In Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, Courtney Stone, a modern LA girl, wakes up to find herself in the body of Jane Mansfield, a thirty-year-old single woman living in Regency England. Courtney, who back in LA was nursing a bad breakup with alcohol and Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, finds herself nearly appropriating Jane’s life.The one thing this book has going for it is humor. Courtney’s reactions to certain situations in which she finds herself were told with a style that made me laugh out loud. It’s a fast-paced novel that had me quickly turning pages. And there’s no lack of plot here.
But I thought some of the characters were a little bit weak. We don’t learn very much about Courtney’s life back in LA until the halfway point of the book, when I thought that information could have been given earlier. Jane’s relationship with Mr. Edgeworth seemed a little bit constrained (but maybe that was the nature of 19th-century romantic relationships). The names Rigler used for her characters seemed as though they had been borrowed from Jane Austen’s novels.
That said, I loved Mrs. Mansfield, Jane’s mother, who nearly stole the show, what with her practically forcing Jane and Edgeworth together. In all, this was a very cute novel about the differences between two time periods. It turns out, however, that Courtney and Jane’s lives are not as different as they might appear to be on the surface. Recommended if you want something light.
Also reviewed by: Trashionista, Life and Times of a "New" New Yorker, Obsessed With Books, Becky's Book Reviews, Medieval Bookworm
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