Austenland
Ratings48
Average rating3.4
yeah shut up I needed to pad out my reading challenge
also the movie is better
Similar, but not as appealing to me as Me and Mr. Darcy, although Hale seems to be marketed as a more literary author. Still worth a read if you like the Jane Austen paraliterature.
I knew this would be fluff, but man... (I'll still read the second one though.) I see why they made a movie of this - it's like it was written hoping it would be a movie. That ending especially.
A few complaints about Jane. 1- she's not a fan of Jane Austen, not really. She obviously feels like Austen is a guilty pleasure. Hiding dvds? Really? 2- she doesn't know Jennifer Ehle's name? Again, I think it's all a guilty pleasure, and that she views the 1995 P&P especially as a guilty pleasure. She probably only watches the lake scene... 3- What's wrong with Northanger Abbey? 4- she knows what a pelisse is but not a fichu?
Hopefully the follow up is a bit better.
DNF at 22%. Frankly, I enjoyed the movie more. The protagonist is an Austen fangirl who seems to reinforce all the worst stereotypes of being an Austen fangirl: obsessive, and ashamed of liking Austen. Miss Charming was insufferable, and overall I just found it boring.
Another cute Jane Austen inspired book! Set in contemporary times, Jane Hayes is a modern woman. But she has a Jane Austen obsession, well a Mr. Darcy obsession. So her Great Aunt leaves her a once in a lifetime trip and Jane uses it to cure her of her Darcy expectations. Very cute and funny!
This will be a great book for those Jane Austen lover's. For me it was too romantic what I call ‘mushy'. But it was interesting, and I'm glad I added it to my books by Shannon Hale. Whom I really like.
Okay so let's get this straight if I start a book I nearly always finish it unless it is so awful I can't. I am not an Austen snob and did not expect this book to be anything other than a chick lit look at Austen and a girl obsessed by the fantasy that is Colin Firth as Darcy.
This is the story of Jane who is left a stay at a Jane Austen themed resort by her Great Aunt. There she is promised life a la Austen with perhaps a chance to meet her own Darcy.
I expected Lost in Austen - humour and high jinx amid the empire line dresses and fancy balls. Instead I got a very very tedious book. I found it full of one dimensional characters and so much description about the surroundings that any plot development is nil. By half way through I literally just didn't care about any of the characters. It was a bit confusing to be honest who everyone was and who worked at the Austen resort and who was visitors.
I didn't like our heroine as she seemed a bit spineless and soppy and I couldn't find enough pull in the story to make me want to come back and read it. Instead of a book fizzing with witty dialogue and passion heightened by a heroine falling in love without the ability to have great physical intimacy we get a potentially great storyline squandered.
I think I could see where Hale was going was the plot, trying to mimic the standoffish ways of Darcy through Nobley and a late blooming of romance between he and Jane but I got to 60% of the way through and I became so bored of skimming pages waiting for any kind of drama that I had to admit defeat and give up which is so very very rare for me.
I may try to come back to this in the future when I have a fresh pair of eyes for it but right now I have so many great titles awaiting me that I am not committed enough to this plot at the half way mark to continue which is disappointing.
I really enjoyed this book–it made me laugh out loud often, and I enjoyed both the narrator's observations and the twists of the plot. Even the little vignettes about the boyfriends were fun and relatable, I thought. I've never been a huge Austen fan–I was always more into the Brontes–but of course I've seen Pride and Prejudice, and read enough of Austen's work to follow along. Great for an afternoon at the beach!
