{"id":39359,"date":"2021-04-29T22:33:27","date_gmt":"2021-04-30T02:33:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=39359"},"modified":"2021-04-29T22:33:27","modified_gmt":"2021-04-30T02:33:27","slug":"review-of-confessions-of-a-jane-austen-addict-by-laurie-viera-rigler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=39359","title":{"rendered":"Review of Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, by Laurie Viera Rigler"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict<\/em><\/p>\n

by Laurie Viera Rigler
\nread by Orlagh Cassidy<\/p>\n

Penguin Audio, 2007. 7 hours.
\nReview written April 25, 2021, from a library eaudiobook<\/p>\n

I\u2019m on a roll of reading Jane Austen take-offs, and this is one of the silliest, or I should probably say most light-hearted.<\/p>\n

Courtney, a modern young woman who lives in Los Angeles, recently caught her fianc\u00e9 cheating on her. As part of her healing process, she did her usual Jane Austen binge. But one morning she wakes up to find herself in the home of a young lady who lives in the English countryside during Jane Austen\u2019s time, in the body of that young lady.<\/p>\n

The young lady is named Jane Mansfield, and she has recently had a terrible fall from a horse. When Courtney tries to tell people that she is not, actually, Jane, they try to help by bleeding her (with dirty equipment!) and threaten to put her in an asylum. She has to go along with it. Surely it\u2019s temporary, and she can just humor them, but it seems awfully realistic and she doesn\u2019t want to live it out in an asylum.<\/p>\n

The book never does adequately explain why this body-switching happened. There\u2019s talk about the fluidity of time and a wish and trauma and\u2026 well, whatever it was, it\u2019s fun that it happened. (I also wasn\u2019t completely satisfied about what her \u201cdestiny\u201d was that would take her back, but I won’t give that away.) For a fantasy fan like me, that aspect was awfully murky.<\/p>\n

This book is also a lot more raunchy than most Jane Austen take-offs. Courtney had been sexually active with her fianc\u00e9 and other people before him, and she appraises the men she meets with that in mind \u2013 which does not really fit with Jane Austen\u2019s England. But now Jane\u2019s mother very much wants her to marry Mr. Edgeworth \u2013 and Courtney can\u2019t remember why Jane was opposed to that plan. But she gets flashes of Jane\u2019s memories, and she\u2019s afraid that even in a different body, she\u2019s attracted to an unsuitable man.<\/p>\n

Along the way, there\u2019s lots of humor as Courtney\u2019s modern sensibilities clash with life in Jane Austen\u2019s England. And though some things appall her \u2013 such as having to use a chamber pot \u2013 she begins to make the best of the situation \u2013 and the reader (or listener) gets to enjoy it with her.<\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Find this review on Sonderbooks<\/a> at: www.sonderbooks.com\/Fiction\/confessions_of_a_jane_austen_addict.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n

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