Book 488: Blood Persuasion (Immortal Jane Austen, #2) – Janet Mullany

Of course after finishing Jane and the Damned, we all knew I was going to go right into its sequel Blood Persuasion. Why slog through a novel that has issues when you can read paranormal Jane Austen fan fiction?! All you readers out there should be happy I’m only half serious about this. If I weren’t this would basically just be a Jane Austen fan-fiction love fest all the time.

Whereas Jane and the Damned was full of action and adventure, this one was a let down. I didn’t know this was a let down until I just now started writing this post and started to compare it to the first novel in the duology. That’s sad to think about, but not really surprising when so many sophomore novels and/or middle books in trilogies wind up disappointing.

This novel, again, appeared to take liberally from the facts we do know about Jane Austen and to add in various vampire related activities. I don’t know if Austen’s niece was actually sent to them because of her “trouble making,” but I do know that Austen and her niece had a close relationship.

I think this book focused more on mashing up Austen’s life and Sense and Sensibility and again a bit of Pride and Prejudice. And honestly that’s all I can remember, which is sad because I didn’t finish that long ago. I enjoyed the “surprise” at the end, but only because of the romance behind it and the sacrifice, but it definitely was a oh look there’s a bus coming toward me it is going to hit me type moment.

Recommendation: Unless you’re truly dying for more paranormal Jane Austen, you can skip this one and just read the first one. It had a decent enough story, but the action and adventure of the first book just wasn’t in this one.

Opening Line: “‘She’s an extraordinarily troublesome girl,’ the Reverend James Austen said.”

Closing Line: “She raised the glass in a toast, the flames reflected in the deep red of the wine. ‘To Jane, my dearest Jane, who found true love after all.'” (Whited out to avoid spoilers, highlight to read.)