Your online source for Jane Austen and her legacy
From the desk of Christina Boyd:Â Abigail Reynolds' latest self-published offering, Morning Light, is all about second chances, (maybe even thirds). Escaping complicated city life, and all the muddled baggage that it entails, widow Annie Wright is finally living her dream of running her own art gallery on Cape Cod and free of any male... Continue Reading →
Following Jane Austen Ruined My Life (2009) and Mr. Darcy Broke My Heart (2010), Austenesque author Beth Pattillo presents the third book in the “Formidables Series,” The Dashwood Sisters Tell All. If you are wondering what “Formidables” are, besides being the thread that binds all three of these modern Jane Austen themed novels together, it... Continue Reading →
From the desk of Christina Boyd: Lily Berry is a needy, desperately unhappy dreamer who after reading “The Six” (Jane Austen’s six major works) has let her affection for dear Jane run wild—reading and re-reading the novels, and chronically sabotaging her personal life by “squeezing herself into undersized romances.” She finds herself at an all-time... Continue Reading →
Today I am reviewing the bestselling, feel good, let’s laugh and cry novel of 2010, The Three Weissmanns of Westport, by Cathleen Schine. It will be released in paperback on February 1st, so no more procrastinating because of pocketbook woes. There are so many raving reviews of this novel on the Internet I feel very... Continue Reading →
From the desk of Christina Boyd: I was anxious to read The Man Who Loved Pride & Prejudice: A Modern Love Story with a Jane Austen Twist, by Abigail Reynolds as I have been a fan of her Pemberley Variations series for a few years, own all her other commercially published and self-published books and... Continue Reading →
Stepping into the 21st-century, Elizabeth Aston’s new novel Writing Jane Austen offers a completely different vintage of Austen inspired paraliterature than her previous six books based on Pride and Prejudice characters and their families from the early 19th-century. Set in present-day London, readers will immediately discover that Austen’s influence of three or four families in... Continue Reading →
I have read a few Austenesque books in my day. Am I jaded? Hope not. I usually know by the end of the third chapter if it has wings: a fresh concept skillfully rendered, Austen allusions or her characters reverently portrayed and humor in the form of wit and irony, please. I know. It’s a... Continue Reading →
Another year – another plethora of Austen inspired sequels, re-tellings, mash-ups and nonfiction fare devoured! In 2009 we saw zombies invade Pride and Prejudice hungry for more brains and ascending the bestseller lists for months, Mr. Darcy go paranormal in a way we could never have imagined before with Mr. Darcy Vampyre, and Jane Austen... Continue Reading →
From the desk of Christina Boyd: Many modern versions of Jane Austen’s works fail to hit the mark because the author forces a "rewrite" of the original, altogether forgetting that some scenarios and mores from the Regency era make no sense in the modern-day world. Or worse yet, the author fails to deliver any character... Continue Reading →
Here’s a new novel that tugged at my heartstrings and validated my belief that if the world was run according to Jane Austen, we would be much smarter and happier. Enuff said! Fifteen-year-old Ellie Barnett is a bookish geek. She excels at academics, but according to her caustic older sister, she is digging herself into... Continue Reading →
From the desk of Laurel Ann Nattress:Â Is there always another chance at happiness? Are we bound to our past, or do "we all have the power to create heaven on earth, right here, right now?" Important questions heroine Jane Mansfield must come to acknowledge and understand in Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict,... Continue Reading →
In her fourth book in the Jane Austen in the 21st-century series for young adult readers, (and some older adults who are forever young at heart), author Rosie Rushton tackles Jane Austen’s most famous novel, Pride and Prejudice, retelling the story with a contemporary twist. Her teenage Lizzie Bennet and sisters are still hunting for... Continue Reading →
