{"id":39456,"date":"2021-05-19T22:55:10","date_gmt":"2021-05-20T02:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=39456"},"modified":"2021-05-19T22:55:10","modified_gmt":"2021-05-20T02:55:10","slug":"review-of-rude-awakenings-of-a-jane-austen-addict-by-laura-viera-rigler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=39456","title":{"rendered":"Review of Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict, by Laura Viera Rigler"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

by Laura Viera Rigler
\nread by Kate Reading<\/p>\n

Tantor Audio, 2009. 9 hours.
\nReview written May 17, 2021, from a library eaudiobook
\nStarred Review<\/p>\n

I\u2019d already read and reviewed the companion to this book, Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict<\/a><\/em>, where Courtney Stone from modern-day Los Angeles gets transferred to the body of Jane Mansfield, a young lady who lived in Regency England. This book gives us the flip side of that exchange, and tells us what it\u2019s like for Jane Mansfield to wake up in modern-day Los Angeles, in Courtney’s body.<\/p>\n

I enjoyed this story more. I\u2019m sure it was partly that I\u2019d gotten used to the premise and didn\u2019t get bogged down on the fantasy of the mechanics and how it wouldn\u2019t really work to switch bodies. I was used to the idea and just went with it.<\/p>\n

And the challenges of a young lady from the past trying to deal with present-day technology are astounding! She didn\u2019t even have the vocabulary to know what things were called. The author did make use of \u201ccellular memory\u201d \u2013 the body itself knew how to do things, just as Courtney was remarkably good at embroidery when she was in Jane\u2019s body. So Jane in Courtney\u2019s body could quickly navigate using a computer, once somebody showed her what it was. She used her concussion as a reason to need a lot of things explained to her.<\/p>\n

It was a lot of fun seeing the modern world through a 200-year-old consciousness. When she arrives and Pride and Prejudice<\/em> is playing on Courtney\u2019s TV, Jane is astonished, wondering how the actors got into the box, and she definitely recognizes the scene, for she, too, is a Jane Austen addict \u2013 but didn\u2019t even know the name of the author of Pride and Prejudice<\/em>. She\u2019s delighted that there are four more novels by this same author on the shelves of her modern-day apartment.<\/p>\n

I still wasn\u2019t exactly happy about how each woman was trying to straighten out the other\u2019s love life. Because who is really in love with whom if it\u2019s a different person in that body? And then the author fudged the ending a bit, so it didn\u2019t end exactly as I expected it to. Did I misunderstand the ending of the other book? All the same, it seems everyone will live happily ever after. What more could you ask for?<\/p>\n

This set of books is a lot of fun, and the more so the less you get bogged down in trying to figure out how it would work. Don\u2019t try; just enjoy it. After all, it would take a little magic for someone to live and learn to thrive in a life 200 years in the future.<\/p>\n

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

Find this review on Sonderbooks<\/a> at: www.sonderbooks.com\/Fiction\/rude_awakenings_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

Source: This review is based on a library eaudiobook from Fairfax County Public Library.<\/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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