King Arthur Movie Tristan

title: Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict


author: Laurie Viera Rigler
pages: 288

published: 2007

first line: Why is it so dark in here?

genre: fiction/chic lit

rated: 4 out of 5

In this Jane Austen-inspired comedy, love story, and exploration of identity and destiny, a modern LA girl wakes up as an Englishwoman in Austen's time.


After nursing a broken engagement with Jane Austen novels and Absolut, Courtney Stone wakes up and finds herself not in her Los Angeles bedroom or even in her own body, but inside the bedchamber of a woman in Regency England. Who but an Austen addict like herself could concoct such a fantasy?

Being a big Jane Austen fan, I just had to read this one. Courtney, a modern woman from LA, who is having man troubles, wakes up one day to find herself in a bedroom in nineteenth-century England. She is a big Jane Austen fan and remembers going to sleep while reading Pride & Prejudice. So Courtney just figures she's dreaming.




Sound bizzarre? It gets better. Courtney finds herself being called Jane Mansfield and living with her meddling other and her father. Her mother is trying to make 'Jane' marry Mr. Edgeworth. Courtney figures she might as well play along, since she will wake up anytime from this odd dream. Strangely enough Courtney is even talking in an English accent and is able to do beautiful needlework with no problem.



But as the days pass, and she doesn't awake from this 'dream', Courtney starts to worry. She wonders what is going on. She thinks maybe she is losing her mind. She starts to have flashbacks and memories, these are Jane's memories. And she starts to put the pieces of the puzzle together when her best friend and Edgeworth's sister, Mary, comes to visit her and fills her in on some details. Including Jane's recent encounter with a fortune teller when she wished for another life.



I found this to be a fun, light read. It made me LOL, at work no less, as I was reading certain parts. I really liked how the author refers back to Austen novels, quotes and characters throughout the story. At one point, while riding in the horse & buggy to church with her parents, Courtney...a.k.a... Jane, looks out and sees Pemberley in the distance.

'As my bedside candles illuminate a page in the precious first edition I hold in my hands, I understand, as I have long understood through my own insatiable appetite for readings and rereadings of Jane Austen's six novels, why children want the same stories read to them a thousand times. There is comfort in the familiarty of it all, in the knowledge that all will turn out well, that Elizabeth and Darcy will end up together in Pemberley, that Anne Eliot will pierce Captain Wenthworth's soul, and that Mr. Elton will be stuck with his 'caro sposa' for the rest of his life.'

As for the main character, Courtney, I liked her.
Her character was okay, but the annoying thing about her was that she depended upon men too much. For example, in her pre-Austen life, her fiancee is cheating on her, and when she catches him, they break up. As he's packing his things to leave thier apartment, she's checking out his butt and wishing he'd stay with her. She even acknowledges being attracted to the wrong men throughout the story, and has to remind herself not to give into temptation. I found that part about her character weak.



And the ending was a little weak as well. It felt a bit rushed. I would have liked a better explanation as to why and how Courtney became Jane.




All in all, this was a very entertaining, very sweet read. I recommend it, especially to Jane Austen fans.

'That's when I decided to order myself a large clam-and-garlic pizza and reread Pride and Prejudice. I would self-medicate with fat, carbohydrates, and Jane Austen, my number one drug of choice, my constant companion through every breakup, every dissapointment, every crisis. Men might come and go, but Jane Austen was always there.'

About the author:

When not indulging herself in re-readings of Jane Austen’s six novels, Laurie Viera Rigler is a freelance book editor who teaches writing workshops, including classes in storytelling technique at Vroman’s, Southern California's oldest and largest independent bookstore.

visit the author's website:

http://www.janeaustenaddict.com/







Jane Austen related links:

http://www.austen-beginners.com/index.shtml

jane austens house

http://www.austenquotes.com/

http://www.findingjaneausten.com/

http://austen.com/

http://www.jasa.net.au/index.html