Book 798: Emerett Has Never Been In Love (Love, Austen #1) – Anyta Sunday

I was never going to say no to this. It’s a MM romance novel inspired by Jane Austen. If they would’ve thrown in Star Wars or some other geekdom I doubt I could’ve restrained myself from waiting as long as I did to read it!*

This was never going to be my favorite no matter how much I enjoyed Sunday’s writing or characters, it’s just not my story when it comes to Austen, but for the most part, I enjoyed this retelling of Austen’s Emma.

I was glad to see in the front matter that Sunday worked with various editors, but was a little disappointed in some of the copy editing, there were multiple occasions I wasn’t sure who was talking or what happened and I had to go back a page or two to figure it out, and there were a few typos I noticed. (But not enough to warrant highlighting and yelling about, so similar to a large publisher that usually has 1-2 sneak through.) The copy editing for continuity/realism was a bigger issue. First, it took me WAY too long to realize they were in New Zealand and second this one just really threw me for a loop for some reason:

Lake corrected the focus and began snapping, thankful he’d left a loaded battery in the camera bag all those eighteen months ago. (Ch. 6)

Maybe things work differently in NZ, but this is so unrealistic I legit was like WTF no way, based on personal experience and trying to get a device to charge that has sat idle for 18-months! I even googled cameras they should be dead at that point. But, honestly those were minor things, just things that stood out to me as I was reading and pulled me out of the story, which is never a good thing to me.

I think the biggest thing for me was the change Sunday made for Knightley, rather than being the older friend next door he was Emerett’s (or Lake which I was not a fan of) best friend’s dad who was also a neighbor. I think it added an unnecessary level of complication that was ultimately kind of brushed off. It wasn’t like a major age gap I think 23 to 44, but I definitely had to do math because it wasn’t mentioned that Knight’s kid was born when he was still in school until much later in the novel so I was constantly wondering who was how old for quite a while.

Now on to what I did like. I thought Sunday did a good job of adapting the story, even if it felt a bit more like an adaptation of Clueless rather than Emma, it still worked. Knightly and Emerett’s chemistry was there and she nailed Emerett’s total obliviousness. I think occasionally she pushed him past confidence to cockiness, which isn’t wrong but felt a little out of place at times.

The two sex scenes were well written and nothing pulled me out of them, thankfully, but really it was the quiet scenes of Knight and Emerett getting to know each other on a new level. Particularly when Knight was reading Moby Dick to Emerett in bed and when Emerett realized he had to put in the effort and finished it on his own, swoon. And the occasional drawings that were inserted in the book were perfectly timed and I loved each and every one of them.

For the most part, the minor characters were forgettable—I don’t remember any names other than Harry (but it could be Henry) and Josh. And I only remember those because they were pretty prominent stand in characters for Jane Fairfax and Harriet Smith.

I did however, love the idea of this adaptation of an advice column:

That’s what I’m saying. My channel can adapt it! We’ll redirect letters to us and Ask Adam—or rather Ask Austen—could deliver live responses based on quotes form Austen’s works. (Ch. 11)

And I really hope that Ask Austen makes more appearances in the future novels! I also have my fingers crossed Sunday actually finishes them out. So many other attempts at re-telling ALL of Austen’s work fall short, usually forgetting my favorite Mansfield Park, but I don’t think Sunday will forget it. I’m basically banking on it because she dropped that title more than any other title in this work, so maybe it’s next?!

Recommendation: If you like Jane Austen and MM Romance novels, then this is definitely worth the read. If you’re so-so on either I’d probably say pass. The characters don’t stand well enough on their own to be completely removed from Austen and there are some minor continuity/editing things that may be cleaned up in a final version but definitely took me out of the story. That being said, I can’t wait to see where Sunday goes next and I will be finishing out the series if she does them all!

*I received a copy of Emerett Has Never Been in Love via Gay Romance Reviews in return for my honest opinion. No goods or money were exchanged.

Opening Line: “Emerett ‘Lake’ Lakewood loved love, and loathed weddings.”

Closing Line: “Lake squeezed his hand, pulling him back around. ‘First, one other thing.’ He slid his arms around Knight’s neck and kissed those ever-smiling lips. ‘I love you.'” (Whited out to avoid spoilers, highlight to read.)

Additional Quotes from Emerett Has Never Been in Love
“‘. . . Martin’s a big reader—me, not so much. But I love movies, and I left a list of classics for him to watch, starting with Mansfield Park. Gosh, I hope he likes it. Not everyone likes it, what with the cousins marrying . . .’ He bit his lip. ‘It’s a pity he couldn’t come today. I hope he’s not too sick. Maybe I should text him.'” (Ch. 3)

“Harry nodded compassionately and picked up Mansfield Park. ‘Ohhh, I love Austen. Well, okay, I’ve only seen the film adaptations. But I love imagining living in one of her worlds.” (Ch. 9)

“Lake was a terrible person. He should never have agreed to Knight censoring his criticism He needed Knight telling him he was overstepping. Telling him that making a point was really a mimed bitch-slap.” (Ch. 12)