Book 58: What Would Jane Austen Do? – Laurie Brown

What a fun novel! I was not expecting much as I purchased this in the Kindle sale a few weeks ago. I purchased it for its tenuous connection to Jane Austen and thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

It is the story of Eleanor Pottinger and starts out as a sad depressed tale of her life and her struggle to turn things around when she meets two ghosts in an English haunted hotel. They send convince her to help them move on by sending her back in time. The next thing you know Eleanor is in Regency England and is neighbors to Jane Austen. Part mystery, thriller, regency novel, costume applique and paranormal romance (thank you www.lauriebrown.net) the novel is an enjoyable and quick read.

There was nothing truly striking about the novel, and I predicted the large majority of it, but any book that can make you smile non-stop for the last few chapters is good enough for me. I don’t believe Brown is an extraordinarily talented author, but she told a great story and infused her characters with relatability and the settings with a sense of place. (The sex scenes were a bit embarrassing to read and I’m fairly certain I blushed crimson on the metro this morning, but I have an entire theory on the sex scenes in romance novels and that’s a separate tangent.)

I’m a little embarrassed to admit that having found out the author has two more What Would Jane Austen… novels in the works I’m excited. I will definitely have to check them out.

Recommendation: Go out on a limb and read it – could make you laugh and definitely makes you smile.

Quotes from What Would Jane Austen Do?
“As soon as his pounding heartbeat slowed to near normal, he said, ‘Several years ago, I read an ancient Oriental love poem, but I didn’t understand its meaning. In it, two clay figurines represent lovers. One magical night the moonlight shines upon them, and they come to life. During the act of making love, they fall from the shelf into the darkness and out of the magical moonlight. They shatter into tiny shards. The next morning the sculptor scoops up the pieces, adds water, kneads the mixture, and forms it into two figures identical to the originals. But in the one are bits of the other and vice versa. Forever altered, each will always have some essence of the other molded into their existence. Now I understand. And believe it to be true.’ ” (289)