Jane Hayes is in love. The problem? She’s in love with Mr. Darcy, as played by Colin Firth in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. She also tries to keep this embarrassing secret hidden from everyone. She even hides her Pride and Prejudice DVD in a house plant. But when Jane goes to lunch with her mother and great-aunt, her Aunt Carolyn sees right through to her Darcy obsession.
When Aunt Carolyn dies, it turns out she has written Jane into her will. But Jane isn’t getting any of her Aunt’s money. What she’s getting is an all-expense paid three week vacation to Pembrook Park – a hotel that gives its guests the Regency England experience.
Jane isn’t sure she wants to go, but knows her aunt booked this trip for a reason. If Jane ever wants to move on with her life, romantically, she’ll have to get over Darcy first.
At first Jane finds her new persona – Jane Erstwhile – to be completely ridiculous and has a difficult time staying in character. But soon Jane is doing things she hasn’t done in years and even begins to enjoy having the gentleman actors around. She even enjoys having the extremely proper Mr. Nobley around. And to Jane’s surprise, he seems to enjoy having her around. Is it all part of the experience? Is it just a game? Jane learns more about herself during her three weeks in Austenland then she ever expected. But did she manage to get over Mr. Darcy?
This book was such a nice read. It was like a nice walk in the park. Remeniscent of Pride and Prejudice, it was like visiting old friends. Shannon Hale had a really neat idea when she wrote this story. How many women would pay to pretend they were living a life like the characters Jane Austen wrote about?
Obviously, the love story in the book was totally great. It was a little transparent, but still, I was really excited as I was reading the end of the book, furiously flipping pages because I love that kind of ending.
A lot of the dialog did seem forced and a little off but I think that was because everyone was supposed to be pretending it was a different time period. But really, that is the only thing that bothered me while reading. It really was just delightful. How much fun would it be to get to play dress up and go to balls and hang out with handsome men? The time in between balls did sound pretty dull, though. How many games of whist can you play in a day before you want to scratch your own eyes out?
All in all 4.5 out of 5 stars
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