Ratings6
Average rating2.8
In this Jane Austen–inspired comedy, love story, and exploration of identity and destiny, a modern LA girl wakes up as an Englishwoman in Austen's time.After nursing a broken engagement with Jane Austen novels and Absolut, Courtney Stone wakes up and finds herself not in her Los Angeles bedroom or even in her own body, but inside the bedchamber of a woman in Regency England. Who but an Austen addict like herself could concoct such a fantasy?Not only is Courtney stuck in another woman's life, she is forced to pretend she actually is that woman; and despite knowing nothing about her, she manages to fool even the most astute observer. But not even her love of Jane Austen has prepared Courtney for the chamber pots and filthy coaching inns of nineteenth-century England, let alone the realities of being a single woman who must fend off suffocating chaperones, condomless seducers, and marriages of convenience. Enter the enigmatic Mr. Edgeworth, who fills Courtney's borrowed brain with confusing memories that are clearly not her own.Try as she might to control her mind and find a way home, Courtney cannot deny that she is becoming this other woman—and being this other woman is not without its advantages: Especially in a looking-glass Austen world. Especially with a suitor who may not turn out to be a familiar species of philanderer after all.
Featured Series
1 primary bookJane Austen Addict is a 1-book series first released in 2007 with contributions by Laurie Viera Rigler.
Reviews with the most likes.
Say goodbye to that idealized view of Regency England! We're going to hear about hygiene, health care, food safety, women's rights, worker's rights, and so much more! Courtney doesn't play along with her change of circumstance very well, leading to SO MANY cringe-worthy moments.
I would have given this one four stars, but the ending left me unsatisfied. But some twist of fate, 21st century Courtney Stone wakes up in the life of Jane Mansfield, 30 something spinster in Jane Austen's time. She tries to say she's not Jane, but her “mother” threatens her with an asylum, “Jane” gives up that real quick. I loved how the time is not romanticized and it tries to show how unsanitary things really were back then. Of course there are Jane Austen references everywhere...what they read and characters in the story. I liked how she worked out things from the 21st century life, by working things out where she was.
Some things weren't cleared up completely for me. The whole time travel bit was never fully explained. I guess we're supposed to believe it was some kind of planets align and the space time continuum ripped open, allowing the two women to change lives. And where was the real Jane? Never said. And I wished there was more of an epilogue of both women, not just the one.
But all in all, good story. A great spin on Jane Austen and Pride and Prejudice. Yes you can tell it was based on that story.
I actually ended up liking this book, I have read so many negative reviews that I surely thought I would not enjoy it but I have. It was a cute little story, that I will admit is not for everyone, however I quite enjoyed it.