Check the Shelf Book Review: DNF Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict

Summary (From Goodreads)

After nursing a broken engagement with Jane Austen novels and Absolut, Courtney Stone wakes up and finds herself not in her Los Angeles bedroom or even in her own body, but inside the bedchamber of a woman in Regency England. Who but an Austen addict like herself could concoct such a fantasy?

Not only is Courtney stuck in another woman’s life, she is forced to pretend she actually is that woman; and despite knowing nothing about her, she manages to fool even the most astute observer. But not even her love of Jane Austen has prepared Courtney for the chamber pots and filthy coaching inns of nineteenth-century England, let alone the realities of being a single woman who must fend off suffocating chaperones, condomless seducers, and marriages of convenience. Enter the enigmatic Mr. Edgeworth, who fills Courtney’s borrowed brain with confusing memories that are clearly not her own.

Try as she might to control her mind and find a way home, Courtney cannot deny that she is becoming this other woman and being this other woman is not without its advantages: Especially in a looking-glass Austen world. Especially with a suitor who may not turn out to be a familiar species of philanderer after all.

First Off…

I saw this book and thought it sounded interesting.  I thought it was going to be similar to Lost in Austen, which I love.  So I thought I’d give it a try.

Thoughts:

As you can see, I didn’t finish.  It wasn’t that it was terrible, I just couldn’t get invested in the story.  I think there are people out there that will love this book.

There was a lot of flashing back and forth between the main characters modern life and Austen life; both of which were filled with drama.  I think this made it more difficult for me to connect with one life, let alone two.  Also, I’m not someone who likes drama based books, so there’s that.  I need a little action, and magic if possible.  Really the only thing that kept me going as long as I did was that I wanted to know how she got to the regency period.  But I gave up before that answer was even hinted at.

The Voice

Cassidy did a great job with presenting all the characters.  Especially switching between modern LA voices and Regency Britain.   The accents may actually have been part of the reason I kept going as long as I did, because I love a good accent.  They just couldn’t carry me all the way through.

The Writing

From what I could tell while listening, the writing was done well.  I think this book is something to at least look at a little if you have a multiple personality character, or something similar.  I don’t know how it translates when you read the book yourself, but as an audio it was easy to follow between the modern voice of the character and the transition to regency.

I’m not a huge history buff, so I can’t comment on the accuracy there.  To me, the dialect, words, and phrase structure, between the LA characters and Regency characters seemed accurate.  At the least, it added to the character development, even if they wound up no being accurate.

In the End

I had to return this one to the library, and I just wasn’t invested enough to put it back into my Que.

It’s a don’t bother for me.  But if you like romance and/or character driven books you should probably check this one out.