Sunday, May 17, 2009

Book Review: "What Would Jane Austen Do?" by Laurie Brown


Book description:

She goes back in time to save a man's life...
Eleanor travels to England for a Jane Austen festival and is swept back in time to the glittering Regency era to help a pair of ghostly sisters prevent a deathly duel...

But she may have the wrong villain...
Lord Shermont, renowned rake and womanizer, has a Napoleonic spy to capture and a dastadly crime to untangle. The last thing he needs is a scandal too...

Thankfully, Jane Austen's sage advise prevents a fatal mistake...
With Jane Austen's guidance, Eleanor untangles the international intrigue going on before her eyes. But, which of the dueling gentlemen is the spy and which is the man of her dreams?


This book really surprised me in how much I ended up loving this story. I am not a big "Regency" period reader, but I do enjoy Jane Austen and thought I would give it a try. The story is full of ghosts, mystery, time travel and history, which keeps you involved with the characters until the very end! I won't give away some of the twists, but the character of Eleanor was refreshing to read. She was educated and had a passion that woman wish and hope we have in how we lead our lives. Eleanor is put in to a situation where she has to figure out what she needs to do to fix the past for the ghost/real sisters, but fate seems to guide her in a direction she may not be ready to accept. "Jane Austen" comes in to the story when Eleanor has a situation where she doesn't know what to do. So, she thinks about the books Austen wrote to draw on an answer! A variety of secondary characters are filled by the 'handsome' gentleman, the snooty older ladies, and family members that will have you laughing and intrigued by their lives.

Have you ever thought about if you were able to go back to a time period that you enjoy and had a life there...would you return back to your own time? The writing style of the story gives such vivid details of the Regency time period and customs that you feel like your living there with Eleanor. Just when I thought I had the ending figured out, it turned out better! I would tell anyone that enjoys a good book to take a look at this one. The book is like a looking glass to a time period through the eyes of someone who treasures the history of our world's past.

Rating: 4.5/5

Thank you to Danielle at Sourcebooks for the review copy!!



**
Part of:
CymLowell



8 comments:

Melissa O. said...

Great review! I finally had to add this one to my huge wish list. Hopefully I'll get around to reading it sometime soon...

bermudaonion said...

I'm so glad you enjoyed this one!

Anonymous said...

This sounds better than "Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict", which I thought of when I started reading your review.

Thanks for the review! I saw your link on the Book Blogs Ning list.

Toni said...

Thanks for the review.. I would love to have a summer devoted to these kinds of books and just savor them. Happy that you like it!

Kelly said...

Great review! The book sounds great, I love time travel stuff. All the paradoxes make me go a little crazy in the head, but I love them anyway!

Thanks for stopping by my blog last month during my giveaways, I've really enjoyed all the great blogs like yours that it led me to!

Katy said...

Sounds intriguing! :) Will have to keep an eye out for a copy!

Unknown said...

Thanks for re-posting this review for the link-up party.

I enjoy reading your reviews :)

-CYM

Allison said...

I don't think I have put this one up before for the link up party..didn't have a link to it?? MMMM