Kay's Bookshelf

Subtitled “How I survived my ex-boyfriend’s wedding with my dignity ever-so-slightly intact”, the premise of the book sounded quite promising (or at least that’s why I remember adding it to the TBR pile). It turned out to be just OK. Nice enough but nothing over the top extraordinary, nothing to remember it by in a few weeks.

I am not certain how I feel about Brooke herself. I cannot pinpoint what I do not like about her (or even if there is something about her that I dislike), and yet somehow she failed to draw me in. Maybe because she was quite superficial. Maybe because she kept bragging about the fabulous places she went to, and how much of a big-time lawyer she is. Maybe because she mentioned her salary more times that I cared to hear, especially as she spent quite a chunk of time not doing her work. I do know though what I did like about her: the fact that she took friends and friendship seriously, both when it came to asking for things (see the book summary for an example) and also when it came to giving time and/or attention herself.

The thing with chick lit (that I noticed in this book too, of course) is that there usually aren’t that many men present. There’s sometimes a current or ex boyfriend, that turns out to be a douche, but other than him there’s just one single man present. Kinda detracting from the suspense since we can instantly deduct that he is the one our “chick” will end with, even if the odds don’t seem favorable at first (a notable exception to this rule is Shannon Hale’s Austenland). While it’s true that no one reads chick lit for suspense, a bit of mystery would definitely not hurt.

A quote that gives an idea of Brooke’s personality and storytelling (one of her quotes that I liked most):

Even though the breakup was difficult, I remained very dignified. Well, not so much dignified as a screaming crying mess. But it’s not as if I embarrassed myself or anything. Unless you’d call throwing yourself at the tails of someone’s suit jacket embarrassing. Which, luckily for me, I do not. We had a very mature conversation, really, if you think about it. I sweetly said, “Please don’t go! Please don’t leave me!” Okay, so maybe I was screaming it at the time, but you get where I was going with that one.

Thoughts on the ending: Happy :)

What I liked most: I thought it was quite cool that the author has been through Law school herself, working in the same field as Brooke does in the book. If I am not mistaken she has even been to one (or more?) ex-boyfriends’ weddings :)

What I liked least: While Brenda was supposed to be this glitzy but likable character (and most of the time she pulled it off), her ceaseless babble about billable hours begun to annoy me after a while. I am of course aware that this happens somewhere near the beginning and that Brenda is supposed to be immature then (so she’ll have room to grow throughout the book), and yet her mentioning money that often didn’t exactly endear her to me (least favorite quote: “I had a wonderful family and friends. And I volunteered at a nursing home, to boot! Sometimes I forgot how wonderful I truly was. Although, I hadn’t really had time to volunteer much, what with my caseload and all. And that sort of thing isn’t billable.“).

Recommend it to? Anyone who likes books on the fluffy side of chick lit. A light and easy read.

See also
Brenda Janowitz’s website


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Popularity: 5% [?]

From the very beginning it is obvious that in this book, like in some previous others, Mr. King has tried to explore the idea of a small group of people (good and bad), ending up outside the reach of the law. From this point of view the book reminds me of The Stand, where this separation from any law being applied came from the fact that there were simply no people left to apply it (the flu has killed 99% of the US population). In Under the Dome though this separation is quite literal, since we have the huge dome of glass that lets no armed force in. Add to that the fact that most of the police force inside the dome ends up consisting of bad guys and that’s a recipe for disaster right there.

The first (predictable) effect of such a rupture from the outside world would be (and is, particularly in this book) that the bad guys would let their lack of scruples (and their temporary invulnerability) go to their heads. And Mr. King is not one to shy from describing such deeds. We have multiple murders, a gang rape, arson, beatings, thievings, take your pick. What is the most awful is that most of these things happen almost within sight of the Army, stationed on the other side of the dome, and there’s nothing anyone out there can do because there’s no way to get in. As one of the characters put it, the armed forces were “Like kids looking into an aquarium where the biggest fish takes all the food, then starts eating the little ones.”

One of the fortes of the book is the fact that, albeit there are a lot of characters, Mr. King has managed to infuse them all with their own personalities and motivations. Sure, the good guys are good, and the bad guys are bad, but they are all believable and their choices make sense. Rennie for example, the all-around bad guy, sincerely believes that “This was the high point of his life, his chance to achieve the greatness of which he knew he’d always been capable.“. Adding to that his unwavering belief in God (and the fact that God is on his side no matter what he’ll do) we begin to get the idea of a dangerous man, a man who will single-handedly turn the quiet life of the small town into anarchy in no more than a few days.

Another thing I have enjoyed while reading was the imagery surrounding the Dome. When I first read summaries of the book I thought of the Dome as a sheet of glass, hardly visible for anyone looking at it, but nevertheless visible. But the actual Dome looks like… nothing. It does act like a sheet of glass, from the sound it makes when people knock on it, to the way it gets dirtied by pollution and things crashing into it, but it cannot be seen. Making the people who bump into it all the more surprised, and the related imagery (people trying to touch their hands but unable to, although there is no visible obstruction) all the more powerful. Speaking of imagery, the description of natural phenomena as seen through the Dome are quite cool too (my favorite was the part with the pink stars falling, of course, when the stars “come down in brilliant pink lines. Some of the lines crisscrossed each other, and when this happened, pink runes seemed to stand out in the sky before fading.“).

I think that, even if I hadn’t known who the author of this book was, I would probably have guessed it while reading. Not only do people die right and left (regardless on whose side they’re on), but there are also small clues now and then, clues that are to be found in almost every book of Mr. King’s. For one, we have the children sharing prophetic visions (that most of them don’t remember afterwards). Also, my favorite, the statement that repeats itself throughout the book, at various intervals (as far as I can remember every single book by Mr. King that I have read had a phrase like that, usually part of a song or something out of the main character’s childhood, that someone keeps thinking about). In this case the said statement is shared between many people (almost every important character thinks it at one time or another), is part of an old hit-song and goes like this “it’s a small town and we all support the team“.

The book would probably make a great movie, as it is very fast paced (something breath-taking is always happening), plus I can just imagine the special effects that could be created on this purpose. Not to mention the fact that the very presence of Barbie (a very good ex-Army guy, who just happens to be in the right place at the wrong time) made me think of a blockbuster movie from the very moment Barbie’s past was revealed :)

Something I didn’t think of while I was reading is the political side of the book — here’s what Mr. King had to say about it:

Sometimes the sublimely wrong people can be in power at a time when you really need the right people. I put a lot of that into the book. But when I started I said, “I want to use the Bush-Cheney dynamic for the people who are the leaders of this town.” As a result, you have Big Jim Rennie, the villain of the piece. I got to like the other guy, Andy Sanders. He wasn’t actively evil, he was just incompetent—which is how I always felt about George W. Bush. I enjoyed taking the Bush-Cheney dynamic and shrinking it to the small-town level.

While I (who live so far away from the States) barely know who Cheney was, and very little of what he did or did not do, I find the very fact that the book is sort of inspired from real life quite cool. Let’s call that an extra layer of the thing I liked most in the book, which is…

What I liked most: Unsettling as it may sound, I think the book was a great study of human nature. It other words, it explores people and feelings that are very believable for me; most people act the very way I would expect them to. For example, I can just imagine how, if something that bad would happen, the vast majority of people would look up to their leaders to tell them what to do and how to behave. I can also very well imagine how those people who abstain from doing bad simply because they’re afraid of the law would unleash their worst once it’s clear that no punishment can be inflicted on them (Nazi Germany anyone?). Not to mention the fact that many people would have trouble adjusting to the new world, clinging “to the notion that the world was as it had been before the Dome came down”, thus falling prey to the people who have a lot less scruples than that. And many, many more.

What I liked least: Silly but I kept being bothered about the Internet (how did they have Internet if the landlines were cut off? A city this small couldn’t have had Wi-Fi all over) and the cellphones still working (I know that air permeated the dome but would it have been enough for the cellphones? Somehow I doubt it.)

Thoughts on the ending: First of all, I noticed that many people said they loved the book until the ending, which they didn’t quite like. For me it was quite the opposite, meaning I thought it to be about the only ending that could actually make sense.

show spoiler

Recommend it to? First of all, I have read a lot of S. King’s books. Not all of them, but a lot. Second, this is quite possibly my favorite of them all. So yup, I recommend it to anyone around :) (however reader beware, there’s usually a lot of brutality in Mr. King’s books and this one is no exception).

See also
Chester’s Mill map (via Amazon)
The official site of the book
The “official” site of Chester’s Mill (a bit freaky, especially as it includes links to the site of Big Jim’s used cars dealership, the site of Chester’s Mill newspaper and the site of Sweetbriar Rose).

Written by the same author:
The Black House (with Peter Straub)

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Popularity: 17% [?]

I started reading this book after reading a few reviews of it, and, as all of them were positive, I ended up having high expectations form it. However now that I have finished it, I am not sure what to think. It’s not a bad book and it’s not badly written, the subject matter (“a love triangle that transcends time“) has lots of potential and at times I was so caught in what happened I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough, and yet I am not overly excited now that I finished it (but I agree that this may have something to do with the high expectations mentioned previously).

My major qualm would be that I didn’t actually care for the characters. Believe it or not my favorite one was the very antagonist, Erik Ruby (Joanna’s husband at the time the book begins). While I agree that he was too ambitious for everyone’s good and perhaps a touch too greedy too, there is a thing I really liked about him: he always keeps his promises (which is more than we can say about either of the star-crossed lovers that are the protagonists). As an interesting tidbit about him, the author has mentioned in an interview that “In early drafts Erik was an out and out criminal, a blackmailer, whose secret files rivaled those of J. Edgar Hoover“, but then he changed him to make the fact that Joanna has remained with him all those years believable, as she was too intelligent to be with such a guy for too long. Thing is, I for one would have very much preferred that first version, because that way Joanna’s deceit towards him would have been a bit more understandable for me. As things stand, I ended up liking Erik the most of all, which probably made me biased towards the rest of the cast.

Brian, the character most followed by “the camera”, is an overall good guy and I mostly liked him (especially somewhere near the end). I was amused to notice his similarities to the author (they share the same initials, they’re both authors, they both enjoy playing guitar, they both have an artistic side — Mr. Walker being a graphic designer, making books look good, and Brian being a video editor, making videos look good). Thing is, there wasn’t much of Brian in the book other than what related to his love for Joanna (his past was mentioned once or twice, but without shedding much light on his character, other than the fact that he was a really nice guy, but we already knew that) so for me he was mostly monodimensional (yes, I do think I have just created this word). Overall I actually find it fascinating how, while I’m usually head over heels with the good guys in books, I wasn’t that excited about this one.

As for Joanna, I’m sad to say I didn’t manage to connect with her at all. She is supposed to be this wonderful woman that makes every man around fall head over heels with her. To me she seemed a bit superficial and immature, not to mention more than a bit selfish. I know that I may be biased when I think of her by a pet peeve of mine (I don’t like people who cheat on others and I don’t like people who lie about important things, and she does these both to Erik), but I can’t really help it as my personality, including pet peeves, do influence the way I relate to things around me, including books. I do have one think I have really appreciated about Joanna though, and that is the fact that she was a talented artists and the way she viewed her art, as an expression of self.

You know, had I been the editor of the book, I would have requested at least one scene to be added, one where Joanna goes to Erik and confesses everything and tells him she wants out of the relationship. And then he does something (either begs or blackmails her) forcing her to reconsider. The presence of this one scene would have changed a lot of my feelings towards the book, because Joanna would have at least tried to do the right thing instead of jumping head-on into the wrong one, and then I could have, perhaps, esteemed her.

On the other hand (because there always is another side to the story), this book reminded me in a way of a biography of Prince Charles I have read many years ago. Prince Charles who, while married to Lady Di, tried for a while but couldn’t suppress his feelings for Camilla then Parker-Bowles. Sure, the story was a lot more complicated than that, as all sorts of things were at stake, but the thing that touched me the most was the way their love has endured for many years, despite both of them being married to someone else, and the very intensity of this love had some redeeming qualities in my eyes (and yes, I was thrilled when the two actually managed to get married to one another a few years ago). From this point of view I sort of regard Brian and Joanna’s love story a bit better than I would have otherwise. As both of them state, not only they are soul mates and understand each other to a T, but they have never stopped thinking about one another even in the fifteen years they spent apart. And yet I still have trouble accepting the deceitful side of the story. Why oh why hasn’t the author added that scene I mentioned :( :(

To end on a positive note, I think the cover is great. While it seemed a bit cryptic to me before reading the book, I can’t help loving it after. It depicts a Buddha (Joanna is a Buddhist), a single white rose (Joanna and Brian’s special flower) and a note whose first words are “Dear Brian”, a note that I like to think of as the “note from an old acquaintance” in the title, despite that note being actually an email :)

What I liked most: The way Brian described his being an author:

“I suppose I’ve always had a talent for words, ever since I was a little kid. And I’ve always loved telling stories, creating worlds that never existed. Yet they existed for me. I’d spend hours scribbling all sorts of fantasies, seeing them unfold in my mind like movies.”

The way Joanna always talks about her art too.
Plus I was mildly amused to notice that Erik Ruby’s email address was RedJewel@hotmail.com :)

What I liked least: For some reason I couldn’t stand one of Joanna’s pet names for Brian, “my sweet writer”. Every time she mentioned it I couldn’t help thinking “blech” (without a clear idea why, it’s just how I felt).

Recommend it to? I do realize that a lot of this review was subjective and had to do with that pet peeve of mine. Because of that and because of the fact that the book has gotten many good reviews I do encourage everyone to at least give it a try. Everyone not sharing my pet peeve that is :)

See also
Bill Walker’s official site

Amazon Affiliate. If you click an Amazon link and buy something, I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.

Popularity: 9% [?]

The book starts out at quite a good pace, alternating between the story of Karen and the accidents that occur because of the dust. I liked both Karen and Jerry and I had soon become emotionally involved in their attempts of destroying the thing plaguing their neighborhood. Unfortunately the pace was kept constant throughout the whole book (with Karen’s scenes rather few and far between, separated by lots of “accidents”), and what once was interesting kinda faded out after a while — after all, how many accidents can anyone be interested in? Not to mention it was getting hard to read about any new people (the author introduced anyone new with a bit of background, Sidney Sheldon style, quite a nice thing except when one knows that any new character is to be very much hurt or even killed). I think I, as a reader, was expected to dislike the dust more and more with each new accident, and root all the more for the characters. However it didn’t happen like this, my feelings towards it soon reached a plateau and… in a way it all went downhill from there as my interest partially faded.

At first I loved the premise of the book: a strange-looking dust came out of nowhere that does harm to people for the fun of it. Sort of like a “dusty” version of Predator. I was certain, all throughout reading, that we will probably never know where the dust came from, how and why. And I was OK with that (this is not a spoiler as you’ll have to read the book to find out whether I was right or wrong :P ). However as I was nearing the end of the book I started having a lot of questions regarding it. It’s funny actually if one thinks I had no problems with accepting the idea of a dust so evil that it kills people, but I couldn’t help having an issue with “how does it see?” and “how does it know human anatomy?” (it would need to know quite a bit of the latter in order to kill people as it did).

A few words about the cover: it it very simplistic but to tell the truth I kinda had fun with the it while reading. At times I amused myself thinking what I could have done instead, what image would I have set on the cover had I been the editor (or whoever gets to decide these things). While my ideas were more or less complicated, I always ended up considering that the initial concept (an image of the title character, on a stark, white background) also held a lot of promise, and I sort of fell in love with it. Sure, the quality of the image isn’t to die for (and I also had fun imagining what a really good graphic artist would do to the concept), but what I want to say here is that, surprisingly enough, I ended up appreciating the cover though I wouldn’t have thought so in the beginning (what with it being such a simplistic cover and so on).

What I liked most: The ending. Although everything happened quite fast I liked the idea behind it (quite original I would think). My only qualm about it is show spoiler

What I liked least: A pet peeve of mine while reading the book: the way the verb “to scream” was used at times. It may be just me (although Merriam-Webster seems to think so too), but to me the verb implies a shrill sound. In this context I have found its usage a bit forced every now and then, in cases where perhaps the verb “to cry” (not the teary kind) would have been a much better match (for example imagine Karen screaming “Mom!” on the phone when told she has a new blind date or someone screaming “Ow!” every now and then). But that’s just me.

Also, I was a bit bothered at times by the fact that Karen was always certain that, whenever something bad happened, it happened because of the dust. Imagine a dialogue going something like this:

Karen: “What happened to you?”
Neighbor: “A pan fell down and hit me.”
Karen: “Have you seen any strangely-colored dust?”
Neighbor: “No.”
Karen (to herself): “That’s what you think, but the dust was there.”

It’s obvious what the author’s been trying to do, make the dust attack in such a way that most people hurt don’t see it (lest there was talk of a strange-looking dust going around), and yet have Karen aware of all the “hits”. It didn’t quite work for me though, I like the reasoning the characters in books do to be based more on facts than groundless suppositions. I admit though that I had a hard time coming up with something better (other than Karen somehow being there and seeing the dust for herself; or perhaps videos or pictures of the accident scenes, where Karen noticed the dust but everyone else dismissed it as camera artifacts?)

Recommend it to? Anyone in the mood for an easy, uncomplicated reading (with some blood involved). This is the first book of the author and I may have been a bit harsh with it in my review (with the best intentions, of course, hoping that it will help the author notice what didn’t work that well in hopes of a great second novel — it would be a pity not to as the book was, albeit not perfect, among the better half of the self published books I came across).

See also:
The official site of Susan Berliner
An interview with her regarding Dust

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Popularity: 10% [?]

I picked up this book knowing that whatever else happens in it at least it would have a happy ending (today the author is in perfectly good shape). It is nevertheless a very moving story, the harrowing account of the thoughts of a mother that knows she might have to leave her children before long, the story of a woman all too aware of the emptiness she would leave in the lives of her loved ones — her husband, her parents, her kids, her friends. Ms. Host has chosen a very honest approach, not hesitating to bare her soul and exposing her innermost thoughts during that trying time. Reading this made me cry more than once, although, as I said, I knew it was all just a phase, I knew it was going to pass, I knew it was going to end well.

The first word that comes to my mind when I think of Carrie after reading this book is (predictably enough perhaps) “strong”. She managed to find within herself the resources she needed in order to battle cancer, in order to keep her sanity, in order to keep being there for her loved ones. Even now, years after what she went through, she keeps fighting the fight: she is on board of directors of an organization (Caring for Carcinoid) that is dedicated to discovering a cure for that particular condition. She is also a public speaker (and now a published author) trying to motivate people not to give up, wanting to show them that there may be life after carcinoids, and I deeply admire and respect her for that.

And yet, while Carrie’s strength is a defining trait for her, it is not the one I have liked most. That mention goes to a most likely less useful one but the one I very much enjoyed reading about: her artistic side. The fact that, even when she is down, she imagines her life and (possible) future events as short stories or even paintings. The fact that she is the kind that notices the minute details of life, the fact that she encourages her kids to go out there and make life beautiful for themselves. An unexpected trait that one doesn’t often see in books and that I delighted in because of that.

It was also interesting to get to know some of the cast of characters in Carrie’s life. Amory is simply perfect, with the way he devised a plan to find someone who could help Carrie, with the way he never stopped being there for her and helping her with the small things and the big ones, always showering her with love. Carrie’s mother, an ex-nurse, is also a mountain of strength, never leaving her daughter’s side. Carrie’s sister Marisa and Carrie’s sister-in-law Trina are other two relatives very supporting in time of need. At first I thought that well, Carrie is incredibly lucky to have only positive people in her life. But then I realized, reading between the lines, that the truth is that she has chosen to focus on the positive only, on the encouraging experiences — there are also negatives, friends who leave, people who try to impose their believes on her, doctors not paying enough attention, there have to have been moments of discouragement, of anger, of tensions now and then (how can there not be when one has to live with such a threat), but all this is mentioned only in passing, if at all, enforcing my opinion that Carrie is, above all, a positive person and has written this book to encourage others not to complain of her fate.

A few quotes that I have liked:

“I am a poet. As such, I am a hopeless romantic about life. For me, details are worth noticing. I believe that a bath can cure practically anything that ails you, and what the bath can’t cure, hot tea and music will.” (Carrie about her pre-cancer self)

“You want to hit delete and go back to the old description of yourself, the one without the medical terms mixed in. You can’t.”

“Anger is unnatural. Like holding our breath, it becomes more debilitating the longer we do it. Love comes naturally, like the urge to breathe. Forgiveness is the extension of that urge. It’s taking that breath. It’s that satisfying.”

“Buy yourselves flowers, kids. Fill your lives with the things you love, don’t wait for someone else to do it.”

“Sometimes our lifelines are thrown to us by angels — not the ones in paintings, but the ones right here in our lives.”

What I liked most: The way Carrie relates to words. Ever since she was a child, when she has received a letter from Nixon himself, she has been impressed by the power words have. At that moment she has decided she wanted to become a writer, she wanted to help words take particular shapes. Later on though, after her diagnose, there are a few moments when she feels the opposite: words, as the medium which brought her the bad news, became the enemy. For some reason I find this an interesting way of looking at something as widely used as words :)

What I liked least: How can I even dare criticize someone who’s been through that kind of ordeal? Not that there’s actually anything to criticize. Nevertheless even if it were I wouldn’t dare mention it ’cause I am very much aware that (lucky for me) I don’t know the first thing about having to deal with all that.

Recommend it to? It’s a honest memoir that relates having to deal with cancer. As such I would recommend it to people who like reading real life stories, cancer survivors and — and anyone else actually. A fast read filled with the simple truths one discovers when one’s life is on the line.

See also
The author’s site
Carrie’s account of how she first met Amory (scroll down to the last)

Amazon Affiliate. If you click an Amazon link and buy something, I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.

Popularity: 13% [?]

As it’s usually the case with Mr. Gaiman’s books, this too has an assorted cast of characters. We have Richard, the all around nice guy that has discovered a world he never knew he existed (and that becomes a stronger person in the process). The Lady Door, the descendant of a family of door openers (a concept that has fascinated me). Hunter, the woman hunter whose life purpose was to kill as many dangerous beasts as possible. The Marquis of Carabas (a self-given name straight out of the Puss in Boots story) that I have found a bit annoying at the beginning but that has earned my respect later on. Not to mention the two hired hands, Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar, the former being one of the more interesting such characters that I have ever met, and whose manner of speaking being one of my favorite things in the book.

Mr. Gaiman’s imagination doesn’t disappoint when it comes to places either: we have an ever-moving market (whose variety reminded me of the one in Stardust), an Earl’s Court (complete with a jester) in a subway train, a bridge that captured people now and then, and many more. Speaking of the Earl’s Court, I have found quite cool the way the author has chosen to reinterpret the meaning of some of the London tube stations. for example Knightsbridge becomes Night’s Bridge (the one I mentioned before), The Angel, Islington is an actual angel named Islington, Shepherd’s Bush is a place where actual shepherds hang out, and so on. The thing is perhaps all the more interesting when coupled with one of the very first scene, where Richard gives away his tube station map (it was printed on an umbrella, and it was raining) to an old woman who warns him to stay away from doors. I see Richard’s losing the map as a metaphor for the fact that he’ll soon become lost in London Below, and have difficulties finding his way there (as in “of course he had trouble making sense of the underground world since he had no map”).

Speaking of metaphors, I have very much liked the mention of “a fraction of a second that becomes a tiny forever” (probably because a second is so the opposite of forever that even the mere idea of associating the two seems somewhat out of this world :) ).

What I liked most: I was fascinated most by the idea of opening doors, especially when it came to creating doors where there previously were none. The image that I liked most though was that of the house Door and her family lived in:

The swimming pool was an indoor Victorian structure, constructed of marble and of cast iron. Her father had found it when he was younger, abandoned and about to be demolished, and he had woven it into the fabric of the House Without Doors. Perhaps in the world outside, in London Above, the room had long been destroyed and forgotten. Door had no idea where any of the rooms of her house were, physically. Her grandfather had constructed the house, taking a room from here, a room from there, all through London, discrete and doorless; her father had added to it.

I was also fond of the ending, more precisely of the fact that show spoiler

What I liked least: I found it a charming book with nothing to criticize :)

Recommend it to? Everyone who enjoys reading fantasy, of course :)

Written by the same author:
American Gods
Coraline
Good Omens (with Sir Terry Pratchett)
The Graveyard Book
Snow, Glass, Apples
Stardust


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Popularity: 15% [?]

I liked the way Jane grows and develops throughout the book. She is aware that her intensity and her expectations are a roadblock in her path to happiness, and all the time while at Pembrook she is doing her best to play along and, at the same time, reinvent herself. Day by day she discovers that, after all, she could very well enjoy the trip as well as the destination, and that a relationship can be savoured even if a wedding does not appear on the horizon. Oh, and there’s nothing wrong with a bit of harmless flirting now and then. Jane does change after her stint in Austenland show spoiler

The writing style is casual and enjoyable, sprinkled with funny bits that made me smile (such as “She thought she should say something witty here. She said, “Really?” “), and some pretty intense moments too (“[He] smiled in his way, the way that made her stare back and wish she could breathe.“). I couldn’t help but very much admire the diligence of the author when she created the characters’ Pembrook lines, because a good chunk of the book is written in Austen-like style, and, at least for a profane like me, it sounded quite close to the original.

Speaking of which, another thing that mightily amused me throughout the book was imagining what I myself would have done in such a setting, being forced to talk in such a style. Each time I ended up being very much impressed with the way the author has chosen to have Jane and the rest of the cast go back and forth between conversational tones: everyone is doing their best to act as 1816 as possible in order not to ruin the Experience for everyone else, and yet their true upbringing and habits do slip through the pretense now and then (making it all the more real because I really wouldn’t have believed a complete change from one way of talking to another can be achieved on such a short notice).

What I liked most: The fact that the ending is not obvious until the last few pages. Or at least it wasn’t for me. Oh, and the whole idea of an Austen-esque estate making guests feel like they went back in time is pretty cool too.

What I liked least: Chick lit, easy reading, nothing to take seriously…what’s there not to like? :)

Recommend it to? Since it’s a chick lit book I obviously recommend it to chick lit fans. Nevertheless I do encourage anyone (especially if they have a penchant for Mr. Darcy) to at least see what it’s about. It’s not perfect but if you’re in the mood for something light it might be just the thing :)


Amazon Affiliate. If you click an Amazon link and buy something, I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.

Popularity: 11% [?]