelists whose heroines blush virtuously, and he points out that the spontaneous “Austen blush” is nearly impossible to perform on screen or stage.

Austen wants her readers to think about sex and death, although she is not always obvious about the way she calls our attention to these matters. From the first line of Pride and Prejudice, in which we’re asked to believe the universal truth about a rich bachelor’s desire for a wife, “Austen’s stories rely on an acknowledgement of men’s sexual appetites,” writes Mullan. Very few deaths happen within the novels—only Mrs. Churchill in Emma, and Dr. Grant and Lord Ravenshaw’s grandmother in Mansfield Park—yet Mullan shows how the responses of Austen’s characters to these deaths and others, such as the deaths of Fanny Harville, Sir Walter Elliot’s still-born son, and Lady Susan’s husband, tell us much about the living. While he argues that such details about money, reading, blushing, sex, and death matter because they “reveal people’s schemes and desires,” however, he focuses more on what they tell us about social history and Austen’s narrative strategies than on what they say about her understanding of psychological complexity and her moral vision.

At times Mullan overstates his case or doesn’t fully develop his argument. After discussing the often-overlooked role of the lower classes in the novels, he concludes, “the servants see everything.” While he’s right to claim that “we as readers should see them watching and listening,” there are still many private scenes and conversations they do not witness. In discussing right and wrong ways to propose marriage, he claims that a “good man” would be bound to honor his first proposal, as Edward Ferrars does in Sense and Sensibility, but “A woman … can change her mind.” I wondered why he doesn’t explore the question of whether Austen believes a “good woman” may reverse her decision after accepting a proposal. The women he cites who change their minds, including Lucy Steele, do so for radically different reasons. Lucy’s moral character is not improved by her decision not to marry Edward Ferrars, even though the decision improves his life and that of Elinor Dashwood. When Mullan discusses why Austen’s plots rely so much on “blunders,” he suggests that a line from the ending of Emma could serve as a motto for her fiction: “Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure.” At the same time, however, his own approach in reading and rereading the novels, just as Elizabeth reads and rereads Darcy’s letter “with the closest attention,” points to another line from the novels that could equally serve as a motto. Almost no one tells the complete truth, but Austen suggests it’s always worth paying attention to the details to get as close as possible to it.

Little things do matter in Jane Austen, because they tell us about bigger things. Janeites, rejoice! This beautifully written book about Austen’s six major novels, plus Lady Susan and the unfinished novels Sanditon and The Watsons, is both a helpful, highly readable guide to Austen’s work, and a scholarly contribution to criticism that analyzes Austen’s achievement. Such books are rare. Mullan argues persuasively that Austen knew she was creating a kind of fiction quite different from what her contemporaries and predecessors produced, and he highlights her successful experiments in conveying the thoughts and inner lives of her characters (pioneering the technique that later came to be called “free indirect discourse”).

What Matters in Jane Austen is a thoroughly engaging close reading of Austen’s fiction that encourages us to read closely to see and understand more. I can’t help but wish, however, that Mullan would take his argument even further: little things matter not only because they show us Austen’s “extraordinary narrative sophistication,” as he concludes, but also because they reveal the subtleties of her insight into the moral lives of her characters. Ethics matters in Jane Austen, as well as craft.

4 out of 5 Regency Stars

What Matters in Jane Austen?: Twenty Crucial Puzzles Solved, by John Mullan
Bloomsbury Press (2013)
Hardcover (352) pages
ISBN: 978-1620400418

Cover images courtesy © Bloomsbury Press 2012 & 2013; text © Sarah Emsley 2013

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An Affair of Honor: A Regency Romance, by Candice Hern – A Review

Posted in Blog Events, Book Reviews, Regency Era Book Reviews, Regency Romance Reading Challenge 2013, tagged An Affair of Honor, Book Reviews, Books, Candice Hern, Giveaways, Reading, Regency Rakes Trilogy, Regency romance, Regency Romance Challenge, Swag on 27 March 2013 | 28 Comments »

This is my third selection in the Regency Romance Reading Challenge 2013, our celebration of Regency romance author Candice Hern. We will be reading all of her traditional Regencies over the next nine months, discussing her characters, plots and Regency history. You can still join the reading challenge until July 1, 2013. Participants, please leave comments and or links to your reviews for this month in the comment section of this post.

My Review:

An English gentleman lived by a code of honor, but does that also apply to rakes? Even if he is a gentleman by birth do his actions make the man? An Affair of Honor plays on that premise in an amusing way.

After being thrown from his curricle and hitting his head, Colin Herriot, Viscount Sedgewick thinks he sees an angel hovering over him, so he must be dead. Better angels than devils; though his capricious life and rakish ways should equal the later. The figure dons coppery curls and creamy skin so he must be in heaven.

Cradled gently in her arms, Meg Ashburton recognizes the injured traveler immediately as Lord Sedgewick whom she met six years prior during her London Season of 1808. She was a gangly debutante imitating a wallflower. He was a handsome rake with an infamous smile and scandalous reputation. He gallantly asked her to dance. She was smitten. She would never forget the handsome, charming man who showed a kindness to one who others of his station would not give the time of day. She doubted that he remembered her.

Meg and her brother Terrence rescue Sedge and bring him to their home, Thornhill, a horse breeding farm not far away from the scene of the accident. His head injury and broken leg bring on a serious fever which engulfs him for days. Letters are sent to his family and soon Cousin Albert Herriot arrives to see him improving, well cared for, but bedridden until his leg mends. Sedge is unconcerned when Terrence tells him that the axel of his curricle was purposely cut. Who could possibly want to harm him? He truly believes that it was just an accident.

After her disastrous debut season six years ago, Meg has had no interest in men and does not realize the beautiful woman that she has become. Sedge does, and is immediately attracted to her. She enjoys their time together as she helps care for him during his convalescence. She hopes he might propose. Cousin Bertie sees the attraction building between Meg and his cousin and tells Terrence that Sedge is not the marrying kind. Meg overhears his warning to her brother and the reality check hits her hard, so hard that when Sedge decides to propose she believes that he is playing true to form as the consummate rake and wants to engage her as his mistress and not his wife. This misunderstanding separates them brusquely and he returns to London a sullen man totally baffled by her refusal. She is totally offended by his dishonorable proposal. “He wanted her for his mistress. He could not have been more plain. He wanted her body and was willing to pay for it. What a fool she had been!”

This is the third novel in the Regency Rakes Trilogy and I am sure it is no surprise that all three heroes in the series meet their match and fall in love; these novels are romances after all. Each of the stories is connected through the friendship of the three men: Robert Cameron in A Proper Companion, Jack Raeburn in A Change of Heart and Colin Herriot in An Affair of Honor. Each are aristocratic libertine’s who have seduced women, gambled, drank, and avoided romance for many years, yet each in their own way are changed by the love of a woman.

Colin, or “Sedge” to his friends, is the last holdout of the group. The story opens brilliantly with the scene of the carriage accident and renewed acquaintance with Meg, an unlikely heroine who does not realize the power of her beauty or the charm of her own personality. It is a stark contrast to our hero who knows exactly the effect of his charms and plays them like a masterful musician. We don’t trust him, nor do we trust Meg’s inexperienced judgment. It is a perplexing misalliance.

The characterizations in An Affair of Honor are articulated and engaging. Hern gave herself a big challenge by confining the hero to his sickbed for half of the novel. To compensate we are given a generous helping of inner exposition, so be prepared for a slower pace. There is an interesting mystery that threads its way through the story which, though predictable, was intriguing. I was hoping for an Agatha Christie-like twist at the end, but we do get our share of romance. Huzzah indeed! “…he was a cad, she was a fool…” but who isn’t when it comes to love?

4 out of 5 Regency Stars

An Affair of Honor: A Regency Romance by Candice Hern
CreateSpace (2012)
Trade paperback (278) pages
ISBN: 978-1479164844

A Grand Giveaway

Author Candice Hern has generously offered one print copy or one digital copy of An Affair of Honor to one lucky winner. Leave a comment stating what intrigues you about this novel, or if you have read it, who your favorite character is by midnight PT, Wednesday, April 3, 2013. Winner to be announced on Thursday, April 4, 2013. Print book shipment to US addresses only. Digital copy delivery internationally. Good luck!

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Return to Longbourn: The Next Chapter in the Continuing Story of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, by Shannon Winslow – A Review

Posted in Book Reviews, Jane Austen Sequels Book Reviews, tagged 5 Star Book Reviews, Book Reviews, Books, For Myself Alone, Historical Fiction, Jane Austen, Jane Austen Sequels, Pride and Prejudice, Pride and Prejudice Sequels, Reading, Return to Longbourn, Shannon Winslow, The Darcys of Pemberley on 20 March 2013 | 11 Comments »

From the desk of Kimberly Denny-Ryder:

Ever since Shannon Winslow debuted with The Darcys of Pemberley (DoP) in 2011, she’s been an Austen fan-fiction author that I’ve kept on my radar. In the two years since she published DoP I’ve not only read everything else she’s written, For Myself Alone (2012) and Mr. Collins’s Last Supper (2012), but have shared countless conversations with her about life, Austen, and everything in between. She is a woman that truly understands people and deep feelings. It’s easy to understand this without knowing her when you read her latest novel Return to Longbourn. The depth of feeling that the characters go through by the end of the novel is nothing short of astounding.

Mary Bennet is happily ensconced at Netherfield Park as the governess for the Farnsworth family. All is well in her life until her father suddenly passes away. Back at home in mourning with her family she realizes how alone she feels. Her sisters Elizabeth and Jane have their husbands to turn to, while Kitty has Lydia. She feels that her only value is to remain stoic and take care of the household while the rest of her sisters fall apart emotionally. It’s this event that triggers a sudden heaviness to her life. When it’s announced that her cousin Tristan Collins (the heir to Longbourn) will be notified of Mr. Bennet’s death, well, that’s when her life turns a bit hectic. Mrs. Bennet announces her plan to have Kitty marry Mr. Collins so that they can remain at Longbourn, while Kitty confides to Mary that she is planning her escape to Pemberley. Mary understands Kitty’s reluctance to enter a marriage without love and agrees to keep their new cousin occupied until Kitty is summoned back to Longbourn. Much to everyone’s surprise, Tristan Collins arrives and is the complete opposite of his odious older brother William in every way. Mary feels herself beginning to fall in love with him and internally questions her decision to live her life without the love of a man. Add to all of this the bipolar friendship she maintains with her employer, the widowed Mr. Farnsworth, and you have the makings of much soul searching. Will Mr. Collins return her feelings? How will Mr. Farnsworth deal with her possible leaving Netherfield Park?

Upon first glance, many readers will find this to be a story about love, and in some aspects, redemption. The deeper, more beautiful story to take away from this novel is that of a young woman trying desperately to find her place in a world where she begins to feel valueless. Winslow’s Mary (and Austen’s too) is a stoic individual, not much taken with the fancies of romance, men, balls, or fine clothes. She much prefers to toil her hours away with books and reading. She can at times be a woman of unyielding character, but deep down past this hardened exterior is a woman just like any other. She wants to have purpose, she wants friendship, and yes, she even longs for love. In Return to Longbourn, we see a Mary who is beginning to question the way she has lived her life emotionally. Add to that the grief from her father’s death and the relationships of her sisters and brother-in-laws, and you find a very lost woman indeed. All of this coupled together makes Mary a very relatable character. For who among us can claim to never have felt lost in their own skin and unable to make sense of a multitude of new and unusual emotions?

I truly loved how Winslow showcased Mary’s multiple dimensions through her relationships with the other characters of the novel. Her personal connections with her students, employer, cousin, sisters, and mother all helped create a depth to Mary that wasn’t there before. Winslow has mastered the technique of writing like Austen. I can honestly say she’s one of the best writers of the genre, getting not only the language down, but Austen’s tongue-in-cheek humor as well. While a majority of the book has Mary in contemplation of her life, these small sections of humor helped lighten the load of her inner-reflections. This is definitely Winslow’s strongest novel to date and hands down my new personal favorite—possibly due to the Jane Eyre-esque style the story takes on towards the end—which I will leave for the reader to discover.

5 out of 5 Regency Stars

Return to Longbourn: The Next Chapter in the Continuing Story of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, by Shannon Winslow
Heather Ridge Arts (2013)
Trade paperback (270) pages
ISBN: 978-0989025904

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One Thread Pulled: The Dance with Mr. Darcy (Volume 1), By Diana J. Oaks – A Review

Posted in Book Reviews, Jane Austen Sequels Book Reviews, tagged Book Reviews, Books, Diana J. Oaks, Historical Fiction, Jane Austen, Jane Austen Sequels, Mr. Darcy, One Thread Pulled, Pride and Prejudice, Pride and Prejudice Sequels, Reading on 16 March 2013 | 9 Comments »

From the desk of Jeffrey Ward

How differently would Pride and Prejudice have proceeded if Miss Elizabeth Bennet had not overheard Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy’s insulting remarks during the Meryton assembly? Differently? Yes, very-very differently according to this debut author’s totally diverting and brilliant re-imagining of Jane Austen’s timeless romance.

Starting at page one and continuing all the way to page 457 (rather lengthy for a work of this nature), it never falls off or fails to delight at any point or on any page. So, if you love Elizabeth and Darcy, please read on…..

Two years in the writing, and perhaps more in research, validate the author’s mastery of the Regency period, especially her intimate portrayals of Elizabeth and Darcy, clear down to the least significant character. I am astonished at how the author totally re-charts the course of Miss Austen’s most famous story, yet manages to respectfully maintain and indeed significantly expand upon the expected attributes of its most important personalities. Just about every Austen character makes an appearance and I love the way the author chooses to highlight Miss Anne de Bourgh, Colonel Richard Fitzwilliam, Miss Caroline Bingley, and Miss Georgiana Darcy. Just name ANY other character from P&P; they’re all in there in some capacity.

The story centers on Netherfield, Meryton, and Longbourne with a brief Sojourn to London. That would seem restrictive for a lengthy novel but this plot device allows the author to deftly focus on the complex and ever-evolving emotional relationship between the heroine and hero. With the “prejudice” portion removed, the encounters between Miss Bennet and Mr. Darcy begin with initial wariness but grow gradually to respect, regard, affection, and ultimately love. The angst generated over this two-steps-forward-one-step-back romance is the foundation that makes this story so irresistibly seductive.

Putting aside my blathering plaudits, how better to recommend this book than to read samples of the author’s delicate wit? Darcy and Elizabeth meet by chance on their outings as they witness a beautiful sunrise. The incongruity is priceless as Miss Bennet admires nature but Mr. Darcy admires only her, yet cannot gain her regard.

“Look, Mr. Darcy. Is the sight before you not a fair prospect? I do not know how to bear it sometimes, to gaze upon such beauty and not be able to ever hold it, to be limited to just looking. It seems a hardship.” “Yes,” Mr. Darcy said, looking at Elizabeth, the sunlight glinting off her hair, and her face flushed from exertion. “I believe I understand how you feel.” p. 145

Here is a rousing verbal joust between two strong personalities as Darcy’s insistence on teaching Elizabeth how to ride disguises enormous romantic implications:

“I taught Georgiana.” Darcy replied. Elizabeth shook her head. “I do not feel safe on a horse.” “you will be safe with me,” Darcy said. “How many ways must I refuse before you relent?” Elizabeth laughed. “How many times must I offer before you accept?” Darcy countered with a smile. “It is not in me to back down, Miss Bennet. Once I have set my course, I persist. “Mr. Darcy, it is my course you are setting, not your own.” Elizabeth replied.” p. 221

I laughed over this classic regency eaves-dropping moment as Mr. Darcy leaves Elizabeth’s sick bed following a supposed private attempt to confess his love for her:

Darcy backed silently to the door where he would leave, his eyes never leaving the woman he hoped to make his wife. Upon reaching the door, he opened it, only to find that Jane, Bingley, Anne and the colonel were all pressed up against it. Only the colonel actually fell. p. 276

I must make mention of some threads not “pulled” but “woven in” by the author that may raise both curiosity and doubt: Mr. Collins attempting to compromise Elizabeth Bennet? Miss Caroline Bingley mentally unsound? Elizabeth Bennet collapsing in the middle of the Netherfield ball? Mr. Wickham extorting Mr. Darcy? Mr. Bennet’s almost impossible courtship demands on Darcy and Elizabeth? Mr. Bingley’s secret sister? Mr. Collins’s entail invalid? As I initially read these threads, I thought “That’s far-fetched.” No worries whatsoever, because the author neatly and plausibly explains each of them in a very convincing and satisfactory manner which makes the entire book breathlessly unpredictable.

The conclusion comes abruptly and would be a disappointment for most readers if a sequel was not forthcoming. It is! This reviewer keeps top-five lists of his very favorite works from a variety of genres and this one has easily parked itself in my top 5 list for favorite regency romances which puts it in with some distinguished titles indeed. That upcoming sequel, Constant as the Sun, can’t get into my hands quickly enough!

5 out of 5 Regency Stars

One Thread pulled: The Dance with Mr. Darcy (Volume 1), By Diana J. Oaks
CreateSpace (2012)
Trade paperback (456) pages
ISBN: 978-1475149616

Cover image courtesy ©Diana J. Oaks 2012; text ©Jeffrey Ward 2013

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Pemberley or Pride and Prejudice Continued, by Emma Tennant – A Review

Posted in Blog Events, Book Reviews, Jane Austen Sequels Book Reviews, The Pride and Prejudice Bicentenary Challenge 2013, tagged Book Revews, Books, Emma Tennant, Jane Austen, Jane Austen Sequels, Pemberley or Pride and Prejudice Continued, Pride and Prejudice, Pride and Prejudice Sequels, Reading on 12 March 2013 | 52 Comments »

This is my third selection for The Pride and Prejudice Bicentenary Challenge 2013, our year-long event honoring Jane Austen’s second published novel. Please follow the link above to read all the details of this reading and viewing challenge. Sign up’s are open until July 1, 2013.

If you can, take yourself back to 1993. Some of you reading this review were not even born yet, so bear with me. Imagine the Jane Austen universe pre Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy emerging soaking wet from Pemberley pond in the 1995 A&E/BBC miniseries Pride and Prejudice. No dripping Darcy. No thousands of Jane Austen-inspired prequels, sequels and inspired-by novels and self-help books brimming book shelves at your local bookstore. No buy-it-now button at your favorite online retailer. No INTERNET for that matter! You have read Pride and Prejudice (multiple times) and seen both the adaptations: the1940 movie starring Laurence Olivier and the 1980 BBC mini-series starring David Rintoul on Masterpiece Theatre. You are violently in love with Jane Austen’s novel and know of no one else who shares your obsession—and then one day you are in a bookstore and see Pemberley or Pride and Prejudice Continued, by Emma Tennant. You stare at it in total disbelief. Could someone else continue the story of your beloved Elizabeth and Darcy? Could you be back at Pemberley again?

Now that you have a closer understanding of the environment that Tennant’s brave foray into Jane Austen sequeldom entered in 1993, and what anticipation the reader might have felt, you will have a greater appreciation of its tepid reception. When the vast majority read this book they delusionally expected Jane Austen, again. How could they possibly not be disappointed? By the time I read it in 2002 it had gotten a bad rap all-around by media reviewers and pleasure readers. My first impressions were not positive either. Now, after eleven years of reading numerous Pride and Prejudice-inspired novels that have been published in its wake— I have re-read it with an entirely new perspective—with an open heart and a sense of humor.

It has been almost a year since the happy day in which Mrs. Bennet got rid of two of her most deserving daughters. Elizabeth Darcy nee Bennet is learning the ropes of being the chatelaine of Pemberley House while obsessing over her insecurities and lack of producing an heir. Her dear father has died and his entailed estate of Longbourn has passed on to his cousin Mr. Collins and his wife Charlotte. The displaced Mrs. Bennet and her two unmarried daughters Mary and Kitty have taken up residence at Meryton Lodge, their new home not far from Longbourn and neighbors Mrs. Long and Lady Lucas. Elizabeth’s elder sister Jane and her husband Charles Bingley have purchased an estate in Yorkshire thirty miles from Pemberley. After four years of marriage they have one daughter and another on the way. Thoughtless younger sister Lydia, her ner-do-well husband George Wickham and their four children are continually in debt and an embarrassment to Elizabeth and her family.

The holidays are approaching and the plans for the annual festivities will include gathering family at Pemberley for Christmas and a New Year’s Ball. Besides Georgiana, Mr. Darcy’s younger sister, the guest list is growing out-of-control. Even under the care of her capable housekeeper Mrs. Reynolds, Elizabeth is overwhelmed. Included are Elizabeth’s family: some welcome and others not. Mrs. Bennet, Mary and Kitty will make their first visit to Pemberley. Jane will also journey with her husband and his sisters Miss Caroline Bingley, Mrs. Hurst and her husband. Elizabeth’s favorite Uncle and Aunt Gardiner have let a house nearby so that the unwelcome George Wickham and his family can visit with Mrs. Bennet. Also on the guest list is Mr. Darcy’s officious Aunt Lady Catherine de Bourgh who disapproved of Darcy’s choice of bride but seems to have mended the fence enough for an extended stay. Arriving with her is her unmarried daughter Anne and the heir to the Pemberley estate, a distant cousin of Lady Catherine, Master Thomas Roper. Shortly before Mrs. Bennet is to depart for Pemberley she reveals to her friend Mrs. Long that even though Mr. Bennet departed this life but nine months ago, she intends to marry Colonel Kitchiner, a cousin and a crush from her youth whose father was a business partner of her father in Meryton. She has invited him to Pemberley as well—so it is a full house of unlikely companionship for its new mistress.

Any fans of Pride and Prejudice will recognize the irony of the guest list. The back story from the original novel and the combination of personalities is a set-up for the conflicts that inevitably arrive even before the guests do. Tennant has fudged on the facts from the original novel which were a bit off-putting. I remember being irked by this the first time around, and the second time did not sit as well either. Jane and Elizabeth were married on the same day in P&P, yet she chose to have Elizabeth marry Mr. Darcy four years after the original event—and how could any author writing a sequel or any historical novel set in the Regency-era not understand the ins and outs of British primogeniture? Lady Catherine de Bourgh’s cousin Thomas Roper, also the cousin of Mr. Darcy’s mother Ann, could not be the heir to Pemberley. If so, it would mean that the Darcy family and his mother a Fitzwilliam were related in earlier generations. This is possible but highly confusing to the reader who may understand the English inheritance laws, or not.

Quibbles in continuity and cultural history aside, my second impressions of Pemberley or Pride and Prejudice Continued were much more favorable—at least I didn’t despise it anymore. With the exception of Elizabeth Bennet being overly angst ridden and atypically un-spirited, I enjoyed Tennant’s characterizations of the delightfully dotty Mrs. Bennet and the slippery Bingley sisters. My biggest disappointment remained with the male characters. We see all of the action through Elizabeth’s eyes, and since she is uncertain and overly grateful of Darcy’s love, their relationship is strained and unpleasant. He is proud again and given nothing to say, and she is too unprejudiced to do anything about it. Tennant excelled most with her new creations: Mr. Gresham, Thomas Roper and the hysterical Col. Kitchiner who rivals the odious Mr. Collins (thankfully not invited to Pemberley) in the role of buffoon.

I appreciate Tennant much more as a writer than I did at first reading. It was interesting to put Pemberley into a wider perspective after many years. She was helping to create a new genre in which many would follow. This first attempt, though seriously flawed, merits some respect and congratulations. It is a must read for any ardent Austenesque fan, but most will be disappointed.

3 out of 5 Regency Stars

Pemberley or Pride and Prejudice Continued, by Emma Tennant
St. Martins Press (2006) reprint
Trade paperback (226) pages
ISBN: 978-0312361792

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To Marry an English Lord, by Gail MacColl and Carol McD. Wallace – A Review

Posted in Book Reviews, Edwardian Era Book Reviews, Victorian Era Book Reviews, tagged Book Reviews, Books, Carol McD. Wallace, Downton Abbey, Edwardian-era, Gail MacColl, Nonfiction books, Reading, To Marry an English Lord, Victorian-era, Workman Publishing on 11 March 2013 | 4 Comments »

From the desk of Laura A. Wallace.

Originally published in 1989, this 2012 re-issue of To Marry and English Lord is an attractive trade paperback edition by Workman Publishing. Promoted as “an inspiration for Downton Abbey,” Julian Fellowes, the screenplay writer who created the series, has been quoted as saying that he was reading this book when approached about writing the series, and that the first character he conceived for it was Cora, Countess of Grantham, an American heiress.

This book has long been on my “to acquire and read” list so I was really looking forward to finally reading it. I found it to be fairly light reading. The chapters are divided up into short sub-headings, sprinkled with lots of side-bar quotations and tid-bits (at least one on every page), and interspersed with little mini-articles on every third or fourth page. Illustrations are copious; decorations are Victorian and Edwardian. Overall it presents a great deal of factual information in a very digestible way.

This is the sort of book that serves as an introduction to a topic, and a launching pad for further research. (It is the type of book that novelists unfortunately use as a primary source, but that is a rant for another time.) It has no footnotes or endnotes, but does have a good selective bibliography which includes a list of period fictional works. The index is good (if imperfect) and there are excellent appendices, including a “Register of American Heiresses” and a “Walking Tour of the American Heiresses’ London” which are handy references.

The text is organized in a loosely chronological way. It begins with the origins of Anglomania (the 1860 U. S. visit of the young Prince of Wales) and the beyond-Almack’s-despotic exclusivity of Old New York “Knickerbocker” society which ruthlessly excluded new money. So the first set of snubbed wives and daughters left New York for Paris and then London in the 1870s, where they scored aristocratic English husbands, got themselves into the Prince of Wales’s social set, and rarely bothered to cross the Atlantic again.

This first set was comparatively small, comprising only about half a dozen women, and it is they who earned the sobriquet “The Buccaneers.” The most famous girl in this first wave was Jennie Jerome, who married Lord Randolph Churchill and became the mother of Sir Winston Churchill.

But that was just the tip of the spear of the “American Invasion.” The ranks grew steadily and kept up the pace until the death of Edward VII in 1910, after which it trickled off and ended with World War I. I had not realized, until reading this book, that the invasion was so extensive. There were at least two dozen who married into the peerage itself, and dozens more who married younger sons, baronets, M.P.s, and gentry. The “Register” at the back of the book lists about 115 of them, and this list, of course, cannot be exhaustive.

It was not just their pots of money that made these women so attractive to Englishmen. Their manners were free, easy, and confident, the complete opposite of those of demure, shy English girls. They were well-educated and very well-dressed, usually by Worth. They were pretty, too, their very lack of “breeding” apparently considered a bonus by their targets, if not by their mamas (appealing at a genetic level, perhaps?). The Prince of Wales loved them, and where he led, everyone followed.

I did find a few factual errors, an occasional absurd assertion, and a couple of errors in titles usage (of course), but overall the information presented seems solid. I encourage readers to use this book as a spring platform to explore other works, whether Consuelo, Duchess of Marlborough’s memoirs, the novels of Wharton, James, and Hardy, or perhaps some of the lesser-known novels of the day. (The latter are featured in a mini-article, but not listed in the bibliography.) The book nicely provides the most general background material to improve enjoyment of the portraits of Sargent (there are hundreds on Wikimedia Commons) or of the costume dramas to which we are all highly addicted.

4 out of 5 Stars

To Marry an English Lord, by Gail MacColl and Carol McD. Wallace
Workman Publishing (2012)
Trade paperback (403) pages
ISBN: 978-0761171959

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Circles of Time: Book Two of the Greville Family Saga, by Philip Rock – A Review

Posted in Between the Wars Era Book Reviews, Book Reviews, tagged Between the Wars Era Book Reviews, Book Reviews, Books, Circles of Time, Downton Abbey, Philip Rock, Reading, The Greville Family Saga, TLC Book Tours on 9 March 2013 | 11 Comments »

After re-discovering The Passing Bells – after a thirty year estrangement – I was thrilled to learn there were two more books in the Greville Family Saga. Originally published between 1978 – 1986, this welcome reissue of the trilogy by William Morrow Books is just in time for fans of the popular television series Downton Abbey to plunge back into the era between the wars and cocoon themselves in history, drama and romance.

Set in England during 1921 – 1923, Circles of Time opens two years after the end of the Great War and the signing of the Treaty of Versailles by the Germany and the Allied Powers. The Greville family of Abingdon Pryory, like so many in Britain (and the world), have suffered five years of a devastating loss during the war and are attempting to rebound. How each of the characters deals with their pain and the future is what compels this story forward and captivates our hearts.

The fighting may be over, but the effect of the war continues for many. Patriarch Lord Anthony Greville, 9th earl of Stanmore, a staunch traditionalist chooses to turn back time and restore his ancestral estate back to pre-war elegance before it was abused as an officer’s rehabilitation hospital. Hannah, his American wife, is not only uneasy with the extravagance of living in a huge grand manor house again, but riddled with guilt by the money used for its refurbishment from her trust fund – profits earned during the war from investments in munitions plants in the US. Their three children are also suffering from the fallout of the war. Twenty five-year old daughter Alexandra, a beautiful socialite turned war-time nurse in France, has returned from Canada with her infant son. Now a widow, her father will never forgive her for the indiscretion of having an affair with a married man, becoming pregnant, and marrying a week after he obtained a divorce. Charles, their eldest son and heir to the estate, gallantly served in the war and is a severely shell-shocked amnesiac residing in a mental hospital in Wales. William, recuperating from a gunshot wound to his knee inflicted by his brother is supposedly studying for the bar, but is actually living a dissipated life of heavy drink, flappers and jazz clubs in London.

Friends and relatives of the family are challenged too. The Greville’s American cousin Martin Rilke is still grieving the loss of his wife Ivy who died in Flanders serving as a nurse in a medical unit. Awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his truthful account of his Cousin Charles Greville’s court martial, he has turned his war-time experience into a tell-all book, A Killing Ground, a savage expose on the war that has garnered praise and a libel lawsuit by an angry British general. Fellow journalist Jacob Gold has been working for the United Nations reporting on hunger in the war-torn nations, and their mutual friend Lieutenant Colonel Fenton Wood-Lacy faces painful consequence of not burying the facts of Charles Greville’s breakdown by being blacklisted by the army and sent to a bleak colonial outpost in Mesopotamia without his family.

There is a bit of romance too. Lady Hannah uses her matchmaking skills and researches eligible bachelors again for her daughter. Her top choice is Noel Edward Allenby Rothwell, Esq. – a London financier from a fine family who checks off all of the requirements for the perfect son-in-law for Lord and Lady Stanmore. Alex knows she is damaged goods and that her mother’s choice will make everyone happy – but her. She much prefers Jamie Ross, a man from her past who had been her father’s chauffeur/mechanic before the war. He has gone on to become an acclaimed aeroplane designer and owner of a growing company in San Diego, California. He is in England again on extended business at the local plane manufacturer near the Pryory, and his easy manners and engaging spirit are far more appealing than a life with Noel which seems predestined for disaster.

The grounding force of the novel is my favorite character Martin Rilke who is catalyst for many events. Even though the narrative is told through many different viewpoints, as a journalist he is always in the thick of the social unrest and political changes sweeping Britain and Europe. Through his character and his interactions we see an array of consequences of the Great War and how it changed life so dramatically for a large estate like Abingdon Pryory, the working class who served there, the nation and the world.

Philip Rock skillfully takes us into the decadence of London Jazz clubs, the changing rural life of a country village, the growth of industrialization, social conflicts with the rise of Fascism, Communism and National Socialism, and the crippling reparations imposed by the Allied Powers on Germany and Austria that affect the world economy – all impacting the lives of this circle of friends and family that are connected to Abingdon Pryory. As a screenwriter turned novelist, Rock knows exactly how to shape the narrative to his will with brevity and emotion. I think he explains it best himself through a conversation that Martin Rilke has with his journalist friend Joe regarding the style of writing his own book: “Oh, cool, crisp prose. Nothing overwrought. Perfect use of understatement and irony. About as clean as a left jab to the jaw.” p 22.

After thoroughly enjoying The Passing Bells, I did not think it would be possible to surpass my awe and enjoyment, but Circles of Time matches my expectations with its historical drama excelling with intimate characterization. The battlefields of France and all the horrible devastation of WWI was very gripping and intriguing, but as we move with the characters into the rebuilding of the nation and their lives, it becomes more personal, positive and uplifting. If you love beautifully written historical drama, you won’t be disappointed.

5 out of 5 Stars

Circles of Time: Book Two of the Greville Family Saga, by Philip Rock
William Morrow Boos (2013)
Trade paperback (448) pages
ISBN: 978-0062229335

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Giveaway Winner Announced for A Change of Heart

Posted in Blog Events, Regency Romance Reading Challenge 2013, tagged A Change of Heart, Books, Candice Hern, Giveaways, Reading, Regency romance, Regency Romance Reading Challenge 2013, Swag on 7 March 2013 | Leave a Comment »

28 of you left comments qualifying you for a chance to win a copy of A Change of Heart by Candice Hern. The winner drawn at random is

Bev who left a comment on February 28, 2013

Congratulations Bev! To claim your prize, please contact me with your full name and address by March 13, 2013. Please tell me which item you have won in the email. Print book shipment to US addresses, or eBook internationally.

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Summerset Abbey: A Novel, by T. J. Brown – A Review

Posted in Book Reviews, Edwardian Era Book Reviews, tagged Book Reviews, Books, Downton Abbey, Edwardian-era, Reading, Summerset Abbey, T. J. Brown on 6 March 2013 | 6 Comments »

From the desk of Christina Boyd

Now that the third season of Downton Abbey has ended and left us quite reeling, what better balm to sooth our broken hearts than this new Edwardian series, Summerset Abbey by debut writer T. J. Brown. The year is 1913, the prelude to WWI, and three young women gently pursue their life’s hopes and desires, surrounded by the tacit convention of society. From almost page one, this historical fiction begins to weave its web as Sir Philip Buxton, who has raised his two beautiful daughters alongside the daughter of their governess, who is much like a sister to them, dies. Now the girls must abandon all they know, their Bohemian lifestyle, household and modern manners to live under the charge of their traditional Edwardian uncle at his extensive estate, Summerset Abbey.

Raised to esteem the person and not riches or rank, Rowena and Victoria encounter their first snag when they learn that although they will be welcomed to Summerset, their “sister” Prudence Tate is not, as she is but the daughter of a governess. In a rash moment, and fearing they might lose Prudence forever, Rowena claims they must have a lady’s maid and solicits Prudence for the job. Although claiming it is but temporary until Rowena comes into her own money and can provide for them all, balancing loyalty while attempting to fashion out a place for herself becomes her true cross to bear. “How independent had she been, really? She knew nothing of finances and had never bothered to ask. She’s had all of the freedom, none of the responsibility, and stupidly, she’d never even know what to ask for. She’d been selfish, thoughtlessly flitting from one whimsy to another, never learning anything useful. No wonder her father had given financial responsibility to his brother.” Rowena’s intentions are honorable but to have her so-called sister relegated below stairs, with the duties entailed upon Prudence, is a cruelty “suspended between upstairs and downstairs worlds of Summerset, and truly belonging to neither.”

Prudence, who was raised nearly as one of Sir Buxton’s daughters, is now nothing more than the girls’ lady’s maid and yet the household staff won’t accept her any more than Lord & Lady Buxton consider her family. Moreover she can’t shake this niggling sensation, even when she encounters absolute strangers in the village, why they shy away from her person as well. “Her mother had begun as a maid. She had no idea what her father had done for work, as her mother never spoke of him, but she had family who lived in the village. No doubt many of them had worked for the Buxtons or one of the other titled families in the area. Was there really a fundamental difference between those of the lower class and those of the upper class, aside from the circumstances of one’s birth, something over which a person has no control? Why did those of the lower classes put up with being made to feel as if they were second-class humans?”

The younger sister Victoria, although of delicate health, has a voracious, lively mind and aspires to become a botanist, as was her father. Victoria’s unconventional studies and research steer her to make a scandalous discovery about the family that powers the narrative further into intrigue. “She was putting the books away when a newspaper clipping fluttered out of the back of one of the books. Her heart raced as she realized what it was…”

Meanwhile Prudence catches the eye of Summerset’s dashing houseguest, Lord Billingsly, as well as the comely footman, Andrew, but they only seem to add to her confusion and turmoil. ““I certainly did not promise you the second dance, Lord Billingsley,” she huffed, searching for Andrew over his shoulder. But then his hand cupped her waist, sending a shiver up her spine, and she forgot about Andrew, forgot about everything except trying to breathe.” In addition, Rowena becomes captivated by a dashing test pilot, entangling herself in another family mystery: who is this fine, young man and what does he mean to the Buxtons?

As the early twentieth century evolved with the coming industry, electricity, radio, aeroplanes and the talk of war, it also brought the end to the excesses of many aristocratic families and houses. Opinions were changing and the girls were raised to be open to it. Author T. J. Brown has richly drawn these shifting times through well-drawn characters, compelling plotlines and conspiracy on nearly every other page. My only complaint – and it’s a major one — is that the ending was inexplicably stunted! And shocking! And unforeseen! But blessedly, book two in this three-book saga, Summerset Abbey, A Bloom in Winter was just released on March 5. Note: book three, Summerset Abbey, A Spring Awakening is coming in early August 2013. Albeit this will be catnip for Downton Abbey fans, this novel will dazzle you on its own merit. It’s the bee’s knees!

4.5 out of 5 Stars

Summerset Abbey: A Novel, by T. J. Brown
Gallery Books (2013)
Trade paperback (320) pages
ISBN: 978-1451698985

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Return to Longbourn Blog Tour with Author Shannon Winslow & Giveaway!

Posted in Austenesque Authors, Austenesque Books, tagged Austenesque Authors, Books, For Myself Alone, Giveways, Jane Austen, Jane Austen Sequels, Pride and Prejudice Sequels, Reading, Return to Longbourn, Shannon Winslow, Swag, The Darcys of Pemberley on 4 March 2013 | 69 Comments »

It is always a red letter day when one of my favorite Austenesque authors releases a new book – so I am so pleased to share this guest blog with you today from Shannon Winslow. Her new “darling child” has arrived and it is a treat.

Return to Longbourn is her second installment after her popular The Darcys of Pemberley was published in 2011. Please help me welcome Shannon by leaving a comment to enter a chance to win one of three copies of her new novel available.

Thanks, Laurel, for having me here today. It’s always a pleasure to visit Austenprose, especially when I have a new story to share!

Following last year’s publication of For Myself Alone, I longed to return to my first love, to the world of Pride and Prejudice. Even after tying up lots of loose ends in The Darcys of Pemberley, there were interesting avenues left to explore.

Yes, Elizabeth and Jane are well settled, and it would be pleasant to visit them again. As for Lydia… well, that’s another story. But I was chiefly intrigued by what lay ahead for the other two Bennet daughters. With her expiration date quickly approaching, Kitty is desperately looking for a husband.

She fretted over being already almost twenty with no prospects for marriage immediately apparent…(The Darcys of Pemberley, epilogue)

Mary, however, has pragmatically moved on with her life, putting her hard-won skills to good use as governess to the new family at Netherfield.

Thus, well seasoned by time, practice, and renewed dedication, she made great strides toward the standard of the truly accomplished young woman she had always aspired to be…(The Darcys of Pemberley, epilogue)

Then disaster strikes; Mr. Bennet dies. So, what will become of the Bennet ladies?

If you remember, Mr. Collins met a premature end in The Darcys of Pemberley. What you may not recall is that he had a younger brother (as revealed in that book and in the preview post for RTL here at Austenprose). You will find Mr. Tristan Collins far more agreeable (and swoon worthy) than his brother. And, to Mrs. Bennet’s delight, he turns out to be single. We first meet him in the prologue:

The letter from London was a true Godsend. He knew it the instant it arrived, and just as quickly determined what he must do. Now the fertile Shenandoah Valley of Virginia – which until so recently had encompassed all aspects of his life and every hope for the future – lay half an ocean behind him, the distance widening with each passing day.

As the creaking timbers of the deck dipped and rolled beneath his feet, Mr. Tristan Collins kept one gloved hand ready on the rail. He had long since overcome his initial discomfort with being at sea, to the point where his legs had learnt to compensate for the perpetual movement without any conscious effort.

“Mr. Collins, sir,” said the cabin boy, coming up behind him. “Capt’n says won’t you take supper with him?”

The distinguished young gentleman with sandy hair turned into the chill wind to answer the lad. “Thank you, Patrick,” he said with a wan smile. “Tell the captain I shall be along directly.”

Pulling his great coat more tightly about his person, he turned his gaze aft once more, to where the sun had recently sunk below the western horizon. He had no idea what he expected to see. There was nothing there, other than a fading glimmer of daylight and three thousand miles of cold, roiling brine – an impenetrable barrier, seemingly. But would only half an ocean be enough to keep the ghosts he left behind in America at bay… or to keep his own thoughts from forever flying back, like pigeons returning to their roost?

No, he would not feel truly secure until he once more set foot on the reassuring ground of his native country. In England, he would start again.

Hmm. I wonder what – or who – he has left behind in America. I wonder what he’ll think of Longbourn… and of its female occupants. Will he turn them out of the house, or obligingly fall in love with Kitty… or Mary?

The book is called Return to Longbourn, but I could just as easily have been named Netherfield or Pemberley in the title instead. I hope you’ll come along as we revisit all our favorite P&P places and people, come alive again between the pages.

Author Bio:

Shannon Winslow specializes in writing fiction for fans of Jane Austen. She first garnered attention as a finalist in the Jane Austen Made Me Do It short story contest, with her entry titled Mr. Collins’s Last Supper. The 2011 publication of her popular debut novel, The Darcys of Pemberley, further cemented her place in the genre, being particularly praised for the author’s authentic Austenesque style and faithfulness to the original characters. A stand-alone Austen-inspired story, For Myself Alone, followed in 2012. Now Return to Longbourn continues Winslow’s Pride and Prejudice saga, serving as the sequel to her own sequel.

Her two sons grown, Ms. Winslow lives with her husband in the log home they built in the countryside south of Seattle, where she writes and paints in her studio facing Mt. Rainier.

Learn more about Shannon on her website/blog. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.

Giveaway chance for Return to Longbourn

Enter a chance to win one of three copies available of Return to Longbourn, by Shannon Winslow, by leaving comment about what intrigues you about reading a sequel to Pride and Prejudice by 11:59 pm, Wednesday, March 13, 2013. Winners to be announced on Thursday, March 14, 2013. Print copies shipped to US addresses and ebook internationally. Winners choice. Good luck!

Return to Longbourn: The Next Chapter in the Continuing Story of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, by Shannon Winslow
Heather Ridge Arts (2013)
Trade paperback (270) pages
ISBN: 978-0989025904

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A Change of Heart: A Regency Romance, by Candice Hern – A Review

Posted in Blog Events, Book Reviews, Regency Era Book Reviews, Regency Romance Reading Challenge 2013, tagged A Change of Heart, Book Reviews, Books, Candice Hern, Rake Trilogy, Reading, Regency romance, Regency Romance Reading Challenge 2013 on 27 February 2013 | 34 Comments »

This is my second selection in the Regency Romance Reading Challenge 2013, our celebration of Regency romance author Candice Hern. We will be reading all of her traditional Regencies over the next nine months, discussing her characters, plots and Regency history. You can still join the reading challenge until July 1, 2013. Participants, please leave comments and or links to your reviews for this month in the comment section of this post.

My Review:

Notorious rakes can be interesting heroes. They bring out the “fix-it project” in any female. On the other hand, on-the- shelf spinsters can be totally perplexing to the female mind which is inclined to want to couple. Mix those two personalities together and you have the premise of A Change of Heart: A Regency Romance, the second novel in the Regency Rakes Trilogy by Candice Hern. What do you do with two complex characters who are happy with their life choices but forced to break down their barriers of hope and trust? We shall see.

Lady Mary Haviland is the twenty-nine year old daughter of the late Earl Assheton. As his sole heir, she inherited this estate affording her the freedom of independence so rare in a Regency lady—and she rather likes it that way—since she believes that as an ugly, insignificant and unmarried lady she can do as she chooses. She has many friends including is Emily Bradleigh, who we were first introduced to as the heroine of A Proper Companion, the first book in this trilogy. She also has a soft spot for rouges. “They are so much more honest in their approach to life that the usual paragons of propriety.” The rogue that has recently caught her eye is the notorious Black Jack Raeburn, the thirty-seven year old third son of a marquess, who because he was so far removed down the line of succession of his father’s estate never thought he need be anything more than the dissolute ne’er-do-well that he has spent the last twelve years perfecting. His life recently changed dramatically when his father, two elder brothers, and nephew all died in a boating accident a year ago. Now as the Marquess of Pemerton, he has inherited six heavily mortgaged estates and all the responsibility thereto. He must quickly find a bride to assure the succession, and refresh the family fortune.

Lady Mary introduces herself at a party and proposes her assistance to “steer him through the rocky shoals of the Marriage Mart.” She claims she offers her services in the name of friendship and for her own amusement. She has no interest in him or marriage herself. Since Jack has never had a female friend before he is intrigued and accepts her invitation. He finds her not only quite clever, but her knowledge of sorting out the eligible misses is indispensable to him—but what is her real motive for her generosity? As they progress down her long list of possible young ladies, Lord Pemerton finds plausible reasons to eliminate many of them: too beautiful, too clumsy, too smart, too plump, too dull, etc. One candidate has remained: Miss Lillian Carstairs who seems to fill the bill, namely she is rich and not too offensive.

Word gets out around the ton that he is on the hunt for a wife, but only Jack knows the true reason why. Even his close friend Lord Sedgewick thinks he is as rich as Midas until Jack confides his dire financial mess that he inherited and need to marry an heiress.

“Fortune hunter?” Sedgewick gave a shudder that shook his entire frame. “Don’t blame you, old man. Ugly label, that. Not a pretty situation.” “Indeed,” Jack said. “And so although I have in fact publicly entered the Marriage Mart for the Season, I am only truly considering those young women who can help me out of this dreadful coil.”

Soon after, his other dear friend Lord Bradleigh reveals that Lady Mary is very wealthy, but has a sad past. Jack has a new plan. “It was all too deliciously easy. He felt like the goose had deposited a golden egg right in his lap. Mary was rich!” With no male relatives to dictate her fortune he believes she will be easy pickings. But how will he make the switch from friendship to suitor? Of course he uses all of his finely honed seduction skills which Mary finds outrageous and laughs off. Convinced that no man would ardently flirt with someone so ugly, she believes that being a rogue is so ingrained in him that he is seducing her out of instinct and not because he wishes to love her.

And therein lies the rub. We have been presented with two very different personalities who one assumes are wholly unsuitable for one another. A charming, handsome rogue who could have any woman he wanted and an self-sufficient unattractive spinster who is determined to remain so. How they come together, and, well this is a romance so you know they will in the end, is a delightful discovery.

Hern has given us an amusing story with strong and unusual protagonists supported by excellent secondary characters. I loved Lady Mary’s companion, widow Olivia Bannister, whose unexpected romance with Jack’s uncle, Edward Maitland, also a bachelor rogue of the first order and his mentor in hedonism, almost rivals the main hero and heroine’s love affair. While I admired the strong, complex characters that Hern crafted and their troubling back story, Lady Mary was by far my favorite and Lord Pemerton not so much. He was a true rake easily slipping back into his dissipated ways when their romance was tested, and I never quite believed that he changed enough to become the man that Lady Mary deserved. Overall, it was an excellent and engaging romance full of funny, sharp dialogue, and beautiful Regency-era descriptions.

4.5 out of 5 Regency Stars

A Change of Heart: A Regency Romance, by Candice Hern
CreateSpace (2012)
Trade paperback (276) pages
ISBN: 978-1479106394

A Grand Giveaway

Author Candice Hern has generously offered one print copy or one digital copy of A Change of Heart to one lucky winner. Leave a comment stating what intrigues you about this novel, or if you have read it, who your favorite character is by midnight PT, Wednesday, March 6, 2013. Winner to be announced on Thursday, March 7, 2013. Print book shipment to US addresses only. Digital copy delivery internationally. Good luck!

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Emmalee: The Jane Austen Diaries #4, by Jenni James – A Review

Posted in Book Reviews, Jane Austen Contemporary Inspired Book Reviews, Young Adult Fiction Book Reviews, tagged Book Reviews, Books, Emmalee, Fiction, Jane Austen, Jane Austen Sequels, Jenni James, Reading, The Jane Austen Diaries, Young Adult Fiction on 23 February 2013 | 4 Comments »

From the desk of Kimberly Denny-Ryder

Several months ago I had the opportunity to read Persuaded by Jenni James, a modern YA (young adult) adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion. I was really impressed with James’ ability to keep the depth of Austen’s works when translating them into the modern world, and make them appealing to the YA crowd. When offered the chance to review her adaptation of Emma, I jumped and said yes! I’ve always found that Emma Woodhouse is a difficult character to relate to. (At least to me) The film Clueless did an excellent job showcasing her naivety while also reflecting that deep down inside she was a good person with good intentions. I was interested in seeing if James could also reflect this naïve nature while still making Emma appealing to teens.

Emmalee Bradford, the modern day equivalent to Emma, lives a very satisfied life. She believes that she is an expert matchmaker, and never misses and opportunity to set her friends up on dates. She takes special interest in Hannah, whom she decides to devote all her energy towards in order to make her popular. What she doesn’t realize, however, is all this energy expended on others leaves her alone and partner-less. Will she be able to find a match for herself despite being so adept at finding matches for others?

As I said before, Jane Austen’s Emma is a difficult character to relate to. Emmalee, on the other hand, is surprisingly refreshing. This may be because of her age. We’ve all had those awkward teen years dealing with growing up, moving on, difficult parents, friendship/relationship woes, and all the other difficulties being a teen brings. On the surface Emmalee seems like a spoiled rich kid, but when you get in her head, she genuinely thinks that what she does and says is completely unselfish. By the end of the novel, we see her begin to look at her actions from a different perspective and take responsibility for them. This highlights an emotional growth that was missing in Emmalee in the beginning, and is now beginning to transform her into a much more mature person. James weaves this into the plot perfectly, much like Austen made Emma transform from a slightly superficial matchmaker to a woman who has finally found true fulfillment in her own life. It is this transformation that makes Emmalee such a great read (and of course Emma too by extension!)

This book is filled with all the things that teen girls love: trips to the mall, cute boys, crushes, first kisses, Edward Cullen v. Jacob Black of Twilight discussions, puppies, fashion, texting, etc. James does an exquisite job in making her works appeal to her audience. Parents too will love these books for their clean nature, fun-loving prose, and moral lessons. If you know a young adult who has yet to give Austen’s classics a try, I recommend you have them read The Jane Austen Diaries series by Jenni James as encouragement.

4 out of 5 Stars

Emmalee: The Jane Austen Diaries #4, by Jenni James
Walnut Springs Press (2012)
Trade paperback (230) pages
ISBN: 978-0983829386

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Falling For Mr. Darcy, by KaraLynne Mackrory – A Review

Posted in Book Reviews, Jane Austen Sequels Book Reviews, tagged Book Blog, Book Reviews, Books, Falling for Mr. Darcy, Historical Fiction, Historical Romance, Jane Austen, Jane Austen Sequels, KaraLynne Mackrory, Reading on 20 February 2013 | 9 Comments »

From the desk of Jeffrey Ward

We know from the surviving canceled chapters of Persuasion that Jane Austen penned an alternative conclusion to her final novel with stunning results. Based on the now 200 year old masterpiece Pride and Prejudice, debut Author KaraLynne Mackrory has likewise crafted her own romantic detour. Let us find out, through the eyes of this old-school traditionalist reviewer if this spin-off embodies similar gratifying qualities.

The opening deviates immediately following the disastrous Meryton assembly with Mr. Darcy taking a morning horseback ride out from Netherfield, trying to calm his already intense attraction to Elizabeth and his mortification for insulting her. Miss Elizabeth Bennet simultaneously is taking her morning walk and pauses to rest in her favorite wooded copse. Darcy spots and admires her from afar. Suddenly, a gust of wind snaps a dead oak that Miss Bennet scrambles to avoid being struck by. Her ankle injured, Darcy comes to her rescue showing great concern. This chance meeting between hero and heroine fills many pages with absorbing and delicious detail which typifies the author’s unique style. As Darcy attempts to lift the injured Miss Bennet to his horse, as gentlemanly as possible, this charming dialogue ensues:

“Miss Bennet, I must help you to the horse, if you will give your consent again.” Mr. Darcy tried to sound as casual as possible even as his mind was screaming – yes, say yes! You belong in my arms Elizabeth! She laughed, and the hair on his neck stood up at the musical sound. “Mr. Darcy, I cannot see any other way I could get up there unless another gust of wind were to pick me up and place me atop your horse! You may assist me, thank you.” p. 21

The author’s route then heads straight from Longbourn to London, bypassing Pemberley. Things are proceeding much too smoothly between Darcy and Elizabeth when at about the half-way point his pride rears its ugly head, he comes to his senses, (loses his senses?) and affirms to himself that he can never marry a lady with poor connections and embarrassing family members.

The author, much to my satisfaction, also emphasizes the significance of Mr. Bennet as a major character who loves all of his daughters and has a hidden but joyous surprise for each daughter, should they marry for love instead of convenience. The odious Mr. Collins also makes an appearance and with the influence of Mr. Darcy be shocked at whom the clueless curate sets his eyes upon for matrimony!

Especially effective throughout is the mood of latent sexual desire between our heroine and hero without referring to any of the currently abused secondary sexual characteristics. Instead, the author delicately features the eyes, hair, facial expressions, garments, hands, posture, and the glimpse of a feminine ankle, much as it was two centuries ago. Combine this subtle sexual tension with the author’s dialogues, which faithfully stress the extremely polite civility between the sexes, and you are treated to page after page of crisply entertaining Regency conversations and situations.

A particularly savory moment is Elizabeth’s coincidental encounter with Georgiana Darcy in a fine London clothing shop where neither is aware of the other’s identity, yet they take an instant liking to each other as Elizabeth draws the shy Georgiana out:

“You will think me most silly, but I had teased my brother that I would shop for a wife for him today and choose a pair of slippers for her as well. He was so pleased to get out of coming in here with me that he laughed and went along with it.” Georgiana then frowned as she realized her silliness. Elizabeth laughed at the unusual declaration and said, as she glanced around the shop, “I did not see the ‘wife aisle’.” p. 183

My only minor criticisms? Somewhat departing from most of Jane Austen’s beloved characters who manifest both weaknesses as well as strengths, the author’s good characters are sometimes too-too good, the bad characters (Mr. Wickham) are too-too bad, and the ugly characters (Mr. Collins) are too-too ugly. This, at times, seemed to foster a cloying or schmaltzy atmosphere. We are also privy to the private thoughts of some of the characters (in italics) which are effective in some situations but perhaps reveal a little too much in others.

Nevertheless, I’m impressed by this debut novel and give praise for the author’s clever plot detour, character authenticity, genuine regency manners, and especially the tastefully rendered romantic eroticism between Elizabeth and Darcy which really drew me into the story right from the beginning.

4 out of 5 Regency Stars

Falling For Mr. Darcy, by KaraLynne Mackrory
Meryton Press (2013)
Trade paperback (264) pages
ISBN: 978-1936009206

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Austensibly Ordinary, by Alyssa Goodnight – A Review

Posted in Book Reviews, Jane Austen Paranormal Book Reviews, tagged Alyssa Goognight, Austensibly Ordinary, Book Blogger, Book Reviews, Books, Contemporary Fiction, Fiction, Jane Austen, Jane Austen Paranormal, Jane Austen Sequels, Reading on 16 February 2013 | 8 Comments »

From the desk of Lisa Galek

What’s an average girl to do when she wants to add some excitement and romance to her life? Just ask Jane Austen, of course! Sure, she’s been dead for nearly 200 years, but there are ways around that little problem.

Cate Kendall spends her days teaching the classics like Emma to a group of quasi-bored high school students and her nights dreaming of doing something adventurous. The most excitement she’s got going on in her life is her weekly Scrabble games against her best friend, and fellow teacher, Ethan Chavez. When Cate receives an invitation to an Alfred Hitchcock-themed party in Austin, Texas, she realizes this is her chance to reinvent herself into the sexy woman of mystery she’s always dreamt of becoming.

But, as she’s preparing her transformation, Cate finds a centuries-old diary. It’s blank inside, but the inscription on the first page is a quote from none other than Jane Austen herself. Cate decides to use the diary to record her new adventures and plans. What she doesn’t expect is for the diary to start writing back. And that it actually has some pretty good advice… the kind of stuff that Jane herself might say.

Slowly, Cate realizes the truth about the diary. But will she take its advice and find the love she’s been waiting for – her own Mr. Darcy or Mr. Knightley? Or will she wind up unwittingly chasing Mr. Wickham as part of her daring new lifestyle?

Austensibly Ordinary is really a fun, light romp into the world of Jane Austen and romance. I loved how the story stays tethered to Austen, though she wasn’t the entire focus. Cate loves and teaches Austen novels and, obviously, the diary is tied to Jane, but otherwise, most of the other characters live normal, Jane Austen-free lives. Ethan doesn’t even like Mr. Darcy, and yet I still found him charming. Now that’s saying something.

I don’t think it’s spoiling too much to say that I loved the will-they-won’t-they dynamic between Cate and Ethan. From the very first chapter, when we see him playing Scrabble with Cate, the sparks are flying (though, of course, Cate doesn’t know it). The dialogue and banter between them was sharp, sexy, and fun. And when the details about Ethan’s secret background came out, it really heightened the tension between them.

The other characters were both funny and memorable. Cate’s recently divorced mother who is a bit of a cougar hunting for younger men, her sister, Gemma, a grad student, who moonlights as a sex phone operator, and Cate’s friends, especially the ghost-hunting Courtney, were all quirky, interesting, and all-around hilarious.

The book is also very, very sexy without getting graphic. The author is really skilled at the slow burn. She draws out every situation until you’re waiting with baited breath for the characters to just go ahead and kiss already. But, when a couple makes their way to the bedroom we don’t follow behind. For some readers that will be a relief, for others a disappointment. I thought it was really well done, but I’m not much into those Fifty Shades of Gray level sex scenes.

Overall, the writing is good. The dialogue especially jumps out and really gives the characters life. Though, during some of the quick exchanges, I found Cate’s constant stream of thoughts a bit intrusive. No one thinks that much. Especially not someone who is in the middle of some particularly snappy banter with the guy she has a crush on.

There were also a few situations that seemed a bit out of place. I didn’t really care for the ending where Cate finally gets the guy. Without giving away anything, I just thought it was a little off, though it didn’t completely ruin the story for me. There’s also a scene where the ghost of Jane Austen appears in a public bathroom. But, hey, once you accept that a magic, advice-giving journal is hanging around, I guess anything goes.

And, speaking of endings, until I got there, I didn’t realize that this book is actually a sequel of sorts to Alyssa Goodnight’s other novel, Austentatious. They both follow the same structure – single woman finds a mysterious Austen-inspired diary. Cate actually discovers the diary after the heroine from the first book drops it off at a random location in Austin.

For a fun, light, sexy romance, I’d definitely recommend Austensibly Ordinary. I was happy to see that, in the end, Cate also passed on the diary to some other unsuspecting future heroine. I know I’ll be putting both the first book and any others in this series on my reading list very soon.

4 out of 5 Stars

Austensibly Ordinary, by Alyssa Goodnight
Kensington (2013)
Trade paperback (320) pages
ISBN: 978-0758267450

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