Category: Romance

Jane Hayes is pretty, educated, employed, and not entirely satisfied with her life.  Boyfriends have come and gone for years, but none of them measure up to her ideal, the famous Mr. Darcy of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Now in her early 30’s with no real prospects for a permanent relationship, Jane immerses herself in the BBC version of the story, much to the dismay of her mother and elderly aunt.

When her aunt passes and Jane’s inheritance is a 3 week trip to England’s “Austenland,” the story really begins.

Think “City Slickers,” the Jane Austen version, where the customers shed all things modern in exchange for corsets, bonnets and a life of leisure.  A small mix of men and women, some paid actors, keep each others company daily.  But what is real and what isn’t?

It’s an entertaining idea and a case of “be careful what you wish for,” as Jane learns modern life lessons while playing dress up and adhering to the strict rules of this land of make-believe.

I cannot say I was riveted, but there is enough intrigue in the form of potential suitors, competition for said suitors, and Jane’s self-realization that made me want to see what happened.  Having read the author’s Princess Academy, I knew that she a strong storyteller.

Austenland does not disappoint and familiarity with Austen’s characters helps.

8 out of 10 stars

Last night I finished Seeking Persephone, by Sarah M. Eden, a story I have been visiting between other books for about 3 months.  With only a quarter of the book remaining, I decided to see how these characters ended up.

Like Edenbrooke, by Julianne Donaldson, Seeking Persephone is part of the genre of LDS romantic regency fiction. These books are written by women for women.  Their authors are loyal Jane Austen devotees who want to carry on the tradition of clean literature set in a simpler time of good manners, lovely dresses, and when marriage to a wealthy man is a woman’s top priority.

After reading two books in this genre by two different authors, I am finding this kind of escapist reading teetering on the ridiculous.  Escapist lit is fine, the regency setting is fine, but unoriginality is not.  So far, both Edenbrooke and Seeking Persephone have obvious shades of famous stories that are classics because they were the first of their kind.  While Edenbrooke’s characters had a lot of similarities to Pride and Prejudice’s Elizabeth and Darcy, Seeking Persephone is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast.

In it, the poor but beautiful Persephone is sacrificed into marriage to the brooding and scarred Duke of Kielder.  It is unapologetic in its predictability, and shameless in its attempt to try and be something more than fluff.  Harsh but true.  For the same reasons I have vowed not to read another ridiculous book by the highly overrated Nicholas Sparks, I do not see myself returning to this genre again.  Intelligent readers deserve something better than this.

A disappointing 5/10 Stars

Two book reviews in two days is very unusual for me, but Edenbrooke, our April book club selection, was a quick and frothy read.  Whereas as The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks was like a steak dinner with baked potato, Edenbrooke is like a small bowl of chocolate mousse at the end of the meal.  That doesn’t mean it wasn’t enjoyable, because it was, but like chocolate mousse it is predictably light and far from life-changing.  Although I will say that it was a nice literary escape between two demanding books on my reading list.

Set in the English countryside, the story centers around the awkward half of a set of twins, Marianne Daventry.  She is attractive and unassuming, a composite of Elizabeth Bennett in Pride and Prejudice and Jo March in Little Women.  Her sister, Cecily, reminds me of a cross between Jo’s sister, Amy, and Blanche Ingram in Jane Eyre.  And therein lies a bit of criticism of the story–almost everything about it seems borrowed from the classic romance stories of that era.

There were a few twists that I did not expect, and some excitement at the beginning and the end involving danger and intrigue, but the story is, for the most part, quite predictable. It is more about the journey than the destination.

Still, to be fair, I will state again that I did enjoy it.  It is a clean story that manages to keep the reader’s attention. I sincerely wanted to find out everything that happened to the characters.  Would I recommend it?  I suppose.  One cannot read heavy, intense books all the time, and Edenbrooke was the perfect respite.

So, within its genre, I would give it 8/10 stars